ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Well … there's something that doesn't happen every day … or ever year.
 
Or even every 10 years.
 
But it happened this week for the Seattle Pacific Falcon on a pair of volleyball courts in Alaska.
 
Sarah Brachvogel had 13 kills and served an ace on match point, and Hannah Hair had 10 total blocks on Saturday as No. 24-ranked SPU won for the 11th straight time, defeating Alaska Anchorage, 3-1.
 
Scores of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest in the Alaska Airlines Center were 22-25, 25-14, 25-16, 26-24.
 
Coupled with Thursday's 3-1 victory at Fairbanks, this is the first season since 2012 – when none of the current team members had even gotten to high school yet – that the Falcons (12-2, 6-0 GNAC) have won both matches on their trip to The Last Frontier.
 
Saturday's victory in Anchorage was their first since a 3-2 decision in 2018.
 
 

"It's great for the team. We have a lot of seniors and they've had a lot of trips to Alaska and come up short," head coach Jason Rhine said. "I think they're really excited to come away from this early travel, the trips to Alaska and down to Western Oregon, and getting some of these out of the way in the early going, and now come back for some important home matches the next few weeks.
 
"It's a beautiful fall time in Alaska, and I'm glad we were able to enjoy it on and off the court."
 
ALL SPU IN MIDDLE TWO SETS
After seeing a 22-19 lead in Set 1 get away from them as UAA (10-10, 2-3 GNAC) ran off the final six points to take it, Seattle Pacific was in command for nearly all of the second and third sets.
 
The Falcons trailed just twice in Set 2, at 1-0 and 3-2. Tied at 6-6, the put together an 11-3 burst, the last five of those points consecutively, to make it 17-9. They never trailed in the third, thanks in large part to a remarkable zero-errors hitting performance with 13 kills on 38 attacks for a .342 percentage. A 7-1 run midway through the set produced a 16-9 lead.
 
"I thought our offense came together a bit better," Rhine said. "It was kind of a serving battle. We were serving aggressively throughout,, and (the Seawolves) were taking some risks, so I think they missed some extra serves, and that helped take some pressure off and (help us) be a little more efficient offensively when we did get some chances."
 
SPU seemed on the verge of pulling away in the fourth set, going up 11-6 and 18-13. But the Seawolves chipped away, finally tying it at 20-20, and then again at 21, 22, and 23.
 
They finally went in front – their first lead since early in Set 2 – at 24-23 when Hair was whistled for a lift on an attack attempt. That gave them a chance to force a deciding fifth set, but Brachvogel saved it with a kill that deflected out off an Anchorage player for 24-24.
 
 

That gave Brachvogel the serve. The Seawolves kept it alive off an SPU block and got it back over. Then Maddie Pruden hammered one that was dug up but flew back behind the baseline and out, giving the Falcons a match point at 25-24.
 
UAA called timeout, and Brachvogel still had the serve when the players returned to the court. The Anchorage libero dug up the serve, but sent it behind her for the ace.
 
"There was a pretty big crowd (1,150 fans in attendance), which was fun," Rhine said. "When the sets got tight, it was pretty competitive, and UAA made pushes toward the end of Set 1 and Set 4, but we were able to respond well. Some of those were exciting and big points to finish out the match."
 
 

Hair's 10 blocks included five solos, which tied her career high. Her other match with five was last Oct. 15 against Fairbanks.
 
"Hannah was really dominant at the net. Whether she was up with someone else or not, she did a great job of making contact with a lot of balls," Rhine said. "We knew they were going to challenge that part of the defense, and I thought we responded well and got some good blocks throughout the match."
 


BY THE NUMBERS
-- Freshman libero Christina Lopez had a career-high 17 digs. That beat her previous best of 12, which she set in Thursday's win.
-- Once again, both Seattle Pacific setters double-doubled: 21 assists and 11 digs for junior Emily Tulino; 12 assists and 11 digs for freshman Sophia Chambers. Tulino now has seven for the season, and Chambers has six.
-- The assist total for Chambers pushed her past 200 for her career, now with 208.
-- The Falcons finished the night at .169 hitting (39 kills-16 errors-136 attacks). But they limited Anchorage to .056 (43-34-160), including sub-.100 in Sets 1 and 3, and negative (7-12-41—minus .122) in Set 2.
-- Senior outside hitter Sarah Day, who delivered a career-high seven service aces on Thursday at Alaska Fairbanks, had three more on Saturday – and they were all in a row late in Set 1.
-- Hair's 10 blocks give her 78 for the season, boosting her average to 1.59. That could help keep her atop the NCAA Division II rankings for blocking, which she already was leading coming into both Alaska matches.
 
UP NEXT
SPU returns home to play Western Washington on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. in Brougham Pavilion. That will be the first of three straight home matches during the upcoming two weeks. The Vikings started off 0-9, but have won four straight, including a 3-0 sweep at Simon Fraser on Saturday, and are now in sole possession of second place in the GNAC at 4-1.

 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023
Alaska Airlines Center / Anchorage, Alaska
 
(No. 24) Seattle Pacific 3, Alaska Anchorage 1
 
Game scores – 22-25, 25-14, 25-16, 26-24.
 
Service aces – SPU 7 (Day 3), UAA 6 (Johnson 2).
Kills – SPU 39 (Brachvogel 13), UAA 43 (Tuchardt 12).
Assists – SPU 35 (Tulino 21, Chambers 11), UAA 42 (Osborne 31).
Digs – SPU 62 (Lopez 17, Chambers 12, Tulino 10, UAA 65 (Plumhoff 20).
Block assists / solo – SPU 10 / 9 solo (Hair 5 / 5 solo), UAA 4 / 1 solo (5 players with 1).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 39-16-133—173 (Chambers 3-0-4—750), UAA 43-33-156—064 (Tuchardt 12-5-28--250.
Attendance – 1,150.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 12-2, 6-0 GNAC.  Alaska Anchorage 10-10, 2-3 GNAC.
 
Next match
Western Washington at Seattle Pacific
Thursday, Oct. 5     7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.