THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Nov. 16               Saint Martin's at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                             Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                             Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Nov. 18               Western Oregon at Seattle Pacific, 1:00 p.m.
                                             Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                             Live Webcast        Live stats
 

SEATTLE – One major goal accomplished. Another one still to go.
 
With the program's first NCAA volleyball berth in 12 years now secured, the Seattle Pacific Falcons will try to clinch the Great Northwest Athletic Conference crown – also their first in 12 years – when they wrap up the regular season at home this week.
 
Coming off a 3-0 sweep at Montana State Billings that clinched the conference's automatic qualifying spot, SPU (20-4, 14-2 GNAC) will play host to Saint Martin's on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Western Oregon on Senior Day Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
 
A win in either of those two matches (or a Central Washington loss at either Simon Fraser or Western Washington) will officially seal possession of first place for the Falcons.
 
Then, the team will wait until next Monday, Nov. 20, to learn where it will travel for the NCAA West Regional and which team it will face it will face in the first round.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
All GNAC matches home and away will have free live Webcasts on YouTube, and free live stats. Greg Sexton will call the action for this week's home contests. The appropriate links are at the top of this story.
 
 

SALUTING A SENIOR TRIO
When they play host to Western Oregon in the regular-season finale on Saturday, Nov. 18, the Falcons will set aside some time prior to the 1:00 p.m. first serve to honor Sarah Day, Brianna Ingram, and Erin Smith on Senior Day.
 
Day has seen more action this year than during any of her first three seasons. In a 3-1 win at Alaska Fairbanks on Sept. 28, she delivered a career-high seven service aces, the last of which came on match point. She also tied her career high with six kills that night.
 
Ingram has seen limited action, but has come through with a contribution – either a kill, a block, or both – almost every time she has been on the court. Ingram starred at Pierce College south of Tacoma for two years prior to joining the Falcons in 2022.
 
Smith has enjoyed the best season of her career, become a regular starter and playing either in the middle or on the right side. She has set career highs in nearly every major statistical category, including 14 kills against Concordia Irvine and nine blocks against Biola.

RANK 'EM: FALCONS NOW NO. 6 IN WEST
Seattle Pacific is No. 6 in the NCAA West Region rankings that were released on Wednesday. The Falcons were No. 4 last week, but Cal Poly Pomona jumped from No. 7 to No. 3. That bumped Point Loma Nazarene down to No. 4. Cal State Los Angeles stayed at No. 5.
 
Chaminade and Cal State San Bernardino are still 1-2 on the list. San Francisco State is No. 7 and Central Washington is No. 8, Currently on the outside looking in are No. 9 Sonoma State and No. 10 Cal State East Bay.
 
This is the last regular-season set of rankings. Following this week's regular-season finales in the GNAC and Pacific West Conference, and the California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, the regional committee will meet one final time to determine which eight schools ultimately make the West Region tournament and which school will host it. The three conference champions (including SPU and Point Loma Nazarene, both of whom have already clinched automatic bids) will be joined by five at-large selections.

Click on tnis link for a look at the West Regions RPI list..

 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- Last Saturday's 3-0 victory at Montana State Billings gave SPU its first 20-win season since 2011, when it went 21-7.
-- It will go into the books as the 15th season of 20-plus wins in the 38-year history of the program.
 

-- Senior middle blocker Allison Wilks recorded her eighth .500-plus match of the season on Saturday at MSUB, finishing at exactly .500 (6 kills-0 errors-12 attacks). She also has three of .600-plus and two of .700 plus.
-- The error-free performance was Wilks' ninth of the year and lifted her GNAC-leading hitting percentage to .421. She is still on track to become the program's first-ever season-long .400 hitter.
 

-- It certainly was a milestone kind of day for SPU at Billings. Emily Tulino set up her career 1,500th assist (now 1,516), and Wilks had one service ace to give her exactly 100 as a Falcon.
-- By limiting Montana State Billings to .053 hitting, the Falcons now have kept seven opponents below .100 for the year.
--The Falcons have won 42 of the last 43 matches against Saint Martin's. A 36-match win streak against the Saints ended on March 2, 2021 during the pandemic-affected independent schedule spring season. It was the first match of a doubleheader in Lacey, and Saint Martin's came back from losing the first two sets to take it in five.
-- When the teams met on Sept. 16 in Lacey, the Falcons did not have anyone in double-digit kills on the way to a 3-0 win. Maddie Pruden led the way with seven, and Sarah Brachvogel had an error-free match with six kills and .400 hitting.
-- In a GNAC-opening 3-0 win at Western Oregon on Sept. 14, Brachvogel led the way with 11 kills.
-- Even though the Falcons swept the Wolves, the match had 38 ties and 15 lead changes – with 20 of those ties and five of those lead changes during the first set, which Seattle Pacific finally won, 28-26, after the Wolves fought off set points at 24-23, 25-24, and 26-25.
 

-- Hannah Hair has racked up 56 blocks in her last seven matches, including three double-digits outings. Of those 56 blocks, 12 are solos.
-- Hair still leads the GNAC and NCAA Division II at 1.70 blocks per set, well ahead of No. 2 Emma Daoud-Hebert of Central Washington at 1.49.
-- Lauren Valentic from Indiana University of Pennsylvania still has the total blocks lead on Hair, 160 to 148.
-- With 459 career total blocks, Hair is No. 6 on the all-time GNAC list. The next rung up that ladder is No. 5 Eva Braun of Alaska Anchorage, who had 469 from 2013-16.
-- Coach Jason Rhine is 3-0 against both Saint Martin's and Western Oregon.
 
SCOUTING THE SAINT MARTIN'S SAINTS: 16-10, 9-7 GNAC (5th).
All-time series: SPU leads, 64-6.  Current series streak: SPU won 6.  Last time: SPU 3, STM 0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-18; Sept. 16 at Lacey).  Last STM series win: STM 3, SPU 2 (17-25, 19-25, 25-18, 25-22, 15-12; March 2, 2021 at Lacey).  Saints on the Web.
Saints in a nutshell: With 16 victories overall and nine in conference play, Saint Martin's already is assured of its best season since becoming one of the charter members of the GNAC in 2001. It's previous best overall mark was 13-15 (last year); its previous best in conference was 5-13 (2001 and 2011). Setting the offensive pace are freshman 5-foot-10 outside hitter Emily Garten and junior 6-foot middle blocker Jennifer Soha. Garten has slammed 311 kills, a 3.34 per-set average that is No. 3 in the GNAC. Soha is the GNAC's No. 2 hitter at .381. Making sure they have those opportunities – or often taking care of an opportunity herself – is senior setter Karla Soto. She likely will reach 1,000 assists for the season on Thursday (she comes in with 977), an average of 10.39, the only double-digit average in the GNAC. She also has dropped in 56 service aces.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTERN OREGON WOLVES: 9-15, 3-13 GNAC (9th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 39-13.  Current series streak: SPU won 3.  Last time: SPU 3, WOU 0 (28-26, 25-22, 25-20; Sept. 14 at Monmouth).  Last WOU series win: WOU 3, SPU 0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-22; Oct. 28, 2021 at Monmouth, Ore.).  Wolves on the Web.
Wolves in a nutshell: Western Oregon recently ended an eight-match skid with a victory at Alaska Fairbanks, but fell to both Western Washington and Simon Fraser in Monmouth last week. Madison Hornback, a junior 5-foot-10 outside hitter, has become the most potent attacker in the GNAC with a conference-leading 3.61 kills per set (314 total). In a late October homestand against Northwest Nazarene and Central Washington, she had 50 kills on 144 attacks in the two matches combined – 16 percent of her entire season total. She's hitting .216 for the year. Junior 5-9 outside hitter Bailee Hartsook also has a solid hammer for an arm, with 193 kills. WOU also has a talented pair of middle blockers in 6-2 sophomore Chloe Asciutto and 6-foot senior Bella MacLellan. Asciutto has 142 kills, a team-high 2.93 hitting percentage, and 76 total blocks (12 solo), an 0.85 average. MacLellan has 128 kills on .289 hitting, and 88 total blocks (10 solo) for a 1.00 average.

BUSY BROOMS
Seattle Pacific swept the two-match season series from Billings, its sixth sweep of the season. It will go for two more sweeps this week against Saint Martin's and Western Oregon which would make it eight for the year.

If the Falcons pull off those sweeps, they will top the record-setting 2010 team that went 26-3 overall. That SPU squad swept seven GNAC opponents and split with two others (Western Washington and Alaska Anchorage).
 
BRACH HAS BEEN BRINGIN' IT
The season is down to crunch time – and down the homestretch, Sarah Brachvogel has been absolutely crunching the ball.
 
 

The senior outside hitter / opposite has been in double-digit kills for six consecutive matches: 21 at Northwest Nazarene, 13 at home against each of the two Alaska schools, 16 at both Simon Fraser and Western Washington, and 13 last Saturday at Montana State Billings. That's 92 kills through the last 24 sets, an average of 3.83 per set.
 
That's not all. Just once in those six matches has Brachvogel hit below .200. In the other five, she has a pair of .300-plus and three of .200-plus, Her percentage through those six is .259.
 
Combined with aces and blocks, Brachvogel is now averaging 4.00 points per set for the season, No. 3 in the GNAC.
 
COACH JASON RHINE SAYS …
(On clinching an NCAA berth)
"We're excited – we talked about it a little before the match, still having big stuff left to play for, including this match and trying to seal the bid. And we're also looking forward to playing one match at a time and getting ready for the tournament."
 
 

(On what it took to get to this point)
"It has been a fun journey. We were close at the end of last year, as well. So it feels like it has been a long time, but in a good way, because we've gotten to spend a lot of time together as a team. We've gotten to see them grow individually and as a group, and play at a higher and higher level on the court, but really growing a lot individually on and off the court."
 
(On Saint Martin's and Western Oregon)
"Saint Martin's has been playing well and beating some good teams – they just beat Simon Fraser. They serve really tough, they stay aggressive, and they make you beat them. We're looking forward to that challenge. Western Oregon plays better than their record currently indicates. They have some good players who can get a lot of kills."
 
MILESTONES IN THE MAKING
In the making
100th dig               Brianna Ingram (has 99)
200th block           Erin Smith (has 181)
300th block           Allison Wilks (has 283)
400th kill               Erin Smith (has 392)
500th assist           Sophia Chambers (has 364)
500th block           Hannah Hair (has 459)
500th point            Erin Smith (has 490.0)
                             Sydney Perry (has 482.0)
1,000th point          Hannah Hair (has 974.0)
 
Made last week
100th ace              Allison Wilks (has 100)
1,500th assist        Emily Tulino (has 1,516)
 
NATIONALLY SPEAKING
Among the 278 volleyball program in NCAA Division II, the Falcons are:
-- No. 1 in blocking at 2.81 per set (Indiana of Pennsylvania 2.78).
-- No. 10 in total blocks at 250.0 (Indiana of Pennsylvania 313.0).
-- No. 28 in lowest opponents' percentage at .144 (Spring Hill .087).
Individually:
-- Hannah Hair is No. 1 in blocks per set at 1.70 (1.45).
-- Hair No. 2 in total blocks with 148 (160).

Click on this link to see how the Falcons stack up nationally. Click on this link to see how other GNAC teams and player rank in D2.
 
AROUND THE WEST
While Seattle Pacific has an NCAA Tournament spot assured, Central Washington is on the brink of clinching a bid, as well heading into the final week of GNAC play. The Wildcats (18-6, 12-4 GNAC) visit Simon Fraser on Thursday and Western Washington on Saturday. At this point, Central also is mathematically in contention to tie for the conference championship, but would need to win both and have SPU lose both.
 
The California Collegiate Athletic Association concluded its regular season last week, with Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State Los Angeles sharing the title at 15-3. All three of San Bernardino's conference losses came to Sonoma State, including 3-2 last Saturday. The Coyotes are the No. 1 seed for this week's conference tournament and have a first-round bye, as does No. 2 seed L.A. They could wind up facing Sonoma again; the No. 5-seeded Seawolves play No  4 Cal Poly Pomona in the first round.
 
Point Loma Nazarene has clinched the Pacific West Conference's automatic NCAA bid. The Sea Lions absorbed their first conference loss last week, 3-1 at Biola, which ended a 16-match winning streak. They bounced back to beat Westmont, 3-1, so are 17-1 in Pac West play (20-5 overall) and guaranteed at least a share of title. Chaminade (28-3, 16-3) is still in mathematical contention with one match left. Point Loma has two matches to go.
 
UP NEXT
The NCAA Division II West Regional bracket, along with the other seven regional tournaments, will be announced next Monday Nov. 20, at 4:30 p.m. A link to the show will be posted as soon as it is made available by the NCAA.
 

GNAC STANDINGS
                                                     GNAC          Overall
Seattle Pacific          14-2      20-4
Central Washington       12-4      18-6
Western Washington       11-5      11-13
Simon Fraser             10-6      15-9
Saint Martin's            9-7      16-10
Northwest Nazarene        7-9      11-13
Alaska Anchorage          7-10     15-17
Alaska Fairbanks          7-10     14-17
Western Oregon            3-13      9-15
Montana State Billings    1-15      3-23