The UAA volleyball team attracted another record crowd Saturday night, and the Seawolves gave fans what they came for – a victory.
Two nights after losing for the first time at home this season, the Seawolves rebounded with an authoritative win over Simon Fraser.
Fueled by a historic hitting night from Julia Mackey, UAA trounced the Clan 25-15, 25-9, 25-23 in front of a crowd of 1,837 at the Alaska Airlines Center.
The win moved the 10th-ranked Seawolves to 8-2 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and 16-2 overall. It came after a wrenching loss to nationally ranked Western Washington in a Thursday match that went five sets in front of a then-record crowd of 1,748.
Mackey, a senior outside hitter from Fairbanks, racked up a match-high 13 kills to become the seventh player in UAA history to surpass the 1,000-kill mark. She has 1,001.
"I think we played well, especially after losing a tough, heartbreaking match on Thursday night," UAA coach Chris Green said. "And the players responded well, so I'm very proud of them coming out and getting a good win tonight.
Six players contributed to at least one block for the Seawolves. Middle hitters Caitlin Hanson and Erin Braun led the way, with Hanson getting a hand on four and Braun contributing to five, including one solo block. Mackey and Katelynn Zanders each had three, with Zanders getting one on her own.
"I think we knew what they were going to do each rotation and they didn't fool us. I think that helped our block do a really good job of slowly them down and frustrating them," Green said.
".. They're a good ball control team. They passed our serves pretty well, and our block had to slow them down – not necessarily stuff blocks, but we slowed a lot of balls down to where we had an easy dig in the back row, and that was key."
UAA outdug Simon Fraser (9-9 overall, 5-5 GNAC) 62-45. Taylor Noga had a match-high 19 digs, Zanders added 17 and Morgan Hooe 10.
Hanson was part of an offensive attack that finished with a .237 hitting percentage. She had eight kills and no errors on 12 attempts to post a .667 attack percentage.
Mackey supplied a match-high 13 kills (3 errors, 27 attempts, .370 percentage) and Braun, Zanders, Hooe and Leah Swiss all had at least five kills.
Tessa May's seven kills and Alison McKay's 10 digs led Simon Fraser.
The match marked the halfway point of the GNAC season. The Seawolves begin the second half on Tuesday when they return to the Alaska Airlines Center for their third match in six days.
The chances for another big crowd are good. Coming down from Fairbanks for the match are the rival Nanooks of UAF.