THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Oct. 17                Western Oregon at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Oct. 19                 Saint Martin's at Seattle Pacific, 2:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 

SEATTLE – For the next two weeks, the only places Seattle Pacific volleyball players have to go are from their dorms or apartments to their classes and then to the gym.
 
Given all the travel they've had to do through the first six weeks of the season, that might almost seem like a breather.
 
But no breathers on the court – there never are in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The Falcons (2-13, 2-5 GNAC) face another pair of tough challenges this week when Western Oregon and Saint Martin's come to Brougham Pavilion for the first half of a four-match homestand.
 
The Wolves (11-5, 3-4 GNAC), who already have more wins than they had last year, visit on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. The Saints (4-11, 2-5 GNAC) are here on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Those two matches will conclude the first half of the conference schedule.
 
SPU is coming off a split of last week's road trip, coming back from two sets down to beat Western Washington, 3-2, then falling at Simon Fraser, 3-1.
 
FOLLOW IT LIVE
This week's matches and all remaining GNAC contests will have free live Webcasts on YouTube and free live stats. Greg Sexton will call the action for both of this week's contests. The appropriate links are at the top of this story.
 
A NIFTY NINTH FOR HAIR
Hannah Hair, who had a combined 16 total blocks in matches at Western Washington and Simon Fraser, was named the GNAC Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.
 

It is the ninth time in her career that the fifth-year middle blocker has won the weekly award – with seven of those on the defensive side. This was her first award of the season.
 
At Western, the Falcons were down 2-0 in sets and 23-17 in Set 3 when they ran off eight points to take the set and stay alive. Hair had a hand in three of those: a combined block with Emily Tulino, a combined block with Coco Barnett, and a kill.
 
On Saturday at Simon Fraser, Hair had nine more blocks, including a season-high four solos, although Seattle Pacific ultimately fell short, 3-1. Hair also had nine more kills on .333 hitting.
 
Hair has 86 total blocks for the season (14 solos) and a 1.43 per-set average, both of which lead the GNAC. Her total ranks No. 4 in NCAA Division II (the leader is Kaylee Freund of Tiffin with 102, and her per-set average ranks No. 6 (the leader is Jada Suguturaga of Augusta at 1.56).
 




SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- The Falcons are looking for their first home win of the season. Their only two previous Brougham matches were during the first week of October when they lost 3-0 to Alaska Fairbanks and 3-1 to Alaska Anchorage.
--SPU swept last year's season series from both Western Oregon and Saint Martin's. In Seattle, both scores were 3-1.
-- Seattle Pacific has more wins against Saint Martin's (65) than against any other program.
-- The Falcons picked up their 40th all-time victory against Western Oregon in last year's regular-season finale in Brougham.
-- Senior setter Emily Tulino has three consecutive assist / dig double-doubles. Last week, she came up with a career high in each of those stat categories: 41 assists at Western Washington, along with 10 digs (previous high was 39 assists) and 21 digs at Simon Fraser, along with 37 assists (previous high was 19 digs).
 

-- With five players already having hit a 500 statistical milestone this season (kills for Sydney Perry, Erin Smith and Allison Wilks, blocs for Hannah Hair, assists for Sophia Chambers), sophomore setter Christina Lopez is next in line. She needs 47 more digs for her 500th.
-- Hair's four solo blocks at Simon Fraser give her 14 for the season and 80 for her career. The entire rest of the SPU roster combined has 61 solo blocks, with the bulk of those by Wilks (25) and Smith (16).
-- Then there were two Falcons who recorded their first career blocks last week: junior outside hitter Anna Pelluer at Western Washington and senior defensive specialist Abigail Cunningham at Simon Fraser.
-- Hair and Wilks rank No. 3 and No. 5, respectively, in GNAC hitting, with Hair at .308 and Wilks at .299.
-- Western Oregon has three of the GNAC's top 10 servers in terms of aces: Chloe Asciutto with 36, Maela Honma with 29, and Samantha Darby with 28.
-- Saint Martin's has the aces leader in Emily Gerten with 37.
-- Coach Jason Rhine is 4-0 against both Western Oregon and Saint Martin's.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTERN OREGON WOLVES: 11-5, 3-4 GNAC (tie 6th)
All-time series: SPU leads, 40-19.  Current series streak: SPU won 4.  Last time: SPU 3, WOU 1 (28-26, 25-20, 18-25, 25-23; Nov. 18, 2023 at Seattle).  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 won seven straight matches to start the season and was recognized as the GNAC Team of the Week on Sept. 16 after going 3-1 at the Cougar Classic in San Marcos, California. The 7-1 start was the team's best since 1988. The Wolves are coming off a 3-0 sweep at Saint Martin's last Saturday. Senior 5-foot-10 outside hitter Madison Hornback and freshman 5-foot-9 outside Maela Honma are pounding the ball in a big way. Hornback has 199 kills / 3.16 per set (No. 4 in the GNAC) and is hitting .205. Honma has 163 kills / 2.47 per set on .253 hitting. Honma has delivered a team-high 29 service aces, with sophomore 5-8 setter Samantha Darby right behind at 28. Senior 5-10 opposite Bailee Hartsook has 109 kills on .250 hitting. Chloe Asciutto, a junior 6-1 middle, has eight solo blocks among her team-high 51.
 
SCOUTING THE SAINT MARTIN'S SAINTS: 4-11, 2-5 GNAC (tie 8th).
All-time series: SPU leads, 65-6.  Current series streak: SPU won 7.  Last time: SPU 3, STM1 (25-17, 22-25, 25-18, 25-22; Nov. 16, 2023 at Seattle).. 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: Saint Martin's started GNAC play with a come-from-behind victory against Northwest Nazarene and also have an impressive 3-1 road decision at Alaska Fairbanks in their win column. But the Saints start this week looking to snap a three-match losing streak, all of which have been 3-0 sweeps. A good chunk of the offense runs through junior 5-foot-11 outside hitter Emmy Hansen and sophomore 5-10 outside Emily Garten. Hansen leads the way with 157 kills / 2.62 per set, and Garten is right on her heels with 153 kills / 2.55 per set. Another big factor up front is senior 6-1 middle blocker Jennifer Soha. She has 107 kills on a team-high hitting percentage of .331 and also has a team-high 58 blocks with eight solos. Zoey Crimin, a junior 6-3 opposite / middle, has added 96 kills.
 
REACHING THE CENTURY MARK
Not one, not two, but three SPU players got to the career 100 mark in different statistical categories last week.
 
Sophomore libero Christina Lopez earned her 100th assist, and she comes into this week with 101. The next milestone in sight for her is 500 digs (she's at 453).
 
Fifth-year opposite Erin Smith came up with her 100th dig, and starts the week with exactly that many. Having collected her 500th kill earlier this season, she has a chance at 600, needing 77 more to get there.
 
Senior setter Emily Tulino delivered her 100th service ace. She has exactly that many coning into the week.
 
Within reach of the 100 mark for kills are sophomore opposite Coco Barnett and freshman outside hitter Eva LaRochelle. Barnett has 89 and LaRochelle has 67.
 
EYEING THE DOUBLE-MILLENNIUM MARK
While that 100th ace was certainly a nice accomplishment, Tulino is approaching a much bigger milestone this week.
 
 

When the takes the court for Thursday's match against Western Oregon, Tulino will be just 24 assists away from 2,000 for her career. She started the season with 1,591 and has added another 385, putting her at 1,976.
 
In playing all 15 matches so far this season, Tulino has gone for more than 24 in seven of them, and was at 23 in one and 22 in another. Her lowest total in any match this fall was 10, that coming in the season opener against Cal State San Bernardino on Sept. 5.
 
With 11 matches to go, Tulino is well on her way to leading the Falcons in assists for the fourth straight year. If she continues to do so, she would become just the fourth setter in SPU volleyball's 39-year history of the program to lead the way in assists all four years. The others were Deri Paulson from 1986-90 (the first four years of the program), Jenna Von Moos from 2003-06, and Symone Tran from 2015-18.
 
FALCON REPLAY
-- Sydney Perry had 14 kills, Hannah Hair had 13 kills and seven blocks, and SPU rallied from 2-0 down in sets and 23-17 down in Set 3 to beat Western Washington last Thursday in Bellingham, 3-2. Scores in Carver Gymnasium were 19-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-12.
 -- Erin Smith and Eva LaRochelle each had 10 kills, Hair came up with nine blocks, but Simon Fraser seized the momentum midway through each of the final two sets to take a 3-1 win on Saturday. Scores in West Gym were 30-28, 16-25, 25-19, 25-20.
https://spufalcons.com/news/2024/10/12/24_wvb_Oct12.aspx
 
MARCH TO A MILESTONE
In the making
100th dig        Eva LaRochelle (has 75))
100th kill       Coco Barnett (has 89)
                 Eva LaRochelle (has 67)
300th dig        Sarah Brachvogel (has 293)
                 Allison Wilks (has 268)
400th block      Allison Wilks (has 347)
500th blk ast.   Hannah Hair (has 477)
500th dig        Christina Lopez (has 453)
600th assist     Sarah Chambers (has 532)
600th block      Hannah Hair (has 557)
600th kill       Sarah Brachvogel (has 564)
                 Sydney Perry (has 562)
                 Allison Wilks (has 547)
900th kill       Hannah Hair (has 838)
1,000th dig      Abigail Cunningham (has 892)
2,000th assist   Emily Tulino (has 1,976)
 
Made last week
100th ace        Emily Tulino (has 100)
100th assist     Christina Lopez (has 101)
100th dig        Erin Smith (has 100)
 
AROUND THE WEST
As the first half of GNAC play winds down this week, Central Washington (9-4, 7-0 GNAC) has a chance to expand its lead on second-place Simon Fraser (10-4, 6-1 GNAC). Or, those two teams potentially could be deadlocked. The Wildcats and Red Leafs meet on Thursday in Ellensburg. Western Washington (6-7, 5-2 GNAC) is still very much in the title hunt and has the chance to climb even further back into it with a visit to Northwest Nazarene (6-9, 3-4 GNAC) on Thursday and then to Central on Saturday.
 
Cal Poly Pomona and the other 11 California Collegiate Athletic Association teams will wrap up their first half and begin the second half all on the same weekend with a home-and-home set against one opponent. What could be the best pairing –and one with big postseason implications – is second-place San Francisco State (13-3, 7-1 CCAA) against co-No. 3 Cal State San Bernardino (9-6, 5-3 CCAA). First-place Cal Poly Pomona (14-1, 8-0 CCAA, winner of 10 straight) is teamed up with Cal State San Marcos (4-11, 2-6 CCAA).
 
The Pacific West Conference also is concluding its first half. Point Loma Nazarene (14-0, 8-0) and Chaminade (15-4, 8-0) remain tied for first. The Sea Lions have just one match, visiting Biola (4-12, 2-6) on Thursday. Chaminade plays twice, with its second match coming at home against third-place Hawaii Hilo (13-6, 8-1) on Saturday.

AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for the latest news, notes, results, and stats from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
Seattle Pacific starts the second half of the GNAC slate next week when Central Washington and Northwest Nazarene visit Brougham Pavilion. The Wildcats are here on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 7:00 p.m.; followed by the Nighthawks on Saturday the 26th at 2:00 p.m. The Falcons will be looking to even things up against both teams, as Central won 3-1 on Oct. 5 in Ellensburg and NNU prevailed 3-2 on Oct. 3 in Nampa.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                        GNAC       Overall
Central Washington         7-0      9-4
Simon Fraser               6-1     10-4
Western Washington         5-2      6-7
Alaska Fairbanks           4-4     12-6
Alaska Anchorage           4-4     10-8
Western Oregon             3-4     11-5
Northwest Nazarene         3-5      6-9
Saint Martin's             2-5      4-12
Seattle Pacific            2-5      2-13
Montana State Billings     0-7      6-10
 
 

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