One of the most crowd-pleasing plays on a day of big plays for the UAA volleyball team came Friday afternoon when freshman Leah Swiss used her soccer skills to kick a ball that was inches from the floor, getting it to a teammate and keeping play alive for the Seawolves.
The Seawolves had a kick all day long. They knocked off two nationally ranked opponents, beating No. 23 Rockhurst in four sets in the afternoon and upending 5th-ranked Nebraska Kearney in three sets in the evening.
The 25-16, 25-17, 25-23 win over Kearney marked the first time since 2010 that UAA had beaten a top-five Division II team. The win moved the team to 3-0 on the season.
All of the victories have come in the SpringHill Suites Invitational at the Alaska Airlines Center. The Seawolves are the only undefeated team heading into the final day of the five-team round-robin tournament, and they wrap up play Saturday at 7:30 p.m. with a match against Cal Poly Pomona.
Katelynn Zanders, the team's senior All-American, racked up 32 kills and 27 digs in the two matches. Against Kearney, she delivered 11 kills and nine digs; against Rockhurst, she was good for 21 kills and 18 digs.
Julia Mackey, another sensational senior, had a combined 28 kills, She was superb against Rockhurst, getting 19 kills on 47 attempts with just two errors for a .362 percentage. Against Kearney, she contributed in numerous ways, finishing with nine kills, seven digs and six block assists.
The Seawolves used a potent block to twice put a lid on their highly regarded opponents. They outblocked Kearney 13-2 and Rockhurst 15-8.
Swiss, a 6-foot redshirt who starred in volleyball and soccer for Dimond High, soared for three solo blocks and four block assists against Rockhurst, and she and teammate Caitlin Hanson combined for a walk-off block to seal the 25-18, 25-22, 16-25, 28-26 win.
Middle blocker Erin Braun racked up nine blocks – one solo block and eight block assists -- against Kearney and had seven block assists against Rockhurst. Setter Morgan Hooe - a 5-foot-7 junior who gave up several inches to nearly everyone across the net -- came up with five in the Rockhurst match.
"The block is huge," Mackey said.. "We're going against bigger teams, bigger hitters, and we have to slow them down.
"We also have to have trust in our defense."
The defense was tested in the Rockhurst match when Sweet left with what UAA coach Chris Green said was her third ankle sprain in two months.
Freshmen Kyla Militante-Amber and Taylor Noga filled in, with Noga – a true freshman from East High – getting her first taste of college volleyball after the injury. She dug out eight balls and Militante-Amber, who played in Thursday's season-opening win over Asuza Pacific and was in Friday's rotation before Sweet's injury, had 16.
Things turned tense once Sweet was gone. Rockhurst led 8-7 before the injury and closed the set on a 17-9 run that forced a fourth set that produced plenty of drama.
"I was concerned," Green said.
But Mackey said the team's energy never faltered.
"We have a small roster so seeing that happen on the court was hard, but how we kept our energy going was so big for our team," she said.
Though UAA jumped to leads of 8-3 and 15-10 in the fourth set, Rockhurst scored four straight points to make it 15-14. And although UAA never fell behind, the score was tied seven times after that, at 18-18, 20-20, 21-21, 23-23, 24-24, 25-25 and 26-26.
Rockhurst denied UAA three times on match point before Swiss and Hanson teamed up for the match-ending block.
"I thought we had the momentum," Rockhurst coach Tracy Rietzke said. "I told them that if we win game four, we can change what happens."
Rietzke, who is in his 28th season at the school in Kansas City, Missouri, has two daughters on the team. One of them, 6-1 junior Morgan Rietzke, led the Hawks with 14 kills and 15 digs.
But UAA boasted the match's biggest hitters in Zanders and Mackey, who combined for 40 kills.
Zanders had a scary moment in the fourth set when, with UAA leading 15-14, she became pale and weak because of an asthma attack that stopped play so she could use an inhaler.
It proved a momentary hiccup for the 5-9 outside hitter, who added three kills down the stretch. She was the workhorse of the team, making 64 attack attempts – 15 more than any other player – and finishing with a .172 attack percentage.
Hooe put up an astonishing 55 assists in the first match and 33 in the second.
In the late match, Militante-Amber's 16 digs led a defense that stifled Kearney, which had 23 attack errors against 34 kills.
SpringHill Suites Invitational
Alaska Airlines Center
Thursday's result
UAA def. Azusa Pacific 22-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-19
Friday's results
Rockhurst def. Cal Poly Pomona 25-12, 25-11, 25-22
Nebraska Kearney def. Azusa Pacific 14-25, 25-17, 25-18, 23-25, 15-11
UAA def. Rockhurst 25-18, 25-22, 16-25, 28-26
Cal Poly Pomona def. Asuza Pacific 21-25, 24-26, 25-20, 28-26, 15-8
UAA def. Nebraska Kearney 25-16, 25-17, 25-23
Saturday's matches
9:30 a.m. -- Azusa Pacific vs. Rockhurst
?11:30 a.m. -- Nebraska Kearney vs. Cal Poly Pomona
5 p.m. -- Nebraska Kearney vs. Rockhurt
7:30 p.m. -- UAA vs. Cal Poly Pomona