COMPLETE RELEASE

SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster College women's volleyball team travels to Montana for two Frontier Conference matches this week.  Westminster will begin the trip on Friday with a 7 p.m. match at Montana Tech in Butte.  They will then face Montana Western on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Dillon.

Griffin Notebook
Westminster will head to the Big Sky at 3-7 overall record and 0-2 in the Frontier.  They dropped home matches to Carroll and Rocky Mountain last week to begin conference play.  The Griffins have lost four straight and seven of their last eight.

Ashley Marchant leads the Griffin offense with 102 kills and her 2.83 kills per set rank fifth in the conference.  Marchant is hitting .183 this year with five double-doubles.  She averages 3.00 digs per set with 108 total digs.  Kenzie Mitchell has totaled 77 kills while hitting a team-best .222 to rank 12th in the league.

Emily Atkinson is second in the league and 44th in the NAIA with an average of 9.2 assists per set.  She has posted double digit assists in 19 consecutive matches and all 10 this year.  Atkinson has also posted four double-doubles this season.

Kyndall Kordakis has racked up 149 digs to rank ninth in the Frontier while her 4.14 digs per set is fifth-best in the Frontier.  She has recorded double figure digs in four straight matches and nine times this season.  Katie Vance leads the squad with 18 blocks and averages 0.54 blocks per set.

Game Coverage
Friday's game at Montana Tech will be available to watch on the web at Livestream.com/diggers.  That game will also feature live stats.  The games on Saturday will not be available for video streaming or live stats.

Friday's Opponent: Montana Tech
Montana Tech enters the week at 7-8 overall and 0-2 in the conference.  The Orediggers were swept in two road matches last week at Great Falls and MSU-Northern.  They enter having lost five of their previous seven matches.

Emily Lobnitz leads the team with 103 kills and averages 2.51 per set.  She has totaled three double figure kill matches including a season-high 14 at Northern last Saturday.  Allyse Cruise has 219 total digs to lead the Frontier and rank 30th in the NAIA.

Saturday's Opponent: Montana Western
Montana Western begins play this week at 5-8 overall and 0-2 in the Frontier.  The Bulldogs went 0-2 in conference road matches at MSU-Northern and Great Falls last week.  They have 710 total digs and rank 47th in the NAIA in that department.

Kayla Schmid has posted 102 kills with an average of 2.08 per set.  Schmid has four matches with double digit kills and recorded a season-high 16 kills against Dickinson State on Aug. 26.  Susanne Rehse has recorded 42 total blocks and ranks 42nd nationally in that department.

Looking Back
Westminster dropped two Frontier Conference home matches last Thursday and Saturday.  They began the week with a 3-1 loss to Carroll College and then were swept 3-0 against No. 14 Rocky Mountain.

Against Carroll, the Griffins finished the night with 46 kills and hit .115.  They were stellar at the service line, posting nine service aces while only allowing four aces by Carroll.  The Griffins also picked up 58 digs to go with seven blocks.

Against Rocky, they finished the afternoon with 29 kills and hit .095.  They couldn't slow the balanced attack of the visitors as Rocky hit .274 with 43 kills.  The Griffins did collect 45 digs and three blocks.  They also had two service aces.

Let's Go Digging
Westminster has posted some big numbers in the dig department to start the year.  The Griffins have 578 digs through the first 10 matches and are currently averaging 16.06 digs per set.  That is third-best in the Frontier Conference and would rank as the fourth-best average in school history.

Libero Kyndall Kordakis is off to a fast start defensively.  The 5-4 sophomore already has 149 digs and her 4.14 per set is fifth-best in the Frontier.  Ashley Marchant is also having a great year defensively.  The 5-10 junior is averaging 3.00 digs per set and her 108 total digs are a career high.

Setting the Tone
Sophomore setter Emily Atkinson surpassed the 1,000 career assist total over the weekend.  Atkinson now has 1,145 assists in her career and is just the third player in school history to topple the 1,000 assist plateau.  She is currently on pace to finish the year with 1,660 career assists which would move her into second place in school history.

Atkinson currently averages 9.2 assists per set to rank second in the league and 44th nationally.  Her 322 total assists place her fifth in the conference.

Massey Ratings
The latest edition of the Massey Ratings has the Griffins rated as the No. 55 team in the country.  Westminster has a rating of 0.421 and sit fifth among teams from the Frontier Conference.  According to the ratings, Westminster has played the sixth toughest 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.

Griffins Picked for Fourth
The Westminster College women's volleyball team was tabbed to finish fourth in the Frontier Conference by the league's coaches in their preseason poll, which was recently released.

The Griffins received 31 points in the poll to come in the same spot they ended the 2010 regular season. Lewis-Clark State received five of the eight first-place votes (coaches weren't allowed to vote for their own team) to finish with 46 points.

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. 

Looking Forward
Westminster returns to the Behnken Field House for matches against Montana State-Northern and Great Falls.  The Northern match will begin at 7 p.m. on Sept. 22 with the UGF match on Sept. 24 at 2 p.m.