LACEY, Wash. – All alone atop the volleyball standings.
 
It has been awhile since the Seattle Pacific Falcons could say that.
 
Maddie Pruden had seven kills, Emily Tulino tied her career high with six service aces, and SPU scored a 3-0 sweep of Saint Martin's in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference match on Saturday afternoon.
 
Scores in Marcus Pavilion were 25-22, 25-20, 25-18.
 
The Falcons (8-2, 2-0 GNAC) were the only team to come through the first weekend of conference competition with two wins. Preseason favorite Central Washington dropped a 3-0 decision at home to Simon Fraser. Northwest Nazarene, which swept the Red Leafs on Thursday, dropped a 3-2 decision at home to Western Washington, the first victory of the year for the Vikings.
 
The only other team unbeaten in GNAC play is Alaska Anchorage, which defeated Alaska Fairbanks last week and was off this week to play in a tournament.
 
Saturday's victory was the seventh in a row for SPU. That is now its longest winning streak since 2010, when it won 16 in a row to start the season.
 
 

"It's hard to win on the road, but we got this trip done with early," Falcons head coach Jason Rhine said. "We just have to keep it going and come back to practice to get ready for our first home matches. We're excited. There's a lot of good teams still to play, and we have to play most of them twice, so we're excited for whoever comes town."
 
The Falcons got off to a slow start, as some solid serving helped stake Saint Martin's to leads of 7-2 and 11-5 in Set 1. SPU – which played through 38 ties in Thursday's 3-0 sweep at Western Oregon – finally forged the first one of the match at 18-18 on a tip by Pruden.
 
Down 19-18, SPU put the next four points on the board on a kill by Sydney Perry, a quick kill by Allison Wilks, a combined block by Wilks and Erin Smith, and a Tulino ace to make it 22-19. The Saints twice got within two, but Smith finished off the set with a kill.
 



Seattle Pacific led for a good portion of Set 2 after stringing together five straight points, turning a 9-8 deficit into a 13-9 lead. This time, it was Saint Martin's which climbed back into a tie, at 19-19. Again, the Falcons ran off four in a row, with two Tulino aces in the middle of that, making it 23-19. The Saints got one point back, then a Wilks kill and a Smith block put that set in SPU's column.
 
SPU scored the first three points of Set 3 and led the entire way, taking command with six straight points to expand an 8-6 lead to 14-6.
 
"We did a good job of making a few adjustments from Thursday," Rhine said. "We talked about making a few less hitting errors and avoiding the block a little bit more, and I thought we did that. That put a lot of pressure on Saint Martin's to side out consistently and attack well past our defense. Our defense did a good job of making that tough, creating transition opportunities to get blocks and get kills and get aces."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- Led by Sarah Brachvogel's error-free day, the Falcons bumped their hitting back above .200, finishing at .226 (30 kills-11 errors-84 attacks). SPU hit just .163 in Thursday's win at Western Oregon. Brachvogel was 6-0-15—400 on Saturday.
-- Emily Tulino's previous match with six service aces was Sept. 11, 2021 vs. Hawaii Pacific.
-- Hannah Hair, Erin Smith and Maddie Pruden each had four blocks. One of Hair's was a solo, her 13th of the season.
-- The Falcons had 21 total blocks for the day. Coming into Saturday, they ranked No. 8 in all of Division II for total blocks.
-- Since SPU hasn't played a home yet this fall, Saturday's victory was it's eight out of town, one more than it had all of last year. Of those eight, three have come in true road matches and the other five were on neutral courts.
 
UP NEXT
After 10 away matches to start the season, the Falcons finally get to play at home this coming week. Northwest Nazarene is in town on Thursday at 7:00 p.m., and Central Washington comes in next Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023
Marcus Pavilion / Lacey, Wash.
 
Seattle Pacific 3, Saint Martin's 0
 
Game scores – 25-22, 25-20, 25-18.
 
Service aces – SPU 9 (Tulino 6), STM 3 (Peredo 2).
Kills – SPU 30 (Pruden 7), STM 38 (Garten 10).
Assists – SPU 27 (Tulino 14), STM 30 (Soto 28).
Digs – SPU 41 (Cunningham 12), STM 38 (Peredo 14).
Block assists / solo – SPU 20 / 1 solo (Hair 3 / 1 solo, Smith 4 / 0 solo, Pruden 4 / 0 solo), STM 8 / 0 solo (4 players with 2 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 30-11-84—226 (Brachvogel 6-0-15—400), STM 38-21-104—163 (Soto 3-0-4—750).
Attendance – 234.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 8-2, 2-0 GNAC.  Saint Martin's 6-4, 1-1 GNAC.
 
Next match
Northwest Nazarene at Seattle Pacific
Thursday, Sept. 21     7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.