Utah Tech Has Its First Big Sky Player of the Week. She Grew Up in Salem.

Utah Tech senior outside hitter Tessa Treanor was named Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week on Monday, September 14, the first Big Sky Player of the Week honor in the volleyball program's history. The award followed a two-match sweep at the UC Irvine Invitational in which Treanor hit .500 with a career-high 20 kills on Friday and posted a double-double on Saturday.

Utah Tech Athletics announced the honor as "the Trailblazers first Big Sky Player of the Week honor." The Trailblazers became full Big Sky members on July 1, 2026, which means the award is the first of its kind available to them.

Twenty kills at .500 against San José State

Against San José State on September 11, Treanor recorded 20 kills — a career high — while hitting .500. She added six digs, three assists, a service ace and a block assist. Utah Tech won 3-0.

The next afternoon at UC Irvine, Treanor turned in a different kind of match: 10 kills and 12 digs, her third double-double of the season, in another 3-0 Utah Tech win. The two results moved the Trailblazers to 5-3.

As of the September 14 announcement, Utah Tech's release had Treanor on a streak of four consecutive matches with double-digit kills, the San José State and UC Irvine matches included. Her season profile is broader than the kill column: she ranks second in the Big Sky in total service aces with 14 and in aces per set at 0.50, and eighth in the conference in kills per set at 2.96.

That serving line is the part of her season least likely to reach a highlight clip. An ace is the one point a hitter can generate without a teammate touching the ball, and Treanor trails one player in the league in both the total and the rate.

The juco route from Salem Hills to St. George

Treanor is listed at 5-11 on Utah Tech's official roster, a senior outside hitter out of Salem Hills High School in Salem, Utah. She did not go straight to St. George.

Her roster bio records a freshman season at Salt Lake Community College in 2023, where she played all 127 sets across 34 matches, put up 384 kills and 80 aces for the Bruins and was named an NJCAA First Team All-American. She has been at Utah Tech ever since, as a sophomore in 2024, a junior in 2025 and a senior now. That is the Utah juco pipeline working the way it is supposed to: one year at SLCC turns a Utah high school player into a Division I starter, at a Division I program inside her own state.

There is a family thread too. Treanor's sister Megan played at Utah Tech from 2018 to 2021, a Trailblazers uniform the family has now worn in three different leagues.

The first award of Utah Tech's Big Sky era

Southern Utah and Utah Tech officially became full Big Sky members on July 1, 2026, taking the conference to 11 full-time members. Utah Tech fields 15 teams within the league, women's indoor volleyball among them. Before that date there was no Big Sky weekly award for a Trailblazer to win; the school had been a Western Athletic Conference member since 2020.

Treanor's honor is the first weekly recognition to come out of that change on the volleyball side, and it arrived before the team had played a single conference match.

The non-conference schedule that produced it was genuinely difficult. Utah Tech opened at the Utah Valley Invitational on August 28 with two wins in one day, beating Oregon State 3-0 and host Utah Valley 3-1, then lost 0-3 to Utah on August 29. The Trailblazers flew to the OUTRIGGER Invitational in Honolulu, lost 0-3 at Hawaii on September 3, won a five-set match against UC San Diego on September 4 and fell 1-3 to Loyola Marymount on September 6. The San José State and UC Irvine sweeps closed the stretch.

None of those eight matches were played in St. George.

A 5-3 team that has not played a home match that counts

Utah Tech enters this week 5-3 with a home record of 0-0. The only date the Trailblazers have played at Burns Arena this year was an August 15 exhibition against UNLV, which does not count toward the record. The Trailblazers host UC Riverside on Friday, September 18 at 6 p.m. MT and Chicago State on Saturday, September 19 at 10:30 a.m. MT at Burns Arena — the program's home opener, in the ninth and tenth matches of the season.

Big Sky play opens Thursday, September 24 at Portland State, an 8 p.m. MT first serve in Portland. That match is the program's first as a conference member, and Treanor will enter it as the reigning offensive player of the week in a league her team has not yet played a match in.

The Big Sky's August preseason poll picked Northern Colorado as the favorite and placed Utah Tech seventh in its first season in the league — though the Trailblazers also received the final first-place vote in that poll. Eight non-conference matches later, the 5-3 record and a weekly award are the only competitive evidence on the other side of that projection.

Key facts:

• Athlete: Tessa Treanor, senior outside hitter, Utah Tech
• Hometown: Salem, Utah (Salem Hills High School)
• Junior college: Salt Lake Community College — NJCAA First Team All-American, 384 kills and 80 aces
• Listed height: 5-11
• Award: Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week, announced September 14, 2026 — the first Big Sky Player of the Week honor in Utah Tech volleyball history
• September 11 vs. San José State: career-high 20 kills, .500 hitting, 6 digs, 3 assists, 1 service ace, 1 block assist; Utah Tech won 3-0
• September 12 at UC Irvine: 10 kills, 12 digs, third double-double of the season; Utah Tech won 3-0
• Season rankings: 2nd in the Big Sky in service aces (14) and aces per set (0.50); 8th in kills per set (2.96)
• Team record: 5-3, with an 0-0 home record entering September 18
• Conference context: Utah Tech became a full Big Sky member on July 1, 2026, one of 11 full-time members; picked seventh in the preseason poll
• Next: UC Riverside (Sept. 18) and Chicago State (Sept. 19) at Burns Arena; Big Sky opener at Portland State on Sept. 24