After missing two matches with an injury, Eve Stephens didn’t miss a beat Saturday when she returned to action for the UAA volleyball team.
Stephens, a sophomore from Palmer, smashed 22 kills and added 12 digs and five blocks to guide the Seawolves to a four-set victory over Simon Fraser in Burnaby, British Columbia.
With the 25-20, 25-23, 22-25, 25-16 win, the Seawolves locked down second place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. And with two matches remaining in the regular season, they still have a shot at first place – league-leading Western Washington is 16-2 and UAA is 15-3, and if there’s a tie, UAA would win the tiebreaker.
The win capped a strong week for the Seawolves, who on Thursday ended Western Washington’s 39-match home-court winning streak in a five-set thriller.
Simon Fraser (16-10 overall, 12-6 GNAC) crafted late leads in each of the first two sets, but UAA came back both times.
“It’s terrific to have Eve come back with such a dominant offensive performance,” UAA coach Chris Green said in a press release from the school. “This should give us a lot of confidence going into our last home matches next week.”
The Seawolves got good all-around play from sophomore Ellen Floyd (48 assists, 15 digs, 5 blocks, 5 kills) while improving to 20-6 overall.
Vanessa Hayes posted 13 kills, Jalisa Ingram – who emerged as a force during Stephens’ absence – was good for six blocks and seven kills, and Anjoilyn Vreeland and Talia Leauanae each added double-figure digs for the Seawolves.
Stephens, the GNAC kill leader, registered a .408 attack perentage, getting her 22 kills on 49 attempts with only two errors. Ingram had zero errors and seven kills on 12 attempts for a .583 percentage.
UAA plays its final two regular-season matches at the Alaska Airlines Center, where the Seawolves will host Saint Martin’s on Thursday and Seattle Pacific on Saturday.