Sept. 22, 2011
UVU Volleyball Match Notes
OREM, Utah -- After a five-set victory over in-state foe Weber State in Ogden Tuesday night, the Utah Valley women's volleyball team will once again hit the road Saturday for a 2 p.m. contest at Idaho State.
The match will be the eighth of nine consecutive contests away from home for UVU. During the road stretch the Wolverines have a winning record of 4-3 and have wins over Air Force, USC Upstate, Sacramento State and the afore mentioned Weber State.
Saturday's match will feature live stats, video and audio streams that you can find by visiting ISUBengals.com.
UVU senior Jaicee Kuresa led the Wolverines on Tuesday against the Wildcats as she finished with a career-high 17 kills. Fellow senior Chelsey Heaps and junior Erica Nish too tallied double figures in kills by each putting up 13. The trio of Wolverines all also hit .300 or better for the match as Nish hit .391, Kuresa .364 and Heaps .310.
Overall the Wolverines are 10-5 on the year and will enter Saturday having won their last two matches. Heaps leads the team in kills per set with an average of 2.51, while sophomore Lindsay Barker is right behind her by averaging 2.38.
As a team UVU is ranked 11th in the nation in aces per set with a 1.89 average and 26th in blocks per set (2.62).
The Bengals will enter the weekend with an even 6-6 overall record and will play fellow Big Sky foe Weber State Friday night. ISU is 1-1 in Big Sky Conference play as it opened conference play on the road last weekend and defeated Portland State before falling to Eastern Washington. The Bengals were picked to finish fifth in the Big Sky preseason poll and have notable wins over Illinois State, Utah State and Wyoming this year.
Breanne Van Every and Danielle Downs lead ISU offensively. Van Every has a team-high 135 kills and is averaging 3.0 kills per set while Downs is right behind her with 128 kills and a 2.84 kill per set average.
UVU leads the all-time series over Idaho State 6-3. The Wolverines defeated the Bengals twice in 2009, winning 3-2 in the last meeting on Oct. 17, 2009 in Pocatello. UVU has won five of its last seven matches against ISU.
UVU will now look forward to its conference season when it kicks the 2011 Great West campaign at defending champion North Dakota next Saturday (Oct. 1).
