Sept. 19, 2011
UVU Volleyball Match Notes
OREM, Utah -- After back-to-back weekends away from home, Utah Valley returns to the state of Utah when it travels to Ogden to face its first in-state opponent on the year in Weber State. Game time is set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday night at WSU's Swenson Gym.
UVU (9-5) comes back to the Beehive State after back-to-back weekend tournaments that took the Wolverines to Colorado and then to California. Following a 2-1 performance at the Falcon Invitational the weekend before, UVU went 1-2 at last weekend's Saint Mary's Invitational in Moraga, Calif. The Wolverines lost a tough five-set match to host Saint Mary's, and also fell to Big 12 member Kansas State before closing the weekend with a solid win over Sacramento State.
The bulk of UVU's offensive production has come from a trio of Wolverines. Senior Chelsey Heaps leads the team with a 2.50 kills per set average, while sophomore Lindsay Barker sits right behind her at 2.47. Additionally, junior Erica Nish, who was recently named to the All-Tournament Team at the Saint Mary's Tourney, has turned in 2.09 kills per set along with a team-high 1.34 blocks per set average.
Weber State is winless on the year, coming into the contest at 0-12. Last weekend, the Wildcats kicked off league play in the Big Sky Conference, falling 3-0 at both Eastern Washington and Portland State.
Junior Bethany Wray, an honorable mention for All-Big Sky a year ago, leads WSU with 3.48 kills per set. Briana Wilms, a sophomore, is second on the team, putting away 2.36 kills per frame.
The all-time series between Utah Valley and Weber State is knotted at 6-6, with UVU winning the last meeting, 3-0, on Oct. 5, 2010 in Orem.
After Tuesday's match, the Wolverines will travel to Pocatello, Idaho, on Saturday to face its third consecutive Big Sky opponent in the Idaho State Bengals at 2 p.m. From there, UVU kicks off the Great West Conference season at defending champion North Dakota the following week.
