(MATCH NOTES)

OPENING SERVE: Dixie State (12-8/9-3 PacWest) closes out month of October on the road as the Storm travels to southern California for pair of crucial Pacific West Conference matches. DSU opens the trip Friday night at Azusa Pacific (12-9/8-4 PacWest) at 7 p.m., in the FPU Felix Activity Center. The Storm then make a quick turnaround for a late afternoon Halloween match at Concordia (13-10/9-5 PacWest) Saturday at 5 p.m., at the CU Arena in Irvine. Live stats links for this week's matches can be found at www.dixieathletics.com.

DSU has won five-straight and nine of its last 10 to climb up to second place in the PacWest standings at 9-3, one-half game behind league-leading California Baptist (10-3), and one full game ahead of FPU and Concordia (two games in the loss column) which are in third and fourth in the conference standings, respectively.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS: Dixie State is 3-4 all-time against APU and has won three-straight vs. the Cougars overall, including a 3-1 home victory at the SAC this past Oct. 3. Saturday's match at Concordia will be the second-ever meeting between the Storm and Eagles on the volleyball court, with DSU claiming a 3-1 home win in the first match-up Sept. 28.

COACHING STAFF: Head Coach Robyn Felder (Eastern Washington, 2002) is in her fourth season on the Storm bench. Felder has posted a 58-41 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.

JONES NAMED PACWEST DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Dixie State junior middle blocker Lindsay Jones (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) was named PacWest Defender of the Week Monday for her efforts in the Storm's three road victories last week. Jones helped lead DSU to a three-game road sweep with wins at Fresno Pacific, at Holy Names and at Dominican. She averaged 1.73 blocks per set (6.3 per match), including six total blocks at both FPU and HNU, and seven more at Dominican. Jones also had 23 total kills and recorded a .241 hitting percentage in the three matches.

QUICK HITS: Friday's match at APU will be the 100th-match of Head Coach Robyn Felder's career at DSU and her 70th PacWest match as DSU coach ... Dixie State played in its 250th NCAA Division II match last Saturday at Dominican ... the Storm is 137-113 (.548) all-time in its 10th-year of four-year competition ... 10 of DSU's 12 wins this year have come in four sets or less, including two three-set sweeps at HNU and at Dominican last week ... this season the Storm is 10-2 when they win the first set and 8-1 when up 2-0 ... DSU notched its first win of the season when trailing 2-1 in a match last week at FPU ... Dixie won the first set, but dropped the next two before storming back to take the final two sets to claim the 3-2 win ... DSU hit .402 in the sweep at HNU, including a .533 clip in the opening set ...  in fact it was DSU's second-best hitting percentage of the year, trailing only the Storm's school-record .440 percentage set vs. Molloy Sept. 5 ... for just the third time this season DSU had four players register 10 or more kills in a match in the win at FPU ...  freshman Taylor Duryea (Logan, Utah/Sky View HS) led the way with 15 kills, while Jones and senior Makenzi Bird-Murphey (St. George, Utah/Snow Canyon HS) had 11 kills apiece, and junior Delayne Daniel (American Fork, Utah/Pleaseant Grove HS) finished with 10 ... the Storm also had four players with 10+ kills vs. AAU Oct. 17 and at CBU Sept. 18 ... Daniel picked up her team-leading ninth double-double of the year at Dominican with 11 kills and 14 digs ... junior setter Kailey Frei (Orem, Utah/Timpanogos HS) reached 50+ assists for the third time this season with 50 dimes in the win at FPU ... Frei also had 53 assists vs. AAU and a career-high 54 assists earlier this season vs. Notre Dame de Namur Sept. 23 ... senior Alex Anderson (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) collected 63 digs last week and now has 1,574 digs for her career (#2 all-time) ... Anderson stands just 225 digs shy of becoming DSU's career digs leader ... Anderson (67) also moved into fifth place on the Storm's career aces list with four service aces last week ... Bird-Murphey (25) needs two more solo blocks to move into third place on DSU's career solo blocks list ... Bird-Murphey is also ranked #3 all-time in career block assists (215) and total blocks (239).

HEAD COACH ROBYN FELDER ON THE STORM: "This weekend is absolutely pivotal for us as we draw nearer to the close of our regular season. These are two key match-ups for us and now we just need to do our job and play well on the road. We are extremely motivated and playing our best volleyball right now. Time for us to see what we're made of!"

UP NEXT: Dixie State returns home for two matches, beginning with showdown with PacWest leading California Baptist on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 6 p.m., in the DSU Student Activties Center. DSU will also play host to Point Loma on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 12 noon.