Saturday, October 29, 2011

Lindsey Wodrich had a season-high 22 kills and Nikki Lowell and Angie Pricco had nine and seven blocking assists, respectively, as Seattle Pacific took the inside track toward the GNAC volleyball title with a 18-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-23 win against Alaska Anchorage Saturday at Brougham Pavilion.

The Falcons (19-5, 13-2), who have won six straight, opened up a 1½-match lead on the Seawolves (15-7, 11-3) with the victory. Western Washington (13-5, 11-3), which defeated Simon Fraser, 25-17, 25-16, 25-20 also trails by 1 1/2 matches.

Northwest Nazarene (15-6, 10-4) stayed within two matches of SPU by sweeping Saint Martin's, 25-13, 25-19, 25-21. Meanwhile, Western Oregon (11-8, 10-5) defeated Central Washington, 25-17, 25-23, 22-25, 25-19, 15-12, and Montana State Billings (10-14, 4-11) outlasted Alaska Fairbanks, 20-25, 25-11, 16-25, 25-20, 16-14.

Wodrich, who has 954 career kills, also had 12 digs in Seattle Pacific's victory. Lowell and Paige Hoffman added nine kills each and Cailin Fellows had eight.

SPU, which got 47 assists from Shelby Swanson and 31 digs from Anna Herold, had a 16-7 blocking advantage over UAA and outhit the Seawolves .203 to .192.

SPU also had a 7-2 advantage in service aces as Pricco had three aces and Wodrich had two. Along with her four blocks, Wodrich finished with a team-high 26 points.

Jackie Matthisen provided about half of UAA's offense with a GNAC season-high 27 kills. Robyn Burton had 12 kills. Defensively, Quincy Haught led the way with 24 digs. Ariel Austin and Burton each had three blocks.

Marlayna Geary had 12 kills and 11 digs to lead Western Washington to its win. The Vikings also got nine kills, three blocks and a .444 hitting percentage from Emily Jepsen.

Kristjana Fridfinnson led Simon Fraser (1-17, 1-13) with 13 kills. The Clan were only outhit .277 to .206, but didn't have a serving ace and were outscored 14-7 from the service line.

Haley Abbott led a balanced Northwest Nazarene attack with nine kills. The Crusaders also got eight kills from Reisa Fessler, seven from Becky Flores and six from Kaitlyn Tuholski.

Defensively, Kailey Trautmann led NNU with 15 digs. Abbott and Flores had a pair of blocks.

Kristyn Ross had 13 kills and Katy Ferguson had 10 for the Saints (6-16, 4-11).

Krissi Kemper had 16 kills and Corynn Kopra has 15 in Western Oregon's victory.

The Wolves also got 10 kills and 12 blocks from Becky Blees and 10 kills and six blocks from Samantha Ward.

Jordan Offutt led Central Washington (12-10, 6-8) with 17 kills, while Emmy Dolan and Megan Ryan were also in double figures with 14 and 10 kills, respectively.

Monica Grimsrud had 24 kills and served the final two points for Montana State Billings' in its come-from-behind victory over Alaska Fairbanks (2-20, 2-12).

The Yellowjackets trailed 2-1 before winning the fourth set 25-20, then were facing match point in the fifth set trailing 14-13.

But, an attack error by the Nanooks, a block by Melissa Porter and a kill by Taylor Adams earned MSUB the victory.

Porter also had eight kills and Chelsey Walter had seven for MSUB. Keri Knight led Alaska Fairbanks with 15 kills. Simone Chavous had 13.