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ELLENSBURG (Sept. 26) -- The Central Washington University volleyball team waited four weeks to play its home opener inside Nicholson Pavilion, and the result from the Wildcats' 2013 home debut wasn't quite what they expected in suffering a four-set loss to visiting Alaska Anchorage on Thursday night. Set scores were 25-15, 25-21, 12-25, 25-20 in favor of the Seawolves.

CWU fell to 5-6 overall and 1-2 in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play. The Wildcats have now lost four of their last five matches following a 4-2 start. Alaska Anchorage improved to 9-6 overall and remained perfect in GNAC matches at 3-0.

The Wildcats, who played on the road for the first three weekends of the season with matches in four different states during that span, struggled to put together scoring runs against a perennially-strong Alaska Anchorage program that has won nine of the last 11 series meetings between the two schools.

"To their credit, Alaska Anchorage was more physical than we were," CWU head coach Mario Andaya said. "They had an opportunity to run their sets a bit better than we did. We have to pass better, and once we do that, things will start to settle for us. We lost all control tonight and never stabilized our ball control.

In a match that proved to be nearly even statistically in terms of totals -- CWU hit at a higher percentage and nearly matched UAA in aces (7-6), digs (63-58) and blocks (an identical eight blocks per team) -- it was an efficient third set that helped to augment the Wildcats' overall numbers. CWU hit .583 with 14 kills in 24 attempts in that frame as they cruised to a 25-12 victory.

The Wildcats led the opening set by an 8-6 count before a six-point scoring run from the Seawolves -- which jumpstarted a set-ending 19-7 spurt for UAA and overshadowed seven tie scores and five lead changes to start the match. Then, in the second frame, the teams were tied eight more times but another 5-0 run by the visitors overtook an 8-7 lead by CWU and propelled Alaska Anchorage into the lead for good en route to a 2-0 match lead.

CWU came out of the locker room following the intermission and stormed out to leads of 6-0, 7-1, 11-3, and 15-4 in the third set, firing on all cylinders offensively. The Wildcats also recorded three of their six service aces for the match in that frame, and their defense registered four blocks in the commanding 25-12 victory.

Alaska Anchorage scored the first two points of the fourth set and never trailed, earning a five-point victory in an error-filled frame that saw the two teams combine for 17 hitting errors (24 kills combined). The Seawolves accumulated half of their eight blocks for the match in that final set.

The CWU offense had four players with eight or more kills -- but no player with more than 11. Senior Emmy Dolan (Castle Rock) finished with a team-best 11 kills, and sophomore Linden Firethorne (Clinton/South Whidbey HS) added 10, as the Wildcats hit .222 as a team with 47 total kills. Sophomore setter Catie Fry (Tacoma/Mount Si HS) finished with 37 assists, and junior libero Kaely Kight (Spokane/Mead HS) had three service aces and a match-high 22 digs.

Katelynn Zanders led all players with 18 kills, hitting .333 and adding 11 digs and three blocks for Alaska Anchorage. Julia Mackey added 12 kills and a .320 clip, as the duo combined for more than half of the Seawolves' 53 kills for the match. Quinn Barker finished with four aces and 21 digs, while Jodi Huddleston led all players with five assisted blocks.

CWU will look to secure its first home win of the 2013 season, and return to the .500 mark overall, when it hosts the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday (Sept. 28) at Nicholson Pavilion at 7 p.m.