Thursday, September 29, 2011

Setter Kimya Jafroudi had 45 assists and Alaska Anchorage got another impressive showing from middle blocker Robyn Burton as it knocked off 15th-ranked Seattle Pacific 26-24, 22-25, 25-15, 25-20 Thursday to move into a first-place tie in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

The Seawolves (9-5, 5-1) are tied with Western Washington (5-1), which was idle Thursday and are one-half match ahead of SPU (9-4, 4-1).

In other matches Thursday, Danielle Reese led Western Oregon with 13 kills and the Wolves outhit Central Washington .315 to .221 in a 25-23, 25-22, 25-18 sweep at the New PE Building in Monmouth.

Reisa Fessler and Haley Abbott led Northwest Nazarene (7-4, 4-2) in both kills and blocks in a 25-11, 23-25, 26-24, 27-25 win over Saint Martin's (3-10, 2-5) at Lacey.

Alaska Fairbanks (2-12, 2-4) earned its second straight win after opening the season with 12 losses, outlasting Montana State Billings, 25-21, 22-25, 25-20, 21-25, 15-8.

Alaska Anchorage got a match-high 17 kills from outside hitter Jackie Matthisen as it won its fifth straight overall and handed Seattle Pacific its first league loss.

Outside hitter Cailin Fellows led SPU with 16 kills and five block assists, but the Falcons could not overcome slow starts in the first, second and fourth sets.

Lindsey Wodrich had 15 kills and 12 digs, while libero Anna Herold had a match-high 20 digs and Angie Pricco had eight blocks for the Falcons who lost for the fourth straight time at the Wells Fargo Sports Complex.

UAA got off to a fast start when Burton drilled consecutive kills to begin a 5-0 run that put the Seawolves ahead 10-3.

The lead remained fairly steady until SPU erased a 20-14 deficit to pull within one at 22-21. Back-to-back kills from Ariel Austin (11 kills, 5 block assists) and Nikkie Viotto (8 kills) gave the Seawolves three set points, but SPU took advantage of three straight UAA attack errors to tie it.

UAA righted its ship at that point, and took the opener on kills from Austin and Burton.

The Falcons controlled the second set to tie it 1-1, but UAA took complete control early in the third by winning 12 straight points to take a 13-3 lead and cruise to a 2-1 advantage.

The Seawolves also started hot in the fourth, scoring the first six points and only once letting the Falcons within two – 19-17 – before closing strong. Matthisen delivered a kill on match point to claim her seventh double-double (17 kills-16 digs) of the season.

Burton, meanwhile, finished with 14 kills on .344 hitting and tallied nine total blocks, including a career-best three solos.

Jafroudi continued her strong play as well, earning a career-high 15 digs and getting two kills on just three attacks.

In addition to Reese, Western Oregon (5-6, 4-3) also got nine kills each from Krissi Kemper and Corynn Kopra in its victory. Kemper had a match-high four blocks.

The Wolves made just 10 errors (49-10-124) in outhitting Central Washington (41-14-122) by 94 points.

They also outblocked the Wildcats (8-6, 2-4) by a 6-3 margin. Jordan Offutt had 14 kills to pace CWU. Meg Ryan had nine kills.

Fessler had 13 kills and five blocks and Abbott had 12 kills and four blocks to pace Northwest Nazarene to its victory. They also had the best hitting percentages for the Crusaders swinging at .353 and .256 clips, respectively.

Kristyn Ross paced Saint Martin's with 17 kills, but was also charged with 16 errors. Teilissa Tua had 11 kills.

Monica Grimsrud of Montana State Billings matched her own GNAC season-best total of 26 kills in the Yellowjackets' loss at Fairbanks. UAF, however, offset Grimsrud's production getting 52 of its 65 kills from four players.

Reilly Stevens led the Nanooks with 18 kills. Keri Knight had 14 and two players - Karlee Skalla and Casey Tidwell - had 11 each.