Soccer signings

These girls are expected to sign letters of intent to play soccer at Utah Valley next year. Wednesday in national letter of intent signing day. A big day for Brent Anderson and his program.

Christy Brian, Davis (UVSC)

Camille Broderick, Pleasant Grove (UVSC)

Ashley Burdett, Mountain Crest (UVSC)

Kelsey Kimball, Timpview (UVSC)

Brianne Larsen, Orem (UVSC)

Jamie Lyons, Orem (UVSC)

Allie Noot, South Summit (UVSC)

Collette Simmons, Davis (UVSC)

Kaitlyn Thomas, Orem (UVSC)

UV better than Kentucky?

ESPN's Pat Forde has an interesting piece about the woes of Kentucky and Louisville as their annual game is about three hours from tipoff.

As of this week, the Wolverines are at spot No. 218, while Kentucky languishes at No. 219.

Don't get too excited as Utah Valley probably would get blown out if they ever faced the Wildcats.

Men's basketball free falling

In Boise, Idaho for the season opener Utah Valley played to the bitter end before losing to Boise State in overtime 72-71. In the rematch Utah Valley lost control and after leading at halftime and fell 87-77.
It was Utah Valley's (3-7) fifth loss in a row and the team has as many losses as last year's team had all season.
Again Ryan Toolson led the way for the Wolverines with 22 points and Jordan Brady had a career high 20 to go with eight rebounds but the Wolverines were burned by turnovers and second-half 3-point shooting by the Broncos.
Reggie Larry led Boise State with 18 points and had a couple nice dunks in the second half. A half where Boise State shot 5-for-7 from behind the arc and 60 percent from the field.
Although Toolson had 22 points it came on just 5-for-16 shooting and 2-for-10 from 3-point range.
Teams know Toolson is a scorer and they buckle down on him defensively. Last David Heck and Matt Peterson could take some pressure off and score as well but this year Toolson is the major threat offensively for the Wolverines by far and although he is still getting his points it is coming on a lot more shots. He also played every minute of the game.
Toolson and Brady had little help offensively as Richard Troyer was 3-for-9 and 1-for-6 from 3-point range. Josh Olsen shot 1-for-8 and 0-for-3 from the 3-point line.
And as poor of an offensive game as several players had, the Wolverines were still in it if they would have held possesion and played a bit tighter defense. The Broncos shot 50 percent for the game to Utah Valley's 41 percent.

Other notes
Center Joe Walker was another Wolverine haveing a nice game shooting 4-for-5 from the field before exiting because of a hand injury. Walker came up holding his hand after a Wolverine foul. He stayed in the game for a few minutes but after he threw down a two-handed dunk midway through the second half he called for a sub and never came back in. Boise pulled away for good in what was a close ball game and led by six to 10 points until the end.

New floor, no good?
Utah Valley is 0-2 on the new floor it shares with the Flash. While there was many complaints about the old floor and all the dead spots at least the team was winning. Utah State was the team's only loss at home last year. This already two now.
The women's team will try its hand for the first time on the new floor on Saturday. Maybe they can do better after two straight losses.

Women's soccer recruit named MVP

Utah Valley's soccer team has a number of young players that could turn the program into something great very soon.
Coach Brent Anderson is going to add another strong class of young players to his team next year with this year's class 4A MVP, given by the Salt Lake Tribune, Brianne Larsen from Orem High School headed to Utah Valley next year.
Larsen, a defender, helped the Tigers win the 4A state title by shutting out Highland 4-0. Larsen and the rest of her team gave up 13 goals all season and recorded 11 shutouts. Orem allowed only two goals in the state tournament with Larsen leading the defense.
A number of other Utah Valley recruits made All-State teams. Allison Noot of South Summit made the 2A first team as a goalie, Kaitlyn Thomas made the 4A first team as a midfielder, Cristy Brian, a defender from Davis High, made the 5A second team, Noelle Sanders, a defender from Timpanogos High School made the 5A second team. Kelsey Kimball, a defender from Timpview, made the 4A second team, and Jamie Lyons, a forward from Orem made the 4A second team.
The link to the article about the soccer MVPs is http://www.sltrib.com//ci_7690179?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com.

Losing streak extended to four

Men's basketball

It hasn't been pleasant for the Wolverines (3-6) the last four games including the team's worse loss of the season against Big West favorite UC Santa Barbara 81-61
Again it was Ryan Toolson leading the way for Utah Valley with 25 points but others struggled offensively. Josh Olsen missed both his shots from the field and Richard Troyer was the only other Wolverine with double digits, he finished with 10 points.
The Gauchos killed Utah Valley from beind the 3-point line. UCSB shot lights out 60 percent from 3-point range.
The Wolverines struggled with the pressure and didn't get much going inside for Jordan Brady or Joe Walker.
With only eight assists the team struggled to get going as a unit.
UCSB (9-1)was led by guard Alex Harris who scored 25 points. The win was UCSB's seventh in a row and Utah Valley's fourth straight loss.
Next Thursday the team returns home for a rematch against Boise State.

Tough night for Wolverine basketball--Women suffer 1st loss and men drop 3rd straight

Women suffer first loss
Montana State guard Rebecca Mercer scored 30 points as the Bobcats handed Utah Valley an unexpected first loss 79-69.
With an in-state match-up pending this weekend against BYU the Wolverines (8-1) couldn't stay undefeated.
BYU (3-5) also lost today, to New Mexico State 54-52.
For Utah Valley Julie McMurray led the team with 18 points against the Bobcats. Robyn Fairbanks scored 17 and had 10 rebounds and Sandy Marvin scored 14 points in the loss.
Those three took most of the offense on their shoulders like normal but they usually have some pretty good help from Rebekah Peterson but she missed both of her field goals and scored just two points.
AS dissapointing as the loss is the season is still off to a great start. The team just has to make sure they don't into a similar slump they fell into last season.
After staring 10-1 in 2006 the women won just one game in their next 10 games.
Interestingly that 1-9 span started with a loss to BYU and their only win in that period was against Montana State.
They play two teams they lost to last year during that span this month also, Portland and Portland State, both at home.
It's hard to see this team going through anoter 1-9 period because of the experience and leaders on the team but they do play some tough games this month besides BYU. Of, course the toughest game of the season will be at Duke.
But potential is still there for the team's best record at Utah Valley.

Men drop third straight
Utah Valley got within three points in the second half but it just couldn't get over the deficit, which at one point was 15 in the first half, against Cal State Northridge of the Big West Conference.
With only three combined points from from Jordan Brady and Richard Troyer the team fell 76-64.
It doesn't get easier either for the men. On Friday they play UC Santa Barbara, a team picked to win the Big West.
It seems like coach Dick Hunsaker is trying to make something happen with the line up as freshman center Brian Anderson and guard Jabir Jinna got their first starts as a Wolverine. In a post game interview Hunsaker said Anderson played well but made some mistakes, as expected from the young guys.
This year's schedule gives Utah Valley a chance to see where it is at compared to so-called mid-major schools and so far it asn't been good.
Utah Valley will return home for a rematch against Boise State, UV lost in overtime to the Broncos in the season opener, Dec. 13 before hitting the road again.

Looking for that killer instinct

It was homecoming, the men's first game televised locally and the first game on the new floor but Portland State made sure Utah Valley didn't get the win with all those things going on.
Utah Valley had several chacnes to put the Vikings away but they just didn't do it. Down the stretch there wasn't someone to take over at either end of the court and it cost Utah Valley a 60-53 overtime loss.
Ryan Toolson did what he could with a game high 22 points, including two free throws under a minute that gave the Wolverines a three-point lead. No one stepped up in overtime though. Jeremia Dominguez, all 5-foot-6 of him, got away with some easy buckets in the overtime, in the lane of all places.
Defense is definitly something to be worked on.
And Utah Valley couldn't take advantage of the Vikings 1-for-7 start from the field as the Wolverines missed their first eight shots. Many were ill-advised 3-pointers.
After the game Hunsaker said Portland State was, "more physical, bigger, stronger and faster," but it was a game the Wolverines had.
Maybe what PSU coach Ken Bone said was true, "Maybe they were deflated."
Maybe Utah Valley was but you have to get up in overtime better than Utah Valley did even if you just miss a lay up that would have gave you the win after they tied the game with a three.
Too many mistakes at both ends cost them and they fall to 3-4.

Notes about the games
The new floor
Even though the school revealed new logos on Friday Utah Valley's new court, one they share with the NBA D-League Utah that has interchangable baselines, half court and other parts, still had the old logos. The school ordered the pieces before any decision on them were made and now athletics will be ordering new parts with the new logos when some extra cash comes in.
My question is why didn't they wait to find out the new logos before ordering the parts of the floor and then play games either with the old floor or with the Flash logos until the parts with the new logo came in. Seems like they could have saved some dough in the whole ordeal.

Home loss
Utah Valley had won 13 straight home games before falling to PSU. The team's last home loss came against Utah State in December 2006.