The University of Alaska Fairbanks
This is an Unofficial Site of Nanook Volleyball
The University of Alaska Fairbanks
By DANNY MARTIN, Staff Writer
The University of Alaska Fairbanks volleyball team is 3-0 in five-game matches this season.
One of those contests was a Sept. 20 victory over Alaska Anchorage (19-30, 30-27, 30-28, 28-30, 15-12) at the Patty Center.
UAF head coach Phil Shoemaker doesn't want his team to play to five games in every match, but he takes comfort that the Nanooks are capable of persevering in long battles.
"I guess we're resilient,'' said Shoemaker, "and that we're able to make some adjustments and correct things, at least marginally better than our opponents. Anytime you go to five games, you're leaving things to chance a little bit, but we've been pretty strong in the three five-game matches we've played."
But there will be no comfort for the Nanooks in Anchorage on Saturday night, when they'll renew their intrastate rivalry with the Seawolves at 7:05 at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
The Nanooks enter the match at 6-3 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and 9-5 overall for a tie for second place with Seattle University and Central Washington in the conference standings. The Seawolves, at 4-5 and 10-7, respectively, are tied with Seattle Pacific for fifth place.
UAA, though, is 48-27 all-time in the intrastate feud, including 7-1 at home against the Nanooks since 1997. The Seawolves are also 7-1 this season in the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.
"The same thing going down there is the same thing if they were coming up here--you know you're going to be playing in a hostile environment,'' Shoemaker said. "I think we've got some players who really enjoy that and I think we've got some who don't. Maybe you kind of hope it doesn't come down to relying on the people who don't enjoy it as much, because it is a pressure-filled situation. That's just the nature of this rivalry."
While the Nanooks were satisfied with beating UAA earlier this season, they didn't enjoy allowing 19 aces by the Seawolves. It's the most aces a team has registered in a single GNAC match this season.
"Nineteen aces was bad,'' said UAF freshman setter Jessica Clemons, "but we dealt with it and we've been working a lot to get the bad passes so we can have more options."
The Nanooks have since tried to minimize serve-receive errors.
"After that, we had only three games where we had one serve-receive error, which is incredible,'' Clemons said. "It's helped a lot that the setting has picked up ... the game goes a lot better and flows a lot better when you have your serve-receive passing on.''
Clemons ranks sixth in the GNAC for assists with 10.23 per game while UAA senior Kasey Kuelper is second with an 11.89 average.
The match also features the conference leader in kills--UAF junior outside hitter Mallory Bergstrom with 4.28 per game--and the No. 2 and 3 teams in hitting percentage. The Seawolves are ranked second at .236 while the Nanooks are third at .215.
UAA also has three of the top 10 individual conference leaders in hitting percentage--junior middle blocker Katina Ozrelic (third at .296); senior middle blocker Starr Burgan (tied for sixth at .278) and sophomore outside hitter Mindy Cason (tied for 10th at .270). UAF senior right-side hitter Candice Smith is tied with Burgan.
After Saturday night's match, UAF returns to the Patty Center for two conference matches, facing Humboldt State at 7 p.m. on Oct. 24, and Western Oregon University at 5 p.m. on Oct. 25.
