Seawolves knock off Nighthawks for third straight win

Senior outside hitter Bethany Tuchardt recorded six of her 13 kills in the fourth set and Larssen Anderson ripped 10 kills Thursday to help the Alaska Anchorage volleyball team fend off Northwest Nazarene, 20-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-23, at the Alaska Airlines Center.

The Seawolves (10-7, 4-3 Great Northwest Athletic Conference) also got a huge all-around effort from junior outside hitter Tia Allen with seven kills, 12 digs and career highs of six aces and five blocks, as they stretched their winning streak to three matches and climbed above .500 in league play for the first time this season.

The Nighthawks (5-9, 2-4) were led by 14 kills apiece from Maren Machado and Jenna Holm, but the visitors from Nampa, Idaho, were outhit .228 to .193.

"Our team did a great job of making the necessary adjustments after the first set and we were able to disrupt their offensive timing after that," said UAA head coach Stacie Meisner, whose squad registered a season-high 12 blocks. "Our setters did a great job of spreading the ball around to our hitters, and Bethany really stepped up with some huge kills in that final set."

After getting outhit .370 to .186 in the opening set, UAA controlled the action the rest of the way. Senior outside hitter Katie Birtcil had five of her eight kills in the second frame to help tie the match, and the Seawolves ran away with the third, getting kills from seven different players to outhit the Nighthawks .314 to -.031.

UAA went up 6-5 on an Anderson kill to take the lead for good in the fourth, and Allen made it 20-14 with her final ace. Tuchardt registered kills to make it 23-19 and 24-21, before NNU fought off two match points. Following a Seawolf timeout, the hosts were able to clinch it on a feed from Kadyn Osborne (18 assists/career-high 18 digs) to Allen.

A transfer from Saint Martin's, Allen did not commit an attack error, while becoming just the fifth Seawolf since 2008 to register six aces in a four-set match.

Sophomore Bella Burney had seven kills on match-best .462 hitting, while senior Leilani Elder had five kills and equaled her career high with eight block assists.

Junior libero Madison Galloway led UAA with 19 digs, along with two aces and a career-high nine assists.