(MATCH NOTES - PDF)

OPENING SERVE: Dixie State (6-8/3-2 PacWest) begins the second half of the 2017 regular season on the road as the Trailblazers head to NorCal for a four-match PacWest Bay Area trip, beginning with a match at Notre Dame de Namur on Wednesday, Oct. 11. DSU will also play at Holy Names this Friday, Oct. 13, and at Dominican University on Saturday, Oct. 14, before closing the trip at Academy of Art on Monday, Oct. 16.
    Live stats/video links for all four matches can be found HERE.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS: Dixie State is 21-2 all-time against NDNU and has won 19-straight overall in the series, including a 3-0 victory over the Argonauts in the last meeting in Belmont last season (10/28/16).
    The Trailblazers are 7-1 all-time vs. Holy Names and has won seven-straight overall vs. the Hawks in the series, which includes a 3-0 home sweep at the DSU SAC last month (9/29/17).
    Dixie State is 11-1 all-time against Dominican, with nine of DSU's 11 victories in the series resulting in three-set sweeps, including the Trailblazers' 3-0 win over the Penguins this past Sept. 30.  
    Dixie State owns a 10-3 series lead vs. Academy of Art and has won five-straight and six out of the last seven overall vs. Urban Knights, which includes a 3-0 triumph in San Francisco last season (10/29).

COACHING STAFF: 2015 PacWest Coach of the Year Robyn Felder (Eastern Washington, 2002) is in her sixth season on the Trailblazer bench. Felder has posted a 88-63 overall record during her tenure, including a 17-11 record last season. In 2015, Felder led the Trailblazers to their first-ever Pacific West Conference title and the program's third-straight NCAA West Regional appearance. In addition, five Trailblazers earned all-PacWest honors and Felder was named Conference Coach of the Year. The season before that, she led DSU to its most successful season in the program's Division II era. The Trailblazers played to a 22-9 overall record, which marked the first time Dixie State had reached 20-plus wins in a season since its first year of NCAA play in 2006.
    Felder, who was also named PacWest Co-Coach of the Year in 2013, is joined on the bench by assistant coaches David Richards (first season), Nate Capps (third season), and former DSU standout Lindsay Garrett (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) (student assistant, first season). 

TRAILBLAZERS PICKED THIRD IN PACWEST IN 2017: Heading into its final season of league play, Dixie State was picked to finish third by the Pacific West Conference coaches in the annual preseason poll released by the league on August 23.
    Defending PacWest champion Concordia-Irvine was the overwhelming choice to repeat in 2017 as the Eagles collected 10 out of a possible 14 first-place votes to top the poll with 189 points. California Baptist picked up three first-place nods to finish second with 158 points, followed by the Trailblazers in third with 158 points. Azusa Pacific (one first place vote) came in fourth in the poll with 151 points, while Point Loma (119 points) edged out Hawai'i Pacific (118 points) for fifth place, and Dominican (105 points) rounded out the top half of the poll in seventh.
    DSU, which has finished in the top-three in the PacWest each of the last four years, including the program's first conference crown in 2015, landed one player on the league's awards list. Junior Sid Brandon (Bountiful, Utah/Bountiful HS) was voted 2017 PacWest Preseason Libero of the Year and was named to the preseason all-PacWest team.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Dixie State closed out its three-match homestand with its third-consecutive three-set victory as the Trailblazers completed their season sweep of Hawai'i Pacific last Friday night inside the DSU SAC. Kaycee Adams (Syracuse, Utah/Syracuse HS), Kayla Chapman (Fullerton, Calif./Troy HS) and Brette Barney (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) led a balanced DSU offensive attack as the trio finished with eight kills apiece, while Lauren Gammell (Spanish Fork, Utah/Spanish Fork HS) tallied seven kills and a career-high nine block assists, which tied for the second-most in a single match in program history.
    DSU's defense, led by Gammell's career night, along with a combined 31 digs from Brandon (18) and Hannah Doonan (San Dimas, Calif./San Dimas HS) (13), held the Sharks to a .110 hitting percentage and forced 22 HPU hitting errors.

TEAM NOTES: Chapman went on a hitting tear during DSU's homestand as she averaged 9.0 kills and hit .481 overall with just two attack errors in 52 total attempts ... Chapman had eight kills in 14 attacks (.571 H%) with no errors vs. HNU (9/29), then followed that up by hitting .647 with 11 kills and no errors in 17 attacks vs. Dominican (9/30 ... Chapman has 97 kills on the year and leads the team with a .308 hitting percentage, while her recent tear has moved her up to eighth on DSU's career hitting percentage list (.242).  
    Gammell posted a pair of career nights in her two starts against HPU in 2017 ... in DSU's road win back on Sept. 22, she collected a career-high 21 kills and hit .487 in DSU's 3-2 road win ... then in the home rematch, Gammell went for seven kills and a career-high nine block assists ... her nine block assists marked just the seventh time in program history that a player had achieved that feat, the last being former Trailblazer player Lindsay Garrett (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS), who did it twice in 2015 (vs. Northwest Nazarene) and again in 2016 (vs. Fresno Pacific) ... Gammell's nine total blocks also tied for the sixth-most in a single-match in DSU's NCAA-era.  
    In addition, Gammell's 21 kills were the most recorded by a DSU player since former Trailblazer OH Delayne Daniel (Pleasant Grove, Utah/Pleaseant Grove HS) collected 23 kills in a win at Point Loma last season (9/16/16) ... Gammell is hitting .251 on the season and she has sneaked into the top-10 in career hitting at No. 10 at .214.
    Doonan posted her team-leading fourth double-double of the season in the HPU road win (9/22) with a career-high tying 16 kills and 17 digs ... Doonan enters this week's road trip with a team-leading 110 kills and is second on the squad with 141 digs.  
    Freshman setter Jordyn Nelson (Phoenix, Ariz./Greenway HS) posted her third double-double of the year with 19 assists and 10 digs, and collected a career-high four aces, in the Dominican home win (9/30) ... Nelson has moved into eighth place on DSU's career assists list after just 14 matches (263), while sophomore setter Kara Moore (Lehi, Utah/Lehi HS) (187) is currently ninth overall.
    Brandon became just the fourth player in DSU's NCAA era to surpass the 700-dig plateau with her second dig in the Chaminade match (9/23) ... Brandon now has 767 digs in two-plus seasons in a Trailblazer uniform.
    As a team DSU is hitting .191, while Trailblazer opponents are hitting at a .204 clip through the midway point of the 2017 season ... DSU is averaging 12.02 kills, 15.83 digs and 1.87 blocks per set overall.

UP NEXT: Dixie State returns home for another three-match PacWest homestand, which begins against Point Loma on Saturday, Oct. 21, at 12 noon inside the DSU SAC.