#3 Utah Valley vs. #6 UT Rio Grande Valley
Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015  |  4 p.m. MT/5 p.m. CT
Kansas City, Mo.   |   Swinney Recreation Center 
Tournament Central  |  Bracket  |  WAC Digital Network  |  Live Stats  |  UVU Match Notes
 

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WOLVERINES OPEN WAC TOURNAMENT PLAY THURSDAY IN KANSAS CITY
OREM, Utah – The Utah Valley University volleyball team will head to Kansas City, Missouri this weekend to take part at the 2015 WAC Volleyball Tournament. The third-seeded Wolverines will open their 2015 conference tournament run on Thursday at 4 p.m. MT/5 p.m. CT against the sixth-seeded UT Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros.
 
UVU (14-13) enters the tournament as the three-seed after tying for third place in the WAC this season with a 9-5 conference record. The Wolverines tied for third with Seattle U, but Utah Valley held the tiebreaker to enter the conference tournament as the three-seed and face UTRGV in Thursday's first-round matchup. The winner of Thursday's contest will advance on to take on the second-seeded CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners the semifinals of the tournament on Friday.
 
"Everybody has new life, it doesn't matter whether you are the top seed or the sixth-seed you just have to play your best," head coach Sam Atoa said. "I like the way the bracket turned out and we'll be ready to go come this weekend."
 
The Wolverines split a pair of matches as home last week by recording a four-set win over UTRGV (23-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-12) before falling to the 2015 WAC champion New Mexico State Aggies in straight sets in the regular season finale on Saturday (23-25, 15-25, 18-25). Senior middle blocker Lauren Bakker led UVU in the two matches, as she averaged 3.14 kills per set, a .415 hitting percentage and 1.43 blocks.
 
In the second-to-last home match of her career last week against the Vaqueros, Bakker became just the fourth Wolverine in school history to surpass 1,000 career kills and also the first to join the 1,000-career kill, 500-career block club. The three-time first team all-conference performer, who holds every blocking school record in UVU history, will enter the WAC Tournament with 1,020 career kills and 577 career blocks. Bakker not only leads UVU in blocks, but also the entire WAC with an average of 1.28 blocks per set. She also is second on the team in kills and hitting with respective averages of 2.65 and .348.
 
After winning back-to-back Great West Conference Tournament titles in 2011 and 2012, the Wolverines will be looking to win their first WAC Tournament title crown and the program's first bid to the NCAA Tournament this weekend after being eliminated in the first round at the WAC Championships in each of the past two seasons.
 
ABOUT THE OPPOSITION
UTRGV enters the tournament as the six seed after going 11-18 overall and 4-10 in conference play. The Vaqueros will enter Thursday's contest having split their last four matches after defeating both Grand Canyon and Bakersfield at home two week's ago and falling to UVU and Seattle U on the road last week. This season marks the second straight year that UTRGV will enter the WAC Tournament as the six seed.
 
Bojana Mitrovic, who had a match-high 16 kills in last Thursday's contest at UVU, leads Rio Grande Valley and the WAC in both kills and points with averages of 4.15 kills and 4.66 points per set.
 
Thursday's opening round tournament contest will mark the 29th all-time meeting between Utah Valley and UTRGV. UVU will enter play with a commanding 27-1 series lead and having won 23 straight matches.   
 
UP NEXT FOR UVU
The winner of Thursday's first round matchup between UVU and UTRGV will advance to Friday's semifinal round against the second-seeded CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners for a 4 p.m. MT/5 p.m. CT start. The winner of that contest will then reach Saturday's championship match, which will also begin at 4 p.m. MT/5 p.m. CT. Every match of the 2015 WAC Tournament will be streamed live on the WAC Digital Network (WACsports.com/live).