Anchorage Daily News

This year in college volleyball, 25 is the new 30. Instead of needing 30 points to win a set, a team only needs to score 25.

The shorter game means mistakes go a long way. A couple out-of-bounds serves, a few hitting errors, a line violation or two, and suddenly a set is lost.

The Seawolves learned that the hard way Thursday in a 25-17, 25-16, 25-22 season-opening loss to 13th-ranked Central Missouri at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

"That's the game now," Central Missouri coach Peggy Martin said. "You have to minimize errors."

Mistakes doomed UAA in the first two sets, when the Seawolves tallied more hitting errors (19) than kills (15). Each of those mistakes meant an easy point for Central Missouri, which played comparatively error-free, notching 23 kills and 9 hitting errors in the first two sets.

"You can't give any points away with your own errors," UAA setter Calli Scott said. "I think that's what we learned in those first two games. It was really all our errors."

The Seawolves cut down on their mistakes in the final set, finishing with 14 kills and three hitting errors and twice enjoying small scoring streaks. They even threatened to extend the match to a fourth set by fending off match-point four times.

"I thought we got better as the match went along," first-year UAA coach Chris Green said. "The first and second games we had too many hitting errors. If we eliminated some errors, we might be playing a game four right now."

The match kicked off a busy weekend for both teams. UAA (0-1) plays this morning at 11 in the first match of the Extended Stay Deluxe Invitational at the Sports Complex, while Central Missouri (1-0) heads to Fairbanks for two matches with the Nanooks.

The trip to Alaska is part of Martin's swan song as the coach of Central Missouri. Martin, a 57-year-old who is retiring this year after 33 seasons with the Jennies, has a record that any coach at any level would salivate to duplicate: 1,036 wins, 271 losses and, oddly enough, eight ties.

The winningest volleyball coach in NCAA Division II history, Martin boasts 29 consecutive seasons with 25 or more victories. This year's team will try to send her off with a 30th.

It's a young team -- the Jennies started three freshmen Thursday, only one of them a redshirt -- but it showed promise against the Seawolves.

"We graduated five seniors last year from one of my best classes ever, and for these girls to come and take their places, you've gotta have a stable. You have to have those horses in the stable to replace people year after year," said Martin, who said part of the program's continuity comes from recruiting high school players instead of depending on junior college transfers.

Allie Huffman, one of Central Missouri's freshman starters, racked up 14 kills with one hitting error, and Rachel Fister, a sophomore, had 10 kills with two errors. For the match, the Jennies finished with an impressive .248 hitting percentage.

Rachel Kidwell (8 kills), Rhea Cardwell (7 kills) and Cortney Lundberg (6 kills, 2 solo blocks) led the Seawolves, who have a chance to get seasoned in a hurry -- they have two matches today and two on Saturday for a total of five in three days.

If they can carry the way they played in Thursday's final game into this weekend's tournament, they could pick up a victory before long.

"We need to see the third game every game," Scott said. "We plan to be 4-1 on Monday."

Find sports editor Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

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