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SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster College women's volleyball team will play two matches in Idaho this week.  The Griffins lone Frontier Conference match of the week comes on Friday against No. 14 Lewis-Clark State in Lewiston.  Westminster then steps out of conference for a match against No. 7 College of Idaho on Saturday in Caldwell.

Griffin Notebook
Westminster returns to the road riding a four-match winning streak and at 7-7 overall this season.  They improved to 4-2 in the Frontier Conference behind two five-set victories at home last week.  Six of the Griffins seven losses have come against teams ranked in the NAIA Top 25 at the time of the meeting.

Ashley Marchant leads the team with 136 kills and averages 2.57 kills per set.  Marchant is hitting .168 while also recording 136 digs and nine service aces.  Kenzie Mitchell has posted 117 kills and leads all Griffin hitters with a .257 hitting efficiency.  Mitchell has recorded 40 kills during the current winning streak.

Emily Atkinson had a monster week last week with 109 assists in the two matches.  She set a career high with 57 helpers against MSU-Northern and ranks second in the Frontier at 9.25 assists per set.  The sophomore also recorded 26 digs last week and has recorded three straight double-doubles.

Kyndall Kordakis has a team-best 226 digs this season and ranks fourth in the Frontier at 4.26 digs per set.  The sophomore libero recorded 48 digs in the two wins last week, including a season-high 32 against Great Falls.  Katie Vance leads the Griffins with 29 total blocks and averages 0.56 per set and rank 12th in the league.

Game Coverage
Friday's match at LCSC will feature both video streaming and live stats courtesy of the Lewis-Clark State.  Saturday's match at the C of I will also feature video streaming and live stats thanks to the College of Idaho.  All of the links to access these features will be available below the calendar at WestminsterGriffins.com.

Friday's Opponent: No. 14 Lewis-Clark State
Lewis-Clark State begins the week at 11-3 overall and 4-1 in the Frontier Conference.  They have won four straight matches overall and nine of their last 10.  The Warriors lead the Frontier with an average of 1.7 service aces per set and rank third with a .221 hitting efficiency.

Kelli Tikker leads the team and ranks second in the league and 42nd in the NAIA at 3.58 kills per set.  She has 179 kills to go with 148 digs and 17 service aces.  Lauryn Herrick averages 0.62 aces per set and ranks 15th nationally in that category.  She also ranks 21st in the NAIA with 31 total aces.

Saturday's Opponent: No. 7 College of Idaho
College of Idaho enters the week at 11-1 overall and winners of eight straight matches.  The Yotes are a perfect 8-0 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference.  They lead the Cascade in hitting efficiency, kills and assists.  As a team they average 13.3 assists per set and rank fourth in the NAIA while also ranking sixth at 14.06 kills per set.  They are also in the NAIA top 50 in hitting efficiency (.273) and blocks per set (2.11).

Ciciley Fox averages a team-best 3.15 kills per set while Torrey Hulsey leads the Yotes with a .346 hitting efficiency.  Hulsey is 29th nationally with that percentage and Kylee Nawahine is 49th at .323.  Whitney Brigham ranks seventh nationally in digs per set at 5.9 and Kelsey Soos ranks 13th in assists per set at 10.74.

Inside the Series Records
Westminster is just 4-12 in meeting with LCSC and they have lost 11 straight meetings.  The Griffins last picked up a win in this series on Nov. 3, 2006.  During the current streak, there has been five 3-0 sweeps and two matches have gone five sets.

Against the College of Idaho, Westminster is just 2-6 since 2004. The teams last met at last year's Tournament of Champions with the two teams splitting two matches.  The Griffins took a five-set win in the first meeting before the C of I won the second meeting in four.  There have been three sweeps by the Yotes in the series history. According to the C of I record book, Westminster is just 2-17 all-time in the series.

Awarding Atkinson
Atkinson has been named the Frontier Conference player of the week, commissioner Kent Paulson announced Monday.  Atkinson becomes the first Griffin to win the weekly award this season and it's her first career honor.

Atkinson is a 5-foot-9 sophomore setter from Salt Lake City, Utah.  Atkinson had two double-doubles with 57 assists and 11 digs against Northern and 52 assists and 15 digs against Great Falls. The 57 assists against Northern was a career high. She also had five kills, one solo block and four assisted blocks in the weekend wins.

Setting the Tone
Sophomore setter Atkinson surpassed the 1,000 career assist total early this season. Atkinson now has 1,313 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 for 910 assists this season and that would give her 1,733 career helpers to rank second in school history.
Atkinson currently averages 9.25 assists per set to rank second in the league and 40th nationally.  Her 490 total assists place her second in the conference.

On the Attack
Junior outside hitter Ashley Marchant is leading the team with 136 kills and has posted a new career high in that category.  Her 136 kills rank 11th in the conference while her 2.6 kills per set average ranks seventh in the league.  She is hitting .169 while also adding a career high 136 digs.

Marchant has reached double figures in kills seven times this season and matched a career high with 18 kills against Azusa Pacific on Sept. 3.  She has also posted nine matches with double-digit digs and has seven double-doubles.

Checking in with Kordakis
Sophomore libero Kyndall Kordakis is once again having a stellar year in the Westminster back row.  Kordakis has popped up 226 digs this season and averages 4.26 digs per set.  She is fourth in the league with that average and her 226 total digs is tied for sixth in the Frontier.

At her current rate, Kordakis will finish they year with 419 total digs.  That total would rank fifth for a season in school history and would surpass her total of 392 from last season.  If she reaches the 419 that she is on pace for, her career total would hit 811 and rank fifth in school history for a career.

Climbing the Charts
Juniors Marchant and Stephanie Jones Morin continue to climb the Westminster career kill leader charts.  Jones Morin has racked up 374 career kills through action last Saturday and ranks seventh in school history in that category. She needs four kills to move into sixth and is just 11 shy of moving onto fifth. Marchant is right behind Jones Morin in eighth with 358 career kills.  Marchant also ranks fifth in school history with an average of 2.11 kills per set.

Massey Ratings
Westminster moved up five spots to No. 46 in the latest Massey Ratings that were released on Sunday.  The Griffins have a rating of 0.531 and sit fifth among teams from the Frontier Conference.  They also have played the ninth-best schedule according to the ratings and the two teams they play this week are ranked eighth (Lewis-Clark State) and sixth (College of Idaho).

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. 

Looking Forward
Westminster returns to the Behnken Field House for two non-conference matches.  The Griffins face Colorado Mesa on Tuesday and then get a rematch with the College of Idaho on Oct. 5.  Both matches will begin at 7 p.m.