Nov. 19, 2010

CHICAGO - Chelsey Heaps recorded 10 kills, Kayli Doxey added nine kills and Lanni O'Reilly had five service aces in leading Utah Valley to a 25-8, 25-14, 25-13 win over Chicago State in the first round of the Great West Conference volleyball tournament Friday.

"I really liked our energy, and we hit at a high percentage as a team. Overall, we did some good things," UVU volleyball coach Sam Atoa said. "Momentum is a huge part of tournaments and having the momentum heading into Saturday will help us."

With the win, the Wolverines advance to play South Dakota Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Mountain time.

"South Dakota is a good team," he said. "They have shown that they can compete well against us. We're going to come out and hopefully put together what we need to do and play a good match."

Freshman Brookelyn Campbell, who had 30 assists and three service aces, served the first five points to open the match and the Wolverines (21-10) never looked back in the win over the Cougars (0-33).

In all, Campbell served nine of UVU's 25 points. Heaps had four kills in the game, while Doxey, Jaicee Kuresa and Sarah Clement had three kills each.

O'Reilly paced the Wolverines in the second game by recording four of her five aces. With UVU leading 6-5, O'Reilly served four straight points, including two aces, to increase the UVU advantage to 10-5.

Leading 22-14, Heaps had back-to-back kills before O'Reilly finished off the match with back-to-back aces.

In the final game, Heaps and Dani Robison had three kills, while Kuresa, who had six kills in the match, and Lindsay Barker added two kills each in the deciding game.

Overall, the Wolverines recorded 41 kills while hitting at .443, while Chicago State hit at .000, including -.111 in the first game.

Kathleen Stevens led the Wolverines with eight digs, while Doxey and Campbell had six each. Robinson and Doxey also had two blocks each.