THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Nov. 18               Seattle Pacific at Central Washington, 7:00 p.m.
                                                Nicholson Pavilion / Ellensburg, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Nov. 20                Seattle Pacific at Northwest Nazarene, Noon
                                                Johnson Sports Center / Nampa, Idaho.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 

SEATTLE – The Seattle Pacific Falcons will conclude their regular season 2021 volleyball schedule this week when they travel to Central Washington and then on to Northwest Nazarene. The Falcons and Wildcats serve it up on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in Ellensburg. Then on Saturday, it'll be SPU and NNU in Nampa, starting at noon Pacific time.
 
SPU (14-9, 10-6 Great Northwest Athletic Conference comes into its final two matches having split a pair at home last weekend. The Falcons beat Simon Fraser on Thursday, 3-1, before dropping a 3-1 decision to nationally ranked Western Washington last Saturday.
 
Due to the conference scheduling format, it has been two months since these teams have seen each other. Seattle Pacific began GNAC play at home with a 3-1 wins against Central on Sept. 16, and Northwest Nazarene on the 18th.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Both matches will have live Webcasts and live stats. The appropriate links are at the top of this story.

IN THE RANKINGS
Seattle Pacific is included in this week's NCAA West Region rankings. The Falcons are in the No. 9 slot. The top eight in the final rankings, which will be determined after this weekend, will earn a place in the NCAA West Regional tournament.

Cal State San Bernardino, the defending NCAA DIvision II champion, is at the top of the list with its 22-3 overall record. Western Washington is No. 2, Central Washington is No. 4, Simon Fraser is No. 6, and Alaska Anchorage is No. 8, followed next by SPU.

Click on this link for a look at the complete region rankings (West is at the bottom of the page).
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons need one win this weekend to reach 600 in program history. Their record coming into the week is 599-470.
-- Their most recent century milestone was win No. 500, that coming by a 3-1 count at Western Washington on Oct. 24, 2013.
--This will be the first time since 2019 that SPU has played inside either Nicholson Pavilion or the Johnson Sports Center, as the 2020 season was canceled  by the coronavirus pandemic.
-- Now in its 36^th season, the back-and-forth series against Central Washington currently stands in the Wilccats' favor, 42-39.
--In those 81 matches, SPU and Central have played 301 sets. With Seattle Pacific's 3-1 win in September included, that score between them is a very slight CWU advantage, 154-147.
-- After 13 straight Northwest Nazarene series wins, the Falcons have taken the last three matches between them.
-- Senior outside hitters Maddie Batiste (17) and Erin Gould (15) combined for 32 kills and .243 hitting against NNU on Sept. 16.
-- Gould's first collegiate double-double came in that match, as she had 21 digs to go along with her 15 kills. Both of those totals were career highs. Since then, she had added two more double-doubles.
-- Batiste also double-doubled that day, adding 15 digs to her 17 kills. She has logged three more since then, putting her at four for the season and 23 for her career.
-- SPU won the first two sets in both of those September matches, then dropped the third before putting it away in the fourth.
-- In fact, the Nighthawks staved off a match point against them in Set 3. Down 24-23, they scored three straight points to win it, 26-24, and keep the match going.
-- Fifth-year head coach Abbie Wright is 5-4 against Central Washington and 3-5 against Northwest Nazarene.
- -Sophomore middle blocker Hannah Hair needs just two blocks this weekend to reach 100 for the season.
 
SCOUTING THE CENTRAL WASHINGTON WILDCATS: 15-7, 11-5 GNAC (2^nd)
All-time series: CWU leads, 42-39. Current series streak: SPU won 4. Last time: SPU 3, CWU 1 (25-17, 25-23, 23-25, 25-22; Sept. 18, 2021 at Seattle). Last CWU series win: CWU 3, SPU 0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-12; Sept. 26, 2019 at Ellensburg). Wildcats on the Web. Wildcats in a nutshell: Central Washington has played itself into position to make the NCAA Tournament, sitting at No. 6 in the latest West Region rankings. That is thanks in part to a five-match winning streak, which includes a 3-0 homecourt sweep of regionally ranked Alaska Anchorage. And, Central is the only team to take down Western Washington in GNAC play, winning in four sets at home on Sept. 23. In fact, the Wildcats are 10-1 in Nicholson Pavilion, the only loss being a five-setter to Chaminade, which is on the brink of winning the Pacific West Conference title. The Wildcats have two of the best offensive players in the conference. Fifth-year 6-foot middle blocker Leanna Shymanski ranks No. 2 in hitting at .326, just two percentage points ahead of SPU's Hannah Hair. Sophomore 5-8 outside hitter Ashley Kaufman ranks No.7 in kills at 3.05 per game, with 250 total. Setting them up are pair of sophomores. Tia Andaya and Sydney Remsberg each have played in all 82 sets for Central and have 839 assists between them: 421 for Andaya, 418 for Remsberg. Emma Daoud-Hebert, a 6-foot redshirt freshman middle, is No. 2 on the GNAC list at 1.28 per set, slightly ahead of No. 3 Hair (1.27 ).
 
SCOUTING THE NORTHWEST NAZARENE NIGHTHAWKS: 6-18, 3-13 GNAC (9^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 24-18. Current series streak: SPU won 4. Last time: SPU 3, NNU 1 (25-17, 25-19, 24-26, 25-21; Sept. 16, 2021 at Seattle). Last NNU series win: NNU 3, SPU 0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-20; Oct. 27, 2018 at Seattle). Nighthawks on the Web.
Nighthawks in a nutshell: Northwest Nazarene snapped a four-match losing streak last Saturday with a 3-0 sweep at Saint Martin's. The Nighthawks have one of the GNAC's more dangerous attackers in junior 6-foot outside hitter Natalie Sullivan. She has slammed 339 kills, an average of 3.81 per set is No. 3 on the conference list. Brooke Foster, a senior 6-1 outside, averages 2.88 kills per set, and her total of 118 includes 17 against SPU in September. Keeping the ball in play is the conference leader in digs, sophomore libero Caroline McMahon. She averages 4.80 digs per set, and her total of 432 is second-highest among GNAC players, training only the 437 of Alaska Fairbanks' Dani Dodge. Mckenzie Lee, a 6-1 junior, leads the Nighthawks on the block with 49 total, and junior 6-1 middle Tayler Markland is right behind with 47.
 
HOW GRAND IT IS
 

Senior outside hitter Maddie Batiste reached the career 1,000-point milestone last Saturday – and she did it in her final match at home.
 
Coming into the contest against Western Washington, Batiste had 991 points. She logged No. 1,000 on a kill early in the fourth set on an assist from freshman Emily Tulino, tying the score at 2-2.
 
Batiste finished the night with 11.0 points, putting her at 1,002 coming into the final two matches of her career.
 
She is the 18^th player in the 36-year history of Falcon volleyball to reach 1,000. The last one to get there was outside hitter Gabby Oddo, who had 1,550.0 points from 2016-19.
 
WHILE WE'RE TALKING MILESTONES …
-- Freshman setter Emily Tulino is on the brink of her 500^th career assists. She begins the week with 490.
-- Sophomore Hannah Hair has a chance to reach 200 career blocks before the end of the weekend. She currently has 188.
-- Junior setter Lindsey Lambert picked up her 500^th career dig last Thursday against Simon Fraser. She now has 511.
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
SPU is ..
-- No. 6 in blocks per set at 2.61.
-- No. 37 in assists per set at 12.41.
-- No. 46 in total blocks at 216.5.
-- No. 58 in kills per set at 13.08.
 
-- Hannah Hair is No. 10 in blocks per set at 1.27.
-- Allison Wilks is No. 26 in blocks per set at 1.14.
 
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
Western Washington secured the GNAC title and automatic NCAA Tournament berth last Thursday with a three-set sweep at Montana State Billings. The Vikings (16-1 GNAC, 20-4 overall) needed just one more win or one more Simon Fraser loss to clinch it, and both happened on the same night. A short while after WWU won, Simon lost in four sets at Seattle Pacific.
 
Cal State San Bernardino already had the California Collegiate Athletic Association title in hand coming into last week. But the defending national champion Coyotes didn't slow down, extending their win streak to 20. At 18-0, 23-3 overall, they're NCAA-bound after the conference tournament. Cal Poly Pomona (15-3, 22-3 overall) is on the brink of making NCAAs, and Cal State Los Angeles (13-5, 17-8 overall) is looking good, too.
 
Chaminade can clinch the Pacific West crown with a victory at Hawaii Hilo on Friday, or a Biola loss at Azusa Pacific on Thursday. The Silverswords are 16-3 in conference play, 26-5 overall. Biola is 15-3, 19-7 overall. Concordia Irvine (14-4, 19-6 overall) is mathematically in the hunt, but lost both matches to Chaminade.
 
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                Conference          Overall
Western Washington      16-1         20-4
Central Washington      11-5         15-7
Simon Fraser            11-6         17-7
Seattle Pacific         10-6         14-9
Alaska Anchorage        10-6         17-11
Alaska Fairbanks         9-7         16-12
Montana State Billings   6-10        11-15
Saint Martin's           3-13        10-16
Northwest Nazarene       3-13         6-18
Western Oregon           2-14         4-19