6 days Ago By Gavin Struve
In front of a record crowd, the University of Alaska Fairbanks volleyball team beat rival Alaska Anchorage in straight sets on Saturday for the Nanooks' first season sweep of the Seawolves since 2008. UAA packed roughly 4,000 fans into the Alaska Airlines Center in an attempt to break the NCAA Division II volleyball attendance record set by the University of Nebraska-Kearney on Sept. 6, 2023.
As of the publication of this article, it has not been verified whether UAA broke the national record. With the win over UAA, UAF reached its highest win total in a season of head coach Brian Scott’s 10-year tenure. Saturday's win improved UAF to 19-7 in 2024.
The Nanooks had previously reached 18 wins during both the 2022 and 2021 seasons. The Nanooks dropped the first set of their home win over UAA a month ago before winning the next three sets. They got off to a quicker start on Saturday, quieting the crowd as they ended the first set on a 15-4 run to win it 25-18.
Five different Nanooks recorded kills during that stretch, and UAF scored the final two points off of UAA attack errors. UAF was more dominant in the second set, using a 5-1 run to seize control with a 9-4 lead. A 5-0 run soon after, featuring two kills from junior right-side hitter Elena Guc, pushed UAF to a double-digit lead at 19-9.
A service error on the Seawolves brought the Nanooks to set point, and they closed out a 25-16 set win with a kill from senior outside hitter Karli Nielson that was placed over the hands of the blockers and just inside the opposite out-of-bounds line. The final frame was much more closely contested, going into extra points. UAF never trailed by more than three points but was playing from behind for most of the third set.
The Nanooks trailed 24-23 before Scott called a timeout, and they proceeded to score the last three points of the match with a kill from senior pin hitter Rilee White and back-to-back aces from senior middle blocker Kristina Head, both delivered off the hands of Seawolf defenders. UAF hit .291 compared to .
122 for UAA and had six women finish with at least six kills, led by White with nine. Senior middle blocker Josie Jansen hit a team-best . 750 en route to her six kills and recorded a match-high three total blocks.
Redshirt junior setter Ainsley Smith recorded a game-high 18 assists, while redshirt sophomore setter Cynphany Henderson was close behind with 17 assists. The Nanooks' 11-5 record in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) puts them at third in the conference standings. They'll finish the regular season at home this coming week, hosting Simon Fraser on Thursday, Nov.
21 at 7 p.m. and Western Washington on Saturday, Nov.
23 at 2 p.m. The Nanooks are sandwiched between those two teams in the GNAC standings.
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