The Alaska Nanook volleyball team showed progress against Central Washington and Seattle Pacific this weekend but failed to nail match wins.

The Nanook girls beat the Central Washington Wildcats by a slim two points for an end score of 30-28 in its first game Thursday. But the team suffered largely disappointing losses in the next two games, 13-30 and 19-30.

The 'Nooks showed promise in the final match versus the 11-1 league leader Central Washington with a tighter score of 25-30. But by then the crowds had already thinned out from the already low attendance of only 159 ticket holders.

For the 'Nooks, Jenna Jones was the kills leader with 12 kills and a .150 ratio. Working defense was Jessica King with 21 digs.

Wildcat's Kristin Paley led her team with 17 kills and a .286 ratio. On defense Stephanie Powell with an impressive 15 kills and a .282 ratio also preformed 20 digs Thursday.

Saturday's performance was another disappointing three losses as the Nanooks took-on second place league standing Seattle Pacific. With an end score of 25-30, 19-30 and 25-30, the Nanooks showed tighter games but still lost by a fare point margin.

Asked how the Nanook performed Thursday night, head coach Phil Shoemaker commented, "Better. This was a good performance."

He added he was "happy with the effort and skills."

Korlyn Bolster, who led the team with a kill ratio of .381 out of 10 kills, said she felt good about the match.

"Our progress from last year is great," Bolster said.

But the crowd seemed to think otherwise. A young man was overheard saying, "Did we win any?" It showed that many students are less pleased with the Nanooks' performance than the team.

Bolster later commented that she felt that the team "needed to work on communication" on the court.

Shoemaker also agreed that the Nanooks needed to work on getting out of "bad rotations" and that team communication was still being worked out.

"We're a young team but we're showing maturity," Shoemaker said.

The Nanooks next play at home this Thursday versus the Northwest Nazarene Crusaders.