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OPENING SERVE: Dixie State (11-13/9-7 PacWest) will host its final two home matches as a member of the Pacific West Conference this weekend as the Trailblazers welcome in Azusa Pacific (19-5/12-4 PacWest) for Senior Day on Saturday, Nov. 11, followed by the home finale vs. Academy of Art (5-19/2-15 PacWest) on Sunday, Nov. 12. Both matches will begin at 12 noon inside the DSU SAC.  
    Live stats/video links for both matches can be found HERE. This weekend's matches will also be the final two home matches for seniors Brette Barney (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) and Jaclyn Condie (Cottonwood Heights, Utah/Brighton HS), and redshirt junior Kayla Chapman (Fullerton, Calif./Troy HS).

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT: Dixie State is 6-5 all-time against APU and has won six of its last seven overall vs. the Cougars after an 0-4 start in the series. Last season, the two sides split a pair of matches with both teams defending the home court, with DSU claiming a 3-0 sweep at the DSU SAC (10/8) before dropping a five-set thriller in Azusa later in the year (11/12).
    Dixie State owns a 10-3 series lead vs. Academy of Art and has won six-straight and seven out of the last eight overall vs. Urban Knights, which includes a 3-0 triumph in San Francisco last month (10/16).

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 93-68 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 has won two straight and three of its last five heading into play this weekend two home matches. Last week in southern California, the Trailblazers bounced back from a sweep at then No. 3 California Baptist (11/3) with a five-set victory at Point Loma (11/4), followed by a 3-0 sweep of their own vs. Hawai'i Hilo last Monday night at the DSU SAC.

TEAM NOTES: Junior MB Kayla Chapman (Fullerton, Calif./Troy HS) has been on a hitting tear over her last 13 matches as she has averaged 9.5 kills and hit .349 overall with just 29 attack errors in 272 total attempts over this current stretch ... she threw down a career-high 22 kills (and DSU team season-high) in DSU's come-from-behind win at PLNU (11/3), and followed that up with game-highs of nine kills and eight total blocks (career-high) in the Hilo win last Monday ... Chapman has 194 kills on the year and leads the team with a .313 hitting percentage, while her recent tear has vaulted her up to fourth on DSU's career hitting percentage list (.264) ... Chapman also enters this week needing seven more blocks to move into DSU's career top-10 total blocks list.
    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 had 12 kills in the PLNU road win (11/4) ... Gammell leads the team with 195 kills (2.14 k/s) and is hitting .249 on the season, while she has moved into the top-10 in career hitting at t-ninth at .227.
    Senior RS Brette Barney (Prescott, Ariz./Prescott HS) recorded 10 kills in the PLNU road win (11/4) and finished collected four total blocks over her last three matches overall ... Barney is currently ranked eighth on DSU's career blocks list (143) heading into her final four matches in a Trailblazer uniform.
    Sophomore OH Amanda Robinson (Springville, Utah/Springville HS) threw down a career-high five kills at PLNU (11/4), while junior RS Shannon Sorensen (Smithfield, Utah/Sky View HS) just missed becoming the fourth player to reach double figures in kills at PLNU as she finished with nine ... senior libero Jaclyn Condie (Cottonwood Heights, Utah/Brighton HS) moved into 10th-place on DSU's career digs list (518) and tied a career-high with two aces at CBU (11/3).
    Freshman setter Jordyn Nelson posted two more double-doubles last week to push her team-leading total to eight overall ...Nelson went for 14 assists and 10 digs in the loss at CBU (11/3), but came back with a career-high 30 assists and 14 digs in the PLNU win (11/4) ...  Nelson became the eighth player in DSU's NCAA era to amass 400 or more assists, and she has done so in just 24 total matches, and she enters play this week with 447 dimes to her credit  ... sophomore setter Kara Moore (Lehi, Utah/Lehi HS) (315), who is ninth overall in career assists, also got into the act as she collected a career-high 24 assists in the PLNU road win.
    Junior libero Sid Brandon (Bountiful, Utah/Bountiful HS) became the fourth player in program history to reach the 900-dig plateau, doing so as part of a 26-dig night in the sweep of Hawai'i Hilo ... Brandon has recorded double figures in digs in 19 of 24 matches played this season.
    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 home 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 total 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 (10/26), 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).
    DSU was held to a season-low -.024 H% at CBU (11/3), but came back in a big way by hitting .263 in the five-setter at PLNU (11/4) and .274 in last Monday's sweep of Hilo.
    As a team DSU is hitting .184, while Trailblazer opponents are hitting at a .169 clip through 24 matches this season ... DSU is averaging 11.78 kills, 15.99 digs and 2.08 blocks per set.

UP NEXT: Dixie State closes out its 2017 season with its final two PacWest games, which will be played at Concordia-Irvine on Friday, Nov. 18, followed by the finale at Biola on Saturday, Nov. 18.