Plenty of silver linings, but no victory.
The UAA volleyball team lost its final match of the regular season on Saturday, falling in five sets to Western Washington in a matchup between two nationally ranked Division II teams.
WWU avenged a home-court loss to the Seawolves earlier this season by spoiling Senior Night at the Alaska Airlines Center. Kelsey Moore slammed 23 kills to lead the Vikings to a 23-25, 25-22, 25-23, 13-25, 17-15 victory.
The good news:
-- The best season in school history almost certainly isn't over yet. The 24th-ranked Seawolves (21-5 overall, 15-3 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference) are expected to receive an at-large berth in the eight-team West Region tournament.
-- Outside hitter Katelynn Zanders racked up 14 kills to become the sixth player in school history to record 1,000 or more career kills. Zanders, a junior who graduated from South High, is at 1,009 and counting.
-- A crowd of 1,038 watched the match, marking the fourth time this season attendance surpassed 1,000. On the list of the top 10 best-attended matches in program history, seven are from this season, the school's first in its new arena.
Fans were treated to a match that was close in every set but the fourth, when UAA sailed to a 25-13 win.
But that setback didn't deflate 15th-ranked Western Washington (21-6, 14-4 GNAC), and neither did facing an early 10-7 deficit in the fifth set. The Vikings scored the match's final two points for the win.
The final set was tied 12-12, 13-13, 14-14 and 15-15. Moore's final kill of the night gave WWU a 16-15 lead and Kayla Erickson's eighth kill of the match ended things.
Four Seawolves finished with double-doubles -- Zanders (14 kills, 18 digs), Julia Mackey (14 kills, 20 digs), Brooke Pottle (10 kills, 21 digs) and Morgan Hooe (15 digs, 51 assists).
Pottle was one of three seniors playing their final home match for the Seawolves. The others were Maureen Sabato and Quinn Barker. Barker, the team's libero, came up with 25 digs.
The Seawolves entered the match as the West Region's No. 2-ranked team, trailing only Northwest Nazarene, the GNAC champs. Western Washington was ranked third.
Region rankings determine the at-large berths for the NCAA tournament. Three West Region teams will earn automatic berths for winning conference championships, and the rest of the field will be decided by the rankings.
The tournament field will be announced Sunday.
Barker said the loss won't slow down the Seawolves, who saw a four-match winning streak end.
"This game fuels the fire," she told Denali Media. "We want to come out better and stronger."
Dangerous Seawolves
With 14 kills Saturday, Katelynn Zanders became the sixth player in UAA history to record more than 1,000 career kills.
Jennie Szczerbinski (1988-90, 1992) 1,691
Cheri Knox (1987-90) 1,248
Jackie Matthisen (2009-11) 1,134
Brianne McCabe (1999-2002) 1,024
Sabrina Bingham 1,012
Katelynn Zanders (2012-) 1,009