SFU’s three-game winning streak came to an end on Friday night as they lost a close match to the 11th ranked Sea Wolves of University of Alaska–Anchorage (UAA). The Sea Wolves climbed into first place in the GNAC after their 3–1 win on Burnaby Mountain.
The opening set of Friday night’s match was a back-and-forth battle that SFU led early on with a score of 14–9. Clan setters Danielle Curtis and Tamara Nipp provided their teammates with early opportunities to put up points on the board. However, offensive errors from the Clan allowed the Sea Wolves to rally back and capture the first set 25–21.
SFU was unable to bounce back from the first set as they found themselves in an early deficit during the second set. The Clan defense played well, but the offense was often unable to put the ball away during extended rallies. The second set ended 25–12.
When asked about her team’s defensive performance, coach Gina Schmidt stated, “All season our [defense] has been what we’ve hung our hat on. We dig a lot of balls and that’s thanks to Ali [McKay] and our other defenders. We do build momentum with those digs, so now we need work on following that up with a little bit more offense.”
The Clan stayed neck-and-neck with the Seawolves’ throughout the third set, as the two teams exchanged powerful swings. On UAA’s game point, the Clan rallied from a two-point deficit to take the lead and win the third set 26–24.
“I thought we were playing reasonably well in those first two sets,” said Schmidt. “It was just one or two rotations where we were getting trapped and that was the difference in the sets, so if we could just eliminate small runs then we could be in a back and forth game [. . .] which we managed to do in that third set.”
SFU hoped to push the match to a fifth set, but the Seawolves had other plans as they closed out the fourth set with a final score of 25–18. Sisters Devon and Tessa May finished the game leading the Clan with 11 and 10 kills respectively, followed by Emma Jennings with eight. Defensive specialist Alison McKay led the Clan with 34 digs, and setter Tamara Nipp finished the game with 26 assists.
The SFU women’s volleyball team will look bounce back tonight as they face off against the Nanooks of University of Alaska–Fairbanks in the West Gym at 7pm on Burnaby campus.
