WOLVES TRAVEL TO CLOSE OUT REGULAR SEASON
The Wolves of Western Oregon wrap up play in the 2016 season with a road swing against two regionally-ranked opponent – at Central Washington on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Northwest Nazarene on Saturday at 2 p.m. MT (1 p.m. PT). Both matches will have live video and statistics on WOUWolves.com/Live.

SEVEN NAMED GNAC ALL-ACADEMIC
The Great Northwest Athletic Conference has announced its women's volleyball All-Academic team for the 2016 fall season, and seven student-athletes from Western Oregon were honored. The Wolves are led by three-time honoree Christie Colasurdo in community health studies with Amanda Short posting the team's highest grade point average in exercise science. Alisha Bettinson (business) and Sydney Blankinship (community health) were named to the team for a season year. Making their first appearance on the GNAC All-Academic Team are Short, Mackenzie Bowen (business), Leila Holt (undeclared) and Maddie Mehciz (exercise science).
 
WOLVES' WATCH
Junior outside hitter Alisha Bettinson is leading Western Oregon in kills through 25 matches with 318, averaging 3.42 kills per set. Sophomore Amanda Short is second with 215 kills while Mariella Vandenkooy (205) and Paige Orth (193) follow. Orth is the WOU leading blocker at 0.79 blocks per game. Sophomore setter Maddie Mehciz leads the team with 10.43 assists per set while senior libero Christie Colasurdo paces the team with 5.26 digs per game followed by Bettinson at 3.20 digs. Redshirt freshman Libbie Hoene has the touch from the line leading WOU in serving aces with 34.

SCOUTING THE CENTRAL WASHINGTON WILDCATS
Central Washington, seventh in the Nov. 9 NCAA West Region rankings, is fighting to earn a spot in the West Regionals and allow the GNAC to have five teams in the eight-team field. The Wildcats have split their last six matches, but did pick up a five-set win against Simon Fraser two weeks ago. CWU is led by a quarter all with two or more kills a game – Shelby Mauritson (2.76), Kiah Jones (2.64), Madison Weg (2.36) and Jordan Deming (2.30). Gaby Aihara (5.43 assists/set) and Niki Cook (5.35) split the setting duties.
 
THE MATCHUP: WOLVES VS. WILDCATS
A five-match win streak for CWU was snapped by the Wolves on Sept. 17 in a five-set victory at New P.E. (25-19, 22-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-13). With the Wolves' win, the all-time series could even if WOU can complete the season sweep (CWU leads 28-27).

SCOUTING THE NORTHWEST NAZARENE CRUSADERS
Northwest Nazarene, fifth in last week's West Region ranking, bounced back from two losses against other regionally-ranked foes with a five-set win at Alaska last Saturday. The Crusaders host Concordia on Thursday before closing out the regular season with WOU. Kendra Bodine is the featured hitter averaging 4.01 kills per set, followed by Madi Farrell (3.33) and Mari Thomas (2.80). Hailey Cook is among the league leaders in setting (11.54) while Shayli Siegfreid anchors the NNU defense (5.56).

THE MATCHUP: WOLVES VS. CRUSADERS
Western Oregon leads the series 49-27, but the Crusaders have won the last seven meetings. Early in the conference season, NNU defeated the Wolves in three sets (20-25, 19-25, 21-25) on Sept. 15 in Monmouth. The last win for WOU in the series was on Nov. 8, 2012 at home in three sets.