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SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster College women's volleyball team returns to Frontier Conference action with two road matches this week.  Westminster will begin the trip to Montana on Thursday with a match at No. 24 Carroll in Helena.  They will then travel to Billings to face No. 9 Rocky Mountain on Saturday.

Griffin Notebook
Westminster heads to Big Sky Country at 7-11 overall this season and 4-3 in the Frontier Conference.  The Griffins have dropped four consecutive matches with three coming against ranked opponents.  They are 2-4 in road games this season and are 0-9 against ranked teams.

As a team, Westminster is averaging 11.47 kills per set to rank fifth in the conference while they are hitting .171.  The Griffins are third in the league in service aces with 107 and their 1.57 aces per set are also third.  Defensively, the team ranks seventh with an average of 1.38 blocks per set and they sit third in digs per set at 15.66.

Ashley Marchant leads the team with 186 kills and ranks fifth in the Frontier in both total kills and kills per set (2.74).  Marchant is hitting .185 this season to rank 15th in the league.  She is also ranked in the Frontier top 20 in service aces and digs.

Kenzie Mitchell is hitting a team-best .233 and ranks 10th in the conference with Stephanie Jones Morin ranking 14th at .194.  Mitchell is 13th with 146 kills and 14th with 35 blocks.  Emily Atkinson is second in the Frontier with 622 assists and her 9.15 assists per set ranks 43rd in the NAIA.

Kyndall Kordakis has a team-best 295 digs to ranks second while her 4.34 digs per set is third-best in the conference.  Both Marchant and Atkinson also rank in the top 20 in both digging categories.  Katie Vance leads the team with 40 blocks and also has a team-high 25 service aces.

Game Coverage
Both matches on the road this week will have live stats available.  To access the live stats, click on the live stats link below the calendar at WestminsterGriffins.com.  Saturday's game at Rocky will also feature live video streaming.  That link will also be available at WestminsterGriffins.com or at livestream.com/battlinbears.

Thursday's Opponent: Carroll
Carroll enters the week at 12-5 overall and in third place in the Frontier with a 5-2 record.  The Saints dropped a 3-2 decision against Great Falls in their last match on Oct. 1. That loss snapped a four-match wining streak.  Carroll leads the Frontier in blocks per set at 2.46 and rank 12th national in that category.  They hit .192 and average 11.7 kills per set.

Markki Otteson leads the team in kills with 160 and her 1.15 blocks per set is 27th in the nation.  Kristin Tellin has recorded 143 kills while Elli Graff has 141.  Caitlin Tocci has a team-best 349 assists with Natalie Stewart adding 246 helpers.

Saturday's Opponent: Rocky Mountain
Rocky Mountain begins the week at 18-3 overall and they sit atop the Frontier Conference with a 6-1 mark.  The Battlin' Bears have won five straight overall and seven of eight.  As a team, Rocky is ranked inside the NAIA top 50 in hitting efficiency (.270), blocks per set (2.37), digs per set (17.33), kills per set (12.76) and assists per set (11.46).

Sara Brunner leads the Bears with 234 kills and is hitting .269 this season.  She is ranked in the Frontier Conference top five in four statistical categories.  Kristin Barrott has a Frontier-best 678 assists and her 9.69 assists per set is 33rd in the NAIA.  She also ranks 48th with 36 service aces and 0.51 assists per set.

Series Results
Carroll holds a 10-6 advantage in the series and with the 3-1 win earlier this season the Saints have now won six straight matches against the Griffins.  The last win for Westminster came on Nov. 7, 2008 in Helena.  Before the meeting earlier this year in SLC, the previous three match-ups had all gone five sets.

With a 3-0 sweep of the Griffins in September, Rocky took an 8-7 edge in the all-time series.  They also improved their win streak to eight straight over Westminster.  The Griffins last won a match in this series on Nov. 16, 2007 and six of the last seven meetings have been sweeps by the Bears.

Setting the Tone
Sophomore setter Emily Atkinson is second in the Frontier Conference with 622 assists and with an average of 9.15 per set.  She is 43rd in the NAIA with that per set average and she can also be found in the Frontier top 20 in service aces and digs.  Atkinson has 20 aces to rank 12th in the league while her 0.29 aces per set is also 12th.   With 166 digs she is 13th in the conference with an average of 2.44 per set to place her in 16th.

Against San Diego Christian on Sept. 2, Atkinson became just the third player in school history to surpass the 1,000 career assist mark.  She currently has 1,445 assists in her career and is just 190 shy of moving into second place.  She is on pace to finish the year with 863 assists which would move her into second all-time and be the fourth-highest total for a season in school history.

On the Attack
Junior outside hitter Ashley Marchant has recorded a team-leading 186 kills during the season.  She has surpassed her old career high 132 set during her freshman year of 2009.  Marchant is fifth in the league at 2.74 kills per set and fifth in total kills.  She also ranks 17th in the league in service aces and 11th in digs.

Marchant has 408 kills in her career and has moved into fifth in school history in that department.  She is 209 kills shy of moving into the No. 4 spot.  She also sits fifth overall with an average of 2.21 kills per set and her 1,235 career attempts is good for fith.

Checking in with Kordakis
Sophomore libero Kyndall Kordakis is again having a stellar season as the anchor of the Westminster defense.  Kordakis is second in the Frontier with 295 digs and her 4.34 digs per set is good for third in the league.  She has recorded double figures in digs 15 times this season and gone for 20-plus six times.

Kordakis is on pace to finish the year with 426 digs which would surpass the 392 she had as a freshman and rank fifth in school history for a single season.  She currently ranks sixth in career digs with 687 and she needs just eight digs to move into the fifth position.

Serve and Defend
Sophomore Katie Vance is having a stellar season at the service line.  Vance leads the team with 25 service aces and ranks fifth in the Frontier with that total.  Her 0.38 aces per set is the third-best average in the league.  She is on pace to finish the year with 36 service aces which would rank seventh in school history for a season.

Vance also leads the Griffins and ranks ninth in the Frontier with 40 total blocks.  Her 0.62 blocks per set is the 10th-best average in the conference and also a team high.  Vance has six matches this season with at least four blocks and has recorded at least one block in 13 matches.  She ranks seventh in school history with 105 total blocks and third in blocks per set at 0.69.

Massey Ratings
Westminster currently sits at No. 59 in the latest edition of the Massey Ratings that were released on Sunday.  The Griffins have a rating of 0.364 and rank fifth among teams from the Frontier Conference.  According to the ratings, Westminster has played the No. 3 rated schedule in the NAIA.

The Massey Ratings are compiled each week with new ranking being released on Sundays.  Kenneth Massey is the creator of the rating formula and all ratings can be found on his web site at www.masseyratings.com.

Tough Slate
Westminster has once again compiled one of the toughest schedules in the country.  The Griffins will face eight teams that are ranked in the Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches' Top 25 Preseason Poll.  The schedule features seven teams that qualified for the 2010 NAIA National Championships along with four matches against teams from the Golden State Athletic Conference. The non-conference slate also features a home-and-home with the College of Idaho and a home match with NCAA DII foe Mesa State.

Watch the Griffins Online
Westminster is pleased to announce that all nine Griffin home volleyball matches will be available to watch live on Griffins TV.  Westminster, along with the Victory Sports Network, have created a channel on Livestream to become the new online streaming home of the Westminster Griffins.  Fans can access the channel at WestminsterGriffins.com or at Livestream.com/griffins.