EDINBURG, Texas – Utah Valley women's volleyball heads to the 2022 WAC Volleyball Tournament in Edinburg, Texas, this week. The tournament winner will get an automatic bid to this year's NCAA tournament. Utah Valley enters the tournament as the No. 4 seed and will meet the No. 5 seeded UT Arlington Mavericks.
The two-time defending WAC Tournament Champion, Utah Valley, enters this year's tournament on a three-match losing skid and will look to get back on track against UTA. UVU defeated UTA 3-1 in October in Orem. Three Wolverines had double-digit kills in the match, as
Kazna Tanuvasa had 15 kills,
Tori Dorius had 11, and
Caleigh Vagana had ten. Utah Valley won the battle at the net as they held a 16-8 advantage in blocks in the match. Brooke Townsend had 15 kills for UTA in the match, who were held to a .165 hitting percentage in the match.
The Wolverines had three players named to the All-WAC teams earlier this week, as
Avery Shewell won WAC Freshmen and was named to the All-WAC second team. Joining Shewell are teammates
Tori Dorius and
Kazna Tanuvasa, both selected for the first team.
Utah Valley dropped matches last week to CBU and GCU, both on the road. The Wolverines pushed the Lancers to a fourth set after dropping the first two. All-WAC first-teamer Dorius led UVU with 11 kills in the match. The Wolverines held the edge in blocks 20-12.
Caleigh Vagana had a career-high 11 blocks in the loss.
Grand Canyon swept UVU on Nov. 12 in Phoenix.
Natalie Palmer had 18 assists and added seven digs while returning to her home state.
Kalea Kennedy had nine kills for the Wolverines. The Lopes took advantage of 18 attack errors by the Wolverines.
UT Arlington enters the match 17-9 overall and went 9-5 in conference play. They split two five-set matches, losing to Utah Tech and beating Southern Utah. First-Team All-WAC Brianna Ford leads the Mavericks, and the outside hitter enters the contest with 342 kills and 3.42 kills a set. Sophie Skinner, a WAC All-Freshmen team member, leads UTA with 677 assists and 6.77 assists/set.
If UVU wins, they will advance to take on either No. 1 UTRGV or No. 8 Southern Utah in the semifinals on Nov. 18 and 6:00 p.m. MT. The Championship match is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 19, at 6:00 p.m. All matches will be played inside UTRGV Fieldhouse on the campus of UT Rio Grande Valley.
