Oct. 12, 2011
UVU Volleyball Notes vs. UTPA and HBU
OREM, Utah -- The Utah Valley women's volleyball team will put its four-match win streak and unblemished conference record on the line this weekend when it travels to the Lone Star State to play two Great West foes. Thursday the Wolverines will head to Edinburg, Texas take on Texas-Pan American at 6 p.m. and Saturday UVU will play Houston Baptist in Houston at 1 p.m.
Saturday's match at HBU will feature live stats that can be found by visiting HBUHuskies.com.
The Wolverines (14-6, 3-0 GWC) have won four consecutive matches and six of their last seven and are currently undefeated in conference play after defeating North Dakota, Chicago State and NJIT so far. UVU is also ranked in the top 100 in the country on the RichKern.com Regional Rankings (RKPI) as it comes in at 96th.
After home sweeps over Chicago State and NJIT last week, Utah Valley continued its winning ways by beating Boise State 3-1 in Orem this past Monday. In that match the Wolverines had four players notch double figures in kills as Erica Nish, Sarah Clement, Chelsey Heaps and Jaicee Kuresa put up 13, 11, 11 and 10 respectively. Heaps also tallied another double-double by adding 14 digs and Clement just missed one with nine total blocks.
As a team UVU is currently ranked 10th in the nation in aces per set with a 1.79 average and 26th in blocks per set (2.59).
About Texas-Pan American
The Broncs are 5-15 overall on the year and 1-2 in conference play. UTPA is coming off a 3-0 home conference loss to Houston Baptist this past Saturday. The Broncs GWC victory came on the road in a 3-2 win at Chicago State back on Sept. 29. On the season Ijanae Holman leads Texas-Pan American with 167 kills and a 2.42 kill per set average, while Juri Franzen leads the team defensively with 3.93 digs per set.
UVU holds a commanding 16-1 all-time series advantage over UTPA.
About Houston Baptist
The Huskies are 16-5 overall and entering this weekend are tied with UVU atop the conference with a perfect 3-0 GWC clip. Before playing the Wolverines on Saturday, HBU will welcome North Dakota to Houston on Thursday. The Huskies have won four consecutive matches and nine of their last 11. Overall HBU is led offensively by Heather Leaverton who has 216 kills and a 2.81 kill per set season average. Her teammate Caiti Wenger leads the entire conference in attack percentage (.306).
All-time the Wolverines hold a perfect 6-0 series advantage over the Huskies.
Next up for the Wolverines
The Wolverines will continue conference play next week by heading to the East Coast to play NJIT Thursday and the Midwest to take on Chicago State Saturday.
