Sept. 3, 2009
UVU Volleyball Notes
OREM, Utah - The Utah Valley University volleyball team will host No. 17 Utah, Missouri and Washington State in the La Quinta Inn & Suites Invitational Friday and Saturday.
"I think this is the best field that we've had come in for our tournament collectively," UVU volleyball coach Sam Atoa said.
All matches will be played at the Shurian Family Activity Center.
Each of the four teams enters the tournament undefeated after winning the tournaments in which they participated last week.
"This is going to a great challenge for all of us," Atoa said. "They are all really good teams. It's going to be a huge challenge for us to play these teams that play at a level that we would like to be able to be at someday on a consistent basis."
Utah Valley won the Weber State Invitational last week by beating Gonzaga, Weber State and Utah State. UVU's Kayli Broadbent, the current Great West Conference Offensive Player of the Week, was named the MVP, while Camie Manwill, Chelsea Fa'alogo were named to the all-tournament team, and Allyce Jones was named the top libero.
The Wolverines (3-0) open with nationally ranked Utah (4-0) and are 0-6 all-time versus the Utes. The match is set for 7 p.m.
With their win over Cal Poly earlier this week, the Utes have won 13 regular-season matches in a row, while the Wolverines have won seven straight and nine of the last 10.
The Utes, who were picked to win the Mountain West Conference, cruised to the Utah Classic title last week with wins over Arizona State, UC Riverside and Cincinnati.
Missouri, which UVU plays on Saturday at noon, won its fifth Tiger Invitational in six years last week by beating Texas State, Ole Miss and BYU. The Tigers (3-0) finished 13-17 last year and were picked to finish eighth in the Big 12 Conference this year.
Utah Valley is 0-1 all-time against the Tigers.
Washington State, which UVU plays on Saturday at 7 p.m., went 13-19 last year under first-year coach Andrew Palileo and were picked to finish last in the Pac-10 this year. The Cougars, however, are one of four Pac-10 teams to start the year 3-0 this year. WSU (3-0) beat UC Davis, Montana State and Portland in winning the Nike Cougar Invitational last week.
The Wolverines are 1-1 all-time against Washington State with the win coming Sept. 6, 2003, in Salt Lake City.
Every match in the Invitational can be followed via Gametracker at www.wolverinegreen.com , while live video is available for UVU's match with Utah Friday night, and every match for every team on Saturday at www.uvu.edu/broadcast/uvu_remote_embed.html .
* Institute Night ... Institute students can pick up flyers for FREE admission to the match against Utah from Institute teachers! Don't forget to go to the Institute Dance following the game!
*Your ticket to the Soccer game against Wyoming Friday at 4:00 pm gets you in FREE to the Volleyball match against Utah Friday night!
