ST. GEORGE, Utah – Utah Valley University defeated Utah Tech University 3-0 (25-20,25-19,25-20) on Thursday night at the Burns Arena in St. George. UVU (6-6, 1-0) was led by Avery Shewell, who had a career-high 13 kills and hit .524 on the night. Utah Tech (6-4, 0-1) kept the match close, but costly errors came back to hurt the Trailblazers.
 
Utah Valley capitalized on six Utah Tech service errors in the opening set as UVU rallied for a 25-20 opening set victory after a back-and-forth match early. The Wolverines went on a 7-0 run to close the opening set. The Trailblazers had back-to-back errors before a Shewell kill. Following the third error by Utah Tech, Abbie Miller added a service ace before a block assist from Shewell and Jules Fink ended the opening set.
 
"Never easy to play here, we struggled offensively until 18 points in the first set then went on a 7-0 to end the set. From then on we played so much better and stayed in control. It's great to get this first conference win on the road," said UVU head coach Sam Atoa.
 
UVU and UTU were tied at 11-11 in the second set before the Wolverines went on the offensive, with Kazna Tanuvasa having a kill before two UTU errors gave Utah Valley a 14-11 lead. Kalea Kennedy had kills on consecutive points, allowing UVU to go up 20-15. The Wolverines held off a late rally from Utah Tech, aided by a service ace from Chloie Brinton and kills from Makayla Broadbent, Tori Dorius, and Fink.
 
The Wolverines controlled the third set as the only lead UTU held was 1-0. A 4-0 run by UVU gave them an 8-4 lead in the third set on kills from Kennedy, Shewell, and Natalie Palmer. Tanuvasa had a service ace during the run. The Trailblazers called timeout trailing 18-16 before Shewell helped UVU close out the match with three kills giving UVU a 21-18 lead. The Wolverines closed out the match a few serves later to complete the sweep of Utah Tech.
 
Utah Valley used a balanced offensive attack as eight Wolverines had kills in the match. Tanuvasa had seven, with Dorius adding six kills and three blocks. Miller had 20 assists for UVU, who was aided by nine total blocks, with Broadbent and Fink adding three blocks each.
 
Whitnee Nihiapli led Utah Tech with 13 kills as the Wolverines held Utah Tech to a .161 hit percentage on the night.
 
Utah Valley returns home for the next three matches starting on Sept. 24 at 1:00 p.m. against Seattle U before hosting Sam Houston on Oct. 1 at 1:00 p.m. and Chicago State on Oct. 6 at 6:00 p.m. Tickets are still available for the upcoming home matches and can be purchased at the link above.