The University of Alaska Fairbanks    

Frosh help Nanooks start with win

by RICHARD LARSON, Staff Writer, Fairbanks Daily News Miner

Things looked bleak early for the University of Alaska Fairbanks volleyball team in its season-opening match against Florida Southern College.

The Nanooks lost the opening game and trailed 29-23 in the second game before rallying for a 22-30, 34-32, 30-28, 30-26 win. A trio of freshmen came up big in the victory as Danielle Hitzeman had 22 kills and 21 digs in her first collegiate match, Jessica Clemons had 46 assists and Katie Tobiasz had a crucial service run that allowed the Nanooks to come back and win the pivotal second game.

UAF followed its victory over Florida Southern with another big four-game win over Cal State Los Angeles as the Nanooks finished the first day of play in the Cal Poly Pomona Invitational with a 2-0 record.

Both Florida Southern and Cal State Los Angeles made the NCAA tournament last year. At the West Regional, Cal State Los Angeles beat Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion Western Washington in five games before falling to eventual national champion BYU-Hawaii. Cal State Los Angeles, which was 20-11 last year, was ranked 23rd in the preseason AVCA Division II volleyball poll and Florida Southern (25-12 in 2002) was in the receiving votes section, 33rd overall.

"That's the way you draw it up, but it doesn't always happen," UAF coach Phil Shoemaker said of the strong opening day. "We have a lot of real positives to take from today. Our veterans played like veterans and our young players more than held their own."

With the team on the verge of falling behind two games to none against Florida Southern, Tobiasz stepped up and served the Nanooks back into the match.

"It was not looking good at that point and she went in and proceeded to dissect them with her serve. They weren't all aces, but she just destroyed their offense with her serving," Shoemaker said.

Tobiasz had four ace serves in the match to go along with four blocks and one kill.

Hitzeman had a great all-around game with kills on 22 of 49 attacks and only two errors for a .408 hitting percentage (higher than .250 is considered good). She also had two blocks and two ace serves.

"Danielle had a tremendous coming out party. You watch that and go, wow 22 kills, 21 digs in her first game at the college level," Shoemaker said. "You kind of get excited about that, but you're not going to get those numbers every game."

Clemons also had a great first game with 46 assists and four ace serves despite feeling ill.

"She really did a good job and adding to the drama she had a pretty nasty head cold," Shoemaker said.

Junior Mallory Bergstrom added 12 kills and a match-high 26 digs. Junior Carlin Smith had seven kills and no errors on 20 attacks as well as three blocks with no errors. Sophomore April Blandford had five kills and two blocks.

The Nanooks had more service aces (10) than serving errors (7). They hit a solid .228 as a team.

"We started off a little slow, which is kind of OK, I guess, for the first time out; with new people, learning new things and a freshman setter," Shoemaker said. "But we got it going and played better than they did they rest of the way."

Against Cal State Los Angeles. Shoemaker said Carlin Smith had a strong offensive contest. She had an attack percentage of .500 in Game 1, .667 in Game 2 and .750 in Game 4 (in the loss in Game 3 she had a negative attack percentage).

"I was real happy with the job Carlin did for us," Shoemaker said.

"We played like, like garbage, in the third game, but in the fourth we just completely dominated. We knew the third game was an aberration and we just had to prove it."

Bergstrom had 14 kills in a balanced UAF attack. Blandford added three kills and five blocks. Hitzeman had 13 kills--but had nine errors--and had five ace serves. Carlin Smith had 11 kill and Candice Smith had eight kills and four blocks. Crystal Wheelock had 12 digs. Clemons had 35 assists and seven digs.

The Nanooks, who were the only team to go unbeaten on the opening day, complete tournament play today with matches against Chaminade and Cal Poly Pomona.

In other tournament action on Friday, Cal State Los Angeles beat Findlay 30-21, 31-29, 23-30, 30-28; Pomona defeated Florida Southern 28-30, 30-22, 30-28, 30-28; Findlay defeated Chaminade 30-23, 30-27, 18-30, 35-33; and Chaminade beat Pomona 30-26, 30-21, 24-30, 18-30, 15-13. UAF does not face Findlay in the tournament.