THE SCHEDULE
Thursday, Nov. 7                  Simon Fraser at Seattle Pacific, 7:00 p.m.
                                                Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 
Saturday, Nov. 9                   Western Washington at Seattle Pacific
                                                Brougham Pavilion (2,650) / Seattle, Wash.
                                                Live Webcast        Live stats
 

SEATTLE – One opponent is in first place. The other is a longtime rival who has always been incredibly difficult to beat.
 
Both will be coming to Brougham Pavilion this week for volleyball showdowns with Seattle Pacific.
 
The Falcons will welcome Great Northwest Athletic Conference leader Simon Fraser on Thursday evening and Western Washington on Saturday afternoon as the season moves into the final month.
 
First serve against the Red Leafs is at 7:00 p.m. The WWU match will begin at 1:00 p.m., an hour earlier than the usual Saturday start time because of a men's basketball doubleheader that tips off at 5:15.
 
Seattle Pacific (6-15, 6-7 GNAC) will be looking for a season split against Simon Fraser. The Leafs won on Oct 12 in Burnaby B.C. by a 3-1 margin (30-28, 16-25 25-19, 25-20). The Falcons will be looking for a second win against Western Washington after their dramatic come-from-behind 3-2 reverse-sweep victory on Oct. 10 in Bellingham (19-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-12).
 
SPU is coming off a tough week in Alaska, falling 3-0 at Anchorage and 3-2 at Fairbanks.
 
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 all the action. The appropriate links are at the top of this story.
 

ABOUT THAT BLOCKING RECORD …
Hannah Hair came into her fifth and final year with the Falcons, she had 471 total blocks. That was 128 away from breaking the GNAC career record – certainly reach since her totals had been going up every year: 90 in just 67 sets as a freshman during the abbreviated pandemic-related spring season, 115 as a sophomore, 106 as a junior, and a whopping 160 last year as a senior.
 
Because the Covid season didn't cost her a year of eligibility, Hair was able to come back this season and already has 127 with five matches to go.
 
When she entered the GNAC in the fall of 2020, the record was Kayleigh Harper's 597, which she had just capped off in 2019. There were a handful of graduated players who were in the 400s,and one (Madi Farrell of Northwest Nazarene) who finished her career in 2017 with 559.
 
But no one was close to catching Harper, and Hair wouldn't even play her first match until February 2021 when teams were allowed to put together independent schedules since the 2020 conference season was canceled.
 
Hair very likely will top the 600 mark, needing just two more blocks to get there. Whatever her final total is, her record is likely to stand for a while.

This was actually Hair's second GNAC blocking record. On Oct. 19 against Saint Martin's, she surpassed the old conference mark of 486 block assists that was set by Northwest Nazarene's Madi Farrell from 2014-17. Hair now has 512.
 
SO WHAT'S THE STORY THIS WEEK?
-- SPU has a four-match home winning streak going, having beaten Western Oregon, Saint Martin's, Central Washington, and Northwest Nazarene during October.
--The Falcons had three players in double-digit kills at Simon Fraser, with 12 from Sydney Perry and 10 each from Erin Smith and Eva LaRochelle.
-- Brooke Dexter of the Red Leafs went off for 23 kills that night.
-- In the match at Western Washington, SPU was two points away from defeat, having lost the first two sets and trailing 23-17 in the third. The Falcons proceeded to run off eight points in a row, the last seven of those with sophomore setter Sophia Chambers on the serve. She finished that set with an ace to force a fourth set.
-- The fourth set was somewhat similar. SPU was down 21-19 when it ran off six in a row, the last five with senior defensive specialist Abigail Cunningham serving. The Falcons took leads of 10-4 and 13-7 in the fifth, saw the Vikings get within 13-12, then closed it out on a WWU service error and an Allison Wilks ace. Perry finished with 14 kills and Hair had 13 plus seven blocks.
-- That was Seattle Pacific's first GNAC regular-season win against Western since Oct. 24, 2013.
-- SPU's 73 kills at Fairbanks was the most since getting 71 in a five-setter against Concordia Irvine on Sept. 8, 2023.
-- The 193 attacks was the most since swinging 191 times in a five-setter against Cal State San Bernardino on Sept. 1, 2022.
-- The Falcons' last match with 70-plus assists was 73 at home in a five-setter against Western Washington on Nov. 9, 2017.
-- Emily Tulino now has double-digit double-doubles for the season, putting her 10th into the book on Saturday at Fairbanks with 61 assists plus 16 digs. That makes it 34 for her career.
-- Coach Jason Rhine is 3-2 all-time vs. Simon Fraser and 1-4 vs. Western Washington.
 
SCOUTING THE SIMON FRASER RED LEAFS: 15-4, 11-1 GNA (1st)
All-time series: SPU leads, 33-21.  Current series streak: Simon won 1.  Last time: Simon 3, SPU 1 (30-28, 16-25, 25-19, 25-20; Oct 12, 2024 at Burnaby, B.C.).  Last SPU series win: SPU 3, Simon 2 (17-25, 25-22, 25-18, 19-25, 15-13; Nov. 2, 2024 at Burnaby).  Red Leafs on the Web.
Red Leafs in a nutshell: Simon Fraser has taken over the top spot in the standings thanks to a still-going nine-match winning streak that started with a 3-1 victory at Western Oregon on Oct. 3. Leading the way, as she has all season, is senior 6-foot-2 opposite Brooke Dexter. She has 272 kills, an average of 4.00 per set, making her the only GNAC player in that lofty territory, She got 23 of those kills against SPU last month, one of her two matches of 20-plus this fall. Her .307 hitting percentage ranks No.6 in the GNAC. The other part of Simon Fraser's powerful front-row duo is junior 6-foot outside hitter Davida Hill. She has 217 kills, a 3.19 average (No. 4 on the conference list), and is No. 9 in hitting at .270. She had 11 kills and 18 digs against SPU in the first match, one of her five double-doubles. Ezawa Malish, a senior 6-foot middle, is Simon's top blocker with 69 / 1.13 per set.
 
SCOUTING THE WESTERN WASHINGTON VIKINGS: 9-9, 8-4 GNAC (4th).
All-time series: WWU leads, 60-27.  Current series streak: SPU won 1.  Last time: SPU 3, WWU 2 (19-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21; 15-12; Oct. 10, 2024 at Bellingham).  Last WWU series win: WWU 3, SPU 1 (21-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-19; Nov. 4, 2023 at Bellingham).  Vikings on the Web.
Vikings in a nutshell: Western Washington comes in on a two-match winning streak, thanks to homecourt victories against Western Oregon and Saint Martin's last week. Junior 6-foot outside hitter Devyn Oestreich leads the team with 157 kills and has a solid .232 hitting percentage. She also has sent a team-leading 31 service aces over the net, and she ranks second on the team with 203 digs. Sophomore 5-11 outside Delaney Speer is close behind with 146 kills. Emily Vossenkuhl, a sophomore 6-1 middle blocker, a .257 hitting mark, and a team-high 64 total blocks (10 solo), a 1.05 per-set average (No. 8 GNAC). Hayli Tri, a redshirt freshman 6-foot middle, ranks No. 9 in GNAC hitting at .276.
 
ANOTHER AWARD FOR HAIR
After breaking the GNAC career blocking record on Saturday in Fairbanks, Hannah Hair was named the GNAC Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.
 
That is her second such award this season and the eight of her career for defense. She has 10 weekly honors overall, counting the two she has won on the offensive side.
 
The fifth-year middle recorded 14 blocks for the week. The 14th of those came midway through the fifth set at Alaska Fairbanks and was the 598 of her career. That broke the old mark of 597 set from 2015-19 by former Western Washington star Kayleigh Harper (See another item about Hair's record farther down in this story.)
 
A GRAND POSSIBILITY
 

Speaking of blocking, Hair and fellow fifth-year middle Allison Wilks have a chance to team up for a rare statistical feat.
 
Hair has 598 career blocks coming into this week, and Wilks has 374. Together, that gives them 972.
 
There are five matches left for the pair to rack up the other 28 needed to put them at a collective 1,000 for their careers.
    
CAREER HIGH WITH ROOM TO SPARE
More often than not, a player sets a career high by a small margin: one or two more kills than ever before, one or two more digs, one or two more aces or blocks. But it all adds up to the same thing: a career high, just like Allison Wilks had last Saturday in Fairbanks with 16 kills. That was one more than her previous best of 15.
 
On the other hand, Emilly Tulino and Coco Barnett absolutely obliterated their previous bests.
 
 

Senior setter Tulino finished with 61 assists. The most she'd ever gotten was 49 and she did that two matches in a row earlier this season: Oct. 17 against Saint Martin's, and Oct. 24 against Central Washington, both in Brougham Pavilion.
 
 

Sophomore opposite Barnett slammed 19 kills. That was more than double her previous high of nine, which she had twice, most recently at Northwest Nazarene on Sept. 26. She got those 19 kills on 38 attacks – just one more than her previous high of 37, which came against Cal Poly Pomona on Sept. 6.
 
Wilks now has pushed past 600 kills for her career (604), and Barnett recorded her 100th kill (112). As for Tulino, it was on Oct 17 – just six matches ago – when she recorded her 2,000th career assist. Since then, se has tacked on 234 more.
 
MARCH TO A MILESTONE
In the making
300th dig      Allison Wilks (has 285)
400th block    Allison Wilks (has 375)
600th assist   Sarah Chambers (has 532)
600th block    Hannah Hair (has 598)
900th kill     Hannah Hair (has 896)
1,000th dig    Abigail Cunningham (has 920)
 
Made last week
100th kill     Eva LaRochelle (has 114)
               Coco Barnett (has 112)
600th kill     Allison Wilks (has 604)
 
FALCONS REPLAY
-- Down 2 sets to 0, SPU was just one point away from forcing a fourth, up 24-20 in Set 3. But Alaska Anchorage then ran off the last six points of the match to close out a 3-0 sweep last Thursday. Scores were 25-19, 25-20, 26-24.
--In a classic back-and-forth, high-intensity, high-quality match, Alaska Fairbanks scored four points in a row to snap a 4-4 tie in the fifth set and went on to beat SPU on Saturday at UAF, 3-2. Scores were 25-23, 23-25, 25-21 19-25, 15-11..
 
AROUND THE WEST
Simon Fraser maintained its tenuous hold on first place in the GNAC with an 11-1 record (13-4 overall), still one game ahead of Central Washington at 10-2 (12-6). Alaska Fairbanks, with its 9-4 conference mark (17-6) still has an outside chance at catching both, and can close some ground this week, as it visits Central in Ellensburg on Saturday.
 
Cal Poly Pomona became the second West Region team to reach the 20-win mark (20-1). The Broncos extended their winning streak to 16 and, at 14-0 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, have a two-game lead on San Francisco State (18-4, 12-2 CCAA). With four matches left, both have clinched spots in the CCAA Tournament. Defending national champion Cal State Los Angeles is 14-7 overall, 9-5 and third in the CCAA.
 
The first West team to get to 20 wins? That would be Chaminade, which is now 21-4 overall, on an 11-match win streak and first in the Pacific West Conference at 14-0. That's half a game ahead of Point Loma Nazarene (19-0, 13-0). Those two clash next Friday, Nov. 15, in San Diego for their only meeting this season. Regardless of who wins it, no one can catch either one of them, as third-place Azusa Pacific is 12-8, 8-5 Pac West.
 
AROUND THE GNAC
Click on this link for the latest news, notes, results, and stats from around the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
UP NEXT
The Falcons play their final two road matches of the season next week, visiting Saint Martin's in Lacey on Thursday, Nov. 14, at 7:00 p.m., followed by a trip to Monmouth on Saturday the 16th to tangle with Western Oregon at 1:00 p.m.
 
 
GNAC STANDINGS
                                                     GNAC        Overall
Simon Fraser             11-1     15-4
Central Washington       10-2     12-6
Alaska Fairbanks          9-4     15-6
Western Washington        8-4      9-9
Alaska Anchorage          7-6     13-10
Seattle Pacific           6-7      6-15
Western Oregon            5-8     13-9
Northwest Nazarene        4-8      7-13
Saint Martin's            3-10     5-16
Montana State Billings    0-13     7-16
 

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