The UAA volleyball team served up more drama while running its winning streak to six Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
The Seawolves missed a chance to score match point in the fourth set and had to go to a fifth set before claiming a 25-13, 23-25, 25-22, 27-29, 15-6 victory over Northwest Nazarene.
It was the second time in as many Great Northwest Athletic Conference matches that UAA (7-3 overall, 2-0 GNAC) needed five sets.
Freshman Sarah Johnson had a monster match, racking up 18 kills, 17 digs and assisting on a pair of blocks.
The Seawolves dominated at the net, getting three solo blocks from freshman Katelynn Zanders and one solo bloack and six block assists from sophomore Maureen Sabado. UAA blocked the Crusaders 13 times without a single blocking error while holding Northwest to a .065 attack percentage.
Both teams played tenaciously, with UAA piling up 73 digs (including 18 from junior Siobhan Johansen and 15 from senior Nikkie Viotto) and Northwest getting 74 (including 25 from Linnea Phillips).
UAA dominated the first and fifth sets while the middle three were filled with lead changes. In the fourth set, the Crusaders served for set point four times before finally pulling out the 29-27 win to force a fifth set.
The match was the 11th straight on the road for Northwest Nazarene (7-4, 1-1), which will finally play a home match next weekend in Nampa, Idaho.
The Seawolves shined in their first set, hitting .393 as a team and making only one attack error.
They finished with four players in double figures for kills -- Johnson, who had one error on 44 attempts for a .341 attack percentage; junior Jodi Huddleston (14), freshman Julia Mackey (11) and Zanders (10).
Kimya Jafroudi, the team's senior setter, put up 51 assists, served five aces, had three block assists and came up with nine digs. She was a force at the service line, getting three aces in the first set and getting another while the first six points of the final set to help UAA race to a 6-0 lead.
UAA hits the road this week for GNAC matches against Western Oregon and Saint Martin's.
Bingham in record book
Sabrina Bingham, a former player for UAA and Chugiak, became the winningest volleyball coach in the Hardin-Simmons University earlier this season.
Bingham surpassed Kim Vinson's 116 victories by guiding the Cowgirls to a 4-0 record in a season-opening tournament earlier this month to raise her win total to 118. Hardin-Simmons is now 8-4 this season, giving Bingham 122 wins.
Bingham remains one of the deadliest hitters in UAA history, piling up 1,012 kills for the Seawolves from 1996-99.
Anchorage Daily News