• News
• |
• Schedule
• |
• Roster
• |
• Stats
• |
• Archives

Sept. 7, 2009

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -

Latest AVCA Poll in pdf format

Following road trips to Los Angeles and Ellensburg, nationally ranked Western Washington University makes its home debut this week, playing host to the Viking Invitational Volleyball Tournament on Thursday through Saturday on Haggen Court at Sam Carver Gymnasium.

Eight schools are participating in the three-day, 16-match tourney. They include British Columbia (0-0), Central Washington (7-1), Grand Canyon (6-0), Notre Dame de Namur (2-6), Seattle Pacific (4-5), West Texas A&M (7-2), Western Oregon (2-6) and the Vikings.

Looking to snap a two-match losing streak, Western has two contests Thursday, meeting British Columbia in the tourney opener at 11 a.m. and Notre Dame de Namur at 7 p.m.

The Vikings, who are 5-3 with two of those losses being to nationally top-25 ranked teams, face Grand Canyon on Friday at 7 p.m. and West Texas A&M on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Tourney action begins at 9 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Western dropped to No.24 in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division II Top 25 Poll after being tied for No.21 in the last rating and No.23 in the preseason ranking.

Last week, the Vikings split four matches at the Central Invitational. They opened with sweeps of Walla Walla and BYU Hawaii, then fell to Academy of Art, 3-0, and No.24 Sonoma State, 3-1.

Western placed two on the all-tournament team, outside hitter Marlayna Geary (Fr., Tacoma/Bellarmine Prep) and libero Allison Gotz (Jr., Bothell/Archbishop Murphy), who received AVCA All-America honorable mention in 2008.

The win over Walla Walla was the 200th of head coach Diane Flick's 10-year career at Western. The school's all-time victory leader in program history, she has a record of 201-53 and a winning percentage of 79.1, which ranks eighth among NCAA II active coaches.

Western setter Laurie Yearout (R-Fr., Spokane/Lewis & Clark) ranks second in assists (9.42 per set avg.) among Great Northwest Athletic Conference leaders. Geary is third in kills (4.23) as is Gotz in digs (4.96) and middle blocker Emily Jepsen (So., Kennewick/Kamiakin) in blocks (0.90).

Western, which did not earn a berth in the national playoffs last year despite a 21-3 record, opened its season by winning three of four matches at the SoCal Classic.