The UAA volleyball team remains one of two undefeated teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference after breezing past Seattle Pacific on Saturday afternoon.
It was the fourth straight win for the Seawolves, who will get a stern test next week when they hit the road for conference matches against nationally ranked Western Washington and Simon Fraser.
UAA’s blockers and hitters got the job done in the 25-20, 25-20, 25-12 win over the Falcons at the Alaska Airlines Center.
The Seawolves totaled eight blocks and posted a .357 attack percentage. Vera Pluharova, Ellen Floyd and Akor Maywin each had one solo block and two block assists to spearhead the defense at the net, and Lisa Jaunet pounded 10 kills on 18 attack attempts to power the offense.
“We were very efficient offensively and found a way around their big blockers,” UAA coach Chris Green said in a press release from the school. “The big reason that the offensive was able to have so much success is because of it was our best passing effort of the season so far.”
UAA forged a 8-1 block advantage and had a scant four hitting errors against 27 by Seattle Pacific. Maywin had five kills on eight swings with no errors (.625 attack percentage), Mahala Kaapuni had seven on 14 swings with one error (.429) and Eve Stephens had seven on 23 swings with one error (.261). Stephens added seven digs, two block assists and two aces.
The Seawolves, who defeated Montana State Billings in three sets on Thursday, improved to 11-5 overall and 4-0 in the GNAC. The only other undefeated team in the conference is UAF, which faces the same tough road trip as UAA in the coming days.
Ellen Floyd handed out 26 assists and Talia Leauanae had a match-high 12 digs for the Seawolves. Seattle Pacific (6-5, 2-2) got 14 kills from Erin Gould but hit a poor .096 as a team.