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SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster College women's volleyball team is on the road for the final time of the 2011 regular season with two matches in Montana this weekend.  On Friday, Westminster will face Montana State-Northern at 7 p.m. in Havre.  The Griffins then travel to Great Falls for a match with the University of Great Falls at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Griffin Notebook
Westminster enters the week at 9-13 overall and sit fifth in the Frontier Conference with a 6-5 record.  The Griffins have won two straight matches after suffering through a six-match losing streak.  They are 2-6 in road matches this season and a combined 5-9 in matches away from home.

Westminster is averaging 11.66 kills per set and rank fourth in the Frontier Conference in that category.  They are hitting .174 while also recording 1.53 service aces per set.  As a team, the Griffins average 15.96 digs per set and rank third in the league in that department.

Ashley Marchant leads all Griffins with 211 kills while hitting .182.  Marchant ranks seventh in the Frontier with an average of 2.64 kills per set and her 2.54 digs per set is 14th in the league.  Kenzie Mitchell is hitting a team-best .226 and her 2.16 kills per set rank 16th in the Frontier.

Emily Atkinson is second in the conference with 746 assists and an average of 9.33 per set.  She is also 11th in service aces at 0.30 and 13th in digs at 2.55.  Katie Vance leads the team in service aces with 27 and blocks with 51.  Kyndall Kordakis has a team-high 349 digs and is second in the Frontier in that department.

Game Coverage
Friday's match at Northern will have Live Stats available.  The match on Saturday at UGF will feature live video streaming.  You can find links to these features under the calendar at WestminsterGriffins.com.

Friday's Opponent: Montana State-Northern
Montana State-Northern starts the week at 13-9 overall and sixth in the Frontier with a record of 5-5.  They started the conference season at 3-0, but they have now dropped five of the last seven matches they have played.  The Sky Lights are coming off a 3-0 loss at Great Falls on Friday.  Westminster won the earlier meeting this season in SLC in five sets.

Hillary Isleifson leads the team with 208 kills and is hitting .268 for the season.  She has posted 11 matches with double figures in kills and had 13 in the previous meeting with the Griffins.  Kelsey Williams has added 188 kills while Nahe Keanaaina has racked up 550 assists.  Victoria Polo leads the squad with 48 blocks and Holly Cartwright has a team-best 297 digs.

Saturday's Opponent: Great Falls
Great Falls is 21-5 overall to start the week and they rank fourth in the Frontier Conference with a record of 6-4.  The Argos has won four straight matches, including a 3-0 win over Northern last Friday at home.  The dropped a 3-2 decision against Westminster in the previous meeting this season in SLC.

They have five players that have topped the 100-kiil plateau this season led by Kelsy VanUden with 334.  Taylor Lucero has recorded 261 kills and was named last week's Frontier Conference player of the week.  Kila Adams has recorded 34 service aces and Kyah Piva has added 31 aces.  Piva also leads the Argos with 414 digs and Maggie McCall has a team-high 65 blocks.

Series Results
Westminster is a perfect 14-0 against Northern since 2004.  The Griffins have recorded nine 3-0 sweeps during the run and have won in five sets on three occasions, including the meeting on Sept. 22 of this season.  The 14 straight wins is the longest against any single opponent is team history.

With the 3-2 win over UGF on Sept. 24, Westminster improved to 13-3 against the Argos since 2004.  That was the seventh match to go the distance in the series with the Griffins holding a 7-0 record in those matches.  UGF last beat the Griffins on Oct. 24, 2009 in four sets at UGF.

Setting the Tone
Sophomore setter Emily Atkinson is second in the Frontier Conference with 746 assists and with an average of 9.33 per set.  She is 41st 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 24 aces to rank eighth in the league while her 0.30 aces per set is also 11th.   With 204 digs she is 11th in the conference with an average of 2.55 per set to place her in 13th.

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 1,569 assists in her career and is just 66 shy of moving into second place.  She is on pace to finish the year with 881 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 211 kills during the season.  She has surpassed her old career high 132 set during her freshman year of 2009.  Marchant is seventh in the league at 2.64 kills per set and fifth in total kills.  She also ranks 14th in the league in service aces and 12th in digs.

Marchant has 433 kills in her career and has moved into fifth in school history in that department.  She is 185 kills shy of moving into the No. 4 spot.  She also sits fifth overall with an average of 2.20 kills per set and her 1,316 career attempts is good for fifth.

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 349 digs and her 4.36 digs per set is good for fourth in the league.  She has recorded double figures in digs 18 times this season and gone for 20-plus six times.

Kordakis is on pace to finish the year with 412 digs which would surpass the 392 she had as a freshman and rank fifth in school history for a single season.  She currently ranks fifth in career digs with 741 and she is 92 digs short of moving into the fourth position.

Serve and Defend
Sophomore Katie Vance is having a stellar season at the service line.  Vance leads the team with 27 service aces and ranks fifth in the Frontier with that total.  Her 0.35 aces per set is the fourth-best average in the league.  She is on pace to finish the year with 32 service aces which would rank eighth in school history for a season.

Vance also leads the Griffins and ranks eighth in the Frontier with 51 total blocks.  Her 0.66 blocks per set is the ninth-best average in the conference and also a team high.  Vance has seven matches this season with at least four blocks and has recorded at least one block in 17 matches.  She ranks seventh in school history with 116 total blocks and second in blocks per set at 0.71.

Massey Ratings
Westminster currently sits at No. 65 in the latest edition of the Massey Ratings that were released on Sunday.  The Griffins dropped five positions from last week and currently have a rating of 0.296.  They have played the No. 9-ranked schedule to date and are the fifth-rated team in the Frontier Conference.

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. 

Checking the Conference Tournament
The Frontier Conference Tournament will be played in Helena, Mont. on Nov. 11-12.  The tournament is being hosted by Carroll College and will be played in the Carroll PE Center.  The single-elimination tournament will feature four quarterfinal matches on Nov. 11.  The semi-finals will be played in the early afternoon on Nov. 12 with the championship match that evening.

If the tournament started today, Westminster would be the No. 5 seed and face No. 4 seed Carroll in the quarterfinals.  The winner of that match would play the winner of No. 1 Lewis-Clark State and No. 8 Montana Tech.  The other quarterfinal matches would be No. 2 Rocky Mountain against No. 7 Montana Western along with No. 3 Great Falls facing No. 6 MSU-Northern.