Junior outside hitter Leah Swiss is far from a one-trick pony, and her multi-faceted excellence Saturday night spearheaded the UAA volleyball team to a four-set victory at Montana State-Billings that marked Seawolves coach Chris Green's 200th win at the school and extended two school-record road streaks.
The Seawolves, ranked No. 18 in Division II, picked up their third road win this week with their 25-11, 25-22, 23-25, 25-9 victory, and improved to 7-4 overall and 2-0 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. They won Tuesday night at UAF and Friday at Rocky Mountain College in Billings.
UAA has won 18 consecutive GNAC road matches.
Swiss bombed 12 kills, with one attacking error, for strong .344 efficiency. She also delivered 10 digs, four aces and three block assists. Little wonder GNAC coaches voted the Dimond graduate the circuit's preseason Player of the Year pick. Swiss on Saturday moved into the No. 8 spot on UAA's all-time list for career aces (112) and No. 10 for career kills (884).
Meanwhile, Green, last season's Division II national Coach of the Year, raised his record in 10 seasons guiding the Seawolves to 200-76 (.725 winning percentage). He credited strong players, administrative support, strong fan support and a great facility in the Alaska Airlines Center on campus.
"It's not just me, obviously," Green said by cellphone, jokingly noting his players seemed fine after the match with taking credit for his success.
Diana Fa'amausili sparked UAA with a match high-tying 13 kills and .320 hitting percentage. Tara Melton provided five kills and seven block assists, Vanessa Hayes added five kills and three block assists, and Chrisalyn Johnson furnished nine kills and three block assists. Keala Kaio-Perez's 17 digs led five Seawolves in double digits in that defensive category.
Bayli Monck led the Yellowjackets (5-5, 1-1 GNAC) with 13 kills and Izela Alvarez notched a match-high 19 digs.
The match featured lopsided advantages. UAA owned leads of 10-1 and 17-4 in the first set and leads of 8-1 and 16-6 in the fourth set. Billings owned a 12-5 lead in the third set — "Some really bad volleyball," Green called it — and won despite a negative hitting percentage.
Still, Green said, strong serving throughout and particularly strong blocking in the final set sustained the Seawolves.
"Our serving — we have some pretty good ones and (Billings) had some trouble returning serves," Green said. "And that really helped us in games one and four. This is kind of our M.0. — we've been up and down this season.
"I'd like to see a little more consistency. I know every coach says that."