Aaron Walling / Sun Star
Senior Night Leads to the Future
The Nanooks volleyball season has come to a close, as the Nanooks said goodbye to three of their seniors after a close loss to Concordia. Seniors Miranda Grieser, Samantha Hesterman and Sam Harthun turned in a memorable performance in front of the home crowd for the last time.
Grieser showed her strong knack for setting up plays with 50 assists on the night, Harthun extended her record of kills in both the GNAC and as an Alaska Nanook with 27 kills on the night to give her 1,513 kills overall and Hesterman got it done on the defensive side with 14 digs.
“I’m saying goodbye to three great kids,” said Head Coach Brian Scott. “I wish we had them another year to help us keep building this thing. Things didn’t go the way we wanted it to go tonight, but we fought the entire night. That’s how volleyball should be played, two teams battling point for point like these teams did tonight.”
Despite losing to Concordia 3-1 in the series, the Nanooks displayed what to look forward to for the future. Head Coach Brian Scott at the press conference with the seniors, talked about the future of the program.
“Our theme for this spring will be no limitations,” said Scott. “We are going to push ourselves above and beyond where we’ve ever been. We are not going to limit ourselves in any shape or form. We’re going to take this program to the top. We established some great building blocks and there are some brighter days ahead for the Alaska Nanooks.”
The Nanooks finished with a 6-21 record, their most wins since Harthun’s freshman year in 2012.
Men’s Basketball Earn Best Start Since ‘06
The Nanooks have started the season 4-0 for the first time since the 2006-2007 season. Due in large part to first time Nanook players Travante Williams and Bengaly Kaba. Both players have been dominating the early part of the season with both offense and defense.
The Nanooks went to the AT&T Jamboree in Anchorage, Alaska fresh off their GCI GNAC/PACWest win, and they didn’t look back. They first took care of business with them beating Cal State, Dominguez Hills 81-73 with both Kaba and Williams turning in double-doubles. Kaba had 18 points and 10 rebounds, for Williams he had 16 points and 15 rebounds.
“They have been the two most consistent players for us this entire off season, and for them to get a double-double in the same game just speaks more to that,” Head Coach Mick Durham said after the game. “Bangaly had a great overall game, he also added five assists on the night, and Travante had to battle through some foul trouble, but was still able to perform well. It was a good team win tonight, but those two really stood out.”
The Nanooks came out and dominated against Life Pacific College in a 90-75 win to go 4-0 so far in this season. Travante Williams had 18 points, while Joe Slocum came in with 13 points and seven assists to lead the Nanooks to the AT&T Jamboree tourney win.
“It was a good game for us, we were pretty solid from the start as we were able to build a lead and extend it as the game went on,” Durham said. “Everyone had an opportunity to play, which is great. Overall, this was a good game coming off a tough win the night before. We shared the ball well, a lot of guys contributed and getting 90 points is always good.”
Hockey Draws Even, Literally
The Nanooks rolled into Ferris State looking for a pair of WCHA wins in their conference. Instead they left with a pair of ties that keeps the Nanooks in seventh for the conference with both matches ending 2-2 and 3-3.
The Nanooks (2-4-2) are six points behind in the conference, and face an uphill battle to get back into it. Despite that, Coach Dallas Ferguson is optimistic for his team.
“Tonight was a great college hockey game,” Ferguson said. “The pace was high and both teams created lots of plays at the net. We moved pucks out of our zone effectively and that allowed us to generate more time in the offensive zone.”
The Nanooks face off against Michigan Technological University Nov. 27 at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks, Alaska.