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.

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.

Volleyball sweeps In-state rival, ties school record for wins

The Wolverines displayed their dominance against in-state rival Utah State in the Shurian Activity center, sweeping the Aggies 30-18, 30-26, and 30-26.

The win was the 18th of the year for UVSC(18-9), tying the school record for wins in a season.

Junior Camie Manwill had a double-double with 17 digs and 11 kills while also providing an energy to the team. She said after the game that she had never seen the crowd so energetic and enthusiastic, and it was a thrill to play for the fans.



True enough, the crowd energy was high-paced the entire evening. Many of the men's basketball team were in attendance, showing school unity just minutes after their victory over Mesa State.

Senior Jessica Endres came up big for the Wolverines, hitting an impressive .520 to go along with 15 kills, six block assists and six digs. As a team, the Wolverines had six aces and 13 team blocks.

UVSC finishes up the regular season at home on Saturday, Nov. 10 against Nevada. The Wolverines will then host the year-end Division I Independent Championship on November 16-17.

Runners take a championship

Once again Utah Valley showed its Independent dominance, this time it was the cross country runners getting the job done.
Both the men's and the women's teams walked away from the Independent Championships as the champions.
Aiysha Mitchell, who finished first out of Utah Valley runners at most meets this year, continued her success crossing the finish line first for the women. On the men's team, Chase Englestead crossed the finish line second in the men's race and first out of UV runners.



Mitchell came on strong this year with all sorts of determination and grit. After the BYU Fall Invitational earlier this year she said she felt like she had improved tremendously since last season. She was the best runner this year finishing regularly in the top ten at meets. She had goals to meet and now she's the best Independent female runner, good for her. She's a senior so someone else will have to step up next year. Coach Houle was impressed with what she's done this season, pretty much coming out of nowhere to be the leader of Utah Valley.
Utah Valley still has Independent tournaments to play in both soccer and volleyball and since both the tournaments will be in Orem it's liekly the Wolverines could claim three championships in the fall.