After ten weeks of away games, Seattle Pacific University’s women’s volleyball team returned home to Royal Brougham Pavilion for their first two home games of the 2024-2025 season.
The first was on Thursday, Oct. 3, against University of Alaska Fairbanks. SPU lost after three sets. This was the team’s third consecutive loss since the start of conference play on Saturday, Sept. 21.
Fairbanks started the game strong, quickly scoring the first point and gaining a small lead over SPU. Fifth-year middle blocker Hannah Hair, voted the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s Preseason Player of the Year in August 2024, experienced a mid-air battle at the net.
“It was a huge challenge. Fairbanks came in and had a great game plan. They slowed us down in the middle, and they frustrated us offensively and defensively. I respect [them a lot],” Hair said.
Head Coach Jason Rhine felt good about his team’s performance but also admired the experience and strength of Fairbanks’s veteran squad.
“Fairbanks did a really good job. They have a lot of seniors and fifth-years like we do, but they brought that experience. Our team had some chances to respond and played some really good points to compete with them,” Rhine said. “At some point, we had maybe a harder time getting our attacks aggressive enough to win some of those post points.”
On Saturday, Oct. 5, the team played their second home game of the season against the University of Alaska Anchorage. SPU lost three sets out of four to Anchorage. This was the team’s fourth consecutive loss, bringing their in-conference record to 1-4 and 1-12 overall.
SPU was the first to score in the first two sets of the game and held a three-point lead for a short time in the second set, but Anchorage immediately became the aggressor of the match and took the lead in each set.
Allison Wilks, a fifth-year middle blocker, took note of the other team’s strength.
“Our opponent was doing a really good job of taking big swings, and that’s something that we’ve been wanting to get better at, so I’d like to see us continue getting better at that as a team,” Wilks said. “We just need to get a good scouting report going [and] know the other opponents’ hitting tendencies and prepare to get a good block up against those and then get some floor defense behind it.”
Both sides had solid power and blocking. SPU fought hard to close the gap and even tied the score repeatedly with Anchorage in the fourth set, but they could not pull far enough ahead.
Looking forward to the team’s next game, Hair highlighted their ability to take challenges in stride.
“What we do good as a team is taking the helpful things, holding onto those, and letting go of the unhelpful things,” Hair said. “We learned a lot tonight, and that’s inspiring and exciting for this next game coming up, and [the] season’s still early.”
Women’s volleyball returns to the court on Thursday, Oct. 10, against Western Washington University at 7 p.m. in Bellingham, Washington.
