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Show 0 R E M TIMES Thursday, June 5, 2008 Page 10 UVSC sports has another banner year Neil K. Warner NOP'H r.O SlU Talk about a season to remember. re-member. Three months into the 2Hfl-08 2Hfl-08 season and Utah Valley State College had already won four Independent championships. champion-ships. There were more highlights to come. The men's basketball team kept hs streak of winning seasons sea-sons alive. The women's basketball bas-ketball team set a new school record for wins. The baseball team upset No. 9 Oklahoma State and the softball team beat Utah for the first time in school history. The 2007-08 season included plenty of highlights for a school still in its Division 1 infancy. Here's a look back at how the athletic programs fared UVSC started off the 2007-08 2007-08 season by racking up four independent champioaships in the fall. Independent tournaments tourna-ments are held at the end of the season for Division I Independent Inde-pendent schools. The volleyball headlined a moRster fall when it capped off its most successful NCAA season by winning the 2007 Division I Independent Cham-pioaship Cham-pioaship after fx-ating CSU 15a-kersfield 15a-kersfield in the Shurian Family Activity Center. It was the second time in three years the volleyball team had won an independent championship cham-pionship and in the process won 21 matches the most wias ever in five seasoas at the Division I level. "You can't top this," said coach Sam Atoa. "I've really enjoyed coaching these girls. They're very deserving" The women's soccer team finished the season with a 0-13-1 overall record, but won the games it needed to win. The Wolverines won six of 10-40 OFF On All In-Stock and Special Order Items 20 OFF All Accessories k V ;. i ; ; . j s- 470 W State Street T l URNI I URL Pleasant Croi-e 735-7788 RESTAURANTS BURGER BOYS PHONE seven games agaiast United Soccer Conference opponents and won the conference tournament tour-nament for the first team in schwl history. Jenni Clough, a junior from South Jordan became the school's all-time leading goal scorer, was named the USC's (Offensive Mayer of the Year. The cross country teams kept the streak of winning independent champioaships going. Both the men's and the women's teams won Independent Inde-pendent titles and each team posted six top-10 finishes as the Wolverines swept the team competitions. Ayisha Mitchell won the women's race and Chase En-glestead En-glestead was second in the men's race. Winter Sports The men's basketball team couldn't match last year's 22-win 22-win season, but the Wolverines won nine of their last 10 games to finish above TOO with a 15- 14 overall record and extend the school's streak of consecutive consecu-tive winning seasoas to 25 in a row and that includes the first five years the Wolverines have competed at the Division I level. Junior Ryan Toolson was named NCAA Division I Independent Inde-pendent Hayer of the Year as voted upon by nine Division I independent coaches and sports informationmedia relations rela-tions directors. Jordan Brady was tabbed as Defeasive Player Play-er of the Year. Toolson led all independent scorers, averaging 23.4 points per game. I le also shot 95. 1 percent ( l.W-of-104; from the Iree throw line. The women's basketball team continued its progression, progres-sion, winning a school record Hi games which included wias over Set on I lall and Gonzaga. The women faded down the ... P' tt) mil )TTSX6 ORDERS WELCOME I I MARK jOHNSTONNorth County UVSCs Robyn Fairbanks (10) looks to pass as Chicago State's Jasmin Dixon defends on Jan. 28 in Orem stretch and lost all three games at the Division I tournament, but the Wolverines had just two non-starting seniors on the team. Junior center Robyn Fairbanks Fair-banks capped off an impressive Only 45 minute from Provo, Sot S-iytI Es'.a'es try? s-t&ir:2t ya'ue n axesyW'tf to the Wasatt '"xt 5 r"?,rxriv Wies Reassess o your mot-ve be i SWJfiig a tong-tefi r"ifirA"rsr. f -crffvinrq 'zrf'y lies oys'.'ucfcng a "sWrJ inheritance inheri-tance (.'a" ' a ' ri " atone Sort er Sr-. Estates is the peec place to achieve f objectives Define your legacy and lifestyle at Soldier Summit Estates. 6-15 acre recreational estates underground utSities etectrfc, phone k state-ot-art water system restrictive covenants - architectural review committee ra cw-r wefl-maantained roads Rr. year-f oond access ' ' BOI 368 8272 junior season by earning honor-able honor-able mention All-America status by the Associated Press. She finished fin-ished fourth in the nation in scoring scor-ing with 23.8 points per game. See UVSC PAGE 11 soldiersummit.com KOUHTAtH ESTATES r- - ; - If" iff Despite entering playoffs as No. 4 seed, T'Wolves never doubted ability to win Russ Lyman NORTH COUNTY Following Timpanogos' loss to Spanish Fork to end the regular season, Christian Chris-tian Stewart's father, Nick, approached me and asked, "Have you ever seen a No. 4 seed win a state champion-shipr champion-shipr I said I hadn't, and he assured as-sured me that I was about to. He was right. That confidence that the T'Wolves were the best team in the state going into the tournament was apparent appar-ent not only in the attitudes of the team's parents, but also in the players and coaches themselves. Despite entering as the No. 4 seed, Timpanogos was the most confident and most talented team going into the playoffs and the T'Wolves proved it with a remarkable 5-0 run agaiast the state's best competition com-petition to earn the school's fourth state championship. "We came into the tournament tour-nament with a chip on our shoulder. We had a couple of bad weeks in region play and we knew we were better bet-ter than that," said shortstop Bret Lopez. "We got together to-gether as a team and talked about stuff that we can do better. We knew we were a good team, we just had to show it." And show it they did. Timpanogos left little doubt with four convincing wins and another against River-ton River-ton that was only decided by one run, but that the T'Wolves seemed in control of throughout. Other wins came against Alta and twice against Bingham, including the championship-clinching game. The rough ending to the season may have actually been a blessing in disguise. The TWolves were able to get healthy and the team was forced to come together and reaffirm the goals they had set during the preseason. "At the beginning of the year we decided nothing short of a state championship champion-ship would do," Mitch Foster said after the championship win. "We worked hard all season to come and do this and it's just unreaL" 1 W 833 S. 170 E. Provo 377-1011 boxmartofprovoyahoo.com 625 N. State St Orem 224-2698 boxmartqwestoffice.net LBE Mon-frf lOaro-epm Sat tem 374-5520 www.ar1ijta.net JUNE 7-15 Mentioning the hard work that was put in was a theme repeated by each member of the team. Coach Kim Nelson also agreed. "They've just done everything every-thing they need to prepare themselves to get into this spot, especially offseason stuff," Nelson said after the game. "They signed a little contract at the beginning of the year knowing that we would settle for nothing less than this, so I think that's been the focus." The state championship was the focus, which may have also been what was lost during the team's lowest low-est point at the end of the regular season. However, there's nothing that will help a team regain its focus more than a road trip to face a region champion in the first round of the playoffs. The T'Wolves went into the game with something to prove and they sent a resounding message that they were one of the teams to beat when they 10-runned Viewmont. "I think the first game against Viewmont really helped us and got us rolling," said center fielder Taylor Lyons. Ly-ons. "I think it helped us a lot because we came in really serious and we weren't taking tak-ing them lightly at alL" Although they weren't taking them lightly, they also knew the Vikings were a team they could beat. "We felt bad for them more than anything," Lyons added with a laugh. Despite the low seed, confidence con-fidence was never something the team lacked going into the playoffs. "We all had the right mindset going into the end of the season," second baseman base-man Jordan Cooper said. "We qll knew how good we are and how good we can play together and so I think we just kind of brought it all together." And once Timpanogos brought it together, it mean-th mean-th the end of the baseball season for the rest of the field. Which is exactly what the T'Wolves knew was going to happen in the first place. mm rrnrxnn ram LMLXJULiwA - 5pm 288 fL Center Prow II P fa b talta OHLY! H'WI I," 'J ML Hfl "'K I It .l Ik. I a , ii ti vi, ; v 580 1. State Road American Fetk 3605 N. 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