Sept. 3, 2011

OREM, Utah - The Utah Valley University women's volleyball team defeated both Santa Clara and Cal Poly Saturday to place second at the La Quinta Inn and Suites Invitational in Orem. Brookelyn Campbell and Jaicee Kuresa earned All-Tournament Team honors for UVU (4-2) after both put up big numbers on the weekend.

"Our girls played exceptional," UVU head coach Sam Atoa said. "We knew that this was going to be a really tough match as Santa Clara is a good team that is well coached. But our girls stayed disciplined and defended very well."

In the nightcap against the Broncos (4-2), Kuresa finished with a team-high 15 kills, hit a superb .433 and added three blocks. Campbell handed out a match-high 46 assists and also added six digs. Kuresa had 10 kills and Campbell had 37 assists earlier in the day against Cal Poly (3-4).

"It has been awesome to see Jaicee come in and catch fire. They had a hard time stopping her," Atoa added. "Brookelyn did a nice job of feeding that as well as running the offense. The awards were very well deserved for the two of them."

The Wolverines defeated the Broncos 3-1 (25-20, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22) and the Mustangs 3-2 (25-14, 22-25, 25-19, 13-25, 15-11).

In the first set against SCU the Wolverines broke a 5-all tie by going on 8-1 run to take a 13-6 lead. UVU maintained its lead the rest of the set as it went on to win the opener by five points. Campbell handed out 10 assists and Lindsay Barker, Chelsey Heaps, Kuresa and Erica Nish all had three kills each.

UVU kept playing well in the second set as they opened with a 9-3 advantage following a Sarah Clement kill. Santa Clara then answered and closed the gap to three at 11-8. But the Wolverines kept control of the set by opening their lead up five at 17-12. The Broncos then went on an 8-1 spurt to take the lead at 20-18. SCU held on and won the set by four.

After trailing early in the third set the Wolverines took a 7-6 lead after three consecutive points. From there the score remained tight as both teams traded points back and forth. UVU finally broke the trend as it took a 19-16 advantage following a Campbell and Clement block assist. The Wolverines later held a set-point advantage at 24-21 after a Kuresa kill. Barker helped UVU finish off the set with a kill as the Wolverines went up two sets to one.

In the fourth set UVU took a five point lead at 9-4 after a Campbell kill. The Broncos then pulled within one at 11-10 but the Wolverines immediately scored three straight points to take a 14-10 advantage. Later the Broncos got within one at 20-19 but a Clement kill and a Patti Flagg service put UVU ahead 22-19. With UVU up 24-22 Heaps tipped home the final kill to give the Wolverines the win.

Kuresa led UVU in the final set with five kills, while Campbell added 14 assists.

In all Clement had nine blocks and Heaps and Nish each tallied 11 kills.

Earlier in the day Barker led the way for UVU with 15 kills, five service aces and five digs in a five-set thrilling victory over Cal Poly.

"This was one of the toughest tournaments that we've had in terms of the type of teams that came in," Atoa added. "And for us to win two out of three was exceptional. I'm very pleased that competed against Michigan and got two wins over two solid teams."

The No. 24 Michigan Wolverines defeated Cal Poly and Santa Clara earlier in the day to win the La Quinta Inn and Suites Invitational team title with a 3-0 record on the weekend. Michigan's Claire McElheny earned MVP honors while her teammate Sloane Donhoff won the Defensive Player of the Tournament award.

UVU will stay home and welcome Syracuse for a Labor Day matinee Monday at 1 p.m. Following that match, the Wolverines will close out their nine-match homestand against BYU-Hawai'i Tuesday at 7 p.m.

La Quinta Inn & Suites Invitational All-Tournament Team
Cal Poly - Kristina Graven
Michigan - Alex Hunt
Michigan - Courtney Fletcher
Santa Clara - Alexandra Palmer
Utah Valley - Brookelyn Campbell
Utah Valley - Jaicee Kuresa

Defensive Player: Sloane Donhoff, Michigan
MVP: Claire McElheny, Michigan
Tournament Champions: Michigan