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SALT LAKE CITY – The Westminster women's volleyball team returns to action this weekend when they travel to Southern California for the Asics/Wyndham Hotels Labor Day Classic hosted by Concordia (Calif.). Westminster will play four matches over the course of two days.

The Griffins open the weekend on Friday when they face Concordia (Neb.) at 1 p.m. MT on court two of the CU Arena. They are back in action at 7 p.m. that evening for a match with No. 8 Biola (Calif.) on court one. Westminster opens Saturday at No. 22 Vanguard at 3 p.m. at the Lions home court in Costa Mesa, Calif. The Griffins close the weekend against Westmont (Calif.) at 9 p.m. back on court two at CU Arena.

Live stats will be available for all of the matches and a live video stream in tentatively planned for the match against Biola on Friday night.

Griffin Notebook
Westminster will travel to SoCal after going 3-2 at the Sports Travel Northwest Invitational last weekend in Spokane, Wash. They claimed wins over Walla Walla (Wash.), Evergreen (Wash.), and Simpson (Calif.) while falling to 23rd-ranked Eastern Oregon and Northwest (Wash.).

The Griffins recorded 12.56 kills per set ion the five matches and they currently lead the Frontier Conference in that category. Westminster is also atop the Frontier leaderboard in total kills (226), total assists (212), assists per set (11.78), total service aces (33), and total digs (277). They hit .200 in the five matches and averaged 1.94 blocks per set.

Alexis Aalona led the way with 65 kills and she ranks second in the conference and ninth in the NAIA in that category. Her 3.61 kills per set also rank second in the league and rank 26th in the country. Jessica Chellsen is currently third in the conference by hitting .319 in Spokane while Taylor Gustafson is second in the Frontier with 161 assists and an average of 9.47 assists per set.

About Concordia (Neb.)
Concordia begins their season this week after finishing 2013 with an overall record of 17-14. With every key contributor from a year ago back in the fold, the expectation is that the Bulldogs will take another leap forward this fall. The returners for the Bulldogs include 2013 GPAC All-Conference selections: Mariah Schamp (second team), Carli Smith (honorable mention), and Claire White (honorable mention).

About No. 8 Biola
Biola enters the weekend ranked No. 8 in the NAIA Coaches' Poll and with a 4-1 record on the season. The opened the season with a five-set loss to No. 15 Viterbo (Wis.) before sweeping four matches at the Biola/Red Lion Hotel Anaheim Summer Slam. Amy Weststeyn leads the Eagles with 70 kills and is fourth in the country with a .525 hitting percentage. As a team, Biola is second in the NAIA with a .336 hitting percentage.

About No. 22 Vanguard
Vanguard is coming off a 2-3 weekend at the same Biola tournament where the wins came over Bellevue (Neb.) and No. 13 Dordt (Iowa). The Lions dropped matches to Viterbo, No. 7 Midland (Neb.), and Southern Oregon. They currently rank 13th in the NAIA with 40 total blocks while racking up 12.7 kills per set. Jessica Neves ranks 29th kills per set at 3.56 through five matches.

About Westmont
Westmont heads to Irvine still looking for its first win of the season. The Warriors dropped their season-opener to Viterbo before dropping all four matches it played at the Biola tournament. Two of their losses have come at the hands of Frontier Conference teams in Rocky Mountain (Mont.) and Montana Tech. Heidi Thompson currently sits sixth in the NAIA with her 189 total assists while Madison Serrano is 21st with 57 kills.

What's Returning for the Griffins
With only four players returning in 2014, Westminster has a lot of holes to fill. While they may be inexperienced overall, the Griffins do return starting outside hitters Aalona and Alyse Horton. They also welcome back the No. 3 outside from last season in Jessica Chellsen and back-up opposite hitter, Rachel Enloe. The chart below shows how much those four contributed to the team's total in 2013.
 

Inside the Numbers
Category	2013 Total	2014 Returners	% Returning
Kills	1,496	619	41.4%
Assists	1,369	41	3.0%
Aces	145	29	20.0%
Digs	1,926	606	31.5%
Blocks	252.5	65.0	25.7%
Points	1893.5	714	37.7%

Aalona Racking up Kills
With 65 kills in Spokane, Alexis Aalona moved from fifth to third in kills in Westminster history. Aalona has recorded 815 kills for her career as she looks to become the second player in school history to 1,000 in their career. The first team all-conference performer established a new career high with 363 kills last season and finished sixth in the Frontier Conference in that category. Aalona would need to average 8.04 kills per match this season to reach 1,000.
 

Westminster Career Kills Leaders
1.	1,497	Angie Johnson	2005-07
2.	989	Alison Culp	2006-08
3.	815	Alexis Aalona	2011-14

Also Climbing the Digs Chart
Aalona also ranks in the top 10 in career digs with 700 through last weekend. She tallied a career-best 353 digs last season and that total again in 2014 would make her the fourth player in school history to reach 1,000 career digs. Aalona needs 85 kills and 200 digs to become the first player in school history with 900 of each.
 

Westminster Career Digs Leaders
1.	1,937	Kyndall Kordakis	2010-13
2.	1,712	Bree Riet	2005-07
3.	1,225	Tahnie Blymiller	2006-07,09
4.	912	Emily Atkinson	2010-13
5.	870	Alison Culp	2006-08
6.	832	Ericka Evans	2007-10
7.	733	Ashley Marchant	2009-12
8.	700	Alexis Aalona	2011-14

Defensive Minded Horton
Alyse Horton had a stellar defensive weekend in Spokane. The junior led the team with 58 digs and she currently ranks sixth in the conference with an average of 3.41 digs per set. She reached double figures in digs in four of the five matches and also picked up her second-career double-double with 11 kills against Walla Walla.

Big Spot for Chellsen
Junior Jessica Chellsen gave the Griffins a spark playing on the right side for most of the matches last weekend. She currently leads the team and ranks third in the conference in hitting at .319. Chellsen twice notched double-digit kill efforts, including a career-high 16 kills in the win over Evergreen last Friday. She also established new highs for attacks (34) and blocks (5) in the win against the Geoducks.

Running the Show
Freshman Taylor Gustafson stepped into the role of setter and got her career off to a good start. Gustafson is currently second in the conference with 161 assists and she led the Griffin attack to a conference-leading 12.56 kills per set. AT her current pace, Gustafson would become the fourth freshman setter in school history to record 800 assists during their first season.

Volleyball Blog
This season, Aalona and Horton will be writing a blog that chronicles the team's adventures throughout the 2014 campaign. A new post will be available each week with many including pictures from outside of the gym that are taken by members of the team. The blog can be found on the volleyball page of WestminsterGriffins.com.

Looking Ahead
Westminster will close out the non-conference season with fur matches at the Big Sky Challenge. The event is co-hosted by Carroll (Mont.) and Montana Tech with the Griffins playing all four of their matches in Butte, Mont.

 

Griffins Big Sky Challenge Schedule
Sept 5	vs #2 Concordia (Calif.)	11 a.m.
	vs Dickinson State (N.D.)	3 p.m.
Sept 6	vs UC Merced	9 a.m.
	vs #18 College of Idaho	3 p.m.