LACEY, Wash. – After a dominating performance by Alaska Anchorage in the first set, the Saints roared back in the second set and forced a tie into the break. Saint Martin's kept the momentum rolling in the third set before a timeout by the Seawolves settled them down and Anchorage responded by winning the third and fourth set.
Rachel Gondrezick led the Saints' offense with 13 kills as the Saints (2-13, 0-9) quickly shrugged off the first set loss and bounced back to collect 14 kills. The Saints defense managed to handle most of the Seawolves' (14-3, 7-2) attacks and secured the 28-26 set win. The Saints had the Seawolves on their heels with a 7-0 lead in the third set; however, the talent of Anchorage proved to be too much as UAA stormed back in the third set and cruised in the final set.
The Seawolves quickly established control in the first set, taking an 8-2 lead to begin. Kills by
Ililani Kamaka and
Molly Cichosz were responded with five straight points by Anchorage as they coasted to a 25-11 win.
In the second set, the Seawolves held another early lead, 8-5, before the Saints rattled off five straight points, highlighted by an ace for
Alyssa Bartlett. Despite Anchorage regaining the lead at 14-11, using an ace by
Annika Briggs this time, SMU tied the set at 14-14. Both sides trades leads as the set continued, before another ace by Bartlett had Saint Martin's on top 23-20. The Seawolves scored five of the next six points to push the Saints to verge of a set loss at 25-24. The Saints' rally ended with back-to-back kills by Gondrezick as SMU pulled off the 28-26 upset.
The momentum continued in the third set for SMU, as two more kills by Gondrezick and a kill by
Megan Vernoy started the set with a 7-0 run. The Seawolves called a timeout, and after the break, everything went in favor of ladies in green. Anchorage proceeded to go on a 21-6 run and clinched the critical third set 25-18.
Outside of a small 4-0 run by the Saints, the fourth and final set was all Alaska Anchorage. Eight errors by SMU and 14 kills by the Seawolves resulted in the 25-11 score once again.
Gondrezick led the way with 13 kills, followed by Kamaka at nine and Vernoy with six. Bartlett ended the match with 31 assists, two aces and three kills, while Kamaka and Gondrezick also combined for 21 digs.
The Saints host the next Alaska school, Fairbanks, on Saturday, October 6 at 3:00 p.m. Live stats and video of the match will be available on smusaints.com.
