CEDAR CITY, Utah – Utah Valley University defeated Southern Utah University 3-1 (25-22,22-25,25-20,25-15) on Saturday night inside America First Events Center. UVU (13-7, 7-1) had double-double performances from Avery Shewell and Kazna Tanuvasa, with 15 kills from Tori Dorius and 12 from Kalea Kennedy. Southern Utah (5-13, 4-5) was led by Rylee Achtzehn with 12 kills.
 
Utah Valley jumped out to an early 5-1 lead after a service ace from Abbie Miller opened the match, Dorius later added three kills, and Tanuvasa added one. SUU continued to narrow the gap between and then took the lead at 16-15. The Wolverines benefited from Thunderbird errors and strong play from Kennedy to close out the first set.
 
Southern Utah capitalized on UVU errors in the second set and took a 14-11 lead. The Wolverines scored their following three points on kills from Dorius to bring the set to 16-14 SUU. The Thunderbirds looked to close out the set and lead 24-20, the resilience of UVU rallied, and they chipped back to a 24-22 deficit before SUU closed out the set.
 
UVU quieted an SUU comeback in the third set, used a 5-0 run to take a 13-8 lead, and later used a 3-0 run to go up 16-9 after a couple of SUU errors. The Wolverines led 22-18 when Caleigh Vagana and Dorius added kills to get UVU to set point, and Shewell came up with a kill for the 25-20 set three win.
 
Ke'ilani Sedrick served during an 11-0 run for UVU in the fourth set as they pulled away from SUU and led 17-8. UVU capitalized on 11 errors from SUU in the final stage, with Sedrick and Natalie Palmer adding service aces to help UVU over SUU 25-15 in the final set.
 
UVU improves to 8-0 this year in four-set matches. Kennedy led UVU with a .545 hitting percentage in the match. Makayla Broadbent had four blocks, while Abbie Miller had 25 assists and Natalie Palmer 20.
 
The Wolverines will head out to Texas for two matches next week. They will meet Tarleton on Oct. 27 in Stephenville for a 5:00 p.m. MT start and then will meet Abilene Christian on Oct. 29 at 11:00 a.m. MT. UVU will then close out their 2022 home schedule with matches against New Mexico State on Nov. 3 and UTRGV on Nov. 5.