SEATTLE -- Paige Dawson's career-best 25-dig, three-ace performance wasn't quite enough in Saturday's hard-fought second match for Seattle Pacific, which lost both segments of a home women's volleyball doubleheader against Alaska Anchorage.
 
The Seawolves (3-0) remained undefeated after holding off SPU in a tight fifth set to cap a 25-17, 21-25, 25-14, 10-25, 16-14 victory on Iron Coaching Court at Brougham Pavilion. They swept the opening match in straight sets, 25-18, 25-20, 25-19.
 
UAA's Eve Stephens collected a career-high 26 kills in the nightcap, bringing her two-match total to 40 for the day.
 
Maddie Batiste paced the Falcons (4-3) with a combined 20 kills while Hannah Hair contributed a team-high nine blocks and .410 hitting percentage.
 
Match 2
Seattle Pacific refused to go down without a fight. They stretched the Seawolves to the full five sets before falling by just two points in the decisive contest. Set scores were 25-17, 21-25, 25-14, 10-25, 16-14.
 
Nine attack errors and just 10 kills doomed the Falcons to an .023 hitting percentage and 25-17 first-set loss. They rallied behind four kills from Batiste and three from Lindsay Rosenthal to capture the second set, 25-21. SPU outhit Anchorage .250 to .130.
 
In the third set, the Seawolves patched together six runs of three-or-more points, including the game-ending spree that Stephens capped by consecutive aces. That produced their most convincing win of the day at 25-14.

 

The Falcons were even more dominant than that in the fourth set, registering a 25-10 triumph. They raced out to leads of 7-1 and 16-3 before closing the game out on the fifth kill of the game by Hannah Hair, who had only six total swings.
 
SPU posted a torrid .579 hitting percentage, getting three kills in as many attempts from Maddie Pruden. Four block assists from Hair helped limit Anchorage to a negative .048 percentage.
 
The back-and-forth fifth set featured 11 ties. The final deadlock, at 14-14, was forged by a kill from SPU's Pruden.
 
The Seawolves benefited from an attack error to force game point and then Nicole Blue's spike toward the end-line was ruled to have landed in by the linesman to secure the match victory. The call was verified by a video review.
 
Match 1
Hot-hitting Stephens scored on over half of her attacks, finishing with 14 kills at a 52-percent clip. She added three service aces and seven digs to spark the Seawolves three-set sweep in the opener.
 
Anchorage hit .312 in the first set and tallied the inaugural three points. The Falcons rallied to take brief leads of 12-11 and 13-12 before falling behind again. A kill by Batiste drew SPU within 19-18 before the Seawolves scored the final six points of the set to win, 25-18.
 
The Falcons weren't able to overcome a subpar .138 hitting percentage in a 25-20 second-set setback.
 
SPU's stellar .320 percentage was offset by the Seawolves superior .414 figure in the decisive third set. The score was 25-19.
 
The hosts were in front for a good portion of the early going, gaining their last lead at 13-11 on a kill by Batiste. Anchorage reeled off nine unanswered points, three of them coming on Vera Pluharova kills, to surge to an insurmountable 20-13 advantage.
 
SPU takes on Great Northwest Athletic Conference rival Central Washington on April 3. The doubleheader in Brougham Pavilion begins at noon. The second match will follow 40 minutes after the conclusion of the first.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, March 20, 2021
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
MATCH 1
Alaska Anchorage 3, Seattle Pacific 0
 
Game scores– 25-18, 25-20, 25-19.
 
Service aces – UAA 11 (Plumhoff 4), SPU 4 (Rosenthal 2).
Kills – UAA 45 (Stephens 14), SPU 30 (Batiste, Gould 7).
Assists – UAA 40 (FLoyd 32), SPU 26 (Lambert 24).
Digs – UAA 30 (Leauanae 10), SPU 24 (Rosenthal 6).
Block assists / solo – UAA 6 / 1 solo (Pluharova, Stephens 2), SPU 12 / 0 solo (Hair, Smith, Lambert 3).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – UAA 45-17-92—.304 (Stephens 14-1-25—.520, Pembroke 8-2-18—.333), SPU 30-12-80—.225 (Pruden 6-1-11—.444, Hair 5-0-12—.417).
 
 
MATCH 2
Alaska Anchorage 3, Seattle Pacific 2
 
Game scores– 25-17, 21-25, 25-14, 10-25, 16-14.
 
Service aces – UAA 10 (Plumhoff, Stephens, Blue 3), SPU 7 (Lambert, Dawson 3).
Kills – UAA 53 (Stephens 26), SPU 52 (Hair, Batiste 13).
Assists – UAA 52 (FLoyd 43), SPU 47 (Lambert 25, Ibale 17).
Digs – UAA 72 (Floyd 18), SPU 72 (Dawson 25).
Block assists / solo – UAA 10 / 0 solo (Kaapuni 3), SPU 20 / 0 solo (Hair 6).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – UAA 53-23-175—.171 (Stephens 26-5-71—.296, Kaapuni 5-2-11—.273), SPU 52-25-165—.164 (Hair 13-2-27—.407, Wilks 4-1-10—.300).
 
 
Records
Alaska Anchorage 3-0
Seattle Pacific 4-3
 
Next SPU Match
Central Washington at Seattle Pacific (doubleheader)
Saturday, April 3, 12:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.