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The Westminster women's volleyball team opens the 2010 season this week by playing host to the Tournament of Champions presented by Courtyard Marriott Downtown. The Griffins welcome No. 9 Azusa Pacific, No. 16 College of Idaho and Daemen College to the Behnken Field House for matches on Friday, August 27 and Saturday, August 28.

Westminster opens on Friday at 2 p.m. against Daemen and then faces the College of Idaho at 6 p.m. The match with Azusa Pacific is scheduled for noon on Saturday. The semi-final matches will begin at 2 and 4 p.m. with the championship match being played at 6 p.m.

The Griffins enter the 2010 season with a new look. The team welcomes in eight newcomers to go with the six returners that went 9-20 last season. Although the team is young, the group of freshmen is loaded with high level high school and club experience. Mix that with the veteran leadership and head coach Kim Norman is excited about the possibilities of this team.

Ericka Evans is the lone senior on the squad and was a First Team All-Frontier Conference performer in 2009. She led the team with 291 kills with a .183 hitting efficiency as a junior. Evans also racked up 301 digs to rank second on the team and 10th in the conference. She enters the season fourth in school history with 604 kills in her career.

Live Media
Every home match of the 2010 season will feature live video streaming and live stats. Fans will have the option to follow the action with both features for FREE in 2010. To access these features just logon to www.WestminsterGriffins.com.

Behnken Field House
All Westminster women's volleyball home games are played at the Behnken Field House in the Dolores Dore Eccles Health, Wellness, and Athletic Center on the campus of Westminster College. Doors open one hour prior to the start of the match. The spectator entrance is located on the west side of the facility. Seating is all general admission, and there is NO outside food and drinks allowed in the facility.

First Serve
• This is the fourth time in five years the Griffins have opened at home with the Tournament of Champions.

• Westminster has dropped the season opener the previous two seasons.

• Azusa Pacific will be the 10th team ranked in the top-10 the Griffins have faced since 2008.

Scouting Daemen College
Daemen College makes the trip to Salt Lake City from Amherst, New York after going 2-1 during the season opening Niagara Falls Splash Tournament in which they hosted. The Wildcats opened with wins over Texas Wesleyan and Sioux Falls before dropping the match with No. 3 Cal Baptist.

Series Record*: First meeting

Scouting No. 16 College of Idaho
The 16th-ranked College of Idaho comes to the Tournament of Champions from Caldwell, Idaho to begin the 2010 season. They Yotes went 26-4 in 2009 and won the Cascade Collegiate Conference championship. They advanced out of the pool play round at the NAIA National Championships with a 2-1 record before falling to Texas at Brownsville in the first round.

Series Record*: College of Idaho leads 5-1
Last Meeting: College of Idaho def. Westminster, 3-0 (8/22/08)

Scouting No. 9 Azusa Pacific
Azusa Pacific brings a No. 9 national ranking and a 3-0 record with them this weekend. The Cougars opened the season with wins over Holy Names, Viterbo and Black Hills State at last week's Cougar Classic. They advanced to the quarterfinals of last season's national tournament and finished with a 28-9 overall record.

Series Record*: First meeting
*Since 2005

Offensive Notebook
Clotile Harris led the Griffins with 11 kills in the scrimmage with Salt Lake Community last week. Ericka Evans and Kenzie Mitchell finished with eight kills apiece. In that scrimmage, seven different players contributed at least three kills to help the team total 45 kills in the match. Evans led the team with 291 kills in 2009 while Ashley Marchant hit a team-best .216 before her leg injury.

Defensive Notebook
The Griffins racked up 22 blocks and 89 digs as a team in the SLCC scrimmage. Stephanie Jones led the way with 11 blocks including two solo. Harris added eight blocks with Katie Vance recording six blocks. Kyndall Kordakis finished with a match high 16 digs while Evans and Marchant finished with 15 and 12 respectively.

Setters Notebook
Emily Atkinson and Megan Evans will run the offense in 2010. Atkinson recorded 30 assists and nine digs during last week's scrimmage while Evans posted 10 assists and four digs. Evans was fourth in the conference with 711 assists last season and also ranked 17th with her 23 service aces.

Coaches Tab Griffins for Fifth
The Frontier Conference released the annual women's volleyball preseason coaches' poll on August 12 and Westminster was selected to finish fifth in the 2010 season. The Griffins received 23 points in the poll of the eight head coaches in the conference. Defending champion Lewis-Clark State College was the choice to win the conference.

Next Week
Westminster travels to Irvine, California for the Asics/Crowne Plaza Labor Day Tournament hosted by Concordia (Calif.). The schedule doesn't lighten up as the Griffins will face No. 1 Fresno Pacific and No. 2 Concordia on September 3. Matches against No. 6 Biola and Westmont on September 4 complete the trip.