New Logos for Utah Valley University Athletics

Utah Valley recruit lights up No. 1 team

Ben Aird was on BYU and Utah's recruiting radar not too long ago but for some reason dropped off and landed smack dab in the middle of Utah Valley's.
Looks like coach Dick Hunsaker found himself a diamond with the way Aird played against top-ranked Brighton this week.
The 6-foot-10 center, who plays for Bountiful, dropped in 28 points and pulled down 10 rebounds as well as getting two blocks in the Braves 75-68 win Tuesday night.
Aird scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds in Bountiful's season opener against Syracuse.
He is being touted as, and wants to be, the best big-man in the state. The high school basketball season is young but Aird seems like a great get for the Wolverines.
Utah Valley loses two big men after this season, Joe Walker and Jordan Brady.

Women's basketball

Hot, Hot, Hot
Forward Robyn Fairbanks (right) didn't have to take control in Utah Valley's first few games of the season so Julie McMurray and Sandy Marvin took more of the bulk offensively but Fairbanks didn't wait long to take control.
Against UC Irvine Fairbanks netted 26 first-half points and 36 total. She kept the Wolverines in the game when McMurray and Marvin struggled with their shots early on.
And in an overtime game against Seton Hall Fairbanks followed up her 36-point performance with 39 points to help Utah Valley remain undefeated.
A vote in the AP top 25 followed.
A 6-0 start for the first time in school history has some people taking notice a win against the cross-town Cougars will bolster that recognition Dec. 8 and a good showing 10 days later against Duke will definitely have folks paying attention.
This week the Wolverines travel to play in the Air Force Classic and will face 2-2 Ohio and then either Air Force or Hampton. The Falcons have wins against Denver and Army while Hampton is 4-1 with a win over Georgetown to open the season.
This has to be one of the best teams in school history and the good thing for coach Cathy Nixon she will have her top three scorers back next year.

Wolverines take down Troy in home opener

UVU (2-2) 72 Troy (1-2) 51
It’s hard to believe Utah Valley trailed by 12 to start this game. Troy was hitting from deep for the first few minutes and didn’t connect on a a two-point field goal until the second half.
At first UV struggled to score, shooting mostly perimeter jumpers the first few minutes, but got a few easy buckets inside and took off from that point on. Troy is a zone team but once UV worked the offense inside and once guard Ryan Toolson started hitting from the three-point range Troy couldn’t keep up.
The Trojans didn’t have anything inside; even their big men were shooting threes all game.
Toolson led UV with 17 points and he didn’t attempt a shot inside the three-point line all game. Jordan Brady pitched in 10 points and 10 rebounds. Richard Troyer scored 14 also.
Troy made only three shots in the game that weren’t 3-pointers and shot 35 threes in the game.
Freshman Matt Komenda also played a nice game with 12 points off the bench for the Wolverines.
Up next for Utah Valley is Great Falls on Saturday at 2:05 p.m.

Ronnie Price was in attendance after he played the most minutes he’s played all season the night before against New Jersey as the back up point guard while Jason Hart was at a funeral. Price’s dunk was pretty nice too. He always likes to stick around for pictures and autographs.

Fairbanks, big second half makes UV 4-0

With sophomore Julie McMurray, who is leading the team in scoring so far this season, struggling to get things going in the first half Robyn Fairbanks showed she can still dominate a game.
In the women's 103-83 win over UC Irvine Fairbanks wouldn't be stopped. She scored 26 first-half points and 36 total to go with 15 rebounds. She single handedly kept the Wolverines in the game in the first half.
But Utah Valley's two-point halftime lead turned into a blowout. McMurray got going a bit with seven early second-half points and Sandy Marvin helped out with 22 points and 10 assists.
The Anteaters wanted to push the ball but in the second half Utah Valley showed its depth by running a bit and UC Irvine wasn't able to keep up with the tempo.
In the first half Irvine turned Wolverine turnovers into points put couldn't do the same in the second half.
Marvin also had five steals and so did Asumi Nakayama.
Wolverines face a tough test Wednesday before Thanksgiving against Seton Hall. Good thing Utah Valley has the game at home where they play much better.
Starting good is one thing, they did it last year, keeping it going will be another thing.
Utah Valley has beat all four opponents this season by at least 20 points.

NCAA review and conference talk

With the NCAA in town for an evauluation a few weeks back the athletic department did what it could to make sure things are in order.
Although it is an athletic commitee, other areas of the school were looked at. The NCAA talked to administrators and professors to find out what the relationship is between athletics and education as well as looking at facilities and other things in the athletic department.
The NCAA gives out three grades, fail, pass with exceptions, and pass.
A.D. Mike Jacobsen was sure the school would pass but wondered what exceptions would need to happen before the end of the school's provisional status.
He got half of it right, the school passed and with no exceptions. People said that doesn't happen very often.
With the review and the pass out of the way UV is more interesting for conference pursuers. Here is a list of possible conferences UV thought they would have a shot at and the realistic possibilities, Jacobsen said:


Big West: Not very likely at all. The school presidents want to turn this conference into a California only conference.


Big Sky:They want a school with football and if they said UV was in if they start playing football in three years then UV would take it in an instant. And football would be on the way.


Mid-Conn/Summit: They want out of Utah and want Southern Utah out already. It's just not going to happen and wouldn't be good for UV anyway no sweat about that loss.



Sunbelt: UV men just beat their champ in hoops but they have Denver and don't want to go any farther west as it is. Again no big deal here the travel would be brutal anyway, not that going to play all these sorry teams back east right now isn't. But Sunbelt is a conference the school would be completely happy to be in.


WAC: Jacobsen said this is the conference that has spoken to him the most. They are looking to expand to a non-football school also so every other sport can have travel partners besides football which they want to stay at nine so they can have a bye week rotated through the season. Of course Boise State and Fresno State want out of the WAC and into the Mountain West and that may open up a bigger possibility for UV. Although it still seems a stretch right now that UV would get into that conference it is the best possibility right now besides the Big Sky. If UV did take a spot in the WAC it would be great for the sports they have football would most likely be out of the picture at UV for a very long time.
They would have to play D-I football and meet all the requirments for that plus build a 30-40,000 seat stadium, plus it would cost more than half te budget right now to play every season.


Passing the NCAA stuff was great and conference affiliation will be even better for the school especially if it is the WAC.

One down—two to go for championship

30-18, 30-21, 30-14
Utah Valley women's volleyball team shouldn't have any problem blowing by every team in the Independent tournament this weekend on its way to the championship.
And in the Wolverines first match against Providence the expected was exactly what happened. Jessica Endres, who played limited time, was way too much for Providence as well as the entire Wolverine front line. Endres finished with seven kills in the first game and 12 in the match. She's good but Utah Valley didn't really need her anyway.
Kristin Anderson took a big role and had 10 kills to gave Utah Valley a big lift also in the middle. Overall Utah Valley was way too much up front for anything Providence could offer and it will probably be that way both tournaments.
Kristi Lindley had 41 assists for the Wolverines.
Providence wasn't a big problem and the Wolverines should roll again in game two.
Utah Valley coach Sam Atoa was able to work in most of his players in the easy win.
Utah Valley's second game in the tournament is Texas-Pan American and with a win they will be in the championship Saturday.