TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (September 26, 2017) – A critical week lies ahead for the nationally-ranked Salt Lake Community College volleyball program.
 
The Bruins are about to begin their final weekend of Scenic West Athletic Conference regular season play, finishing the scheduled slate with two home matches against Colorado Northwestern and Utah State Eastern. All of the scenarios are setting up for the Region 18 tourney the week after, from which Salt Lake is the defending champion.
 
This leads SLCC into a weekend that will be full of subplots, scenarios and tantalizing opportunities for one of the SWAC's annual powerhouses. Starting first with subplots, the Bruins will be involved in a variety of promotions during the weekend. Friday's match against Colorado Northwestern will feature the Bruins participating in the "It's On Us" campaign – a collegiate athletics movement to stamp out sexual violence on campuses across the nation. The night will also feature special uniforms for the Bruins and an opportunity for fans to receive t-shirts for taking the pledge to assist the campaign.
 
Saturday will be the program's annual Sophomore Day, as SLCC honors the four sophomores in the program: To'a Faleao, Lia Finau, Laken Te'o and Aubrie Steiner. The day's honors will include special recognition for the sophomores and their families, along with opportunities for fans to honor players who've helped lead Salt Lake to a region title in 2016 and a chance at another in 2017.
 
Speaking of region titles, it's time to look at tiebreaking scenarios going into next week's Region 18 tournament. First off, Snow College leads the SWAC at 7-2, while Salt Lake and College of Southern Idaho sit at 6-2. If the Bruins finish off the season going 2-0 and Snow loses their match at CSN on Saturday, the Bruins would host the tourney due to overall record and a tiebreaker over CSI. If both Snow, SLCC and CSI win out, Snow would host the tournament with Salt Lake being the top overall seed.
 
Rounding about on opportunities, the Bruins have a chance with wins this week to either position themselves to host the Region 18 tournament at best – SLCC is 9-2 inside Bruin Arena on the season – or to be the top seed at a tournament in Ephraim at the worst. The rewards ahead for Salt Lake are many, including earning a potential SWAC title and a repeat berth into the NJCAA National Tournament.
 
Friday's match against Colorado Northwestern is scheduled for 7:00 p.m., while Saturday's match with in-state rival USU Eastern is scheduled for a 3:00 p.m. start. Both matches will be available for viewing on live.ksl.com, with live stats available on slccbruins.com. Nightly recaps will also be available on the SLCC website.