CEDAR CITY, Utah – Utah Valley women's volleyball swept Southern Utah 3-0 (25-17, 25-15, 25-23) on Saturday afternoon inside the America First Event Center. Avery Shewell had a team-high 11 kills for UVU (7-12, 4-4) as the Wolverines won their fourth straight win over the Thunderbirds (5-13, 1-7). Hailey Cuff added eight kills and ten digs in the match, as Tori Ellis added eight kills and reached 1,000 career points.
 
"I felt like our serving and defense helped us in the first two sets, we were struggling with our defense in the third set, and that put us in a hole; however, as we stopped and talked about things, we allowed the things that helped us in the first two sets to be able to make that comeback," said UVU head coach Sam Atoa.
 
The Wolverines won the opening set after capitalizing on eight Southern Utah attack errors and combining it with a .375 hitting percentage. Shewell had five kills in the first set, while Utah Valley had a 5-0 run to force a timeout for Southern Utah after a service ace from Lani Matavao. The lead was pushed to as many as eight, with Ellis, Cuff, Shewell, and Caleigh Vagana having kills.
 
Utah Valley continued to stay hot in the second as they scored the set's first eight points after a kill from Cuff made it 1-0, and five straight SUU errors made it 6-0. Kendra Nock had one of her five kills before Cuff added a service ace to put UVU in front 8-0. The Wolverines pushed their lead to as many as seven multiple times in the second set and led 21-14 after a bad set by the Thunderbirds. The set ended after a block assist by Nock and Vagana before two attack errors ended the set 25-15. The Wolverines held a 6-0 advantage in the blocks during the second set as it set the tone defensively.
 
The third set saw five lead changes and two ties as Southern Utah took some early momentum and looked to force a fourth set.  The Wolverines trailed 16-10 before a 3-0 run helped swing things in UVU's favor. It started with a kill from Ellis and Cuff's second service ace of the match and continued with a kill from Nock. SUU pushed their lead back out to five at 18-13 before Utah Valley continued to chip away at the lead and got the set back to two with a kill from Shewell at 18-16. The match ended after three Thunderbird attack errors for UVU's second sweep of the week.
 
The Wolverines will travel next week to Grand Canyon on Thursday, Oct. 21 at 6:00 p.m. MT and then head to California Baptist on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 1:00 p.m. MT. Utah Valley returns home on Thursday, Oct. 26, at 7:30 p.m. MT against Abilene Christian.