Colton Yack, Sports Information Director

Volleyball:

No. 10 SLCC looks to wrap up their six match long road swing

SALT LAKE CITY – With two losses last week against ranked opponents, the No. 10 Bruins will now travel to Idaho for a pair of Scenic West Athletic Conference (SWAC) contests to wrap up their six match long road swing.

WHERE SLCC STANDS
Last week the Bruins fell victim of two road losses, the first coming on Tuesday, Oct. 14, against No. 9 Western Wyoming Community College 1-3. The second coming from in-state foe No. 7 Snow College on Saturday, Oct. 18, where SLCC was up 2-1 but lost in five sets 2-3. The back-to-back losses were the first time SLCC has lost two straight all season.

With the losses the Bruins have slipped from No. 5 in the NJCAA national poll to where they sit now at No. 10, a season low.

The Bruins' overall record at this point is 16-8, 4-2 in the SWAC. With two difficult matches this week against North Idaho College and No. 3 College of Southern Idaho; look for SLCC to come out with something to prove as Region 18 Tournament seeding implications could be on the line.

ALMOST HOME
With this season long road swing, the Bruins have not played a home match since the weekend of Oct. 3-4 where they hosted NIC and CSI. This time around NIC and CSI will host the Bruins before they return back to the Bruin Arena to complete their regular season and conference schedule.

Thursday, Oct. 23, the Bruins will take on the Cardinals of NIC. Currently sitting at fourth place in the SWAC standings with a 7-8 overall record, 2-4 in conference play, NIC will look to have yet another late surge as last year they finished as the Region 18 Runner-up in the Region 18 Tournament. The Bruins and the Cardinals faced each other this season on Oct. 4 where SLCC defeated NIC 3-1. Including that match, the two have faced each other 20 times since the 2009 season with SLCC holding a 14-6 advantage. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. with a link to the live stream available here.

Saturday, Oct. 25, should be a dandy as the Bruins take on rival the Golden Eagles of CSI. Sitting on top of the SWAC standings with a 26-1 overall record and a perfect 7-0 conference mark, CSI has been dominant thus far this season. The two faced each other this season in Salt Lake City on Oct. 3 where the Bruins were swept 0-3. Since the 2009 season SLCC and CSI have squared off 17 times with the Golden Eagles holding the advantage 10 wins to seven. First serve in Twin Falls, Idaho is slated for 1 p.m. with live stats available here.

A LOOK AT NIC
Opening up the 2014 season strong, the Cardinals were once tied for the SWAC lead with a 2-0 conference record. Since then, the struggling NIC Cardinals have dropped their last four conference matches.

Dzeni Hadzisehovic and Brittany Aldridge pace NIC offensively with 211 and 159 kills with Brenna Meehan right behind Aldridge with 129. Aldridge also leads the way with 19 aces.
Defensively Kennedy Chadwick has been solid with 273 digs. Meehan is next on the team with 158 while Aldridge possesses 154. Maddi Seidl is also in triple digits for digs with 129.

The setting has been owned by one player in Maddi Seidl who has 587 of the team's 662 assists.

Matilda Altin lead NIC in blocks with 55 total including 18 solo.

A LOOK AT CSI
This season, the Golden Eagles opened up in the NJCAA preseason poll at No. 3 and have proven worthy of that ranking with the lone blemish on their season coming from the hands of No. 1 Iowa Western Community College.

CSI currently have six players over 100 kills in Natasa Savovic, Chloe Watson, Pati Anae, Jessi Seumalo, Kendall Brock, and Alexandra Espinosa with Savovic leading the team with 249. CSI also possesses a combined 196 service aces.

Setter Katarina Kojic has posted 534 assists with Jamie Selleneit next on the list with 317. Watson, Anae, Kojic, Savovic, Micquel Blattner, and Lepeka Kalulu-Sugai have combined for 995 of the team's 1273 combined digs as Brock leads the way for CSI with 109 blocks, 17 coming by way of solo.

SO FAR IN 2014
Carol Grasso (Sao Paulo, Brazil) has been a consistent double-double performer this season as she now has a team leading 316 kills and 330 digs which is good enough for second on the team. She also leads SLCC with 27 aces. The Bruins also have three other players with triple digit kills. Kallie Schmit (Kalama, WA) has put down 230 followed by Jessica Quayle (Ogden, UT) and Sequoia Lofton (Spokane, WA) with 163 and 148, respectively.

Setter Rachel Davis (Riverton, UT) has been solid all season as she now has 721 assists, just four assists away from the SWAC lead. Davis has also racked up 24 aces.

Coming back from injury is defensive specialist Mariana Pilon (Sao Paulo, Brazil) who has now pushed her team leading season digs total to 371.

Lofton currently leads the Bruins with 73 blocks, 16 of them solo. Quayle has knocked down 63 blocks followed by Sadie Pond (Herriman, UT) with 44.