LADIES FIRST
Coach Lemay’s crew braved the chilly conditions at Zion’s Bank Stadium on the RSL Academy campus Thursday evening and warmed up by the fire with a 2-0 victory over their WAC foe New Mexico State. The Wolverines grabbed the lead in the 23rd minute when junior forward Juliana Carter cleaned up the rebound in the six after Heather Stainbrook’s shot forced Aggie goalkeeper Makenna Gottschalk to make a diving one-handed deflection. The ball bounded off the keeper’s hand and fell right to the feet of Carter, who knew what to do. This was the Texan’s second goal in the last three games. After that, the Wolverines grabbed a hold of the possession like a teenager with their cell phone, and didn’t put it down until the 88th minute when the underclassmen duo of Lily Haskins and Anna Pickering combined for the second and final goal of the night. Haskins won possession a few yards into the Wolverines’ side of the pitch and immediately turned up field. With her head on a swivel, Haskins was able to draw two defenders to her as she penetrated the heart of the Aggie backline, and then dropped a beautiful dime past the NMSU defense at the top of the box into the perfect stride of teammate Anna Pickering, who, with one touch of her right foot, branded the Aggies with their first conference loss of the year.
With no disrespect to New Mexico State, Utah Valley from the first whistle, grabbed the game by the jersey collar and didn’t let go. The Wolverine backline did their job in helping Brooklyn Nielsen keep a clean sheet in her first official collegiate match in almost two years. Utah Valley outshot the Aggies 22-2 on the night, including an 8-2 advantage on frame. The Aggies, now 2-1 in WAC play, and the Wolverines (also 2-1) will run it back today at 2 PM MST, and this time, due to some pending inclement weather, the match will be indoors at the RSL Academy indoor field, which is directly behind the Zion’s Bank Stadium from Thursday night.
Watch live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qOtOjpFMHk
FROM THE PITCH TO THE HARDWOOD
Mark Madsen’s Wolverines knocked the Vaqueros off their horses Friday night as UVU defeated UTRGV 78-74 in the UCCU Center. If you’re thinking to yourself, “wow! that’s pretty close,” you’re right! It was not a pretty win, by any means, but the Wolverines outlasted over 55 whistles, some poor shooting from beyond the arc, a handful of careless turnovers and occasional free throw woes to get a hard-fought and much-needed “W.” The win improves Utah Valley to 7-3 in WAC play and essentially the keys to their own destiny as far as the pursuit of a regular season WAC title. As of Saturday morning February 27th, the Wolverines are in sole possession of second place behind a Grand Canyon team with a 7-2 conference record – the same GCU squad that UVU will travel out to Phoenix and play next week. Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, we know that both of these schools still have one more game each respectively before they meet up, but still, the carrot dangling in front of the horse tends to taste sweeter during the chase, right?
A valiant Vaquero squad, who are battling more than just the regular emotions that come from losing a game, are still hurting after their beloved leader, friend, and coach, Lew Hill, passed away suddenly a few weeks ago. Friday’s game marked the first WAC game the Vaqueros had played since the middle of January. They have had 12 games cancelled this season and out of those 12, 11 of them have been within WAC play. Entering Friday’s contest, the Vaqueros were sitting atop of the conference with a 2-0 record, and are now sitting in third at 2-1. UTRGV was lead by the offensive trio of Anthony Bratton (19 pts, team high), Quinton Johnson II (15 pts), and Uche Dibiamaka (12), along with their pesky guard Javon Levi who dished out eight dimes and swiped seven steals. The Wolverines were anchored by “old reliable” Fardaws Aimaq, who recorded his 13th double-double of the season with an impressive 22-pt, 13-rebound outing and his tag team partner Evan Cole who added a casual career-high 14 rebounds and eight points. UVU’s JJ Overton also added in 12 points while Jaden McClanahan dropped eight dimes in the piggy bank.
These two schools will square off again tonight at 6 PM MST in the UCCU Center, which will be interesting because the Wolverines have split their last three WAC series’, winning the first and dropping the second of the back to backs. And the Vaqueros won’t want to miss their target two nights in a row, especially as these teams gear up for the conference tournament in 2 weeks, and UTRGV needs all the games they can play.
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7VPmzbXdYc
bcrowsnest 
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