MONMOUTH, Ore. – Coming off of their first home win of the 2019 season, the Western Oregon volleyball team embarks on their final road trip of the year, visiting the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves Thursday, Nov. 7, and the Alaska Nanooks Saturday, Nov. 9.
Western Oregon (4-17, 2-12 GNAC) split their previous week, losing in straight sets to the Seattle Pacific Falcons before beating the Saint Martin's Saints 3-1 for the second time this season.
Lauren Smith had 25 total kills over the week, followed closely by the 24 of
Sianna DeCarli. Redshirt Freshman
Krista Omlid had a season-high 11 kills against the Saints, getting the start in the match. The 19 total service aces as a team between the two games was the second-highest single-week total for the Wolves, falling one ace shy of the 20 they posted when they hosted the Nanooks and Seawolves early in October.
The Wolves are led by the 2.79 kills per set of DeCarli, good for 13
th in the GNAC. Sophomore
Delaney Smith is now the Great Northwest Athletic Conference leader in hitting percentage, overtaking Western Washington's Kayleigh Harper for the top spot with a .376 mark on 189 attacks.
Allie Spear has climbed to the 6
th spot in digs, averaging 4.28 per set.
Alaska Anchorage (16-6, 11-3 GNAC) has accomplished something no one else in the GNAC has been able to pull off this season, topping then-No. 2 Western Washington 3-1 at home on Oct. 19 to deal the Vikings their only loss of the season. That started a run of four straight wins for UAA that was just snapped on Nov. 2 in a five-set loss to Central Washington.
UAA's .227 hitting percentage is second in the GNAC while they top the conference with a 2.21 service ace per set clip. Eve Stephens averages 3.89 kills and 4.57 points per set, both good for tops in the conference. The Seawolves also have three of the top four GNAC servers on their roster, led by Vanessa Hayes (0.53 aces/set), Maggie Schlueter (0.51) and Ellen Floyd (0.46).
WOU is 11-14 against Anchorage all-time. The Seawolves have won five straight in the series, including a five-set win earlier this season in Monmouth. Western's last win in the series was Nov. 12, 2011, in Monmouth. The last time the Wolves won in Anchorage was Sept. 8, 2011. They are 5-7 on the road in the series.
Alaska (11-11, 8-6 GNAC) has won two of their last three matches to battle back to a .500 overall record, but have dropped five of their previous seven. Most recently, the Nanooks swept the Northwest Nazarene Nighthawks in straight sets for their 11
th win of the season.
UAF is led by the .297 hitting percentage of Kim Wong. She also averages 2.48 kills and 1.04 blocks per set.
WOU is 15-10 against Alaska all-time. The Nanooks have won four straight in the series. The Wolves' last win came Sept. 19, 2015, in Monmouth. Their last win in Fairbanks was Sept. 10, 2011, in five sets. WOU is 6-6 in Fairbanks all-time.
The Wolves take on Anchorage at 8 p.m. PST on Thursday while first serve Saturday against the Nanooks is set for 3 p.m. PST.
