Tuesday, September 30, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. –     Simon Fraser and Montana State Billings had historic victories and Northwest Nazarene maintained its winning way last week as GNAC teams reached the one-third mark of the 2014 conference season.

The Clan earned back-to-back conference road wins for the first time since joining the GNAC in 2010, defeating Montana State Billings and Seattle Pacific.  The win at Brougham Pavilion was its first in 14 contests with the Falcons.

MSU Billings bounced back from its home loss to Simon Fraser to defeat Western Washington and end a 17-match losing streak to the Vikings.  

Northwest Nazarene, meanwhile, ran its win streak to 11 with wins at Saint Martin’s and at home against Alaska Anchorage and Alaska.  The Crusaders have lost just one set in their five conference victories.

NNU (12-1, 5-0) travels to Simon Fraser (9-4, 3-2) and Western Washington (10-4, 3-2)  this Thursday and Saturday, hoping to hold on to its one-half match lead over second-place Alaska Anchorage (11-3, 5-1) in the conference race.

The NNU-SFU contest is one of four matches on Thursday’s schedule.  Central Washington (10-3, 3-2) visits Western Washington, Western Oregon (2-11, 0-5) visits Alaska (0-14, 0-6) and UAA hosts Saint Martin’s (4-12, 1-4).

The NNU at WWU match will highlight Saturday’s schedule.  Elsewhere Central Washington will visit Simon Fraser, Saint Martin’s plays at Alaska, Western Oregon visits Alaska Anchorage and Seattle Pacific (9-5, 3-3) plays at Montana State Billings (9-5, 4-2).

Western Washington (11th), Central Washington (18th) and Northwest Nazarene (19th) all begin the week nationally ranked in the AVCA poll.  Alaska Anchorage is among “others receiving votes” and is 27th overall.

NNU is also ranked in the NCAA Top 10 in two team defensive statistical categories.  The Crusaders are No. 1 in blocks per set, averaging 2.60 and sixth in digs per set (19.79).

WWU, led by national individual leader Samantha Hutchinson (7.31 digs per set), ranks seventh nationally in  digs (19.43).

Two Northwest Nazarene players are ranked individually in the Top 20.  Taylor Roberts ranks eighth in digs (6.06) and Andrea Terpstra ranks 13^th in blocks (1.27).

Madi Cavell of Seattle Pacific ranks 19^th in kills (4.06).

In the GNAC, Northwest Nazarene is the conference leader in five of the seven major categories ranking first in hitting percentage (.225), kills (13.57), assists (12.49), blocks (2.60) and digs (19.79).

Simon Fraser leads in opponent hitting percentage (.151) and Seattle Pacific is the leader in service aces (1.57).

GNAC Volleyball Players of the Week

Offense – Elayna Rice, Northwest Nazarene (OH, 6-3, Jr., Billings, MT - Senior) had 37 kills and 34 digs as the Crusaders rank their winning streak to 11 matches with wins over Saint Martin’s (3-0), Alaska Anchorage (3-1) and Alaska (3-0).  Rice hit .283 in the three contests (37-11-92) and also had five blocks and a pair of service aces.  NNU has lost just six sets during its win streak.

Defense – Madeline Hait, Simon Fraser (MB, 5-11, Sr., Burnaby, BC – Burnaby Central) had 13 blocks as the Clan earned 3-2 road wins at Montana State Billings and Seattle Pacific.  The Clan scored the final seven points of the fifth set to break an 8-8 in earning its first win against the Falcons since joining the GNAC.  Hait had blocks on four of the seven points, including the game-winner.   She also had 18 kills and hit for a team-high .385 percentage (18-3-39) in SFU’s two victories.

Team Notes

Alaska: Sam Harthun had 31 kills and Brooke Mattice had 27 as the Nanooks lost three matches.  Harthun also had a team-high 26 digs.  Setter Miranda Grieser had 62 assists and a team-high five service aces. 

Alaska Anchorage: The Seawolves split road matches with two nationally ranked teams (losing to No. 23 Northwest Nazarene and defeating #13 Central Washington) after beginning the week with a 3-0 home win against Seattle Pacific.  Katelynn Zanders paced the offense with 47 kills.  Setter Morgan Hooe had 143 assists, 11 kills, 29 digs and seven blocks.

Central Washington:  Setter Catie Fry and libero Kaely Kight led the Wildcats to a 2-1 record.  Fry had 133 assists (10.24 per set) and Kight had 75 digs (5.77 per set) without a single return error.  Kiah Jones and Linden Firethorne had 43 and 39 kills, respectively.

Montana State Billings: The Yellowjackets ended a 17-match losing streak to Western Washington with a 3-2 win Saturday at Billings. Keying the victory was Ashlynn Ward, who had a career-high 19 kills.  Kimmy Kirk had a career-high 27 digs in the win.  In three matches, Chelsey Walter led MSUB with 40 kills and 10 blocks.  Ward had 35 kills and 10 rejections.

Northwest Nazarene:  The Crusaders ran their win streak to 11 with wins at Saint Martin’s and at home against Alaska and Alaska Anchorage.  NNU has lost just one set – to UAA – in its five conference victories.   In last week’s three wins, Elayna Rice had 37 kills and 34 digs and Taylor Roberts had 52 digs.  NNU outhit its three opponents .282 to .149.

Saint Martin’s: Brenna Peterson and Jessica Riddle led the Saints to two wins in three matches, including its first victory over Western Oregon since 2004.  Peterson had 96 assists and 27 digs including a double-double (28 assists, 11 digs) in a 3-0 loss to first-place Northwest Nazarene.  She recorded another double-double (35 assists, 10 digs) against WOU.   Riddle had a team-high 47 digs, 21 in SMU’s win at Monmouth.

Seattle Pacific: Madi Cavell led the Falcons with 45 kills as the Falcons lost matches at Alaska Anchorage and at home to Western Washington and Simon Fraser.  Brianna Leenders had 57 digs moving into 17^th place on the GNAC all-time dig list with 1,361.

Simon Fraser:  Kelsey Robinson had 30 kills and 28 digs and Devon May had 26 kills and 28 digs as the Clan won a pair of 3-2 road decisions, defeating Montana State Billings and Seattle Pacific.  The win over the Falcons was SFU’s first in program history.  Madeline Hait hit for team-best .385 percentage and had a team-best 13 blocks.

Western Oregon: Freshman Jaryn Ramos had 54 digs in a pair of 3-2 lossess to Central Washington and Saint Martin’s.  Offensively, the Wolves were led by Hannah Deede with 29 kills.  Deede and Maddi Ober each had 11 blocks as the Wolves had a 21-18 advantage in blocks.

Western Washington: Kelsey Moore had 30 kills and Jennica McPherson contributed 28 as the Vikings divided two contests.  Joellee Buckner led WWU with nine blocks and Samantha Hutchinson added 70 more digs to her national-leading total moving into third-place on the GNAC all-time career list (2,075).