PENSACOLA, Fla. - The eighth-ranked UWF women's volleyball team returns home to the UWF Field House this weekend to play host to the Walk-On'S UWF Invitational. The Argonauts welcome Lewis, Oklahoma Baptist, Spring Hill and UNC Pembroke to town for nine matches over two day. First serve is at 9 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

UWF enters the tournament at 6-2 on the season following a 2-2 effort last weekend at the Colorado Premier Challenge in Denver.

LAST WEEK IN DENVER: UWF opened play on Friday and defeated Azusa Pacific 3-0. The Argos hit .337 in the contest and held the Cougars to .154 in the last two sets, pulling away for 25-22, 25-18, 22-20 win. Later that evening, UWF faced a strong 15th-ranked Wayne State squad that handed the Argos their first loss of the year, 25-17, 26-24, 25-17. UWF hit an uncharacteristic .193 and WSC committed just four attack errors. That 1-1 mark in pool play slotted the Blue and Green into the Silver Bracket where they dropped their Saturday morning match to Regis (25-15, 25-19, 25-14) before the win over WWU. Against the Vikings, UWF jumped out to a 2-0 lead with set decisions of 25-23 and 25-20 before WWU evened things up with wins in the third and fourth sets, 25-21 and 25-22. In the final set, UWF fought off three match points to eventually close out the battle, 21-19. On Saturday, the Argonauts dropped their first match, 3-0, to co-host Regis before holding off Western Washington for a 3-2 win in the Silver Bracket's third-place match.

Taylor Vaneekeren and Camila Vazquez were both named to the all-tournament team, with Vaneekeren eclipsing the 3,000-assist mark on Friday. Vaneekeren finished the weekend with 144 assists in the four matches, ranking third along all setters with 10.29 assists per set. The Naperville, Illinois native is just the second player in program history to reach 3,000 assists, joining career leader Monique StCyr, who had 4,650 from 2014-17. Vaneekeren is approaching another milestone, as her 34 digs in Denver pushed her career total to 942 at UWF. Vazquez and Avery Rodgers led the UWF offense with 45 points each. Vazquez had 36 kills and was in on 17 blocks, with two solos, while Rodgers put away 43 attacks on .308 hitting pct. Jenna Zydlo had 32 kills on a team-high .419 hitting pct. to go along with eight blocks of her own.

ARGOS REMAIN IN AVCA TOP 10: Buoyed by the 5-set win over No. 3 Western Washington, UWF dropped just three spots to No. 8 in this week's AVCA Division 2 Top 25. Lewis is the only other team in this week's tournament who is ranked, with the Flyers sitting at No. 17 after going 2-2 at the Colorado Premier.

VANEEKEREN HITS 3,000 CAREER ASSISTS, APPROACHING 1,000 DIGS: Senior setter Taylor Vaneekeren surpassed the 3,000-assist mark last week to become just the second player in program history to reach that milestone. She is sitting on 942 digs and has a chance to get to 1,000 in the next week. She leads the Gulf South Conference and ranks 33rd nationally with 10.29 assists per set.

PICK YOUR POISON WITH RODGERS, VAZQUEZ OR ZYDLOW: UWF has the luxury of three very accurate hitters in Avery Rodgers, Camila Vazquez and Jenna Zydlow. All three rank in the top six of the GSC in hitting pct. and all average 3.2 points per set or higher.

ABOUT THE OPPONENTS
LEWIS: The Flyers (5-3) have traveled all over the last two weeks. In Hawaii, Colorado and now Florida. They've played five ranked teams and have two wins, and nearly a third in a five-set loss to No. 11 Western Washington. Here are their top players:

OKLAHOMA BAPTIST: OBU is 3-6 and comes in very young. Eight players have played at least 30 sets, but four of those hadn't played a collegiate match prior to this season.

UNC PEMBROKE: UNCP is 3-5 and has won three of its last four matches. The Braves are led by Shannon Skryd with a 2.97 kills/set avg and Katie Pressley with a 6.97 assists/set mark. Defensively, Elise Martinpaces the team with 3.90 digs/set and Brianna Warren has 35 blocks for a 1.21 bps avg.

UWF will play the first of their three matches on Friday at 11:30 a.m. against UNC Pembroke, with their second match of the day at 7 p.m. against OBU. On Saturday, the Argos will play just one match, facing No. 17 Lewis at 2 p.m. on Saturday.