UAA volleyball team wins 9th straight match, marches into regional semifinals

After dispatching Chico State in straight sets Thursday night in the opening round of the NCAA Division II West Region Championships, the UAA volleyball team was subdued in celebration — the Seawolves congratulated the Wildcats and repaired to their locker room at the Alaska Airlines Center.

Once there, freshman right-side hitter Diana Fa'amausili confessed, she and her teammates were not quite so restrained.

"We were going crazy," Fa'amausili reported with a smile.

Makes sense. With the victory, the ninth straight from a team ranked No. 9 in the nation and seeded No. 1 in the eight-team region, the Seawolves (30-2) have advanced as far as any team in program history. They matched last season, when they also served as top-seeded host of the regional and, in the absence of powerful All-America hitter Katelyn Zanders, who suffered a sprained ankle early in the opening match, battled into the semifinals before falling to Cal State San Bernardino.

This time around, senior setter Morgan Hooe said recently, the Seawolves are looking for something more substantial that a plaque that reads "participant."

Thursday's 25-21, 25-18, 25-15 march past the Wildcats delivered the Great Northwest Athletic Conference champions into a Friday semifinal against fellow GNAC member Northwest Nazarene.

The other semifinal pits No. 14-ranked Cal State San Bernardino against No. 16-ranked Western Washington. Western Washington came back from two sets down last year to win the regional title over San Bernardino.

[Get the lowdown on the three other matches in the West Regional on Thursday]

[UAA senior leader Morgan Hooe was just a child when she started absorbing volleyball in the company of her father, Virgil, a legendary Alaska high school coach]

If the Seawolves in the semifinals can match the enthusiasm that two dozen or more girls from Begich Middle School generated in the stands Thursday night, they won't harbor any laments about effort. The Snow Leopards chanted and stomped their feet, sang along to music playing over the public address system, called to the Seawolves by name and all but serenaded their heroes.

Perhaps 10 minutes after the match, the Seawolves returned to the floor, where the girls from Begich surrounded them and posed for pictures.

"They just came rushing in," Fa'amausili said.

After Chico State (23-8) presented UAA ample resistance for the first set and a half, the Seawolves rushed the Wildcats from the tournament. Fa'amausili, voted regional Freshman of the Year by coaches, and All-West Region outside hitter Leah Swiss each furnished 14 kills, and Fa'amausili did it in a tidy 25 attacks. Chrisalyn Johnson added eight kills and Erin Braun furnished four kills and a match-high six block assists. The Seawolves hit at .265 percent, above their .232 entering the evening.

"We were just more efficient," UAA coach Chris Green said of his team's improvement as the match progressed. "Our hitters took care of the volleyball."

Hooe, the GNAC Player of the Year and all-region senior who sports information directors voted the regional Player of the Year, is as reliable as sunrise. She dished 33 assists, which basically matched her average of 10.57 assists per set.

Chico State trailed 11-6 in the first set and rebounded to earn leads at 15-12 and 21-20 before the Seawolves reeled off five straight points to seize the set. Johnson delivered a kill, the Wildcats committed a ball-handling error, Hooe and Braun combined for a block, Johnson and Braun combined for a block and Johnson hammered a set-closing kill. The Wildcats also committed two service errors deep in that set.

"We weren't able to get over that," said Chico State coach Cody Hein.

Chico State senior Torey Thompson, whose 21 assists in the last match of her college career made her the Wildcats' all-time assist leader, said her team couldn't stop the Seawolves from scoring in bunches.

"We let them go on a lot of runs," she said.

Thursday's match was played before a strong crowd of 1,878. In the first round last year, UAA drew a crowd of ,2,627. As Green pointed out, the 2015 first-round match was played on a Friday, so he's hoping for a big crowd in Friday's semifinal to give the Seawolves added inspiration.

"They draw upon the energy and it gets their blood pumping," he said.

Still, he expects Northwest Nazarene (21-7) to be a tough target for UAA, which earlier this season reeled off a school-record, 20-match winning streak. The Seawolves swept the Crusaders in the regular season, winning in four sets in Nampa, Idaho, and again in four sets in Anchorage.

Green leaned on an old coaching saw — it's tough to beat the same team three times in the same season.

Of course, prior to UAA's match Thursday, Green witnessed as much. Northwest Nazarene had been swept twice by Simon Fraser in the GNAC regular season but topped the Clan in four sets Thursday.