Aug. 28, 2009
OGDEN, Utah - Utah Valley University's Camie Manwill posted a double-double with 22 kills and 18 digs and teammate Kayli Broadbent added 16 kills, including eight in the fourth set, in leading the Wolverines to the 25-22, 25-23, 24-26, 25-19 season-opening victory over Gonzaga in the first-ever meeting between the two teams Friday night at the Weber State Invitational.
"Those two (Manwill and Broadbent) are huge and when they got their game on they were hard to stop," Utah Valley University volleyball coach Sam Atoa said. "In that fourth set Kayli started to play her game."
The victory was Utah Valley's first season-opening win as a four-year program.
"It's a step forward and it brings us a little closer to the goals that we set," Atoa said of the victory. "Hopefully we can improve on this."
Despite hitting at .093 percent in the first set, the Wolverines held off the Zags 25-22. UVU, however, saw an increase in its attack percentage throughout the remainder of the match.
In the second match, UVU hit at .205 then followed with .333 in the third and finally .432 in the final set that they won 25-19.
"As far as hitting goes we struggled a little bit at the beginning and we were fortunate to win the first set," Atoa said. "I think it was great we were able to improve, especially in that last set when we started playing like I expected our outsides to play."
Broadbent had four of her eight kills in the fourth set early on as UVU gained an 11-4 lead. Gonzaga pulled two within four points on a couple of occasions before the Wolverines put the set away.
In the first set of the match, the Wolverines led by as many as eight points only to see the Zags (0-1) take the lead at 20-18. Down the stretch, Dani Robison and Chelsey Garfield had two kills each to rally the Wolverines back for the 25-22 victory.
The Wolverines led by a point late in the second set, and Manwill had two kills in the final three points to hold of the Zags.
Gonzaga never trailed in the third set, although the set was tied twice late. The Wolverines had an attack error and a service error after knotting the score at 23-23 before losing the only set of the match.
Manwill hit at a .311 percentage while Broadbent hit at .211. Allyce Jones tallied 23 digs and Kathleen Stevens added 10.
The Wolverines are back in action Saturday when they play tournament host Weber State at 1 p.m. and Utah State at 5 p.m. to conclude the Invitational.
