UAA Athletics

Seawolves notebook: Volleyball team looks to avenge losses against ranked foes

The UAA volleyball team is playing its best volleyball of the season just in time for two conference matchups against ranked opponents this week.

The unranked Seawolves host No. 25 Central Washington on Thursday and No. 10 Northwest Nazarene on Saturday at the Alaska Airlines Center.

UAA (14-7, 9-3 Great Northwest Athletics Conference) is riding a four-match winning streak with victories over Concordia, Western Oregon, Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin's, all on the road.

On Saturday, the Seawolves beat Saint Martin's in four sets in a match UAA coach Chris Green said featured some of UAA's best play this season. The Seawolves hit .267 as a team while limiting the Saints to a .083 attack percentage.

"That's encouraging and hopefully it built some confidence going into a very tough week against two tough teams — two teams ranked ahead of us in conference standings," Green said.

In their first meetings this season, Central Washington (15-5, 10-2) swept the Seawolves and Northwest Nazarene (19-1, 11-1) beat them in four sets.

Northwest Nazarene shares first place in the GNAC with Western Washington. Central Washington is third and UAA is fourth.

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To beat Central Washington, UAA will have to get past a big block. The Wildcats lead Division II in blocks per set (2.95) behind national leader Sabrina Wheelhouse (1.71). They reeled off 15 blocks in their win over UAA.

"We made them look really good," Green said. "Hopefully we can do a better job of figuring out a way to beat that huge block."

Against NNU, UAA will have to find a way to slow down two big hitters — middle blocker Madi Farrell, who leads the GNAC with a .432 hitting percentage, and outside hitter Kendra Bodine, who leads the conference with 4.40 kills per set.

"NNU has a middle blocker and outside hitter who are both seniors and they are both incredible players," Green said. "We didn't do a very good job of slowing them down the last time we played them."

Green said the Seawolves have shown improvement defensively over the last two weeks. Senior libero Keala Kaio-Perez is fourth in the GNAC with 4.93 digs per set.

"Defensively, Keala has done a great job along with Taylor Noga," Green said. "We are out-digging teams now. Earlier in the year teams that we were playing actually had more digs than we did."

Noga, a junior, said the Seawolves are looking forward to playing at home after spending the last two weeks on the road.

"It's felt like longer, like we've been away for a really long time," Noga said. "It's exciting."

Hockey team hopes to regroup, recover

The first break of the season comes at a good time for a UAA hockey team trying to find consistency, figure out its lineups and get healthy.

The Seawolves (0-5-1) enter their first off-week of the season after dropping two games to in-state rival UAF in Governor's Cup games. The Nanooks downed the Seawolves 6-2 Friday at Sullivan Arena and 3-2 Saturday in Fairbanks.

"That was a pretty disappointing weekend," UAA coach Matt Thomas said. "There was some good play only to come back and have big mistakes cost us."

The Seawolves have used different lineups in each of their first six games and finding a more consistent lineup will be a focus going forward, Thomas said. Of UAA's 30 players, the only one who hasn't played so far is backup goalie Kristian Stead, who was injured before the season began.

Without senior captain Matt Anholt, who went down with a season-ending injury in UAA's first game, the Seawolves have been trying to settle on a top line. Thomas said the front runners are senior wingers Austin Azurdia and Tad Kozun and freshman Xavier Jordan, who leads UAA with three goals and has spent time at center and right wing.

"It's certainly important for us to start finding chemistry within our lineup," Thomas said. "That's going to be a goal for us going into this (next) segment."

Thomas said the break should allow UAA to get healthy. Senior defenseman Jarrett Brown, junior winger Cam Amantea, junior winger Nils Rygaard and Azurdia all missed practice Tuesday with minor injuries but are expected to be OK for UAA's next game.

The Seawolves will be back in action Nov. 4 for their Western Collegiate Hockey Association opener at Lake Superior State (1-3-2 overall, 0-1-1 WCHA).

Kurgat receives another national honor

For the third time this season, UAA runner Caroline Kurgat's was named the U.S Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Athlete of the Week.

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The senior from Eldoret, Kenya, received the honor Monday after running to a Great Northwest Athletic Conference individual championship Saturday in Bellingham, Washington.

She covered the 6-kilometer course in 20 minutes, 49.42 seconds and was nearly a minute faster than the next fastest runner. She led the UAA women to their third straight conference team title.

Next up are the West Region championships Nov. 4 in Monmouth, Oregon.

Men’s basketball team takes on the alumni

Fans will get their first chance to see the men's basketball team's 12 newcomers Saturday when the Seawolves take on an alumni team at 1:30 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center.

"That will give us a chance to play for the first time and have referees out there and see where we're at," coach Rusty Osborne said. "We're excited for the pieces we've put together and the potential we have, but right now that's all it is is potential."

VOLLEYBALL

GNAC volleyball standings

Team                                GNAC    Overall

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Northwest Nazarene     11-1       19-1

Western Washington     11-1       17-3

Central Washington       10-2       15-5

UAA                                    9-3         14-7

Simon Fraser                    6-6         9-11

Seattle Pacific                   5-7         10-10

Concordia                          4-8         9-10

UAF                                     3-9         10-11

Saint Martin's                   3-9         8-12

Western Oregon               2-10      6-13

Montana State Billings    2-10      6-15

Last week

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UAA def. Seattle Pacific 25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-6.

UAA def. Saint Martin's 19-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-17.

This week

Thursday — UAA vs. Central Washington, 7 p.m., Alaska Airlines Center

Saturday — UAA vs. Northwest Nazarene, 7 p.m., Alaska Airlines Center

HOCKEY

Last week

UAF 6, UAA 2 (nonconference)

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UAF 3, UAA 2 (nonconference)

This week

No games

MEN'S BASKETBALL

Saturday — UAA vs. Alumni, 1:30 p.m., Alaska Airlines Center.

Stephan Wiebe

Stephan Wiebe writes about all things Alaska sports.

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