A sweep of previously undefeated Saint Martin's in 12th-ranked UAA's conference opener catapulted the Seawolves to their 10th straight victory Friday at the Alaska Airlines Center.
UAA defeated the Saints 25-16, 25-20, 25-20 in front of more than 1,100 fans in UAA's first Great Northwest Athletic Conference match of the season.
Leah Swiss smashed nine kills, Morgan Hooe supplied 24 assists and the Seawolves (11-1, 1-0 GNAC) held the Saints (4-1, 0-1 GNAC) to a .073 hitting percentage.
Despite the dominant win, UAA coach Chris Green wasn't happy with his team's play in the second two sets.
"I thought we came out pretty strong in game one," Green said. "Then we got sloppy and didn't execute like we should have in games two and three. So we weren't satisfied with our play overall."
The Seawolves were haunted by a handful of communication errors on defense and poor hitting on offense. UAA, which has hit better than .300 on occasion this season, posted a .194 hitting percentage.
"This is our 12th match," Green said. "We need to be better than this. We need to be consistently good and tonight was not good.
"One out of three isn't good enough. In GNAC, we need to be good all the time."
Where UAA was good was at the net. The Seawolves finished with 14 blocks compared to three for the Saints.
Senior middle blocker Erin Braun was in on six blocks and freshman middle blocker Vanessa Hayes stuffed five attack attempts.
"That front-row defense of ours was a bright spot throughout the match," Green said.
The Seawolves recorded six of their 10 services aces in the first set. After surrendering the first two points, they rocketed to a 10-5 lead and cruised to the end.
In the second set, the teams fought through a stretch in the middle where neither side led by more than one point as the score went from 5-4 to 15-14.
The Seawolves finally stretched their lead to two points on an Saint Martin's error and eventually gained a three-point lead, 21-18, on a Taylor Noga ace. They closed it out from there.
The third set was similar — close in the middle with UAA leading by a handful of points by the end.
Kyla Militante-Amper led UAA's defense with 18 digs. The Saints were led by Megan Vernoy (9 kills) and Cassidy Apo (16 digs).
The Seawolves have a quick turnaround for their next match — something they're used thanks to an ambitious early season schedule that had them play twice in one day in two different tournaments. UAA returns to the court Saturday for a 7 p.m. showdown against Seattle Pacific (4-5, 0-1).
"After the tournaments we've been having, this is kind of a break," Braun said. "So I'm fine with it. I'm ready to get out and play again."