SEATTLE – After spending all of September on the road, the Seattle Pacific Falcons were hoping for some better volleyball results when they finally got to play at home on Thursday night.
 
The Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks had other ideas.
 
Erin Smith had nine kills and Sydney Perry added eight for SPU, but Fairbanks came up big on the block with an eight-point advantage and swept to a 3-0 victory in Brougham Pavilion.
 
Scores of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference contest were 25-19, 25-19, 25-19.
 
The Falcons (1-11, 1-3 GNAC are the best blocking team in the conference, having racked up more than their opponents in seven of their first 11 matches and averaging 2.52 per set. On Thursday, however, the Nanooks (11-4, 3-2 GNAC), who are close behind at 2.31 per set, had 25 total blocks. Seattle Pacific had nine.
 
The Nanooks also had a decisive advantage in kills, 47-35, on .304 hitting.
 
 

"We knew that the last couple years, they've been a tall team, a good blocking team, so we knew it was going to be a challenge," Falcons coach Jason Rhine said. "I thought their defense behind the block was strong. They were putting some tough balls down – even if they didn't get a perfect pass, they found some really big swings and some smart plays.".
 
SPU was in catch-up mode most of the night. Down 13-10 in the opening set, they ran off four points in a row on a Nanooks service error, a tip and then a kill by Smith, and a solo block by Hannah Hair to go up 14-13.
 
Alaska Fairbanks answered with four in a row to go back up 17-14, then ran off five straight for a 22-16 lead.
 
The Nanooks scored the first three points of Set 2 and led it the rest of the way. SPU had a 4-3 lead early in Set 3 before UAF rang up five in a row to go ahead for good.
 
"We had a hard time maybe passing in system as much as we could to help us keep up with that level of offense," Rhine said. "Even when we did get some chances, we didn't quite put them down.
 
"We needed to match them with a little more firepower, and we didn't quite pull that off, unfortunately."
 
BY THE NUMBERS
-- SPU finished at .124 hitting (35 kills-20 errors-121 attacks), thanks in part to a better .222 mark (13-5-36) in the third set.
-- On the way to their .304 hitting percentage (47-12-115), the Nanooks hit .250-.312-.359 in the three sets. They came in as the top-hitting team in the GNAC at .238.
-- Fairbanks' 12 total errors were the fewest by any Seattle Pacific opponent this year.
-- Senior setter Emily Tulino led the way with 25 assists putting her at 1,875 as she continues her climb toward 2,000.
--Fifth-year defensive specialist Zoe Shuckhart came up with her 200th career dig. She started the night needing six to reach that milestone and had exactly that many.
-- Erin Smith's nine kills moved her closer to 500 for her career. She now has 494.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons are back in Brougham on Saturday afternoon to take on Alaska Anchorage. The Seawolves (8-7, 2-3 GNAC) swept Montana State Billings on Thursday, 3-0 (27-25, 25-19, 25-23).
 
"One of our takeaways (from Thursday) is to figure out how to have confidence in ourselves and in each other and building off that in practice on Friday," Rhine said. "We need to come into Anchorage with the mentality that we need to play at our best and make sure we're the ones putting pressure on them from the start."
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL
Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.
 
Alaska Fairbanks 3, Seattle Pacific 0
 
Set scores – 25-19, 25-19, 25-19.
 
Service aces – UAF 3 (3 players with 1), SPU 2 (Cunningham 1, Pelluer 1).
Kills – UAF 47 (Guc 13), SPU 35 (Smith 9).
Assists – UAF 46 (Smith 22), SPU 35 (Tulino 25)
Digs – UAF 55 (Onaga 14), SPU 49 (Lopez 9).
Block assists / solo – UAF 23 / 2 solo (Jansen 7 / 1 solo), SPU 8 / 1 solo (Hair 2 / 1 solo),
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – UAF 47-12-115—304 (Guc 13-2-21—524), SPU 35-20-121—124 (Wilks 4-0-8—500).
Attendance – 116.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 1-11, 1-3 GNAC.
Alaska Fairbanks 11-4, 3-2 GNAC.
 
 
Next match
Alaska Anchorage at Seattle Pacific
Saturday, 2:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.