(MATCH NOTES - PDF)

Dixie State's women's volleyball team (6-7/3-2 PacWest) continues its season-long seven-match homestand this next week as the Storm welcomes in three of the top five teams in the PacWest standings to the DSU Student Activities Center. The current stretch begins this Saturday, Oct. 2, at 12 noon as conference co-leader Azusa Pacific comes to town, followed by a match against Chaminade (3-1/10-2 PacWest) on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at 6 p.m. On the following Saturday, Oct 10, current league co-leader Hawai'i Pacific (9-3/4-0 PacWest) invades the DSU SAC for a 12 noon showdown.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS: Dixie State is 2-4 all-time against APU, though the Storm has won two-straight after losing its first four matches to the Cougars. On the flipside, DSU owns an 11-4 series edge vs. Chaminade and have won three-straight and 11 of its last 12 against the Silverswords after an 0-3 start to the series. Dixie State is 8-7 through its first 15 meetings with HPU on the court and has won five-straight overall in the series.

COACHING STAFF: Head Coach Robyn Felder (Eastern Washington, 2002) is in her fourth season on the Storm bench. Felder has posted a 52-40 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.

ANDERSON NAMED PACWEST DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Dixie State senior libero Alex Anderson (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) was named Pacific West Conference Women's Volleyball Defender of the Week this past Monday for her performances in leading the Storm to two conference victories last week. Anderson (5-8; Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) averaged 6.0 digs per set in DSU's victories over Notre Dame de Namur and Holy Names. Against NDNU, she had a then-season high 26 digs in the five-set win over the Argonauts, and followed that up with 22 more digs and a service ace in the three-set sweep of the Hawks.

QUICK HITS: Dixie State opened its seven-match homestand with three much-needed victories, including a five-set thriller vs. Notre Dame de Namur, a sweep of Holy Names and a four-set win against Concordia ... freshman Taylor Duryea (Logan, Utah/Sky View HS) was DSU's PacWest Player and Freshman of the Week nominee after she registered a career-high 21 kills along with seven digs, a career-best four service aces and three total blocks in the win over NDNU .. Duryea followed that up with a match-high 10 kills and hit a career-best .600 for the match with three digs vs. HNU, and 11 more kills and two solo blocks vs. Concordia ... junior Delayne Daniel (American Fork, Utah/Pleaseant Grove HS) notched her fifth double-double in six matches with career-highs of 19 kills and 18 digs vs. NDNU ... in all DSU had a season-high 68 kills against NDNU, which tied for the fifth on DSU's single match list ... junior setter Kailey Frei (Orem, Utah/Timpanogos HS) had a career-high 54 assists on those 68 kills, which is t-10th on the DSU single-match list ... senior Alex Anderson (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) now has 1,390 digs for her career (#2 all-time) and stands just 409 digs shy of becoming DSU's career digs leader ... A. Anderson (57) also needs five aces to move into sixth place on the Storm's career list ... senior MB Makenzi Bird-Murphey (St. George, Utah/Snow Canyon HS) moved to fifth place on DSU's career solo blocks list with her 16th career solo block vs. Concordia ... Bird-Murphey is also ranked #3 all-time in career block assists (202) and total blocks (218) … as a team Dixie State is ranked 44th-nationally in hitting percentage (.226), 55th in blocks per set (2.10 bps), and t-99th in kills per set (12.49 kps).

HEAD COACH ROBYN FELDER ON THE STORM: "We are excited to continue our homestand stretch. Azusa is a top tier program and is still undefeated in conference at this point. They have a very solid team and we are looking forward to seeing how we match up. We have been scouting them all week and have put together a pretty good game plan to match up against them. It should be a very exciting match and I know the girls are ready to get after it. Serving and passing will be key for us and we will work to get Azusa out of system as much as possible."

UP NEXT: Dixie State concludes its seven-match homestand on Saturday, Oct. 17, with a PacWest date vs. Academy of Art at 12 noon at the Student Activities Center.