The University of Alaska Fairbanks will celebrate its three seniors this afternoon — graduate transfer Jessa Long and seniors Marine Angely and Taylor Overn —in their home finale against Northwest Nazarene University.
Game time is 2 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Gymnasium.
Despite a three-game losing streak, Northwest Nazarene (16-8 overall, 9-7 GNAC) was the No. 8 seed in the most recent NCAA West Regional Poll.
Today’s match for UAF (15-12, 5-10) will see the Nanooks try to snap a four-game losing streak. That includes Thursday evening’s four-set home loss to Central Washington University (15-9, 10-6), which received votes in this week’s NCAA Division II national poll.
Karli Nielson ended Thursday’s match with a team-high 12 kills, while Ella Bines added eight.
The Nanooks offense clicked in the third set, blowing open a 19-16 set with the final six points for a 25-16 win to draw within 2-1. After it became a 19-16 lead, the Nanooks strung together six-straight for the win.
But UAF’s momentum was cut down in the fourth. After a 9-9 tie, Central scored the next six points to take a 15-9 lead. UAF pulled back to a six-point deficit at 18-12, but the Wildcats finished them off with seven-straight points.
Long had another strong defensive performance and shot up the history books; after her 23-dig performance, she sits at 464 on the season, placing her third for total digs in a single-season by a Nanook.
Ainsley Smith and Overn split the evening at setter, both ending up with 18 assists.
Overn will wrap up her career with her best season. This year she has posted 447 assists while adding 27 aces and 162 digs.
Angely joined the Nanooks during the 2020 season and in her career so far has posted 19 kills, three assists, four aces, 27 digs and three blocks.
