SALT LAKE CITY – After a strong start to the new season last weekend in Oregon, the Westminster College women's volleyball team heads home to host the Westminster Tournament of Champions this weekend. Westminster welcomes College of St. Mary (Neb.) and Colorado Mesa to town for the two-day event.
Westminster will open the round robin on Friday morning at 10 a.m. with a match against St. Mary. The tournament continues at 5 p.m. with St. Mary playing Colorado Mesa before Mesa plays the Griffins at 7 p.m. Saturday action gets underway at noon with St. Mary and Mesa facing off. Westminster will conclude the weekend with a 2 p.m. match against St. Mary. The matches involving CMU will be exhibitions and not count in the season results or statistics.
Griffins Notebook
Westminster started the season off with three wins in four matches at last week's Paul Elliott Invitational hosted by Southern Oregon. By winning the first three matches of the tournament, Westminster started a season at 3-0 for the first time since 2007.
The Griffins had a stellar weekend offensively as they hit .204 in the four matches and averaged 11.9 kills per set. They currently lead the Frontier Conference in hitting efficiency, kills, kills per set, assists and assists per set. They also lead the league after recording a staggering 35 service aces during the opening weekend, the fifth most in the country to date.
Defensively, Westminster limited the opposition to 11.2 kills per set and .122 hitting. They averaged 14.9 digs per set while the 238 total digs are seventh-most in the NAIA. The Griffins came up with 18 blocks during the four matches for an average of 1.12 per set.
Ashley Marchant got her senior season started with a bang. The outside hitter from Sandy recorded 49 kills with a .316 hitting percentage in four matches. She also added seven service aces and 42 digs and currently ranks in the Frontier top 10 in each of those categories.
Emily Atkinson ran the offense to the tune of 9.2 assists per set to lead the league while notching a team-best eight aces. She also was second with 43 digs during the tournament.
Katie Vance finished with 30 kills and a team-high five blocks while
Kyndall Kordakis led the way with 68 digs. Freshman
Alyse Horton racked up 25 kills and hit .302 during her first collegiate weekend. Horton came off the bench in all four matches and also posted three aces and 20 digs.
Picked Fourth by the Coaches
Westminster was picked to finish fourth in the Frontier Conference this season according to a poll of the nine conference coaches. They received 40 points in the poll and finished tied with Great Falls for the fourth position. Defending regular season champion Lewis-Clark State College received six first place votes and is the preseason favorite of the league's volleyball coaches to win the conference title for the 2012 season. Conference tournament champion Rocky Mountain College received one first place to finish second, edging third place Carroll College by one vote. The Saints also received one first place vote.
Scouting College of St. Mary
The College of St. Mary comes to town having yet to play a match this season. They did earn a 4-set win (23-25,25-20,25-20,25-16) over Peru State in an exhibition match on Wednesday. The Flames were selected to finish fourth in the MCAC in a preseason poll of the league's coaches.
Against the Opposition
This weekend will mark the first time that Westminster has played St. Mary.
