Women's Volleyball | 10/22/2014 1:25:00 PM
ELLENSBURG, Wash. (Oct. 22) – After a perfect 4-0 homestand the Central Washington University climbed up to fourth in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings and now travels for two games in the State of Alaska.
On Oct. 23 a win streak is going to be snapped. The Wildcats are riding a four-game win streak, and the Seawolves (16-3, 10-1 GNAC) are on a six-game streak that started on Sep. 27 when they defeated CWU 3-2 -- the Wildcats only home blemish on the season.
This game will feature two of the conferences top hitting teams as the Wildcats lead the GNAC with a .228 hitting percentage and UAA comes in third at .214. The Seawolves have two players in the top-ten in conference hitting percentage in Erin Braun and Kayla McGlathery who have combined to hit .302 with 221 kills. Although less efficient, Seawolves outside hitter Katelyn Zanders might be UAA's scariest hitter as she has had 245 kills on the season while hitting .215.
"Anchorage is a good offensive team and they score a lot from putting constant pressure on you," CWU head coach
Mario Andaya said. "They have a lot of different hitters and we need to focus on slowing down their best hitters defensively. With that said, our best defense will be our offense."
The Wildcats use a much more balanced attack, which has led to their conference leading hitting percentage.
Jordan Deming is the Wildcats top hitter in terms of percentage, ranking 10
th in the conference with a .251 mark. The sophomore has seen her hitting percentage rise in recent games as she has hit over .400 in three of the last four contests. Right behind Deming is
Linden Firethorne who has been the Wildcats most consistent hitter and leads the team with 243 kills and a .243 hitting percentage.
Andaya explained that his team also has to be aggressive offensively in order to be successful. "We have to turn it around and put the pressure back on them offensively and put our best hitters in a good positions to attack."
On Thursday Oct. 25 CWU will play Alaska who has lost its last three, after winning its first two games of the season against Western Oregon and Saint Martin's. Statistically speaking, this could be a big game for the Wildcat offense due to the fact that Alaska ranks last in the conference in opponent hitting percentage at .290 and last in blocks with 78. In their previous meeting the Wildcats won 3-0, with each set ending by a 25-14 score, and hit .389 as a team.
"Fairbanks is young and getting better each game," Andaya said. "We can't expect the same outcome as before, because they are a far better team now then when we played them last."
