Box Score

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - In a volleyball match for the ages, 19th-ranked Western Washington University beat 7th-ranked Alaska Anchorage in a five-set thriller Saturday evening in Great Northwest Athletic Conference action in front of 1,762 fans at the Alaska Airlines Center. Game scores were 25-22, 21-25, 26-24, 18-25, 20-18 in favor of the Vikings.

Western extended its winning streak to nine consecutive matches, improving to 14-6 overall and 10-2 in GNAC play. The Seawolves had their school-record 20-match winning streak come to an end, falling to 21-2 overall. Alaska Anchorage remains in first place in the GNAC with an 11-1 conference mark. Prior to tonight, UAA's last loss was 56 days ago on August 26 vs. Chaminade.

The match featured as many twists as one would imagine, with 45 tie scores and 21 lead changes throughout the evening. The fifth set alone featured 13 tie scores and 7 lead changes, with each team having multiple match points. The Vikings staved off a UAA match point at 17-16, and UAA exchanged the favor to tie the set at 18-18. Kills by junior Joellee Buckner (Colville, WA) and sophomore Abby Phelps (Manson, WA/Chelan) gave the Vikings the 20-18 set victory and 3-2 overall win.

"It was an epic battled out there tonight with both teams giving it their best," said 17th-year head coach Diane Flick-Williams. "I am really proud of my team for battling to the end and getting that one extra point. What a great volleyball match."

The victorious effort was led by a double-double by Phelps, her GNAC-leading 13th of the season, recording 14 kills and 16 digs. Sophomore middle blocker Michaela Hall (Centralia, WA) nearly recorded the double-double the hard way with 10 kills and career-high 7 blocks. Junior Arielle Turner (Leavenworth, WA/Cascade) added 12 kills, 3 service aces and 3 blocks for a team-high 16.5 points.

"Just an all-around great team effort tonight...really proud of the team for battling and working so hard to keep improving," said Flick-Williams. "We just have to keep shooting for the daily improvement and believe in what we are doing."

Buckner contributed a career-high 28 digs and sophomore setter Brette Boesel (Brewster, WA) ran the offense efficiently with 32 assists.

UAA was led by 22 kills from Chrisalyn Johnson and a school-record 43 digs from Kyla Militante-Amper. Setter Morgan Hooe led all players with 59 assists.

The Vikings return to Bellingham to host Western Oregon on Thursday and Concordia on Saturday. Both matches start at 7 pm at Whatcom Community College.

Game Notes: The Vikings extended their winning streak to 9 consecutive matches...the match was WWU's 7th (out of 20) against a ranked opponent this season...WWU won its 5th consecutive match vs. the Seawolves in Anchorage...won 14 consecutive matches in Alaska (5-0 vs. UAA in Anchorage, 6-0 vs. UAF in Fairbanks, 3-0 in 2015 NCAA West Regional in Anchorage)...the road team has won 8 straight and 10 of the last 12 in the WWU-UAA series...WWU out-blocked the Seawolves 13.0 to 7.5, including a 7.0-3.0 edge in the first two sets of the match...the Vikings recorded their highest set hitting percentage of the night in the 5th set (.308)... WWU improved to 4-2 in 5-set matches this season (17-9 over last 5 seasons).