Sept. 4, 2009

OREM, Utah - A season of firsts continued for the Utah Valley University volleyball team Friday night in the opening game of the La Quinta Inn & Suites Invitational.

The Wolverines entered the match without a win over Utah or a win or set win over a ranked opponent. Now they boast all three.

Kayli Broadbent tallied 18 kills and Camie Manwill added 16, while Allyce Jones recorded 22 digs Chelsea Fa'alogo notched 43 assists in the 26-24, 18-25, 25-14, 25-18 victory over No. 17 Utah.

"This is great. The girls executed very well against a team that is very good. Tonight we served and passed a lot better than they did," UVU volleyball coach Sam Atoa said. "There are a lot of things for us that we know we can continue to build on. It's great for the program with the way we played. We saw kids that played well together and will continue to play well together."

UVU was 0-6 all-time against Utah prior to Friday's victory. The Wolverine win also snapped Utah's 13 match regular-season winning streak, while increasing their own winning streak to eight.

In addition, the Wolverines, with their biggest win in school history, are now 4-0 to start a season for the first time since becoming a four-year program.

The Wolverines were in control of the first set and led by as many as four early on. The Utes (4-1) fought back and tied the set at 21-21 and eventually took a 23-21 advantage.

Manwill had a pair of kills and Broadbent and Dani Robison added kills down the stretch to lift the Wolverines to the 26-24 opening-set victory.

Utah Valley jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second set, but the Utes climbed back and tied the set at 7-7, and after taking the 8-7 lead they never trailed in winning 25-18.

The Wolverines continued with the theme of early leads by breaking out to a 6-2 advantage in the third set. At one point, UVU led by 11 points before winning 25-14. Manwill had five kills in the set while Jaicee Kuresa had four and Broadbent and Sarah Clement had three each.

In addition, the Wolverines had five services aces in the set.

"I was never comfortable with the leads that we had. You can never count them out," Atoa said on the importance of getting ahead early in sets. "Because we were able to continue to put pressure on them it took it out of them."

Utah Valley didn't build a quick lead in the fourth and final set and trailed by four at 15-11. The Wolverines, behind kills from Fa'alogo, Broadbent, Faith Tusieseina and a pair of errors by the Utes, tied the score at 16-16 and scored four more on kills by Manwill, Broadbent, a service ace by Kathleen Stevens and a Utah error to lead 20-16.

Along with a Utah error, Broadbent tallied a kill in the final five points of the sets as did Manwill, and Fa'alogo and Clement and Manwill and Robison had blocks to put the finishing touches on the victory.

The Wolverines are back in action today when they host Missouri, which was swept by Washington State, at noon and Washington State at 7 p.m.