newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — The Alaska Nanooks unveiled a two-setter lineup on Saturday at Seattle Pacific.

And their play improved from a straight-set defeat two days earlier against Northwest Nazarene.

The end result, though, didn’t change as the Nanooks fell 25-21, 19-25, 25-15, 25-15 to the Falcons for their fourth straight Great Northwest Athletic Conference volleyball defeat.

The Nanooks went to intermission tied, but not much went right thereafter.

“The big thing was we just got tentative and our serve receive broke down a little bit,” Alaska coach Phil Shoemaker said. “They pretty much just outmuscled us in the last two games.”

The Nanooks dropped to 2-6 in the conference and 8-11 overall. SPU, which fell in three sets to Alaska Anchorage at home on Thursday, remained tied for first with UAA at 7-2 GNAC and 13-8 overall.

“Tonight, we had a lot of fire because of what happened Thursday,” SPU libero Anna Herold said on the school’s athletics Web site. “That made us more determined. It was almost a necessary wake-up call. Our passing and our blocking and our defense played a lot better.”

For the first time this season, the Nanooks gave 6-foot freshman setter Mandy Grierson considerable playing time by alternating her with 5-9 senior Alexa Sherman.

The move was made to blend the talents of the two setters, who each pass better to different hitters, Shoemaker said. Inserting Grierson, who dished out 16 assists to 23 from Sherman, also provided another benefit.

“Mandy probably gives us the look of a bigger block when she’s in the front row,” said Shoemaker, who plans to continue using two setters.

But the Falcons as a team recorded 12 blocks, twice Alaska’s total. SPU also had an attack percentage of .221 to the Nanooks’ .148.

Senior middle blocker Megan Thigpen led the Nanooks with 19 kills and Melissa Refuerzo added 11. Defensive specialists Allison Oddy (15 digs) and Jennifer Holland (14 digs) paced the back line.

“Our defense dug a lot of balls,” Shoemaker said. “We just didn’t mount enough of an attack to carry us.”

Herold led all players with 25 digs. SPU outside hitter Sarah Risser piled up 17 kills and 16 digs.

The Nanooks return home for matches Thursday against Western Washington and Saturday against Central Washington.

“Western and Central are both within our reach,” Shoemaker said. “But we’re gonna have to really be on our game and hopefully get a little healthier.”

Contact staff writer Matias Saari at 459-7591.