(MATCH NOTES - PDF)
COMPLETE DSU/DESERT GARDEN INN BY WYNDHAM CLASSIC INFORMATION

OPENING SERVE: After an overall successful start to its 2018 season, Dixie State (2-1/0-0 RMAC) returns home to host the 2018 Dixie State/Desert Garden Inn by Wyndham Classic this weekend inside the Burns Arena. The Classic marks the first time in program history that the Trailblazers will play on the Burns Arena floor.
    DSU will open the 12-match, round-robin tourney vs. defending Lone Star Conference champion No. 18 Tarleton State on Thursday night at 7 p.m. The Trailblazers will play two more matches on Friday vs. Western New Mexico (2 p.m.) and fellow RMAC-member Colorado-Colorado Springs (7 p.m.) in a non-conference tilt, and will wrap up the tournament vs. defending Heartland Conference champ Arkansas-Fort Smith on Saturday, Sept. 1, at 7 p.m.
    Complete tournament coverage, including daily game schedules, live stats and video, can be found HERE.

DIXIE STATE VS. THIS WEEK'S OPPONENTS: Of the four teams Dixie State will play this weekend, DSU has faced only two of those opponents in previous seasons, while Thursday's match vs. Tarleton State and Saturday's finale vs. Arkansas-Fort Smith will mark the first time the Blazers have played either opponent on the volleyball court.
    DSU is 0-2 all-time vs. WNMU, with both of those losses coming on neutral courts in 2012 (L, 0-3; 9/7/12 in Anchorage, Alaska) and in 2013 (L, 1-3; 9/13/13 in Las Vegas, N.M.). Dixie State has also faced UCCS twice, though the two sides have not played each another since 2009, when DSU claimed a five-set victory on a neutral court (9/5/09 in Durango, Colo.), while the Mountain Lions took the first-ever meeting a year earlier by a 3-1 count (8/30/08 in Pueblo, Colo.) nearly 10 years to the day of this year's match.

COACHING STAFF: Robyn Felder (Eastern Washington, 2002; 97-71 overall record) is in her seventh season at the helm of the DSU women's volleyball program as it heads into its first year of RMAC play. The two-time Pacific West Conference Coach of the Year (2013/2015) led the Trailblazers to a 13-15 overall record last season which included an 11-9 mark (t-6th) in their final season of PacWest competition.
    In 2015, Felder led the Trailblazers to their first-ever Pacific West Conference title and the program's third-straight NCAA West Regional appearance. 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 only time Dixie State has reached 20-win plateau in the program's NCAA-era, and DSU also reached the 2014 NCAA West Regional final (Sweet 16).
    Felder is joined on the DSU sideline by second-year assistant coaches David Richards (BYU, 1983) and former DSU standout Makenzi Bird-Murphey (Dixie State, 2018).

THREE AWAY FROM 100: Head Coach Robyn Felder enters this weekend's tourney needing only three more wins to reach the 100-win plateau. Coach Felder has led DSU to double-digit win totals in each of the previous five season, and has won 17 or more matches in four of those five year, including an NCAA-era school record 22 wins in 2014.

HI, MY NAME IS....: After 11 years as a member of the Pacific West Conference, Dixie State embarks on its first season as full members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference in 2018.
    The Trailblazers won one PacWest volleyball title (2015) over their conference membership and posted a 117-75 overall record (.609) in 192 league games. DSU won 10 or more PacWest matches in seven of those 11 campaigns, including a program-best 17 matches (17-3) in 2014.

TRAILBLAZERS PICKED SEVENTH IN THE RMAC IN 2018: Dixie State was voted to finish seventh by the RMAC coaches in the annual preseason poll released by the league on August 13.
    Defending RMAC co-champions No. 7 Regis and No. 20 Colorado School of Mines combined to collect all 16 first-place votes in the poll, with Regis garnering 15 first-place nods to top the poll with 225 points, while CSM earned the other first-place vote and finished with 208 points.
    MSU-Denver wound up third in the poll with 181 points, followed by Colorado Christian (181 pts) in fourth, Colorado Mesa (173 pts) in fifth, Colorado-Colorado Springs (152 pts) in sixth, DSU (128 pts) in seventh, and Adams State (123 pts) rounded out the top half of the poll in eighth.

WEEK IN REVIEW: Dixie State enjoyed a solid start to the 2018 season as the Trailblazers went 2-1 in three matches last weekend at the Northwest Nazarene-hosted Fairfield Inn & Suites Invitational in Nampa, Idaho.
    DSU split the first two matches on Friday, dropping a hard-fought five-setter in the tourney opener to former PacWest foe Biola, before bouncing back with a big 3-2 victory over the host #19 Nighthawks in a match that saw DSU rally from an 0-2 set deficit. Dixie State rode that momentum into Saturday's finale vs. Cal State Monterey Bay and came away with a 3-0 sweep of the Otters.

TEAM NOTES: Sophomore RS/S Megan Treanor had quite the Trailblazer debut last weekend as she was named the NNU tournament MVP after she finished with 43 kills (14.3 kpm/3.31 kps), 25 assists and nine total blocks over the three matches ... after collecting 16 kills in the opener against Biola, Treanor went off for 19 kills, 11 assists and four total blocks in the comeback win over NNU, including 12 kills over the final three sets ... the sophomore then went for eight kills and 11 dimes in the sweep of CSUMB.
    Senior MB Malary Marshall joined Treanor on the NNU all-tourney team after she tallied 31 kills (2.38 kps) and 16 total blocks (1.23 bps) in the three matches ... Marshall threw down a career-high 13 kills in the opener vs. Biola and tallied 10 kills and a match-high six total blocks in the comeback win vs. NNU.  
    Sophomore S Jordyn Nelson notched her first double-double of the year with a career-high 31 assists and 12 digs vs. Biola, and registered a career-best four kills at NNU ... junior MB/OH To'a Faleao-Baich just missed registering double-digits in kills in all three matches last week as she collected 12 vs. Biola, 11 at NNU and a game-high nine in the sweep of CSUSB ... freshman L Abbey Smith collected nine digs in her second collegiate match at NNU.
    Prior to last Friday's come-from-behind win at NNU, the last time the Blazers rallied from a 0-2 deficit to win a match came at home last season vs. Fresno Pacific (10/26/17), while the last time the DSU achieved that feat on the road also came last year in a 3-2 win at Central Washington (9/8/17) ... Dixie State hit .538 in the decisive fifth set at NNU (7K/0E), which marked the first time the Trailblazers hit better than .500 in a set in nearly three full seasons ... During the 2015 campaign, DSU hit .533 in the first set of a 3-0 sweep at Holy Names (10/23/15) ... As a team DSU is hitting .206, while Trailblazer opponents are hitting at a .156 clip through three matches this season ... DSU is averaging 11.85 kills, 15.38 digs and 2.50 blocks per set.

UP NEXT: Dixie State will make its RMAC debut next weekend as the Trailblazers head to South Dakota for a pair of matches at South Dakota Mines on Friday, Sept. 8, and at Black Hills State on Saturday, Sept. 9.