Halfway through the conference season, the UAA volleyball team is perfect. And the best may be yet to come.
UAA overcame a slow start and a bad third set to mow down Northwest Nazarene in four sets Saturday in Nampa, Idaho.
The Seawolves pushed their winning streak to 19 with the 25-22, 25-17, 16-25, 25-19 Great Northwest Athletic Conference triumph. It was their first win in Nampa since 2013.
Morgan Hooe, the team's super senior setter, handed out a career-high 56 assists while running an offense that produced 63 kills and five players with eight or more kills.
Chrisalyn Johnson dazzled in the first two sets en route to a match-high 19 kills, Diana Fa'amausili and Leah Swiss added 13 and 12 kills, respectively, and Erin Braun and Vanessa Hayes each had eight to help UAA overcome Northwest Nazarene's big block.
"Those five hitters are doing some nice things," UAA coach Chris Green said. "This was some of the best volleyball we've played against a good team."
Northwest Nazarene (12-5, 5-5), a team Green thinks will be dangerous in the second half of the conference season, outblocked UAA 12-6.
Madi Farrell had one solo block and six block assists to go with 10 kills and Hailey Cook had six block assists to go with 12 digs and 39 assists for the Crusaders. Turning in double-doubles were Kendra Bodine (14 kills, 11 digs) and Mari Thomas (11 kills, 15 digs).
Kyla Militante-Amper's match-high 23 digs led a UAA defense that also included 17 digs from Hooe, 14 apiece from Johnson and Taylor Noga and four block assists from Braun.
Northwest Nazarene started strong, taking a 19-14 lead in the first set before UAA roared back with an 8-1 run.
"We dug ourselves a pretty big hole and we dug ourselves out of it, coming from way down," Green said. "So that says a lot for us. We lose that first game and maybe it's not the same outcome, so that was a huge come-from-behind win. Then to bounce back from that third set says a lot."
UAA hit over .300 in the first two sets but had as many kills as errors — 13 apiece — to lose the third set.
Johnson was unstoppable in the first two sets, getting 10 kills without making an error — impressive for anyone, but especially for Johnson, who has made her share of attack errors this season.
The sophomore outside hitter faltered in the third set, committing nine errors, but like the rest of the Seawolves, she rebounded well in the fourth set to finish with 19 kills against 10 errors and her second straight double-double.
"What she did in Game 1 and 2 is pretty incredible," Green said. "She's getting better and better. You can see those numbers — maybe the errors are still the same, but the kills are going up. She's someone that's still going to improve."
Green thinks that may be true of the whole team, which begins the second half of the GNAC season Thursday against Simon Fraser, the first match in a four-game homestand.
"This team has done a great job — seven newcomers, and Morgan's kinda the glue," Green said. "Hopefully we can keep getting better. I still think there's room for improvement.
"We still have a lot of goals that are a long way away, and we're trying to get better as we pursue them."