OREM, Utah – Utah Valley women's volleyball starts Western Athletic Conference (WAC) play this week with Abilene Christian University on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 7:00 p.m. MT at Westminster University and then hosts Tarleton State University on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 6:00 p.m. MT from Smith Fieldhouse in Provo, Utah. Admission will be free for both matches.

BROADCAST INFO
Both matches this week will be streamed on ESPN+ with Matt Baiamonte and Kayli Doxey on the call for Thursday's match in Salt Lake City. Saturday's match will be called by Ethan Jordan and Doxey. UVUstats.com will have live stats from both matches this week.
 
LAST TIME OUT
The Wolverines went 1-2 last week during three tough matches against in-state rivals. They fell to Utah State on Tuesday night inside the UCCU Center in a five-set battle before rebounding to knock off Weber State on the road on Tuesday.
 
The week and non-conference play ended with No. 16 BYU, where UVU took their first set against the ranked Cougars since 2020. Bella Wooden had a strong week for the Wolverines where she increased her total blocks up to a nation-leading 89. For the second time in her UVU career, she reached 13 total blocks, this time coming up with three solo and ten assists against Weber State.
 
As a team, UVU is near the top of the national charts in blocks after tallying 17 against both the Wildcats, and the Cougars. Alyvia Jaffa had a career-high performance with nine total blocks against BYU on Saturday and finished the week with a total of 20 total blocks.
 
 Utah Valley got a strong performance from their outsides led by Sami Blackett, who averaged over four kills per set in the three matches. Avery Page was right behind her with 3.38 kills per set. Olivia Gloeckner had 17 kills to go along with 19 total blocks from the right side to help UVU with a balanced offensive attack.
 
ABOUT THE WILDCATS
Abilene Christian finished non-conference play with a 6-9 record and finished the last week 2-2, including sweeps over Texas Southern and Cal State Fullerton. ACU's setter Rachel Koss earned WAC Setter of the Week honors, with libero Brennan Ramirez also winning a weekly award. Aubrey Beaver leads the Wildcats in kills with 171 this season and averages over 3.00 per set, with Hannah Gonzalez helping the offense attack with 3.62 points per set while also recording 52 total blocks. Ramirez has helped ACU defensively with over four digs each set this season.
 
ABOUT TARLETON STATE
The Texans enter the contest at 6-6 and hosted the Texan Classic, where they finished 2-1 last weekend. LaNeah Lara leads TSU with 115 kills, and they have three players over 100 kills already this season. The balanced offensive attack has kept teams off balance early in the season. Morgan Carter averages over 4.00 digs per set this season, and keep an eye on Preseason All-WAC selection, Emma Burke, in the middle, who has 50 total blocks and 69 kills this season.
 
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Facility upgrades at Lockhart Arena are entering the final stages, but the arena is not available for UVU's first three WAC matches. The Wolverines have held some kind hosts in Westmister University who will host the Thursday match, and BYU will host Utah Valley's next two WAC matches.
 
UP NEXT
Utah Valley will have one match next week and will travel to St. George to renew the Old Hammer Rivalry with Utah Tech. The match will be on Saturday, Oct. 4 at Noon from Burns Arena.