THE SCHEDULE
Saturday, Oct. 8                         Montana State Billings at Seattle Pacific, 2:00 p.m.
                                            Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
                                            Live Webcast        Live stats

 
SEATTLE – Midway Day is almost here for the Seattle Pacific Falcons.
 
SPU will reach the halfway point of its Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball schedule this week when it plays host to Montana State Billings on Saturday afternoon in Brougham Pavilion.
 
The first serve is at 2:00 p.m.
 
The Falcons (7-9, 5-3 GNAC) head into the day on a season-high four-match winning streak. All of those have come in conference play, and they now find themselves alone in third place in the standings.
 
Saturday also marks the conclusion of a three-match homestand. Seattle Pacific has put the first two of those into the 'W' column, 3-1 against Western Oregon and 3-0 against Saint Martin's last week.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
Saturday's match and all remaining GNAC matches will have free live Webcasts and live stats. The Webcasts are available through YouTube. Greg Sexton will call the action.. The appropriate links for the Webcasts and live stats can be found at the top of this story.
 
ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER HONOR
Falcons middle blocker Hannah Hair was selected on Monday as the GNAC Offensive Player of the Week.
 
In last week's two matches, Hair had 20 kills and just one attack error on 31 swings. That gave her a hitting percentage of .613 for the week. That included a no-errors performance on Saturday against Saint Martin's, when she had 11 kills on 16 attacks (.688). In the Western Oregon contest, Hair went 9-1-15—533.
 
This is the fifth time Hair has won a Player of the Week award, and the second time she has gotten one on offense. Last year, she got one each for offense and defense, just the 11th player in GNAC history to win both in the same season.
 
On Sept. 26, the Falcons were chosen as the conference's Team of the Week after notching road victories at Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington.
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The current four-match winning streak for SPU is its longest since early last fall when it strung together six in a row: the last four matches of preseason play and the first two of the GNAC schedule.
-- Last season, the Falcons went 5-4 through the first half of conference play. They are at least guaranteed to match that.
-- If they beat Montana State Billings to go 6-3 in GNAC, it will be their best first half since a 7-2 start in 2011.
-- That team wound up winning the regular-season title at 15-3, went 21-7 overall and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
-- SPU won both matches against the Yellowjackets last year. The last time that happened was 2017.
-- In those two contests last fall, the Falcons came up big on the block. At Billings, they had 16 total, four by Hannah Hair. In the rematch at home, they came up with an eye-catching 25 total: seven by Allison Wilks, and five each by Hair and Sydney Perry.
-- The 3-0 victory against Saint Martin's last Saturday was just the second time the Falcons have swept an opponent this year. The first one was against Winona State in the season opener on Aug. 26.
-- At the other end of that spectrum, they have gone to a deciding fifth set five times, winning two of those.
-- Last week was the first time since the season-opening tournament in Minnesota that SPU did not have at least one match that went to the limit.

-- Wilks has been coming up big defensively as of late. She has 20 block assists through the last four matches, including seven against Western Oregon last Thursday that tied her career high. At 0.92 per set / 57.0 total, she leads the Falcons and ranks No. 8 in the GNAC.
-- SPU has two among the conference's top 10 blockers. Hannah Hair ranks No. 10 at 0.87 per set / 54.0 total.
-- The Falcons have won 14 of their last 16 home matches.
-- Senior setter Lindsey Lambert already has reached two career statistical milestones this season and is on the brink of a third. On Sept. 15 against Alaska Fairbanks, she earned her 2,000th assist. On Sept. 24 at Central Washington, she recorded her 100th kill. Now, she needs just four more service aces to reach 100.
 
SCOUTING THE MONTANA STATE BILLINGS YELLOWJACKETS: 7-9, 0-8 GNAC (10^th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 33-13.  Current series streak: SPU won 2.  Last time: SPU 3, MSUB 1 (25-18, 24-26, 25-18, 25-23; Nov. 6, 2021 at Seattle.  Last MSUB series win: MSUB 3, SPU 1 (25-22, 25-23, 21-25, 25-19; Nov. 14, 2019 at Seattle). Yellowjackets on the Web.
Yellowjackets in a nutshell: Montana State Billings got off to a strong start, winning six of its first seven matches. But the Jackets have dropped eight of the their last nine, the victory coming in non-conference action against Rocky Mountain last Tuesday, and they have won just one set in conference play. MSUB's offense usually runs through four different players. Freshman 6-foot-2 outside hitter Caty Havekost leads with 152 kills (2.81 per set), followed closely by junior 5-9 outside Jahsita Fa'ali'i, who has 134 (2.58). Lily Gentz, a freshman 6-2 opposite, has 108 kills (2.00), and junior 6-1 middle blocker Paiten Langston has 93 (1.75). Langston and Gentz are the leading hitters for Billings at .253 and .230, respectively. Langston is the team's co-leader in blocks with 42; senior 6-2 middle Hannah Hayden also has 42. Fa'ali'i has delivered a team-high 19 service aces. Langston has 17. The Yellowjackets keep a lot of balls alive, averaging 14.72 digs per set, the second-highest mark in the GNAC.
 
ACCURACY HAS ITS REWARDS
After being near the bottom of the GNAC rankings for hitting percentage, Seattle Pacific is starting to edge its way up the list. It starts the week ranked No. 7 at .191. Last week, it was No. 8 at .184. Just two weeks ago, heading off for the Northwest Nazarene-Central Washington road trip, it was No. 9 at .180.
 
Part of this week's rise certainly can be attributed to Saturday's .323 mark (40-10-93) against Saint Martin's. Not only was that the highest of the season for the Falcons, it was their highest since finishing at .381 (51-14-97) last Oct. 9 at Montana State Billings.
 
While Hannah Hair's .688 mark was the highlight of that .323  vs. the Saints, SPU had other notable performances, as well: an error-free .429 for opposite Maddie Pruden (6-0-14), .400 for middle blocker Erin Smith (8-2-15), and .320 for outside hitter Sarah Brachvogel (10-2-25).
 

HALFWAY TO A GRAND
An error-free performance wasn't quite the whole story of Hannah Hair's afternoon against Saint Martin's last Saturday.
 
The last of her 16 attacks against the Saints came on match point, and the result on a set from Emily Tulino was one quick kills that almost always lands for a point.
 
This one did, too. Not only did it give Seattle Pacific the 'W', it was the 500^th kill of Hair's career.
 

COACH JASON RHINE SAYS …
(On getting to play at home)
"We had a good crowd today (against Saint Martin's), which was fun. It's fun to get the energy up in our home gym and see our team feed off of that and perform well."
 
(On having just one match this week)
"It's nice to have halfway through (the season). We have a little more time to prepare and give our bodies a tiny bit of rest and get ready to play again this weekend."
 
AROUND THE WEST
Alaska Anchorage remains atop the GNAC standings, powering past Alaska Fairbanks in a 3-0 sweep last Saturday. The Seawolves (17-1, 7-0 GNAC) wind up the first half on the road at Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene. Second-place Western Washington (11-4, 6-1 GNAC) also is on the road to conclude the first half, visiting Saint Martin's and Western Oregon.
 
Cal Poly Pomona is still the leader in the California Collegiate Athletic Association after homecourt 3-0 sweeps against Cal State East Bay and Cal State San Marcos last week. The Broncos (14-1, 8-0 CCAA) extended their winning streak to 14. Remaining right on their heels is Cal State Los Angeles (12-4, 7-1 CCAA). The Golden Eagles after road victories at San Francisco State and Cal State Monterey Bay. Things could get shaken up a bit this week as Pomona plays a home-and-home set against Cal State San Bernardino (12-3, 6-2 CCAA).
 
Chaminade continues as the team to beat in the Pacific West Conference. The SIlverswords (13-6, 8-0 Pac West) have won 10 straight, including a four-setter at Point Loma Nazarene (11-4, 6-1 Pac West). Fresno Pacific (11-4, 6-1 Pac West), winners of three in a row, is still in second place, one match behind Chaminade. The Sunbirds are home against Point Loma on Friday.
 
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for this week's Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball notebook. Click on this link for the latest results and statistics.
 
UP NEXT
The second half of the GNAC schedule starts on the road with the annual trip to Alaska. The Falcons face current No. 9-ranked Anchorage on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 8:00 p.m. Pacific time. On Sept. 17 in Seattle, SPU bounced back from two sets down to force a fifth before the Seawolves prevailed. On Saturday the 15th, Seattle Pacific visits Fairbanks, with the first serve at 3:00 p.m. Pacific.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                        GNAC          Overall
Alaska Anchorage           7-0      17-1
Western Washington         6-1      11-4
Seattle Pacific            5-3       7-9
Northwest Nazarene         4-3      11-4
Central Washington         4-3       9-6
Alaska Fairbanks           3-4      13-6
Simon Fraser               3-4       6-10
Saint Martin's             2-5      12-5
Western Oregon             2-5       6-9
Montana State Billings     0-8       7-9