Aug. 27, 2010

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Utah Valley University women's volleyball team began its 2010 season Friday afternoon with a 3-1 loss to Nevada at the Missouri Tiger Invitational with scores of 20-25, 25-14, 21-25 and 22-25.

"We got off to a very slow start in the first set but I felt that we did some great things to even it out in the second set," UVU head coach Sam Atoa added. "However we just didn't do enough of it to win the match. We've got some young kids out on the court that are still trying to figure some things out but overall it was a good start. We will learn from this match and we expect to keep getting better."

In the losing effort junior Chelsey Heaps had a big match as she led the way for UVU with 17 kills and a hitting percentage of .419. Behind her was senior Kayli Doxey who finished with eight kills and a team-high 12 digs. In her UVU-debut freshman Brookelyn Campbell had a solid match as she picked up a team-high 29 assists, while also adding eight digs and five kills.

Nevada (1-0) came out and took control of the match early as they led 7-0 in the first set and went on to win it by the score of 25-20.

The Wolverines (0-1) then quickly answered in the second set as they managed to win it by a commanding 25-14 score. With the score tied at six-all UVU scored 19 of the final 27 points to secure the set. UVU picked up a match-high 13 kills in the set and hit at a percentage of .370 as a team.

In a very tightly contested third set, the Wolf Pack responded to pull out a 25-21 advantage. In that set, Nevada scored a team-high 17 kills and hit at a percentage of .344.

In the fourth and final set of the match, UVU had leads of 10-6 and 16-13 but couldn't hold on late as Nevada battled back to win the set and the match, 25-22.

The Wolverines will play two more contests at the Tiger Invitational on Saturday, when they take on Maryland at 9 a.m. (MT) and host Mizzou at 5:30 p.m. (MT).