NIC volleyball team opens SWAC play tonight

After a week off from competition, the 17th-ranked North Idaho College volleyball team will return to the court tonight to face Utah State-Eastern in the Scenic West Athletic Conference opener for both in Price, Utah.

"We've had the opportunity to have a nice break last weekend," first-year NIC coach Miles Kydd said. "We had a good week of training and are looking forward to starting SWAC play."

NIC (7-5) took on Utah State-Eastern (4-11) earlier this year, beating the Golden Eagles 25-17, 25-15, 25-17 at the Crystal Inn Invitational on Aug. 31 in Salt Lake City.

In that match, freshman Larissa Claassen and sophomore Leeta Grap, both outside hitters, had 10 kills each for NIC. Grap leads the team with 125 kills, followed by Claassen with 103. Sophomore Russia Robison has 221 digs.

"I would say the fact that we've played each other can be seen as a benefit for both teams," Kydd said. "For us, we have some video to watch and we won the match, so there must be some confidence gained from both of those occurrences. But an argument could also be made that they have the same video and will have had the opportunity to learn specific lessons that can help them. Couple that with starting in their gym, in front of their crowd, and we anticipate a tough match in Price."

In other SWAC matches tonight, Southern Idaho (12-5), ranked fourth in this week's poll, travels to Colorado Northwestern (3-16) and eighth-ranked Salt Lake (12-4) travels to 12th ranked Snow (12-4).

NIC concludes the conference-opening road trip at Colorado Northwestern on Saturday, then returns home next week to face Snow and Salt Lake at Christianson Gym.