Sports

UAA spikers sweep Falcons to win another battle of unbeatens

The new Alaska Airlines Center is turning into an arena of anguish for visiting volleyball teams.

For the second time in two matches, an undefeated conference opponent came to the arena for a match against the Seawolves and left with a loss.

Monday night it was Seattle Pacific's turn to surrender its undefeated status in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. UAA swept the Falcons 25-18, 25-16, 25-20 to claim first place in the 10-team league.

A crowd of 750 saw the Seawolves move to 10-2 overall and 4-0 in the GNAC with their four straight conference win in seven days. Because the NCAA Division II volleyball season is one week shorter than usual this season, the GNAC is cramming three weeks of action into two weeks, and the Seawolves have been more than up to the challenge.

"It's worked out well for us," UAA coach Chris Green said. "We've missed a lot of class time, but we feel pretty fortunate and lucky to be 4-0 at this point."

The Seawolves didn't need any lucky breaks against Seattle Pacific (9-3, 3-1). They served 11 aces, five by Katelynn Zanders, and displayed a balanced attack that produced 43 kills to the Falcons' 29. Plus they neutralized Seattle Pacific middle blocker Madi Cavell, a 6-foot senior who blasted 29 kills in a match last week but was limited to nine Monday, including four in the first two sets.

"Every time she came in the front row, we said 'watch her,' '' UAA setter Morgan Hooe. "We wanted to stop her, and we knew if we could, we could take control."

ADVERTISEMENT

Helping the cause were all of those aces.

"The main thing that kept her from getting her offense going was our serving," Green said. "They like to set her a fast set, but when they can't pass, they can't do that."

Zanders, a junior All-American from South High, tallied 11 kills and six digs to go with her aces and Julia Mackey, a junior outside hitter from West Valley, contributed 10 kills, seven digs and two aces. Hooe, a sophomore from South, distributed 35 assists to six players and added eight digs; Quinn Barker came up with 15 digs, some of them spectacular, and put up five assists; and Erin Braun, a 6-0 sophomore from California, had a perfect hitting night — eight kills on eight attack attempts.

But the match's lasting — and last — impression was made by senior Brooke Pottle.

Pottle, a senior from Arizona, and freshman Leah Swiss shared time, with Pottle playing in the back row and rotating out of the lineup so Swiss, a 6-0 high school All-American last season for Dimond High, could play front row.

But when Swiss made a couple of hitting errors late in the third set during a stretch when Seattle Pacific rallied from a 19-13 deficit to come within a point of the Seawolves, 20-19, Pottle came off the bench to replace her in the front row.

Playing on the left side, Hooe immediately set the ball to Pottle, who slammed the ball through the Seattle Pacific block for a 21-19 UAA lead. Mackey followed with an ace and then Pottle came through with two consecutive kills on assists by Barker to put UAA at match point.

"She has great ball control, and she was able to use the block," Green said. "She did a great job up there."

Hooe said she didn't hesitate to set the ball to Pottle.

"I knew I could trust her immediately," she said.

Also providing a big-time spark for the Seawolves was Zanders, who overcame a few early hitting errors to finish with a .364 attack percentage. She supplied four kills to help UAA close the first set with an 8-0 run, and she served three straight aces early in the second set to help UAA to a 6-3 lead.

The Seawolves leave town Wednesday for a Thursday match in Idaho against Northwest Nazarene and a Saturday night match against Central Washington. By the end of Saturday, they will have played 14 matches in 22 days in six different locations — in order, California; Bellingham, Washington; British Columbia; Anchorage; Idaho and Ellensburg, Washington. After this week, things slow to a two-matches-per-week pace.

"The past three weeks have been super-hectic," Hooe said. "But we all love the games."

This story has been changed from its original version, which stated UAA was the only remaining GNAC team without a loss as of Sept. 22. Northwest Nazarene was also undefeated in conference play at the time of UAA's win over Seattle Pacific.

ADVERTISEMENT