Two big comebacks in two marathon sets added up to an 18th straight victory for the 8th-ranked UAA volleyball team Thursday night.
In a game too close to be summarized with the word "sweep," the Seawolves escaped Central Washington with a three-set victory in Ellensburg, Washington.
UAA won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference match 25-19, 31-29, 31-29. The Seawolves erased a 17-10 deficit in the second set and a 19-14 deficit in the third set.
The dramatic win showcased huge performances from a pair of Dimond High alums. Chrisalyn Johnson shook off early hitting errors to rack up a career-high 20 kills and 15 digs, and Leah Swiss piled up 16 kills and 18 digs. The two attacked the ball a combined 88 times.
"Crazy," UAA coach Chris Green said of the marathon second and third sets. "Both games we dug ourselves a pretty deep hole. They stayed pretty cool and got the job done. On the court there was not much panic."
Central Washington (10-7 overall, 6-3 GNAC) put up a formidable block that led to many of UAA's 28 hitting errors.
Johnson especially struggled early, making six attack errors through the first set and the first part of the second set.
But she kept swinging and was on fire by the end of the second set. She had three kills in a 3-1 run by UAA that tied it 24-24, including a booming kill that denied the Wildcats on set point.
"C.J. did a good job of keeping her calm," Green said.
A kill by Swiss gave UAA its first lead in ages, 27-26, but the set was tied three more times — at 27, 28 and 29 — before UAA scored consecutive points on a kill by Johnson and a carry by Central Washington.
In the third set, UAA trailed 19-14 before storming back to tie it 20-20. The set was tied eight more times before the Seawolves ended it with consecutive kills by Johnson.
UAA (19-1, 9-0) had an astonishing 63-30 kill advantage. Morgan Hooe handed out 52 assists and added six kills, making no errors on 12 attack attempts, Diana Fa'amausili added 10 kills and Erin Braun nine.
But Central Washington stayed in the match with 15 blocks to UAA's seven and six aces to UAA's zero. The Seawolves hurt themselves with 10 serving errors.
"They are the No. 1 team in the country in blocking, and they showed why tonight," Green said.
The Wildcats entered the match averaging 2.8 blocks a set but did even better against UAA, getting an average of five per set. Sabrina Wheelhouse had a hand in 10 blocks and Jordan Deming had one solo block and six block assists.
Yet Green was happy with how the Seawolves responded to the big block.
"We did a great job continuing to swing away and not be scared of it," he said. "We watched film of past teams (against Central Washington) and they tried to tip, tried to roll, tried to stay away from the block, whereas we kind of challenged it.
"Our hitters were aggressive, and that's why we won."
Even when the second and third sets went into volleyball's version of overtime, UAA's hitters didn't wilt. The last time UAA was in a similar situation – in an August loss to Chaminade that is the team's only blemish – the hitters didn't stay aggressive, Green said.
"We were in overtime and we wimped out, and we got on them for doing exactly that. They kept balls in play instead of being aggressive," he said.
"This time when we got past 25 we did not wimp out. We kept swinging."