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SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster volleyball team travels to Montana for conference games against Great Falls and Montana State-Northern this week. The Griffins will face Great Falls at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 23. They complete the trip on Saturday, September 25 at 6 p.m. at Northern in Havre.
Westminster will take to the road with a 6-6 record overall and are 2-2 in the Frontier Conference. Westminster went 2-0 in games played at home last week, picking up wins over Montana Western and Montana Tech. The Griffins are now 4-2 in the Behnken Field House in 2010 and are 5-0 when they win the third set.
The Griffins enter this week averaging 11.8 kills per set and hitting .182 on 1,569 attempts. They have 75 service aces and average 1.7 per set along with 492 assists. Defensively the team has recorded 629 digs and an average of 14 per set. They have 92 blocks and hold the opposition to a .195 hitting efficiency and 11.8 kills per set.
Clotile Harris is tops on the team with 168 kills to go with her .233 hitting efficiency. Stephanie Jones leads the team with her .292 efficiency and is second with 84 kills.
Ashley Marchant leads all Griffins with 14 service aces with Harris posting 13 aces.
Emily Atkinson has dished out 407 assists and
Kyndall Kordakis leads everyone with 162 digs.
Griffins TV
The Westminster Athletics Department recently partnered with Penn Atlantic to provide fans the opportunity to watch home athletic events live on the internet. Griffins TV will broadcast select Westminster events for FREE for fans to watch on their computers. All Westminster women's volleyball home games will be available on Griffins TV. For a complete schedule visit WestminsterGriffins.com/GriffinsTV.
Live Stats
Live Stats will be available for all Westminster women's volleyball home matches this season. Fans can access the Live Stats at WestminsterGriffins.com. There will Live Stats for the match at Great Falls on Thursday.
Scouting Great Falls
Great Falls enters the week at 5-10 overall and 2-1 in the Frontier Conference. The Argonauts went 3-9 leading into conference action including an eight-game losing streak. Tosha Nunes leads the team with 177 kills and a .249 hitting efficiency. Taylor Lucero and Jessica Muzzall have 117 and 113 kills respectively. Kila Adams has 20 service aces and Samantha Garven leads with 114 digs.
Series Record*: Westminster leads, 10-3
Last Meeting: Great Falls def. Westminster 3-1 (10/24/09)
Scouting Montana State-Northern
Montana State-Northern begins the week at 9-4 overall and 2-1 in the Frontier. They are coming off a 3-1 loss at Great Falls in last week's action. The Skylights have won seven of the previous nine matches they have played. Kaylee Bossert leads the team with 159 kills and is followed by Brittany Baker with 140. Jordan Merrill runs the offense with her 430 assists with Bossert recording a team-best 106 digs.
Series Record*: Westminster leads, 11-0
Last Meeting: Westminster def. MSU-Northern 3-2 (10/23/09)
*Since 2005
Reaching 100
Head coach Kim Norman notched her 100th career victory with the 3-0 win over Montana Western on September 16. Norman has recorded 101 career victories against 94 losses for a .518 win percentage in seven seasons on the Griffins bench. In conference play, Norman is 55-33 entering the week for a win percentage of .625.
Approaching Milestones
Four Griffins are within range of some career milestones for kills.
Ericka Evans is third all-time with 675 career kills and needs just 25 for 700. Ali Culp is second with 989 career kills. Stephanie Jones needs five kills to give her 200 in her career while
Becky Burke sits just 14 shy of 200.
Ashley Marchant is also close to 200 with 183. Jones, Burke, and Marchant site in 11th, 12th, and 13th respectively in school history for career kills.
Receiving Votes
Westminster received 13 points in the third edition of the Tachikara-NAIA Women's Volleyball Coaches' Top 25 Poll, announced Tuesday by the NAIA. After being ranked No. 20 in the first poll, Westminster now sits in the others receiving votes in the 35th position.
Notable Performance
Clotile Harris was named Frontier Conference volleyball player of the week on August 31. This is her first weekly award from the conference and she becomes the first Griffin to claim the weekly honor this season. Harris averaged 4.76 kills with a .305 hitting percentage. She also averaged 1.41 digs and .59 assisted blocks. She posted 20-plus kills in each of the final three matches, including 25 kills against the College of Idaho on August 27.
Griffins Picked to Finish Fifth
The Frontier Conference released the annual women's volleyball preseason coaches' poll on August 12 and Westminster was selected to finish fifth. The Griffins received 23 points in the poll of the eight head coaches in the conference. Frontier Conference regular season co-champion and conference tournament champion Lewis-Clark State College received six first place votes and was the preseason favorite of the league's volleyball coaches to win the conference title for the 2010 season.
Next Week
Westminster will face nationally ranked Lewis-Clark State on Friday, October 1 in the Behnken Field House. The match against the top team in the Frontier Conference will begin at 7 p.m.
