FAIRBANKS, Alaska – A conference record-setting day for Hannah Hair. The match of her life for Emily Tulino. Ditto for Coco Barnett. Yet another accurate afternoon for Allison Wilks.
 
All the Seattle Pacific Falcons needed on Saturday was just another couple points here and there.
 
Hair broke the Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball record for career blocks. Tulino racked up 61 assists. Barnett hammered 19 kills. Wilks had a career-high 16 kills and hit at a .519 clip. But the Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks went on a 4-0 scoring run early in the fifth set, and hung on to beat the Falcons, 3-2.
 
Scores in The Patty Center were 25-23, 23-25, 25-21, 19-25, 15-11.
 
Fifth-year middle blocker Hair came into Saturday's match with 593 blocks. The record was 597 set by Western Washington's Kayleigh Harper from 2015-19.
 
 

The record-tying 597th came midway through Set 4, a combo effort with Barnett to give the Falcons a 13-12 lead. They went on to win that set and force a deciding fifth.
 
Hair's 598th came as SPU was trying to come back from a four-point deficit in Set 5. She teamed up with senior setter Tulino on that one, cutting the deficit to 10-7.
 
The match was halted momentarily to announce Hair's accomplishment, and she was presented with the ball.
 
"It was exciting and it's definitely a huge honor," Hair said. "I think it speaks a ton to our team in general. We have trained to have a really high-level defense. Our current coaches and our coaches in the past like (former SPU assistant) Lindsey Calvin have helped me a ton in the way I block. It speaks to their ability to train us hard in the gym and I'm very grateful for that."
 
Of Hair's 598 blocks, Falcons coach Jason Rhine has been at the helm for the last 393 of them since taking charge of the program in 2022.
 
"It was a cool deal. I'm thankful to Fairbanks for recognizing her, and it was fun for our team to celebrate her and to have it happen in a match when the whole team was playing well," Rhine said. "To come away with the ball and have the other coach (Brian Scott of Fairbanks) come over and recognizing how good of an athlete she is and how much of a leader she is in the conference, it was real cool to see."
 
 

While Tulino earned a block assist on Hair's record-setter, the rest of her assists came on offense. In two consecutive matches this fall, she came within one of reaching 50, setting a career-high 49 on Oct. 19 at home against Saint Martin's then matching it on Oct. 24 against Central Washington, also in Brougham Pavilion.
 
On Saturday, her 50th came on a kill by freshman outside hitter Eva LaRochelle to give SPU a 15-14 lead in Set 4. But she was far from done. Her 60th came late in Set 5 and led to Wilks' 16th kill, topping her previous best of 15.
 
The last Falcon to go for more than 60 assists in a match was Symone Tran  on Nov. 9, 2017 in a five-setter against Western Washington in Brougham. She had 68 that night.
 
Wilks has been on an offensive tear lately. Her .519 hitting percentage on Saturday (16 kills-2 errors-27 attacks) was her third of .500-plus in the last four matches and her sixth this season, along with a .609 and a 706.
 
 

"I was real proud of how we played and how we responded to Thursday when we felt like we struggled at times offensively (in a 3-0 loss at Alaska Anchorage)," Rhine said. "This was one of our better offensive matches of the year. Coco came up really big and was hitting at a high percentage, Emily had tons of assists, and it was a good overall hitting percentage for our team. A lot of different people were playing well offensively."
 
Seatle Pacific (6-15, 6-7 GNAC) came up with season-best totals in three major statistical categories: 73 kills (66 at Simon Fraser on Oct. 12), 193 attacks (177 at Simon Fraser) and 71 assists (61 at Northwest Nazarene on Sept. 26). Saturday's .290 hitting percentage was the second-highest this season, topped only by the 296 vs. Central on Oct. 24.
 
And yet, the Nanooks (17-6, 9-4 GNAC) were almost dead-even with the Falcons in all three categories: 72 kills, 191 attacks,68 assists. Fairbanks finished at .251 hitting for the day.
 
Up just 17-16 and needing the fourth set to stay alive, SPU closed it on an 8-3 scoring run. Fifth-year outside hitter Sydney Perry had four kills to account for half of those eight points and finished the day with 15.
 
The Nanooks scored the first two points of Set 5 and were up 4-2. A kill by LaRochelle and a service ace by Wilks tied it at 4-4.
 
That's when UAF put four straight on the board on the way to a commanding 12-7 lead. The Falcons had one more surge left in them, as back-to-back quick kills by Wilks and a Nanooks attack error narrowed it to 12-10. Fairbanks got the next two, making it quadruple match point at 14-10.
 
SPU saved the first one on a kill by Perry. But an attack at the net by Josie Jansen deflected out off the Falcons block to seal the deal.
 
"I honestly felt we had some momentum going into Set 5, but (the Nanooks) responded well," Rhine said.
 
BY THE NUMBERS
 

-- Coco Barnett's 19 kills tied this year's team high, which Sydney Perry set in a five-setter at Northwest Nazarene on Sept. 26. The previous career high for the sophomore opposite was nine, which she achieved twice – most recently in that same match at NNU.
--Barnett also set a career hitting high of 410 (19-3-39). Her previous high was .400 (8-0-20) set on Sept. 13 against Concordia-St. Paul.
-- Along with her .410 and Allison Wilks' .519, SPU had two other .200-plus efforts: .280 for Hannah Hair (10-3-263) and  .229 for Sydney Perry (15-4-48).
-- Sophomore libero Christina Lopez tied her career high with 24 digs.
-- Eva LaRochelle also set a career high for kills with 12, thus giving the Falcons five players in double digits. She also had 12 digs for her second college double-double.
-- Speaking of that, Emiliy Tulino reached double-digit double-doubles for the season with her 10^th. Along with those 61 assists, she had 16 digs..
 
UP NEXT
SPU is back in Brougham Pavilion next week, hosting Simon Fraser on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Western Washington on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. That one is an hour earlier than the usual Saturday start time because the Falcons are hosting a men's basketball tournament that starts at 5:15.
 
 
NCAA WOMEN'S VOLLEYBAL
Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024
The Patty Center / Fairbanks, Alaska
 
Alaska Fairbanks 3, Seattle Pacific 2
 
Set scores – 25-23, 23-25, 25-21,19-25,15-11
 
Service aces – SPU 4 (4 players with 1), UAF 9 (Smith 3).
Kills – SPU 73 (Barnett 19, Wilks 16, Perry 15, LaRochelle 12, Hair 10), UAF 72 (Pierce 18).
Assists – SPU 71 (Tulino 61), UAF 68 (Smith 30).
Digs – SPU 77 (Lopez 24, Tulino 16, LaRochelle 12), UAF 84 (Onaga 18).
Block assists / solo – SPU 16 / 3 solo (Hair 4 / 1 solo), UAF 10 / 0 solo (Jansen 4 / 0 solo).
Hitting (kills-errors-attacks) – SPU 73-17-193—290 (Wilks 16-2-27—519, Barnett 19-3-39—410), UAF 72-24-191—251 (Jansen 13-3-23—435).
Attendance – 315.
 
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 6-15, 6-7 GNAC.
Alaska Fairbanks 17-6, 9-4 GNAC.
 
 
Next match
Simon Fraser at Seattle Pacific
Thursday, Nov. 7     7:00 p.m.
Brougham Pavilion / Seattle, Wash.