Saturday, December 5, 2015
by Alaska Anchorage Athletic Communications

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska Anchorage middle blockers Caitlin Hanson and Erin Braun combined for 27 kills Friday to help nationally 9th-ranked Alaska Anchorage avoid an upset with a 25-18, 15-25, 25-21, 20-25, 15-12 victory over Dixie State in an NCAA Div. II West Regional Volleyball Championships quarterfinal match at a raucous Alaska Airlines Center.
 
Playing in front of a record crowd of 2,627 – the largest in NCAA Div. II this year – the top-seeded Seawolves (27-2) also got 44 assists, 12 digs and five kills from junior setter Morgan Hooe.
 
The No. 8 seed Red Storm (19-11) got a match-high 15 kills from outside hitter Taylor Duryea, but the Pacific West Conference champions could not hang on to a 7-3 advantage in the final set.
 
UAA – the Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion – came out of the gates fast before suffering a big blow on the 13th point of the match, losing senior outside hitter and GNAC Player of the Year Katelynn Zanders to a lower-leg injury.
 
The Seawolves were able to hang on for a first-set win despite the setback, but their momentum stalled in the second as the visitors from St. George, Utah, tied things up.
 
UAA controlled the third and forged a 23-16 lead before Dixie State rallied back within 23-20 on a kill by Duryea. But Hanson answered with a kill to stop the surge, and the Wyoming native followed one point later with a thundering spike to claim a 2-1 lead for her team.
 
Holding a 15-13 lead in the fourth set, the Seawolves were victimized by a 7-1 Dixie State run, and the Red Storm finished with four straight points to send it the distance.
 
A Duryea ace made it 7-3 in the fifth, prompting Seawolf head coach Chris Green to call a timeout. The Seawolves responded with four straight points, capped by a kill from freshman Chrisalyn Johnson, and surged into the lead on a block by Hanson and Julia Mackey that made it 9-8. Leading 12-10, Mackey set freshman Leah Swiss for her ninth and final kill, and Duryea hit the ball into the net to give the Seawolves match point at 14-11.
 
The Red Storm survived one point on a kill by Duryea, but Hooe saved the hosts on the next rally when she took Mackey’s overpass off the serve and won a joust at the net.
 
Hanson finished with a career-high 13 kills on .250 hitting and added a match-high seven block assists, while Braun tallied 14 kills for the third-highest total in her three seasons.
 
Swiss finished with nine kills and 11 digs, Mackey had eight kills, four assists, three aces, nine digs and four block assists, and freshman libero Kyla Militante-Amper led UAA with 18 digs. The Seawolves also got some big kills down the stretch from freshman Chrisalyn Johnson, who tallied eight kills and a pair of critical fifth-set block assists in her role filling in for Zanders.
 
UAA’s victory is just its second in eight all-time NCAA Tournament appearances. The Seawolves were a No. 5 seed in 2009 when they beat No. 5 Hawaii-Hilo in five sets.
 
Up next, UAA will face No. 4 seed Cal State San Bernardino (27-5) – the same program that eliminated the Seawolves in the second round back in 2009 – in Saturday’s 8:30 p.m. West Regional semifinal.