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This Week
Westminster heads for Fresno, California to take part in the Sunbird Invitational hosted by Fresno Pacific University. Westminster will look to improve on the 1-3 record they posted last weekend at the Cougar Classic in Auzsa, California.

The Griffins will begin the tournament with a match against Menlo on Friday, August 28. They will conclude the action on Friday with a match against Southern Oregon.

On Saturday, August 29, the Griffins have a match with Cornerstone before taking on host, and two-time defending national champion, Fresno Pacific. Fresno is ranked No. 1 in the current NAIA Coach's Top 25 Poll that was released on August 18.

Although the Griffins went 1-3 last week, they played better than the final result. They won a five-set match with The Master's College and dropped another five-set match to San Diego Christian. The other two losses came against Biola and Concordia, each are teams currently ranked in the top20 in the NAIA poll.

Live Stats
Live stats from the Sunbird Invitational will be available for all matches at the tournament. You can find the link to access the live stats at westminstergriffins.com.

Westminster Volleyball Quickly
•The Griffins are now 0-11 against ranked teams dating back to last season.

•At 1-3, Westminster is off to a better start than the 0-7 from 2008.

•This will be the third consecutive year Westminster has faced Fresno Pacific when they were ranked No. 1 in the nation.

Scouting Menlo
Menlo begins their 2009 season when they face the Griffins. Menlo went 20-9 in 2008 and were a perfect 14-0 in the Cal Pac Conference. They were knocked out of the NAIA National Champions by College of Idaho in the opening round.
Series Record: First meeting

Scouting Southern Oregon
Southern Oregon went 2-1 in the Raider Classic they hosted last weekend. They claimed wins over Concordia (Ore.) and Oregon Tech. The loss came against Fresno Pacific. Chelsea Hartman leads the team with 2.5 kills per set. Caryn Westwick recorded nine aces in their three matches.
Series Record: Westminster leads, 1-0
Last Meeting: Westminster def. Southern Oregon, 3-2 (11/16/07)

Scouting Cornerstone
This will be the opening weekend of competition for Cornerstone. They finished 2008 with a 23-21 overall record and were 7-7 in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference. They bring back Holly Cousins who finished second in the country in kills last season.
Series Record: First meeting

Scouting No. 1 Fresno Pacific
Fresno Pacific is the two-time defending NAIA national champion are the current No. 1 team in the country. They went a perfect 3-0 at the Raider Classic last weekend, picking up wins over Oregon tech, Southern Oregon, and Concordia (Ore.). Lauren Albertson currently leads the NAIA with her 1.67 blocks per set and Martine Gregusova is second nationally in aces with 1.11 per set.
Series Record: Fresno Pacific leads, 3-0
Last Meeting: Fresno Pacific def. Westminster, 3-0 (8/30/08)

Offensive Notebook
Ericka Evans leads the team after opening weekend with 44 kills. She finished the weekend hitting .156, anchored by a .218 performance against The Master's. Evans had two matches in double figures for kills, including a career high 16 in the match with The Master's.

Freshman Ashley Marchant recorded 33 kills at the Cougar Classic to rank second on the team. Marchant finished with 15 kills and a .250 hitting efficiency against The Master's. Becky Burke came through with 28 kills while playing in just three of the four matches. Burke posted 10 kills against both San Diego Christian and The Master's. She hit .346 in the San Diego Christian match.

Defensive Notebook
Westminster had three players reach at least 40 digs over the weekend, led by 80 from libero Tahnie Blymiller. Blymiller recorded five digs per set and is currently fifth in the nation in that category. She recorded 36 of those digs in the match against The Master's and had at least 14 in all four matches.

Ericka Evans and Megan Evans recorded 47 digs apiece in the four matches. Ericka Evans had 21 against San Diego Christian while Megan Evans went for 11 against Biola and 19 more against San Diego Christian.

Talita Kresser posted 13 total blocks to lead the team and Stephanie Jones added 10 blocks. Ericka Evans finished with the third-best total of eight blocks.

Setting Notebook
Freshman Megan Evans ran the Griffin attack at the Cougar Classic. Evans averaged 8.69 assists per set during the event and ranks second in the Frontier Conference after the first weekend. Evans recorded 46 and 49 assists against San Diego Christian and The Master's respectively.

Coaches Pick Griffins Fifth
The Frontier Conference released the 2009 Preseason Coach's Poll for volleyball on Tuesday, and Westminster was picked to finish fifth. The Griffins received 25 points in the poll of the eight conference coaches. The Griffins finished the 2008 season in a tie for the fourth spot.

Defending Frontier Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Lewis-Clark State College received seven first place votes and is the preseason favorite of league volleyball coaches to win the league title for the 2009 season.

Next Week
The Griffins will return to California for the third consecutive week as they visit Irvine, California, for the Asics/Crowne Plaza Labor Day Festival. Westminster will face Oklahoma City and Vanguard on Friday, September 4. Then on Saturday, September 5, the Griffins have matches with Northwest (Wash.) and Cal Baptist.