SEATTLE – Playing against one of the hottest teams in the conference, the Seattle Pacific Falcons knew they'd have to take it up a notch or two on Saturday afternoon.
 
After dropping the opening set to Alaska Fairbanks, they did exactly that.
 
Sarah Brachvogel put 13 kills onto the floor, Hannah Hair had 11 plus nine blocks, and Hair, along with Allison Wilks, both hit north of .500 as No. 19-ranked SPU came away with a 3-1 victory.
 
Scores of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest in Brougham Pavilion were 20-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-13.
 
The Falcons (18-3, 12-1 GNAC) maintained a three-match lead in the standings with five matches left. Central Washington (15-6, 9-4 GNAC) kept pace by beating Western Oregon, 3-1. Later on Saturday, Western Washington and Simon Fraser (both 7-4) were slated to meet in Bellingham, with the winner of that one staying within 3 ½ matches and the loser dropping to 4 ½ behind.
 
Fairbanks (13-14, 6-7 GNAC) came into town on a four-match winning streak, the first three of those at home against Central Washington, Western Washington, and Simon Fraser – the three teams that came into the week tied for second place. The fourth one came on Thursday in a 3-1 victory at Montana State Billings.

Then on Saturday, they came out strong in Set 1 with 16 kills on .294 hitting, with six of those coming from 6-foot-3 right sider Ella Bines.
 
"Fairbanks came out and played a really good and complete set and hit almost .300 against us," head coach Jason Rhine said. "They served us tough and played some good defense and made it hard for us to score. They did a great job with a good game plan, but our team also did a great job of responding and even upping our game a little bit in Set 2 and putting a little bit more pressure on what Fairbanks was trying to do."
 




Indeed, the Falcons scored the first three points of that second set with senior defensive / serving specialist Zoe Shuckhart on the serve. (One of those points was an ace.), and stayed ahead the entire way,
 
Different story in the third with 10 ties and five lead changes, this time with the Nanooks taking an early 3-0 lead. Tied at 17-17, Seattle Pacific put the next five points on the board: a kill by Brachvogel, one by Hair, a Brachvogel service ace, and then back-to-back UAF attack errors for a 22-17 advantage. The margin never dipped below four after that.
 
It was all SPU in Set 4. At 1-1, a kill by Wilks gave the Falcons a sideout and gave Wilks the serve. She delivered two straight service aces during what became a 6-0 scoring run and a 7-1 lead. It ballooned all the way to 12-2 and 14-3 and was never in danger thereafter.
 
 

"It was mostly just playing a little bit sharper and people looking for little chances to do small things well," Rhine said. "We talked about serving and defense and the link between serving aggressively and knocking them out of system. That got better as the match progressed and allowed our defense to get some additional blocks and digs where maybe we were having a hard time finding those in the first couple sets."
 
The Falcons wound up with 25 total blocks, its second highest total of the season behind only the 27 at Central Washington on Oct. 19. Along with Hair's nine, Brachvogel had six, tying her career high and collecting the 100th of her career (now with 105). Wilks and Maddie Pruden each had three.
 
"Our defense just in general clamped down and did a good job of fighting for one or two extra blocks.," Rhine said.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- This was SPU's first season sweep of Alaska Fairbanks since 2014. On Thursday, they polished off a season sweep of Alaska Anchorage for the first time since 2006.
-- SPU hit .311 for the day (50 kills-12 errors-122 attacks), its fifth match of the year at .300 or better. Saturday's percentage included .650 in Set 4 (14-1-20).
 

-- With her nine blocks, Hannah Hair moved up to No. 7 on the GNAC all-time list, now with 442. The NCAA Division II leader in blocks per set (now at 1.75), she also is in sole possession of No. 3 on the SPU list, having started the day tied with Shaun Crespi (2015-18). Hair is 13 away from No. 2 Anina Winters, who had 455 from 1988-89, and now is averaging 1.75 blocks per set.
--For the day, Hair hit .529 (11 kills-2 errors-17 attacks). That was her second match in the .500s this season.
-- Allison Wilks hit .545 (7-1-11). That was her second straight in the .500s and seventh of the season, plus three in the .600s and two in the .700s. Her season percentage is now up to .430.
-- Emily Tulino's 24 assists put her closer to 1,500 for her career. She now has 1,447,
--Wilks and Sarah Brachvogel each delivered four of Seattle Pacific's 12 service aces..
--Freshman libero Christina Lopez came up with 20 digs, just one short of her career high and her second match in the 20s.
-- Senior middle blocker Brianna Ingram and freshman opposite Coco Barnett both saw some action during the fourth set. Ingram got her hands on one block, and Barnett recorded her second collegiate kill.

UP NEXT
The Falcons play their next three on the road, beginning on Thursday in Burnaby, B.C., against Simon Fraser. The first serve is at 7:00 p.m.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
(No. 19) Seattle Pacific 3, Alaska Fairbanks 1
 
Game scores – 20-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-13.
 
Service aces – UAA 6 (White 3), SPU 12 (Wilks 4, Brachvogel 4).
Kills – UAF 50 (Bines 11), SPU 50 (Brachvogel 13, Hair 11).
Assists – UAF 46 (Smith 24), SPU 47 (Tulino 24, Chambers 16).
Digs – UAF 49 (Nielson 15), SPU 43 (Lopez 20).
Block assists / solo – UAF 10 / 1 solo (Jansen 5 / 0 solo), SPU 22 / 3 solo (Hair 7 / 2 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – 50-27-126—183 (Head 10-1-17—529), SPU 50-12-122—311 (Wilks 7-1-11—545, Hair 11-2-17—529).
Attendance – 108.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 18-3, 12-1 GNAC.
Alaska Fairbanks 13-14, 6-7 GNAC.
 
 
Next match
Seattle Pacific at Simon Fraser
Thursday, Nov. 2     7:00 p.m.
West Gym / Burnaby, B.C.