(MATCH NOTES)

OPENING SERVE: Dixie State (8-8/5-3 PacWest) concludes its season-long seven-match homestand this Saturday as the Storm hosts Academy of Art (6-9/2-5 PacWest) at 12 noon at the DSU Student Activities Center. Live stats and live video streaming links for Saturday's match can be found at www.dixieathletics.com.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT: Dixie State owns an 8-3 series lead vs. Academy of Art and has won three-straight and four out of the last five overall vs. Urban Knights, including a 3-0 triumph at the DSU SAC last season.

COACHING STAFF: Head Coach Robyn Felder (Eastern Washington, 2002) is in her fourth season on the Storm bench. Felder has posted a 54-41 overall record during her tenure, including a 22-9 mark in 2014 in leading the Storm all the way the NCAA West Region final (Sweet 16). Felder is joined on the bench by assistant coaches Liz Fisher (fourth season), Whitnee Tupe (fourth season) and volunteer assistant Nate Capps (first season). 

STORM PICKED FOURTH IN PACWEST: Dixie State was picked to finish fourth in the Pacific West Conference preseason coaches' poll. California Baptist picked up three first place votes and narrowly edged Point Loma (three first place votes) by four points, 176-172, in being tabbed as the PacWest preseason favorite. BYU-Hawai'i (169) and Dixie State (152) each collected four first place votes to finish third and fourth, respectively, followed by Concordia (136) in fifth, Hawai'i Pacific (123) in sixth and Azusa Pacific (115) in seventh to round out the top-half of the poll.

QUICK HITS: Dixie State has played to a 5-1 record through the first six games of its seven-match homestand ... the Storm posted 3-1 victories over Azusa Pacific (10/3) and Hawai'i Pacific (10/10), but could not close the match out in their only loss of the stand vs. Chaminade (10/7) ... DSU had a 2-0 lead on the Silverswords, but Chaminade battled back to force a deciding fifth set and wound up escaping with a 3-2 win ... this season the Storm is 6-2 when they win the first set and 5-1 when up 2-0 ... DSU hosted a "block party" vs. APU as the Storm recorded a season-high 15 total blocks ... juniors Krystalyn Sloan (Albuquerque, N.M./Sandia HS) (4) and Delayne Daniel (American Fork, Utah/Pleaseant Grove HS) (3) each posted career-highs, while senior Makenzi Bird-Murphy had five total blocks, including three solo stops ... Daniel notched her team-leading sixth double-double in nine matches with 13 kills and 11 digs vs. HPU .. freshman Taylor Duryea (Logan, Utah/Sky View HS) averaged 12.3 kills in three matches last week, including a team-high 15 in the win over HPU ... Duryea also posted a career-high with three total blocks vs. Chaminade ... junior setter Kailey Frei (Orem, Utah/Timpanogos HS) finished with a career-high seven kills vs. HPU and finished with her third double-double of the year with 42 assists and 10 digs ... Frei also recorded a career-best 54 assists in the win over Notre Dame de Namur (9/23), which is t-10th on the DSU single-match list ... senior Alex Anderson (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) collected 98 digs over her past three matches, including a career-high 40 vs. Chaminade, and now has 1,488 digs for her career (#2 all-time) ... Anderson stands just 311 digs shy of becoming DSU's career digs leader ... Anderson (63) also needs two more service aces to move into fifth place on the Storm's career list ... Bird-Murphey (22) took over fourth place on DSU's career solo blocks list with six solo blocks over the past three matches ... Bird-Murphey is also ranked #3 all-time in career block assists (206) and total blocks (227) ... junior Lindsay Jones (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) continues her reign atop DSU's career hitting percentage list at .294 after she combined to hit .348 vs. APU, Chaminade and HPU.

As a team Dixie State is ranked 44th-nationally blocks per set (2.18 bps), 83rd in hitting percentage (.208) and 110th in kills per set (12.4 kps) ... DSU enters Saturday's match vs. AAU looking to break a string of four-straight matches where the Storm have not posted a hitting percentage over .200, though the team has gone 3-1 over that stretch ... the last time DSU hit over .200 was a .299 effort in a three-set sweep of Concordia Sept. 26 ... the Storm did set a school record for hitting percentage with a .440 in their second match of the year vs. Molloy College, which included a .552 clip in the third set.

HEAD COACH ROBYN FELDER ON THE STORM: "We are so excited to close out this homestand because we are playing our best volleyball of the season so far. The girls have hit it really hard this week and we are getting better every day. Our focus has been cleaning up our blocking and running our offense. When we are in system we are going to be hard to beat this year."

UP NEXT: Dixie State begins a five-match PacWest road swing to close out October, starting with three matches next week at Fresno Pacific Oct. 21, at Holy Names Oct. 23, and at Dominican on Oct. 24.