Sept. 18, 2009
OREM, Utah - The Utah Valley University volleyball team opened its Great West Conference slate Friday night with a 25-12, 25-5, 25-11 sweep of Chicago State.
With the victory, the Wolverines improve to 7-5, 1-0 and have won two matches in a row, while the Cougars fall to 0-11, 0-1.
"It's a thrill to be in a conference, and to start off this way I am happy," UVU volleyball coach Sam Atoa said.
UVU finished the week 2-1 after playing back-to-back-to-back matches against No. 12 Oregon, at Boise State and finally Chicago State.
"We talked about it (the three straight matches) and the girls understood, regardless of who are competition was, we still needed to play hard and execute well," Atoa said.
UVU served the ball well in the first set as Allyce Jones served four straight points early in the set to give the Wolverines a 6-2 lead. Later, Chelsea Fa'alogo served four straight to increase the lead to 15-9, and Lanni O'Reilly closed out the set with six straight points in the 25-12 UVU win. O'Reilly had seven service points in the set.
Camie Manwill hit at .714 (5-for-7) in the first set. Kayli Broadbent, Jaicee Kuresa and Sarah Clement had two kills each.
The strong serving continued in the second set with Chelsey Garfield opening with four straight service points followed by Broadbent serving 11 consecutive and Wolverines led 17-3. UVU's Rachel Anderson finished off the set with four service points.
Broadbent, Erica Nish, Clement and Garfield had three kills each as UVU hit .483 in the set.
Garfield took her turn in the third and final set by serving eight of the last nine points. Earlier in the set Jones and Faith Tusieseina served four straight.
Kuresa and Nish paced the Wolverines with seven kills each while Garfield had six and Broadbent, Manwill and Clement had five each. Jones led the Wolverines with 13 digs, and Fa'alogo and Anderson had 22 and 13 assists, respectively.
In her second career start, Marla Morin had two kills and served two straight points in the final set.
The Wolverines are back in action Tuesday night when they host Southern Utah at 7 p.m. at the Shurian Family Activity Center.
