The University of Alaska Fairbanks    

UAF sweeps Seattle

By RICHARD LARSON, Staff Writer

The University of Alaska Fairbanks volleyball team started strong and finished stronger, sweeping into a tie for second-place in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference with a dominant 30-25, 30-28 and 30-15 win over Seattle University on Friday at the UAF Patty Center gymnasium.

The Nanooks never trailed in the match, scoring the first point in the opening game and slowly pulling away to the win, then jumping out to big early leads in the next two games. It was the first sweep of the season for the Nanooks, who improved to 7-4 overall and 4-2 in the GNAC. In their first six wins of the season, the Nanooks needed four games to earn victory three times and went a full five games in the other three wins.

"We've been working all year on trying to start a match well. I think this group is starting to get some things worked out and coming together," UAF coach Phil Shoemaker said.

Seattle (8-5, 4-2) entered the match with just one conference loss--against GNAC leader Western Washington--but other than a dramatic rally in the second game the Redhawks were overwhelmed by a strong all-around effort by the Nanooks.

The Nanooks attacked the ball at a fantastic .323 percentage with 54 kills and only 13 errors on 127 attempts. UAF also had six service aces as a team, just one serve reception error and nine team blocks.

Improved passing by UAF allowed freshman setter Jessica Clemons to get everyone involved in the offensive attack. Clemons finished with 43 assists.

"We are passing a little better and we've figured out how to use our people a little differently," Shoemaker said. "In Games 2 and 3, we got the matchup we really wanted with Carlin on (Lizzy) Safrinski and that really opened up some stuff for us."

Candice Smith with five total blocks and Carlin Smith with three total blocks made their presence felt at the net. Mallory Bergstrom had two total blocks and Katie Tobiasz and April Blandford each had one as the Nanooks stifled the Redhawks offense.

"We always try to establish our block. We didn't get it going right away, but it certainly played a big role in the last two games," Shoemaker said.

Kills by Mallory Bergstrom accounted for seven of the Nanooks first nine points of the night and the junior outside hitter finished with a match-high 18 kills. She also had 13 digs.

Candice Smith and Daniel Hitzeman each added 10 kills and Carlin Smith had nine kills. Hitzeman also had 13 digs and four ace serves.

"It is such a luxury to have outside hitters like Mallory and Tobiasz," Shoemaker said. "They are money players."

A three-point service run by Tobiasz helped the Nanooks take a four-point lead midway through the opening game and UAF kept a two- to six-point advantage the rest of the game before a big hit down the line by Hitzeman finished off the win.

In the second game, Hitzeman had two ace serves to lead UAF to an early 6-1 lead. UAF pushed the lead to 22-9 and was ahead 25-14 before Seattle began a valiant comeback that cut the advantage to 29-28 before a hit by Tobiasz led to a lift call on the Redhawks and a 30-28 win for the Nanooks.

UAF also began the third game on first, scoring the first six points of the game. This time UAF didn't let Seattle back into the game, rolling to a 30-15 win to finish off the sweep.

The Nanooks welcome Northwest Nazarene to the Patty Center for a 5 p.m. match today. Northwest Nazarene (5-10, 2-4) lost at Alaska Anchorage in five games on Friday. The Crusader won the opening two games of the match before the Seawolves (9-5, 3-3) rallied to post a 27-30, 26-30, 30-20, 33-31 and 15-10 win.