(MATCH NOTES - PDF)

OPENING SERVE: Dixie State (9-12/7-6 PacWest) heads down to southern California for its penultimate road trip of the 2017 regular season this weekend for a pair of Pacific West Conference matches. The Trailblazers open the trip in Riverside against league-leading No. 3 California Baptist (21-0/13-0 PacWest) on Friday, Nov. 3, followed by a date at Point Loma (8-14/5-9 PacWest) on Saturday, Nov. 4, in San Diego.  
    Live stats/video links for both matches can be found on DSU's official website: www.dixiestateathletics.com.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT: Dixie State enters what may be the final match ever vs. CBU trailing 3-11 all-time in the series between the two long-time PacWest rivals, which includes a 3-0 sweep at the hands of the Lancers at the DSU SAC this past Sept. 16. CBU is slated to make the jump to the NCAA Division I level at the end of the 2017-18 competition season.
    Dixie State is 6-4 all-time vs. Point Loma and has won three of the last four matches overall against the Sea Lions. However the Trailblazers will enter Saturday's match with a little revenge in mind as PLNU claimed a 3-2 result in St. George back on Oct. 21.

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 91-67 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 is coming of a split of a pair of Homecoming Week matches at the DSU SAC this past week. The Trailblazers rallied from a 0-2 deficit to come back and stun Fresno Pacific, 3-2, last Thursday, which was followed by a tough 3-0 setback two nights later against PacWest newcomer Biola in a match that saw all three sets decided by a combined nine points.

TEAM NOTES: Junior MB Kayla Chapman (Fullerton, Calif./Troy HS) has been on a hitting tear over her last 10 matches as she has averaged 8.8 kills and hit .361 overall with just 19 attack errors in 191 total attempts ... she  threw down a career-high 13 kills in the PLNU match (10/21), and collected 10 kills in both home matches last week ... Chapman has 158 kills on the year and leads the team with a .311 hitting percentage, while her recent tear has vaulted her up to seventh on DSU's career hitting percentage list (.258).
    Sophomore RS Lauren Gammell (Spanish Fork, Utah/Spanish Fork HS) tied DSU's single-match record with 10 block assists to go with four kills and two digs vs. Point Loma on Oct. 21 ... Gammell added her name next to former DSU standout Mariesa Nielson, who collected 10 block assists vs. Hawai'i Pacific back in the 2007 season ... Gammell led the way in DSU's comeback win vs. FPU with a game-high 14 kills and followed that up with seven more kills with five blocks in the Biola match ... Gammell leads the team with 170 kills (2.12 k/s) and is hitting .245 on the season, while she has moved into the top-10 in career hitting at No. 10 at .219.
    Senior RS Brette Barney (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) (139 total blocks) has vaulted into eighth place on DSU's career blocks list after she collected a combined six total blocks last week, including four in the FPU win ... Barney also added six kills and four digs in that home start.
    Freshman OH Kaycee Adams posted career-highs of 10 kills and five total blocks vs. PLNU (10/21), while junior OH Hannah Doonan notched her fifth double-double of the year with 11 kills and 18 digs vs. the Sea Lions ... Doonan also collected a career-best five blocks in the FPU win last Thursday ... junior RS Shannon Sorenson just missed becoming the fourth Trailblazer to record double digits in kills vs. PLNU as she finished with nine kills along with four total blocks and three digs.
    Freshman setter Jordyn Nelson recorded her team-best sixth double-double of the year in the PLNU match (10/21) with 26 assists and 10 digs ... Nelson (390) enters the week needing just 10 more assists to become the eighth player in DSU's NCAA era to amass 400 or more assists, and she has done so in just 21 total matches ... sophomore setter Kara Moore (Lehi, Utah/Lehi HS) (270), who is ninth overall in career assists, recorded her second double-double of the year with a 16 assist/11 dig outing vs. PLNU (10/21).
    Junior libero Sid Brandon (Bountiful, Utah/Bountiful HS) enters this weekend needing only 40 more digs to reach the 900-dig plateau, which will make her just the fourth DSU player in the program's NCAA era to do so.
    DSU racked up 17.0 total team blocks in its home match vs. PLNU, which were the most since the Trailblazers combined for 15.0 blocks in a win over Holy Names last season (9/24/16) ... DSU lost the Point Loma match despite outhitting the Sea Lions, .149-.065 ... the last time the Trailblazers outhit an opponent and lost was in a five-set thriller at Alaska-Anchorage in the first round of the 2015 NCAA West Regional (.144-.133; 12/4).
    Dixie State hit a season-high .370 in a win at Academy of Art (10/16), which was bolstered by a combined team effort that saw 10 Trailblazers account for all 38 DSU kills in the match ... Meanwhile, 11 different players collected at least one dig in the AAU match as Dixie State held the Urban Knights to a .048 H%.
    DSU's defense held Holy Names to opponent season-lows of 18 total kills and an -.023 hitting percentage in the Trailblazers' three-set win (10/13) ... DSU also collected a season-high 13 service aces, including a career-high four from Chapman and three more from Nelson ... the 13 aces were the fifth-most in a single match in the program's NCAA era and the second-most recorded in a three-set match overall.
    DSU hit just .077 in its win vs. FPU last Thursday, which marked the first time in nearly four full seasons that the Trailblazers won a match despite hitting below .150 ... back in the 2013 season, DSU posted  .121 H% on its way to a 3-2 home win over California Baptist (11/2/13).
    As a team DSU is hitting .184, while Trailblazer opponents are hitting at a .175 clip through 21 matches this season ... DSU is averaging 11.65 kills, 15.74 digs and 2.04 blocks per set.

UP NEXT: Dixie State returns home for its final three-match PacWest homestand of not only the season, but as a member of the league, beginning with a date against Hawai'i Hilo on Monday, Nov. 6, inside the DSU SAC at 6 p.m.