Seawolves tumble in national championship volleyball match

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Diana Fa’amausili of UAA stretches to tip the ball as Anna Schlaak of Concordia-St. Paul looks on during Saturday’s NCAA DII Finals in Sioux Falls. (Michael G Brown)

After the best volleyball season in UAA history ended swiftly in defeat Saturday in the NCAA Division II national championship match, the team's two seniors, their eyes swollen but their heads high, reminded everyone of the big picture.

"It's been a helluva last season," All-America setter Morgan Hooe of Anchorage said at a post-match press conference. "So even though we're second in the nation, we're second in the nation – and we're from Alaska, so that's pretty amazing in itself."

The Seawolves were no match for a Concordia-St. Paul team that won its eighth national championship in 10 years. The Golden Bears put on a hitting clinic in the 25-19, 25-12, 25-12 victory that lasted a little more than an hour at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The loss ended a magical season for the Seawolves, who finished with a 34-3 record and minimal regrets.

"You can probably only ask for one more thing out of this, but unfortunately we weren't able to get that," said middle hitter Erin Braun of San Bernardino, California. "I'm just so proud of this team and all that we've accomplished."

Those accomplishments are myriad. The Seawolves won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the West Region championship on their way to the Elite Eight Tournament in Sioux Falls, where they picked up wins over Angelo State and Palm Beach Atlantic en route to Saturday's championship match.

They put together a school-record 20-match winning streak early in the season and rode a 13-match winning streak into the championship match. They led all of Division II in attendance.

And they saw their two seniors carve their names in the school record book. Hooe leaves as the career assist leader and Braun departs as the career block-assist leader.

Not that any of that mattered against Concordia-St. Paul, which cemented its role as Division II juggernaut years ago. The Golden Bears (35-2) won seven straight national championships from 2007-13.

With six seniors leading the way, Concordia returned to the top of the heap in such dominating fashion that it elicited a "wow" from UAA coach Chris Green.

"That's a powerful team they have and, wow, they deserve a lot of credit for their performance in this tournament," Green said.

"This last match maybe wasn't our best performance but we had a ton of accomplishments this year and we only wish we had been able to perform a little better tonight against a good team."

Statistics tell the story.

Concordia-St. Paul registered twice as many kills as UAA (50-23) and nearly twice as many digs (51-27).

The Golden Bears posted a .433 hitting percentage with a powerful offensive attack that often sent the ball straight to the floor on trajectories almost impossible to defend.

They also attacked from the service line. They served eight aces – five of them by Hope Schiller – and made UAA scramble on serve-receive, leading to UAA's .114 attack percentage.

"If we go to the Xs and Os, it was them taking away our offense (with) their tough serve," Green said. "They served the ball very tough and we just could not handle that. Our passers could not handle their serves, and if you can't pass you can't win many games."

Hooe spent much of the match chasing down passes, which is exactly what Concordia coach Brady Starkey said he was hoping for.

"The big thing about that team," he said of UAA, "is to not let them at the tape. They were getting balls up, but they were at least five or six feet off the net."

By keeping Hooe away from the net, the Golden Bears neutralized her contributions as an attacker and blocker. She finished with 20 assists, five digs but no kills or blocks.

Leading the way for Concordia was Riley Hanson, a 5-foot-11 middle blocker and three-time All-America. She ripped a match-high 15 kills and finished with a .650 hitting percentage.

Hanson is one of six seniors for the Golden Bears. UAA countered with a roster filled with young players.

Of the eight players who logged most of the playing time this season, four are sophomores (Leah Swiss, Chrisalyn Johnson, Taylor Noga and Kyla Militante-Amper) and two are freshmen (Diana Fa'amausili and Vanessa Hayes).

"We have a young team, and hopefully we learned something tonight – we learned what it takes to be a national champion," Green said. "So hopefully … the young kids, the returners, take something away from this match.

"They know now, you know?"

Swiss led UAA with eight kills Saturday. Militante-Amper had a team-high seven digs and Fa'amausili and Hayes each had two block assists on a night when all of UAA's stats were meager.

Hooe, Swiss, Johnson and Noga are all from Anchorage, and after four years at UAA Braun said she feels like a home-town player.

"I'm not from Alaska," she said, fighting back tears, "but I want to shout out to Alaska about how much they welcomed me and how much support they give for every game."