On a dark day for UAA athletics, the Seawolves volleyball team brought some much-needed joy with a sweep of Montana State-Billings in front of 1,122 fans Thursday at the Alaska Airlines Center.
Earlier in the afternoon, University of Alaska president Jim Johnsen announced the elimination of the skiing and indoor track programs at UAA, pending the NCAA's response to a waiver request, in an effort to cut spending amid rising budget cuts.
After the win, the volleyball team gathered for hugs and photos with some of the affected athletes, holding signs that read "Seawolf strong" and "We heart Seawolves."
"All the athletes at UAA are pretty close, so what affects one of them affects all of them," UAA coach Chris Green said. "It was a sad day for some of the student-athletes. We just wanted to show support and appreciation for what they've done for UAA athletics."
On the court, the No. 11 Seawolves played arguably their best match of the season in the 25-16, 25-11, 25-12 win.
UAA (23-2, 13-1 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) recorded its best hitting percentage of the season — .376 — while holding Billings (4-19, 2-11) to a .053 percentage.
Sophomore outside hitter Chrisalyn Johnson led UAA in kills (13) and digs (11) for her sixth straight double-double. Johnson's .345 hitting percentage was also a career-best.
"C.J. is just quick," Green said. "In the back row, C.J. does a very good job defensively. She's always been a pretty good hitter, and tonight she showed some consistency too."
Senior setter Morgan Hooe chipped in her usual six kills, 28 assists and seven digs. Hooe tallied 12 assists and six kills in the first set alone.
The first set was the best of the three for the Yellowjackets. Billings stuck with UAA until the Seawolves reached double figures and started to pull away.
UAA used a kill and two blocks by freshman Diana Fa'amausili — who was tasked with lining up against Billings' best hitter, Ashlynn Ward, for much of the night — to start a 5-0 run.
Ward finished with nine kills on 25 total attacks. Going into the match, she was second in the GNAC in kills per set with 3.61.
"I think she might have been a little intimidated," Green said. "I don't know why they didn't change their lineup … I think our lineup worked out well, where we had our big blocker against their big hitter."
The Seawolves used their first-set momentum to breeze through the next two sets.
Green said he emphasized closing strong, because UAA has struggled with some third-set woes at times this season.
"The thing that I'm most happy about is we came out strong in the third game," he said. "We've had some third-game jitters, and tonight we did not. We came out and actually raised it up a level in that third game after the 10-minute break."
Next week, UAA hits the road for the first time in two weeks with a Nov. 4 match at Concordia (12-8, 8-4) and a Nov. 5 match at Western Oregon (8-12, 5-8).
The eight days between matches gives UAA some time to rest and practice after playing four matches in seven days.
"We have some time to tweak, to fine tune, to maybe go back to some basics," Green said. "We're excited about that. We haven't had a lot of time to practice, because we've been so busy playing."