Utah Valley at Grand Canyon
Friday, April 7 - Saturday, April 8  |  3 p.m. MDT (DH) / 2 p.m. MDT   |   Phoenix, Arizona
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OREM, Utah — Utah Valley University heads to Phoenix this week for a three-game WAC series at first-place Grand Canyon University. The series will start Friday at 2 p.m. MST/3 p.m. MDT with a doubleheader. Saturday's finale will be at 1 p.m. MST/2 p.m. MDT. All three games will air on ESPN+. The Wolverines (12-15, 3-6) were slated to play on Tuesday against Weber State, but that game was canceled due to weather and will not be made up.

Madison Carr leads the WAC and ranks 28th in the country with a .440 batting average entering this week's games. She also leads the conference and is 34th nationally with 44 hits. Carr matched the school record with five hits in UVU's win last week at New Mexico State.

The Wolverines currently have three of the top five batting averages in the league, with Kalena Shepherd (.392) and Linnah Rebolledo (.386) in fourth and fifth, respectively. As a team, the Wolverines are second in the WAC with a .323 average, which is 17th in the country and just behind Grand Canyon's .325 average.

Megan Gibbs leads the team with nine home runs. She hit three over the weekend at New Mexico State, including the second multi-homer game of her career in the series finale. In the series, Gibbs was 4-for-6 with three home runs, a 2.333 slugging percentage and reached base 10 times in 13 plate appearances for a .769 on-base percentage. That wasn't the highest percentage on the team during the series though, with Rebolledo getting on 78.6% of the time after going 7-for-10 with four walks while also doubling four times.

Grand Canyon (25-9, 8-1) has won eight straight games in WAC play, including sweeps at Dixie State and home against California Baptist. In addition to leading the WAC in batting average as a team, the Lopes also have the top ERA in the league at 2.51.

GAME AT WASHINGTON ADDED
The Wolverines added a game against national powerhouse Washington on the tail end of UVU's trip to face Seattle U at the end of April. Utah Valley will play a WAC series against the Redhawks on April 29-30, and have added a game against the 11th-ranked Huskies on Monday, May 2 at 11 a.m. PT. 

LAST TIME OUT
Utah Valley set a new program record against a Division I opponent with 18 runs scored in last Saturday's win over New Mexico State. Carr's school-record five hits came in the win while Rebolledo had three hits and Mikaela Thomson and Karleigh Olsen had two each. The Aggies won two of three in the series, doing the bulk of their damage in the sixth innings. NM State scored four times on Friday in the sixth to turn a 6-3 deficit into a 7-6 win. Saturday, the Aggies broke a 6-6 tie with six runs in the sixth and won 12-7.

UP NEXT
The Wolverines are set to make up their postponed contest at Utah next Tuesday, April 12. The teams are now scheduled to play a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m. MT. UVU will also host California Baptist on April 15-16 in a three-game WAC series.