After suffering a pair of one-point overtime losses on the road last week, the UAA men's basketball team will try to turn things around this week at the Alaska Airlines Center.
It won't be easy.
Among the teams coming to town is Western Washington, which is undefeated in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and ranked 21st in the nation.
The Vikings (13-3 overall, 3-0 GNAC) are here Saturday. On Thursday, UAA faces Simon Fraser (8-8, 2-6), one of two teams that sit below the Seawolves in the GNAC standings. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.
UAA is 3-5 in conference play and 7-9 overall after last week's heartbreakers — a 72-71 loss at Central Washington and a 79-78 loss at Northwest Nazarene.
The Seawolves have lost four straight games by a total of 10 points and have lost five of their last six games, a skid seldom endured by a program that has posted a winning record in 34 of its 40 seasons.
They'll play the rest of the season shorthanded. Gone are two of their three senior transfers from Division I University of the Pacific — Jacob Lampkin and Maleke Haynes.
Lampkin was UAA's leading scorer and rebounder before suffering a season-ending foot injury in December. Haynes, who leads the team in assists with 46 in 12 games, is academically ineligible for the rest of the season, coach Rusty Osborne said this week.
Of the Pacific trio, only D.J. Ursery remains available. A 6-4 guard, his 11.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game lead UAA in both statistical categories.
With a depleted lineup, UAA's younger players are seeing plenty of action. Among them, 6-0 sophomore guard Jack Macdonald last week scored a career-high 17 points against Central Washington and is expected to start this weekend along with freshman guard Brennan Rymer.
The UAA women's team will try to wrap up the first half of the GNAC season with an undefeated record. The Seawolves are 15-1 overall and 8-0 in the GNAC heading into road games at Saint Martin's (5-11,1-7) on Thursday and Seattle Pacific (12-3, 6-2) on Saturday.
Shelby Cloninger is expected to return to the lineup after missing last week's games with an injury.
Cloninger, a 6-0 senior forward, and Hannah Wandersee, a 6-1 junior forward, are the team's leading scorers and rebounders — Cloninger averages 14.1 points and 6.5 rebounds, and Wandersee averages 13.9 points and 6.4 rebounds.
GNAC men's standings
Western Washington 8-0 GNAC, 13-3 overall
Western Oregon 7-1, 15-1
UAF 5-3, 7-7
Saint Martin's 5-4, 12-5
Seattle Pacific 5-4, 10-6
Northwest Nazarene 4-4, 8-6
Montana State-Billings 3-5, 11-8
Central Washington 3-5, 8-7
UAA 3-5, 7-9
Simon Fraser 2-6, 8-8
Concordia 0-8, 4-12
GNAC women's standings
UAA 8-0 GNAC, 15-1 overall
Seattle Pacific 6-2, 12-3
Northwest Nazarene 6-2, 10-3
Montana State-Billings 5-3, 12-6
Concordia 5-4, 11-6
Central Washing ton 4-4, 8-8
Western Oregon 4-5, 8-7
Simon Fraser 3-5, 8-8
Western Washington 3-5, 7-9
Saint Martin's 1-7, 5-11
UAF 0-8, 4-10
Mantha on Hobey Baker list
UAA goaltender Olivier Mantha is one of 74 players nominated for the 2018 Hobey Baker Award, given to the best player in college hockey.
Each school is allowed to nominate up to three players. Then the fans take over — their online votes at hobeybaker.com/vote will help decide the 10 finalists for the award. You can vote anytime between now and March 4.
Mantha, a senior, has been one of the bright spots for the Seawolves, who got their second win of season Saturday to move to 2-16-4 overall and 2-11-3 in the WCHA. The Seawolves play at Bowling Green this weekend.
Mantha has a .908 save percentage, a 3.30 goals-against average and is one of three goalies in Division I with more than 700 saves this season. Mantha has 712 saves in 22 games, Joey Daccord of Arizona State has 726 in 22 games and Paul Berrafato of Holy Cross has 711 in 22 games.
Anchorage's Matt Carle won the 2006 Hobey Baker award while a defenseman for the University of Denver.
Flipping for Fox
Isabelle Fox, who swept the all-around titles in a pair of gymnastics meets last weekend at the Alaska Airlines Center, is the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation's Freshman of the Week.
Fox, who is from Houston, Texas, delivered scores of 38.375 and 38.725 to help the Seawolves vault past Cortland University of New York in both dual meets. She scored a 9.60 or better on seven of eight routines, winning floor exercise both nights with scores of 9.70 and a 9.775.
The Seawolves make their first road trip of the season this weekend for a Friday meet at Lindenwood University of Missouri on Friday and a Sunday meet at Illinois State.
The great indoors
Danielle McCormick of Soldotna opened the indoor track and field season on a good note by winning the 800 meters for the Seawolves at a big meet in Seattle.
McCormick's time of 2 minutes, 11.17 seconds topped a field of Division I and Division II runners at the Washington Indoor Preview at the Dempsey Indoor Center.
In other events, Yvonne Jeschke set a school record in the rarely contested 600 meters (1:38.80), and she and McCormick teamed with Tamara Perez and Vanessa Aniteye to log the fastest time by a DII team in the women's 1,600-meter relay (3:58.8).
The men's 1,600 relay team of Daniel Remington, Darrion Gray, Nicholas Taylor and Liam Lindsay was also best among DII teams with a time of 3:22.58. And Christopher Brake was the top DII man in the high jump (6-08.75 meters) and triple jump (45-05.25).
The Seawolves are back in action Jan. 26-27 at the Husky Invitational in Seattle.
Back to West Yellowstone
The UAA nordic ski team will compete this weekend in the Utah Invitational — which begins this weekend in West Yellowstone, Montana, where the snow is good.
The Seawolves were in West Yellowstone earlier this month for the Montana State Invitational, where sophomore Hailey Swirbul turned in two strong efforts.
Swirbul placed third in the 10-kilometer freestyle and fourth in the 5K classic, her career-best performances in a collegiate meet.
"We were pumped to see Hailey on the podium. She went for the win at the eight-kilometer mark and the women around her were really tough to hang on and were able to outsprint her with some momentum at the end," UAA coach Andrew Kastning said in a press release.
UAA had its best results on the first day of competition, when the women skied the 5K and the men skied a 10K classic. On that day, Zackarias Toresson placed 13th to lead three UAA men into the top 20 — Marcus Deuling was 16th and Toomas Kollo was 19th. Cracking the women's top 20 along with Swirbul were Natalie Hynes, who was eighth, and Sadie Fox, who was 20th.
"Hats off to Natalie Hynes who rushed out here from World Junior qualification races in Canada just a few days ago and finished eighth," Kastning said.
In the 10K freestyle races, Deuling led the men in 11th place. Hynes finished 18th and Jenna DiFolco 20th to join Swirbul in the top 20 of the women's 10K.
Three UAA skiers have qualified for the World Junior Championships. Swirbul and Hannah Rudd qualified for the U.S. team earlier this month at the U.S. Cross Country Championships at Kincaid Park, and Hynes made the Canadian team.