PHOENIX, Ariz. – Utah Valley hits the road for its final roadtrip of the regular season, heading to Grand Canyon for a rematch of last year's WAC Volleyball Tournament semifinals on Thursday, Nov. 4. Thursday's match is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. MT. in GCU Arena and will be broadcasted on ESPN+. This marks the 19th matchup between Grand Canyon and Utah Valley on the volleyball court, with UVU holding a 15-3 record. The Wolverines dropped the previous matchup this season, 3-2, in Orem.
Grand Canyon is from Phoenix, Ariz., and calls the Western Athletic Conference home. GCU is 15-5 this season, including a 7-4 record in WAC play. The Lopes went 11-4 last season, including a loss to the Wolverines in the WAC Volleyball Tournament semifinals.
Season highs by Kendra Nock and Kaili Downs led Utah Valley to a win over conference foe, Chicago State, 3-1 (25-16, 16-25, 25-23) in Lockhart Arena. Tanuvasa led the Wolverines with 11 kills to go along with four digs and a pair of blocks. Downs finished with a season-high 10 kills and Nock had a career-high 10 blocks to go along with five kills. Bell added six kills, six digs, and a season-high four aces. Palmer chipped in 19 assists, six digs, two kills, and a pair of aces while Abbie Miller added 17 assists and two aces as well. Bishop tallied a team-high 12 digs to go along with three aces.
Senior outside hitter Kazna Tanuvasa surpassed Jessica Endres for third all-time in kills in UVU history in a thrilling five-set win over WAC-foe Seattle U. Tanuvasa finished the match with 20 kills, bringing her career total to 1418, passing Endres' 1401 career kills. Tanuvasa now needs 103 kills to climb into second in the records, and to pass Camie Manwill's total of 1520, and 183 kills to pass Kayli Doxey for the most all-time.
The Wolverines currently rank #16 in the nation in block assists as a team with 378. Utah Valley also ranks in the top 25 in the country in both total blocks (176.5) and blocks/set (2.67) as a team, good enough for #20 and #22 in the nation, respectively. UVU leads the WAC in each of those categories. Kendra Nock and Sadie Hamson lead the Wolverines with each ranking in the top 60 in the country in blocks/set. Nock also leads the WAC in blocks/set.
Senior outside hitter Kazna Tanuvasa is currently third in UVU history in career kills (1498), needing 23 to pass Camie Manwill for second all-time. Tanuvasa also ranks third in career attacks (3944) and fourth in career points (1678). Senior outside hitter Kristen Bell currently ranks seventh in career points (1165.5), sixth in kills (982), fifth in career attacks (3092), eighth in solo blocks (22), and eighth in aces (75). Abbie Miller now currently ranks eighth in career assists with 775 assists.
