UAA volleyball coach Chris Green has a masters degree in math, but even he can't keep up with all of the numbers that are adding up to the best season in school history.
Good thing sophomore Kayla McGlathery is on top of things.
McGlathery and Katelynn Zanders both reached double figures in kills Thursday in UAA's four-set victory over Simon Fraser, with Zanders delivering a match-high 17 that puts her on the threshhold of 1,000 career kills.
Asked if the team is aware how close Zanders is to the milestone, Green looked clueless, but McGlathery shouted the answer like a star pupil.
"Five!" she said.
Zanders, an outside hitter from South High with 995 career kills, gets a chance to become the sixth UAA player in history to hit 1,000 on Saturday, when UAA hosts Western Washington in a match between two nationally ranked NCAA Division II teams. Only five players in program history have more kills than Zanders, and she's only a junior.
UAA (21-4 overall, 15-2 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) is ranked 24th in the nation and, more critically, second in the West Region; Western Washington (20-6, 13-4 after a Thursday win over UAF in Fairbanks) is 15th nationally and third in the region. The match is the last one of the regular season, and a win would make the Seawolves the higher seed at next week's NCAA playoffs, where region rankings determine seedings, not national rankings..
"We're all nervous," McGlathery said of the big match, "but nerves are good."
McGlathery racked up 12 kills, a .435 attack percentage (only two errors on 23 attacks) and four blocks in Thursday's 25-13, 25-20, 25-23, 25-17 win over Simon Fraser, which went meekly in the first set but put up a fight in the next three.
Simon Fraser (16-9, 10-7) trailed the second set 20-18 before UAA finished strong, it won the third set behind Kelsey Robinson's six kills and Jessica Young's five, and it led the fourth set 22-19 before UAA finished with a 6-1 run. Robinson finished with 12 kills and Madeline Hold added 10.
"They were bouncing balls in front of our defense," Green said. "They found the seam in our block."
And yet the Seawolves won every statistical category. Kills: 55-42. Digs: 69-61. Blocks: 9-4. Aces: 8-1. Attack percentage: .287 to .138, including a red-hot .414 in the first set, when Simon Fraser hit just .034.
"We came out and were on fire," McGlathery said. "We got our stuff done."
Which has been the case most of this season. UAA is guaranteed to set a school record for winning percentage -- the Seawolves are .840 right now, and even if they don't win again, the worst they can finish is .777, which would beat the .742 winning percentage recorded by the 1986 and 2009 teams.
The lastest victory included nine kills from Erin Braun, seven kills and nine digs from Julia Mackey, 20 digs from Quinn Barker, 38 assists and 13 digs from Morgan Hooe and three aces from Sarah Johnson.
Sophomore Caitlin McInerney had five kills and two blocks -- one of them a solo block -- when she went down in the fourth set with an ankle injury. She was taken to the hospital for X-rays, said Green. McInerney plays middle blocker and outside hitter, positions where the Seawolves are deep.
"One thing we have this year that wouldn't have had in years past is depth," Green said. "And thank goodness for that."
McGlathery said McInerney's injury is just one more thing that can fuel the Seawolves in Saturday's showdown against Western Washington.
"We gotta win for her," McGlathery said.