On Thursday, September 20, the SFU volleyball team hosted Alaska Anchorage in an important GNAC matchup at the beginning of the season. After a strong first set, however, the Clan were unable to win another set, and eventually fell three sets to one.
Tessa May came up huge in the first set, totalling four kills in the set. At the end of the set, Bianca Te came in and got a service ace right along the back line of Alaska Anchorage to end the set with a score of 25–13. At this point, things were looking good.
Everything changed, however, starting in the first set. After a dominant first set, the Clan couldn’t get anything going, especially struggling offensively. Alaska Anchorage would eventually run away with the set by a score of 25–17.
“Anchorage definitely started to play better after the first set and we lost our rhythm offensively, we didn’t find enough ways to score. They started to block and dig better and we weren’t able to find an answer,” said head coach Gina Schmidt in a post-game interview with The Peak.
The final two sets were more of the same, as Alaska Anchorage won them by scores of 25–19 and 25–21. In the fourth and final set SFU started off strong with a 16–8 lead, but were unable to keep their hot start going.
This isn’t the first time that the Clan have lost a game after winning the first set. When asked about this after the game, this is what Schmidt had to say:
“It’s always something that we want to address and get better at. We’re still trying to find the solutions in those times and still working on that.”
SFU is expected to be one of the top teams in the GNAC, and should get back to winning form soon. Their struggles this season have had to do with offence against bigger teams, as Schmidt explained.
“Where we’ve run into trouble is against teams with bigger blocks and we have to do a better job of finding ways to work around them, or use the block, or our coverage has to be better.”
Hopefully the early-season struggles end soon, as this is what cost the team a playoff berth last season. The team is now 2–3 in GNAC play this season.
Peak player of the game: Tessa May
While most of the team struggled in this one, May put in a solid performance. She led the team in kills (11), serving aces (2), solo blocks (1), and total points (14.5).
Saturday vs. University of Alaska
After a tough loss on Thursday, the Clan got a much-needed victory on Saturday. While everything seemed to go wrong after the first set against Alaska Anchorage, SFU played a consistent three sets of volleyball against the University of Alaska, somewhat making up for the disappointing play in their previous game.
The first set was won 25–13, and a big reason why was Kirsten Pinkney. She had five kills in the set, and was unmatched by any of her opponents, evidenced by her .714 hitting percentage in the set. The University of Alaska was unable to gain any momentum, and the Clan made their presence felt.
Similarly, the second set was won 25–13. It was good to see SFU come out with two strong sets to start the match, as they were unable to carry over the momentum of a 25–13 first set win in Thursday’s match.
The Clan went on to wrap the game up in style in the third set, winning it 25–12. University of Alaska simply had no answer for them all night.
While SFU struggled against blocking in Thursday’s game, this was not the case on Saturday. The Clan had a combined 45 kills in the game on a .458 kill percentage — simply dominant.
Peak player of the game: Kirsten Pinkney
Pinkney led the game with 13 kills on an unbelievable .765 kill percentage. No University of Alaska player was able to match her at the net, and she dominated the game whenever given the chance.
What’s next:
The Clan will host Western Washington University in the “Red Night Carnival” game on Tuesday night. The game starts at 7 p.m.
