UAA sweeps Hawaiians for 3-0 start to 2022 season

HONOLULU (Aug. 20) – Senior Eve Stephens had 12 kills and combined for the match-point block Saturday to help the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team to a perfect Hawaii trip with a 25-15, 25-20, 25-22 sweep of 25th-ranked Chaminade on Saturday night at McCabe Gymnasium.

The victory was UAA’s second of the day and third in less than 24 hours to start the 2022 season, following a 25-18, 25-8, 25-17 neutral-court win Saturday morning over Hawaii Hilo.

“That was a good way to start the season,” said UAA head coach Chris Green, whose team was picked third in last week’s Great Northwest Athletic Conference preseason coaches’ poll. “Offensively we played well this weekend because of some great serve-receive by our primary passers, getting the ball to Ellen (Floyd) for quality attempts.”

In a battle of teams that qualified for last year’s NCAA Tournament, the Seawolves (3-0) controlled action for most of the night. After outhitting the Silverswords (0-2) .241 to -.051 in the opening frame, UAA would pull away midway through the second. Consecutive kills by Stephens, Nicole Blue and Stephens again made it 18-13, and the defending Pac West Conference champions could get no closer than four the rest of the way.

The third set featured more drama, with 13 ties and four lead changes. Chaminade’s Sasha Colombo forced the final tie with a kill to make it 22-22, but Floyd fed sophomore middle blocker Isabel Evans for the go-ahead kill moments later. Colombo hit into a Nicole Blue solo block to bring about match point, and Stephens and Evans combined to stuff Greta Corti for the clincher.

Stephens hit .323 and finished with eight digs and three total blocks, while Blue had six kills, five digs and two aces. Senior outside hitter Lisa Jaunet tallied seven kills, Evans had five kills and three block assists, and Floyd had 29 assists and six digs.

Senior libero and Maui native Talia Leauanae led UAA with 11 digs.

The Seawolves make their Alaska Airlines Center regular-season debut Aug. 25-27 with four matches in the Seawolf Invitational. UAA opens Thursday at 7 p.m. against Lubbock Christian. Surf to GoSeawolves.com for complete schedule and ticket information.

UAA 3, Hawaii Hilo 0
Eve Stephens had 10 kills and Lisa Jaunet had eight kills on .412 hitting to power the Seawolves to a 25-18, 25-8, 25-17 rout of the Vulcans (0-2) in a Saturday morning match at The Shark Tank.

Nicole Blue added six kills and three block assists as UAA outhit Hilo .280 to -.033, forcing 25 Vulcan attack errors.

Ellen Floyd finished with 21 assists, two aces and eight digs, and Talia Leauanae tied for match-high honors with nine digs.

"UAA sweeps Hawaiians for 3-0 start to 2022 season" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.