THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Oct. 21                Alaska Anchorage at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Oct. 23                 Alaska Fairbanks at Seattle Pacific, 3:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats

 
SEATTLE – They meet again – and this time, the Seattle Pacific Falcons have the homecourt advantage.
 
Back from three straight matches on the road to wrap up the first half of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule, SPU starts off the second half of the slate this week when Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Fairbanks come into Brougham Pavilion.
 
The No. 24-ranked Seawolves visit on Thursday, with a first serve at 7:00 p.m. On Saturday, the Nanooks are in town, with the match beginning at 3:00 p.m.
 
Seattle Pacific (9-7, 5-4 GNAC) starts the week in sixth place in the GNAC standings after coming up short at Western Washington and Simon Fraser.
 
Across the net will be an Anchorage squad that went undefeated through the first half at 8-0 (with a match at Western Washington still to be made up) and 15-5 overall. Fairbanks has been in the upper part of the standings from the get-go, finishing the first half at 6-3 (13-8 overall).

FOLLOW IT LIVE
Both matches will have live Webcasts and live stats. Greg Sexton will call the action for both matches. The appropriate links can be found at the top of this story.

TICKET TALK
Fans are welcome to attend games in person at Brougham Pavilion. Mask-wearing is mandatory at all times and spectators are encouraged to social distance when possible. Tickets can be purchased in advance online at:  https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/spufalcons/6750   Tickets also can be purchased on match day at Brougham Pavilion (3414 3rd Ave. W., Seattle 98119). Ticket windows open one hour prior to the first serve. All seats are general admission and priced at $10 for adults and $7 for non-SPU students and senior citizens. SPU students and staff are admitted free. Groups or teams of 10 or more may qualify for reduced ticket rates by calling (206) 281-2085 in advance.





SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons are undefeated at home this fall, winning all seven matches.
-- Thursday's contest against No. 24 Alaska Anchorage will mark the fifth time this season Seattle Pacific has tangled with a national top-25 team.
--SPU will be out to even the score with both Alaska teams. Anchorage posted a three-set sweep in Alaska on Sept. 25. Just two days earlier, the Falcons took the first set at Fairbanks before the Nanooks won the next three.
-- At UAA, the host Seawolves had an amazingly accurate hitting day, with 34 kills and just four errors on 84 attacks. Lisa Jaunet had 10 of those kills and hit .500 for the day with just one error on 18 swings.
-- When the Falcons and Fairbanks met on Sept. 23, both teams came up big on the block. SPU had 22 total (with two solos) accounting for 12 points  Allison Wilks recorded a career-high eight blocks.
-- UAF was nearly just as effective with 21 total blocks (one solo) for 11 points. Rilee White had nine of them.
-- Senior outside hitter Maddie Batiste recorded her second double-double of the season and 21^st her career with a 12-kill, 13-dig effort at Western Washington last Thursday. That was Seattle Pacific's eighth double-double of the season.
-- Anchorage (.239) and SPU (.215) rank Nos. 1 and 4 in GNAC hitting.
-- The Falcons are No. 2 among GNAC schools in kills per set (13.25) and continue to lead the way in assists per set (12.58).
-- UAA was supposed to play at Western Washington on Sept. 30 in what was looming as a showdown for first place. But the match was postponed due to health and safety concerns. It has been rescheduled for Monday, Nov. 8.
-- Coach Abbie Wright's teams are 2-5 against Fairbanks, 1-8 against Anchorage during her 4½ seasons at the SPU helm.
 
SCOUTING THE ALASKA ANCHORAGE SEAWOLVES: 15-5, 8-0 GNAC (1^st)
All-time series: UAA leads, 31-29. Current series streak: UAA won 5. Last time: UAA 3, SPU 0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-12; Sept. 25 at Anchorage). Last SPU series win: SPU 3, UAA 2 (25-15, 15-25, 25-15, 18-25, 15-11; Nov. 1, 2018 at Anchorage). Seawolves on the Web.
Seawolves in a nutshell: Anchorage comes to town riding an eight-match winning streak, the latest of which came last Saturday in a three-sweep (25-23, 25-16, 25-22) of in-state rival Fairbanks. That has helped propel the Seawolves from the "others receiving votes" list into the national top 25 for the past two weeks, checking in this week at No. 24. Alaska Anchorage is the top hitting team in the GNAC by 10 percentage points, coming into the week at .239, which ranks No. 40 in NCAA Division II. Setting the pace on accuracy is senior 6-foot-2 middle blocker / right side Vera Pluharova at .361. Junior 6-1 right-side hitter Eve Stephens has her own impressive mark of .273. Her 280 kills is the most of any GNAC player, and her 3.99 average ranks No. 3. The Seawolves set themselves up in part with highly effective serving. Their average of 2.21 aces per set ranks No. 14 nationally. A trio of Anchorage players have the top three individual service aces totals in the conference: junior setter Ellen Floyd and junior defensive specialist Talia Leauanae with 36 apiece, and Stephens with 34. Pluharova has 71 total blocks, including 14 solos.
 
SCOUTING THE ALASKA FAIRBANKS NANOOKS: 13-8, 6-3 GNAC (tie 3^rd)
All-time series: SPU leads, 39-17. Current series streak: UAF won 1. Last time: UAF 3, SPU 1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-23; Sept. 23 at Fairbanks). Last SPU series win: SPU 3, UAF 1 (25-21, 26-24, 23-25, 25-21; Nov. 21, 2019 at Fairbanks). Nanooks on the Web.
Nanooks in a nutshell: After a 4-5 start (all in non-conference play), Fairbanks ran off seven straight wins, the sixth of which came against SPU. The Nanooks took then-No. 20 Western Washington to five sets in Bellingham on Oct. 2, then exactly one week later at home, downed then-No. 25 Central Washington in four sets before getting swept last Saturday at Anchorage. Senior 6-foot-1 outside hitter AveRee Reynolds has put 209 kills onto the court, an average of 2.71 per set. Junior 6-1 middle blocker Sophie Schilling is among the top 10 GNAC hitters, checking in No. 8 with a .284 percentage. UAF has not one, but two players who average more than one block per set. Senior 5-11 middle Emily Moorhead is No. 4 on the GNAC list with 83 total and a 1.17 per-set average. Schilling is right behind with 82 total and a 1.05 average to rank No. 7.
 
CLOSING IN ON A GRAND
Senior outside hitter Maddie Batiste is just 83.5 points away from reaching 1,000 for her career.
 
 

Batiste passed the 900-point mark last week with 21 points (19 kills, one service ace, one solo block) on last week's road trip to Western Washington and Simon Fraser.
 
She has regular-season matches left to record those 83.5 points – an average of just more than 9 per match.
 
If Batiste does that, she would become just the 18^th player in the 36-year history of the SPU program to put that many points into the book: one for each kill, service ace, or solo block, and one-half for each block assist. Heading into this week, Batiste has 790 career kills, 70 aces, seven solo blocks, and 101 block assists.
 
The last Falcon to reach 1,000 points was outside hitter Gabby Oddo, who tallied 1,550.0 from 2016-19, ranking No. 3 on SPU's all-time list.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
SPU is ..
-- No. 6 in blocks per set at 2.53.
-- No. 22 in assists per set at 12.58.
-- No. 46 in kills per set at 13.25.
-- No. 60 in total blocks at 144.0.
 
-- Hannah Hair is No. 9 in blocks per set at 1.31.
-- Emily Tulino is No. 51 in aces per set at 0.49.
 
The team rankings are based on the 285 NCAA Division II schools that are playing volleyball this fall.
 
Click in this link to see a complete look at how the Falcons stack up in Division II. Click on this link for a look at how GNAC teams rank in the national statistics.
 
AROUND THE WEST
Although they have yet to play each other, Alaska Anchorage (8-0) and Western Washington (7-1) finished the first half of the season as the clear leaders in the GNAC. The Seawolves bring an eight-match winning streak into Thursday's match at SPU. There's a three-team logjam for third place, as Simon Fraser, Central Washington, and Alaska Fairbanks are all 6-3. Central visits Simon on Thursday and WWU on Saturday. It was the Wildcats who dealt the Vikings their only conference loss, a four-setter on Sept. 23 in Ellensburg.
 
Cal State San Bernardino has taken clear command of the California Collegiate Athletic Association after back-to-back four-set victories against Cal Poly Pomona last week. The Coyotes (15-3, 10-0 CCAA) have won 12 straight. The two losses dropped Pomona (14-3, 7-3) into a three-way third-place tie with San Francisco State and Sonoma State, all behind second-place Cal State Los Angeles (12-5, 8-2).
 
Hawaii Hilo remains atop the Pacific West Conference with a 9-1 record (12-2 overall), with Azusa Pacific right behind at 8-1 (13-4), and Chaminade staying in it at 8-2 (18-4).
 

UP NEXT
SPU returns to the road next week, visiting Western Oregon on Thursday, Oct. 28, and Saint Martin's on Saturday the 30^th. First serve against the Wolves in Monmouth is at 7:00 p.m. The match against the Saints in Lacey starts at 5:15 p.m.
 
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                Conference          Overall
Alaska Anchorage         8-0         15-5
Western Washington       7-1         11-4
Simon Fraser             6-3         12-4
Central Washington       6-3         10-5
Alaska Fairbanks         6-3         13-8
Seattle Pacific          5-4          9-7
Montana State Billings   3-6          7-11
Northwest Nazarene       2-7          4-12
Saint Martin's           1-8          7-11
Western Oregon           0-9          2-14