OREM, Utah – Utah Valley women's volleyball takes on the top of the Western Athletic Conference this week with a match on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 7:00 p.m. MT against second-place Grand Canyon before wrapping up the week with first-place UT Arlington on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 1:00 p.m. MT at Lockhart Arena.
The Wolverines have won four consecutive contests to improve their overall record to 14-6 and 5-3 in the WAC. This past week, they swept Seattle U and Abilene Christian, extending their winning streak to three matches. On Saturday, they pushed California Baptist to five sets and completed the reverse sweep of the Lancers. Freshman
Sami Blackett had a career-day, finishing with 33 kills to break UVU's single match record that was set in 2004 by Deise Borghetti, who had 30 kills against UT Pan America, now UTRGV. The record-setting performance by the freshman was the most kills this season by a member of the WAC.
Evalyn Chism continued her run at the WAC Setter of the Year award and earned her fourth Setter of the Week honor; she followed it up with her third 50 assists or more performance by recording 51 assists for the second time this season. Her career-high 53 assists were set back in September in a five-set victory vs. Weber State.
Several Wolverines set new career-highs in the win over the Lancers.
Maranda Woolf tallied six kills on 14 attacks, with
Madi Standifird having 14 kills and 36 attacks. Defensively,
Molly Cummard finished with 18 digs against CBU after having seven against ACU and nine on Monday against Seattle U.
BROADCAST PLANS
Both matches this week will air on ESPN+, with Saturday's contest scheduled to be called by Brandon Crow and Kayli Doxey. UVUstats.com will have live stats for each match.
SCOUTING THE LOPES
Grand Canyon is 13-7 and 6-2 in the WAC. They have won six of their first eight matches, with their two losses against first-place UT Arlington. WAC Preseason Player of the Year, Tatum Parrott, has recorded 247 kills on the year. The matchup will feature two of the best blocking teams in the conference and two of the best blockers: UVU's
Bella Wooden, who is first with 118 blocks, and GCU's Trista Strasser, who is second with 100. Both teams rank in the Top 20 nationally.
SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS
UT Arlington starts the week 18-2 and 8-0 in the WAC. They are led by outside Brianna Ford, who has tallied a WAC-high 314 kills this season, with middle blocker leading them in hitting at .417 and blocks with 96. The match will feature two of the top setters in the conference, with Mollie Blank leading UTA with 740 assists and 10.88 assists/set. The Mavericks are the conference leaders in hitting percentage and opponent hitting percentage.
UP NEXT
Utah Valley will start a four-match road trip with trips to Southern Utah (Oct. 31) and Utah Tech (Nov. 2) before making their second trip to Texas for matches with Abilene Christian and UT Arlington.
