UAA gets a jump on the rest of the college volleyball world, or at least most of it, when it opens the season Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
A new NCAA Division II volleyball rule in place this season reduced the length of the season by one week, pushing the start date to the first weekend of September instead of the last weekend in August.
But because Drury University of Springfield, Mo., signed a contract with UAA a year ago -- before the new rule was adopted -- agreeing to play in Anchorage this weekend, the matches will go on as planned.
"Everyone else in the country, or least most everyone else in the country, will not be playing until (next weekend)," UAA coach Chris Green said. "We're one of the few teams playing this weekend."
Thursday night's match marks the first time in two decades the Seawolves carry a national ranking into a season opener. They're ranked 24th among the country's D-II teams, a spot that's a nod to last season's 23-8 record and the fact that four starters are back.
It's been a long time since the Seawolves opened a season with the rest of the D-II volleyball world thinking so highly of them -- it was 1991 the last time a season opened with UAA in the national rankings.
But UAA is a different team -- a different program, really -- since Green became the head coach in 2008. Last season's West Region coach of the year, he needed less than two seasons to turn the Seawolves from cellar-dwellers to title contenders.
The transformation happened in part because Green recruited a first-rate setter in Calli Scott, who capped her senior campaign last season by winning UAA's Athlete of the Year award.
Green's next trick will be replacing her, and he's looking at three players who could win, or wind up sharing, the setter position.
Freshman Siobhan Johansen, sophomore transfer Adriana Aukustino and junior transfer Maddie Ogden will all get court time Thursday night, said Green, who for at least now is likely to use a 6-2 offense that rotates two setters in and out of the lineup. With Scott, he used a 5-1 offense that uses a single setter.
"The disadvantage with a 6-2 is you're using two different setters so the ball is not necessarily the same coming out of the setter's hand," he said. "The advantage is you have three hitters in the front all the time, because the setter's always in the back row."
Finding hitters should be no problem for the new setters. Among UAA's four returning starters are a pair of hitters who earned all-conference honors last season in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference -- 5-foot-11 outside hitter Jackie Mattisen, a first-team pick, and 6-1 middle blocker Cortney Lundberg, a second-team pick.
McKenzie Moss, a 5-11 outside hitter, also returns as a starter, as does defensive specialist Nikkie Viotto.
UAA plays Drury twice this week, but there are three straight days of action at the Sports Complex. UAF is coming to town too, and will play Drury at 7 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, Drury plays UAF at 1 p.m. and UAA at 6 p.m.
UAA and UAF don't meet until the GNAC season begins early next month.
The Seawolves are picked to finish second in the GNAC, behind perennial powerhouse Western Washington -- which, curiously, isn't in the national rankings with UAA but is picked to finish higher than the Seawolves in league play. But Green didn't take issue with the preseason picks.
"I really thought Western Washington would be (the No. 1 pick)," he said. "Western Washington has a great tradition and everyone returning from last year."
Last season, UAA was picked to finish seventh in the nine-team GNAC and instead claimed the league title en route to its first postseason appearance in 19 years.
Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4335.
By BETH BRAGG
bbragg@adn.com