Complete Weekly Release PDF Version

All Press Releases

Home, sweet Brougham. Following a couple weeks in California, the Seattle Pacific University volleyball team now comes home to roost. The Falcons (5-3) host crosstown rival Seattle University (3-5) to commence Great Northwest Athletic Conference play Thursday night (Sept. 6). League newcomer Montana State Billings (6-2) arrives Saturday (Sept. 8) and the home stand concludes Sept. 15 against Northwest Nazarene.

Carry forward? Precious few current GNAC players have tasted success in Brougham Pavilion, and SPU personnel would like to keep it that way. The Falcons have won their last 20 home conference matches, dating back to Oct. 16, 2004, and they have prevailed in 18 in a row overall. In 2006, only two visitors managed to take a single game, and during 20 straight GNAC home wins, 16 have been sweeps.

Since when is life fair? Despite the fact that two of the three losses are to the nation’s top two teams, Seattle Pacific was dropped from the national rankings this week. Go figure. The Falcons, who had been 20th in the preseason, own a victory over No. 9 UC San Diego and their defeats were to No. 1 Cal State San Bernardino (away) and No. 2 Tampa (neutral). With 76 votes, SPU is nine shy of the No. 25 team in the CSTV/AVCA coaches poll.

Number 1 for good reason. Returning home, Alyssa Given (Sr., 5-10, Salinas, Ca./Notre Dame) had quite a homecoming at the Otter Invitational. Given posted some good numbers versus stiff competition, with her two best performances coming in wins over Notre Dame de Namur and host Cal State Monterey Bay. After leading the way with 16 kills in a loss to Saginaw Valley State, Given served a career-high eight aces against the Otters. She totaled 20 kills in the five-set win over the Argonauts and accumulated 30 in the losses. She leads the conference in service aces (0.97) and is No. 2 in kills (4.20).

A broken record. Going into last week Given needed nine more aces for the school’s career record. Ordinarily that might require a week or two. She accomplished it in about five hours. While serving a run of 10 consecutive points versus Cal State Monterey Bay, she eclipsed Kellie Ryan’s long-standing (1988-91) sum of 142. Given’s tally to date is 148. The eight aces in a single matches rates No. 2 all-time. Next on the horizon for Given is the career kills mark of 1249. She has 1119, and needs 23 to move into No. 2.

Last week’s scores:

Saginaw Valley State def. Seattle Pacific 30-24,30-25,32-30

Seattle Pacific def. Cal State Monterey Bay 30-17,30-26,30-23

Tampa def. Seattle Pacific 30-18,30-22,30-26

Seattle Pacific def. Notre Dame de Namur 28-30, 30-24, 30-19, 27-30, 15-9

What were they thinking? Less than a month ago, the GNAC coaches predicted their order of finish, but going into this week the standings bear little resemblance to that poll. Western Washington got the slight nod over SPU in the preseason, and both teams scheduled difficult opponents in the early going. As a consequence, the Falcons and Vikings are in the middle of the standings while Northwest Nazarene (picked sixth), Billings (fourth) and Alaska Fairbanks (eighth) share the best record at 6-2. Central Washington, which has finished no worse than third the past four seasons, is 1-7.

A fine cast. Given was not alone in her solid outings. Angie Wodrich (Sr., 5-10, Richland, Wa./Richland) had a particularly strong performance against Notre Dame de Namur, matching her career high with 23 kills (a sparkling .420 percentage) and adding three aces. Setter Joelle Perez (Fr., 5-9, Vancouver, Wa./Heritage) finished with 63 assists over the five games, and Courtney Alberi (Fr., 5-11, Castaic, Ca./Valencia) had eight kills and two blocks vs. Monterey Bay and 11 kills vs. NDNU.

Quick sets. The Falcons were out-blocked 16-7.5 in their first three matches last week before getting the edge on NDNU, 10-5...Tampa hit a collective .330 in their win. Given hit a season-high .385 with 14 kills in that match...Strangely, the team’s season-best attack percentage (.233) came in the loss to Saginaw...SPU has served at least 12 aces in each of its victories...Perez is third in GNAC assists (10.10), libero Torii Mount (Jr., Gresham, Or./Gresham) fifth in digs (4.03) and Wodrich is eighth in blocking (1.00). Teamwise, the Falcons lead in services aces (2.70). They are third in opponent hitting (.152), fourth in offensive percentage (.189) and fifth in blocking (2.12)...Jessica Bettencourt (So., South Lake Tahoe, Ca.) saw her first action at Seaside last week after missing the opening week due to injury. Bettencourt appeared in 11 games, hitting .361 and averaging 1.64 kills and 0.45 blocks.

Coaching Staff. Chris Johnson took the Falcons to their first conference championships, their highest national rankings and NCAA tournament berths in his first two seasons as head coach, and was twice voted GNAC co-coach of the year. Johnson was the team’s top assistant in 2004, and earlier served as an assistant at NAIA powerhouse Westmont from 2001-03. Former Central Washington star Crystal Ames joins the staff, which includes Johnny Lai and Jill Spratt.

Tickets, please. Ticket prices for all SPU regular season home games are $5 for general admission, with students and senior citizens $3. Group and team rates are available by phoning (206) 281-2085 in advance.

Missing links. For the latest and best information on Seattle Pacific University athletics, stay where you're at -- on The Falcons Online. For updated standings and statistics, see the Great Northwest Athletic Conference web site.