HOW SWEEP IT IS: The Snow College women's volleyball team continues its season in the Dalton Overstreet Invitational beginning Friday. The Badgers will play three matches over the weekend beginning with Arizona Western College and host school Yavapai College Friday, followed by No. 2 New Mexico Military Institute Saturday.
Snow College came screaming into the season with three wins to begin the year. All three wins were sweeps including a 3-0 victory of No. 6 Miami Dade College in the first match of the season. The Badgers also had sweeps against Indian River State College and Western Wyoming Community College.
MOVING ON UP: Snow College moved up five spots in the most recent NJCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Top 20. The move comes after No. 1 ranked Iowa Western Community College began the season 2-6 and have fallen out of the top 20.
Missouri State-West Plains, MDC, and Butler Community College all suffered losses which allowed the Badgers to leapfrog into the number 3 slot.
LAST TIME OUT: The No 8. Snow College women's volleyball team kicked off the 2022 season with three sweeping victories in Salt Lake over the weekend. The Badgers collected riveting victories over No. 6 Miami Dade (25-16, 28-26, 25-23) and Indian River (25-18, 25-17, 25-16) Friday, and another against Western Wyoming (25-14, 25-11, 25-11) Saturday.
The first game against Miami Dade started the season off strong with powerful kills from sophomore middle blocker Tricia Tua'one and freshman outside hitter Kesa Makasini. In a thrilling match-up of two top 10 teams, no one could keep their eyes off the game. Ultimately, the Badgers came out on top in all three sets. Offensively, Makasini led Snow College with a match high 14 kills and sophomore outside Hannah Smith and freshman libero Avery Fowler led the team defensively with 13 digs a piece.
In the second match against Indian River, the Badgers remained disciplined and collected another three-set win. Indian River fought the entire match and pushed the Badgers to earn every point. Makasini again took control of the offense with a team high of 11 kills and sophomore outside hitter Ashlynn Olsen had an impressive eight kills. Fowler and sophomore Macie Gordon had remarkable serve receive stats, passing a 2.7 and a 2.6. Tua'one came in serving strong and ended the match with five aces.
In their final match against Western Wyoming, the Badgers continued to take down opponents without dropping any sets. The scrappy Mustangs kept the Badgers on their toes, but ultimately the Badgers were able to take them down. Freshman Kiera Crosbie, Kayley Parish, Hallie Winn, and Myah Gibb also had great contributions to the win. As a team, the Badgers passed an impressive 2.5 in serve receive and had a cumulative hitting percentage of .462. Freshman outside hitter Kiera Crosbie drove the offense with 11 kills and Olsen added to the kill count with nine.
At the end of the tournament, freshmen Kesa Makasini and Avery Fowler received tournament honors. Makasini was voted to the All-Tournament team and Fowler was awarded All-Tournament Libero.
HISTORY WITH AWC: The Badgers are undefeated against the Matadors in their brief three-match history. Snow College's fist win came on September 9, 2017 with a 3-1 victory in Twin Falls, ID. It notched another 3-0 win on August 30, 2019 with it's most recent victory coming in a 3-2 thriller February 4, 2021.
HISTORY WITH YC: Snow College has also dominated the matchup with the Roughriders winning all nine meetings. Yavapai has only managed to win five total sets against the Badgers. Snow College had a pair of victories against the Roughriders last season with the first coming in the inaugural game of the season — a 3-0 sweep. That was followed up by a 3-2 victory - the closest matchup between the two schools - September 4, 2021 at the same Dalton Overstreet Invitational.
HISTORY WITH NMMI: The Badgers have some work to do to improve their history against the Broncos. Snow College is 1-3 all time against NMMI with its lone win coming on September 15, 2017 in a 3-0 sweep. The other matchups have resulted in a pair of 3-1 losses and a 3-0 sweep on August 30, 2019.
The Badgers will face the No. 2 NMMI twice this season with the second matchup coming September 10 at the Starr Corporations Tournament at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls.
UP NEXT: Snow College will travel north to participate in the Starr Corporation Tournament where it will face a stacked lineup. Four of the Badgers five matches will come against teams in the NJCAA Women's Volleyball Top 20.
Snow College will kick off the tournament against No. 14 MSWP followed by a rematch against No. 8 MDC. The Badgers will take on unranked Western Wyoming Community College and No. 20 Monroe College Friday. They will then take on No. 2 NMMI for the second time this season to wrap up the tournament Saturday. For more details on each match, visit snowcollegebadgers.com.
