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Show StatesmanSpOrtS Page 6 Wednesday Oct. 20, 2010 Fowles: still loving the game LI continued from page 5 UTAH STATE'S CHANDRA SALMON, known simply as "fish" to her teammates, is a two-time Academic All-WAC selection and also made the All-WAC First Team during her freshman and sophomore seasons. Salmon grew up playing soccer in Provo, Utah, and came to Utah State because she played for current USU head coach Heather Cairns on the club level before college. CARL RWILSON photo Salmon more than meets the eye By TAVIN STUCK! staff writer It's hard enough to make the AllWestern Athletic Conference First Team, much less do it twice in the first two years of college, but that is exactly what Utah State defending midfielder Chandra Salmon has done. Salmon, known as "Fish" to her teammates, has been a starter for the Aggies since her freshman year, and has been honored with a slew of other awards, including Academic All-WAC (2008, 2009) and Joe E. and Elma Whitesides Scholar-Athlete, and helped the team earn its seventh-straight NSCAA Team Academic Award last season. When asked about the secret to her success, however, Salmon was quick to recognize the efforts of her teammates. "I really think it's just hard work," Salmon said. "We get recognition when the team does well. It's really a team award." Salmon played the central defender position at Provo High School. There she was a four-year letter winner, and during her senior year she was the team's most valuable player, scoring 13 goals and 16 assists. She was an honorable mention all-state selection, named second-team All-Region, and named to the All-Valley team. Her junior year, Salmon was the leading scorer in the region with 22 goals and 16 assists. She also earned National Honor Society honors in the classroom. Salmon's success wasn't just limited to her high school team. She was a member of Utah's Olympic Developmental Team — a side made up of the best soccer players by age group that competes against teams from each of the other states. Salmon said that playing for that team was one of her favorite soccer experiences. She has also captained a club team called the Celtic Storm, a team that was a state finalist three years in a row. But, Salmon is more than just a soccer player. The 5'6" junior has recently taken up rock climbing, and loves hanging out with her teammates off the field. "These girls are my best friends," Salmon said. "This team is awesome." Salmon said USU coach Heather Cairns, who has coached Salmon in the past, was a factor in her decision to come to Utah State instead of a number of other universities. Salmon said that she liked Cairns' coaching style "It kinda set me up," she said. "(Coach Cairns) is easy to talk to, and we get along." Salmon is the seventh of eight children born to J. Ross and Karen Salmon. Interestingly enough, all of her immediate family members were born in Canada, while she herself was born in Provo. Salmon has been playing soccer since she was four, and admitted that she will feel weird when it's all over. While Salmon is majoring in teaching with a physical education and health education minor, she is also thinking about going into nursing after college. She is an avid reader and lists John Grisham among her favorite authors. Not surprisingly, Salmon is also a professional soccer fan. "I don't really have a favorite team, I have favorite players and follow the teams that they play for. I like Tierry Henry," Salmon said. She also noted Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as her other favorite players. Salmon has been an instrumental part of the Aggies' success this season, and figures to play a key role as the team continues into WAC play. She'll have her chance to continue to lead the Aggies in their quest towards a WAC title this Friday, when the team travels to play Fresno State. — tavin.stucki@aggiemaiLusu.edu Aggie basketball is in the air The weekly Section F balancing act between football and basketball is officially on. At this point in the year, each sport is going to have plenty to talk about, and this column does not plan The View to miss much of anything. from So let's begin. Hawaii's win over Nevada Section F last Saturday tells me two things. One, Nevada isn't as unbeatable as they had MATT SONNENBERG previously appeared, and while they're still a stellar football team, that road game against the Wolf Pack suddenly looks a little bit less like a sure loss. On the flip side of that, Hawaii has been impressive pretty much all season, which means that this Saturday's Homecoming football game will be that much more difficult for the Aggies. With the loss to Louisiana Tech two weeks ago, the Aggies are now faced with a do-or-die scenario in which they must beat all four of Hawaii, New Mexico State, San Jose State and Idaho to gain bowl eligibility. A loss in any of those games would require a win against either Nevada or Boise State on the road to make up the ground lost. No pressure or anything, right? The problem with all of this is that Utah State tends to play relative to its perceived competition, whether that be playing up or playing down. The competition hasn't always proven to be what it was perceived to be though, with La-Tech being a shining example. The Aggies played a far less impressive game against the Bulldogs than they played just a week earlier in the blowout of BYU. A few weeks before that, San Diego State, a team that not many people expected to be as explosive as they have been, blew the Aggies out of the water by playing much better than they had been perceived to be. This leaves fans to hope that the Aggies are treating this Hawaii team like a powerhouse and will play as such, or in other words, play up to their competition rather than playing down. Some responsibility also falls on the fans as well though, to keep the attendance numbers high despite the loss at La-Tech that seems to have sucked a lot of air out of the excitement surrounding the 2010 USU football season. On a brighter note, news broke Sunday that the Utah State coaching staff's No. 1 recruiting target for this 2011 class, quarterback Chuckle Keeton, committed to play for the Aggies. Keeton conveniently made his recruiting trip to Logan during the weekend of the BYU game and obviously came away impressed. Given the turmoil surrounding the future conference situation for USU, as well as a football season that looks unlikely to meet many people's expectations after the onslaught of injuries to the team, Gary Andersen and company still managed to land a player that could turn out to be the heir to Diondre Borel at the quarterback position. On the basketball front, the Western Athletic Conference preseason basketball polls and all-conference teams were announced Tuesday, with Aggie forward Tai Wesley named the preseason WAC Player of the Year and a first team allWAC selection. It didn't stop there either. Seniors Nate Bendall, Tyler Newbold and Pooh Williams filled out three of the five slots on the all-WAC second team. Rounding out Utah State's projected starting five was likely starting point guard Brockeith Pane, who was selected by the WAC media to be the league's Newcomer of the Year. In other words, Utah State's entire starting five are allWAC players. Oh, and the Aggies were picked to win the WAC yet again in both the media and coach's polls, earning essentially a unanimous selection as the WAC's top team from the coaches. Even though basketball will be underway next week when the team takes the floor for the annual blue and white scrimmage, the football team still has an excellent shot at making its first bowl appearance since 1998. It certainly is that time of year where it no longer feels too soon to be talking basketball, but it isn't time for the fans to totally shift gears just yet. Football has gutted out the toughest parts of its schedule, and is at the point where four of the last six games should be very winnable. It'd be a tragedy if those record student turnouts that packed the stands for the first three games weren't there to see it if or when the team earns eligibility for a bowl game. Matt Sonnenberg is a senior majoring in print journalism. Matt is an avid fan of Aggie athletics and can be found on the front row of every home football and basketball game. He can also be reached at matt.sonn@aggiemail. usu.edu. always wanted to be a setter better defender than when and Misty May was my idol, she got here and she's worked I loved her," Fowles said. "I hard to get better at it." even made my parents drive This season the Aggies me all the way down to L.A. started out on a roll, reeling to go to a camp coached by off 12 straight wins to start her." the season, with Fowles playIn high school at San ing a major role in the team's Benito High in California, success. They are looking forFowles earned first-team allward to the remainder of the league honors as a junior and season with high expectations senior and was named her and shared goals. league's MVP in 2006. That "We want to go to the WAC same year, her high school tournament and qualify for won the league championship NCAA's," DuBose said. and went on to finish third at "We're going to make it the state tournament. Fowles NCAA's — that's a huge goal," also played for the Main Fowles added. Beach Volleyball Club team After this season and that participated in the Junior what has been a brilliant Olympics four times, includcareer at USU, Fowles still ing a fifth-place finish in has much she wants to do. 2006 in Atlanta when she was Unsurprisingly, some of her a member of the squad. plans involve volleyball, but After high school, Fowles she also hopes to take some chose to come to Utah time to pursue another hobby State, where she was named — cooking. Western Athletic Conference "I think it would be really freshman of the year, becomfun to play in Europe if I ever ing only the third player in got that opportunity," Fowles USU history to recieve that said. "But, I really want to go honor. She ranked second in to culinary school. That is the league in assists per set kind of what I've always done during her first full year. and I wasn't able to do that "(Chelsea's) a great kid," here." said USU head coach Grayson Chelsea's accomplishments DuBose. "She is a pleasure will go down in USU history to coach, is a very good voland she will be remembered leyball player, and has worked for them long after she graduhard to make herself a better ates volleyball player." "It's cool, I'm proud of After her freshman season, Chelsea and her accomplishFowles continued to work ments," DuBose said. "I'm hard and improve all aspects proud of the teammates who of her game. DuBose said that provided that help with her while Fowles always had skill early in the year. It's cool for on offense, it was her emphaour team and it's cool for our sis and drive to get better on program." defense which allowed her to take her game to a new level. — mark.israelsen@aggi"She was always able to emaiLusu set the ball, but she's a much Tennis: finishes fall season continued from page 5 mind, Wright and the team made a list of goals for the upcoming season. "We first want to improve our effort. We want to always give one hundred percent," he said. "Our second goal is to improve upon sportsmanship. We always want to be classy, and we always will represent ourselves, our team, and the university well." The third goal has to do with attitude. "We want to always stay positive, and fight our way through every match." On top of those goals, the girls are expected to stay in good physical shape until January, a goal that can prove difficult during winter and holiday months. "We will continue to play one another, run, and condition to stay in good shape. The girls have to be able to make it through a match," Wright said. "Adaptable" is the paramount characteristic, according to Wright, that wins matches. "You have to be able to compete at different levels, size up the competition, and improvise when your game plan doesn't go accordingly. Tennis, in a lot of ways, is about change." He continued, saying, "A lot of times we focus on one particular shot, and other times we are too steady. We need to look to balance ourselves, between looking for opportunities to attack and playing the back court. We get impatient and miss those opportunities." USU will resume action in January 2011, and looks to grab a WAC title. "I expect a lot out of the girls," Wright said. "Working on our confidence is huge, but I am seeing good things. The dedication level for our team is very high." The men's tennis team also saw some competition this weekend, participating in the Utah Invitational on Friday. The matches were held in Salt Lake's Liberty Park, hosted by the University of Utah. The weekend was highlighted by seniors Jakob Asplund and Nikita Ryashchenko advancing to the semifinals of the singles consolation draw, with Asplund stealing second-place in the singles consolation flight. Asplund and Ryashchenko advanced to the semifinals of the singles consolation draw. Asplund took second-place after defeating BYU's Roman Warias, 7-6, 3-6, 10-8, in the semifinals round then lost by default in the final round to Utah's Alejandro Medinilla. Medinilla previously defeated Ryashchenko (7-6, 75) in their semifinal round. Asplund leads the Aggies in singles action with an 8-3 singles record. In doubles action, senior Bryan Marchant and sophomore Sven Poslusny defeated Boise State's Scott Sears and Eric Sheldon (8-5) in the second round. Marchant and Poslusny suffered their first loss of the season, falling to BYU's Daniel Hwang and Spencer Smith (9-7) in round three. The duo still leads USU with a team-best 6-1 mark. In the doubles consolation draw, freshman Fredrik Peterson and senior Alex Thatcher defeated BYU's Ricard Campos and Roman Warias by default in round one, then lost to Utah's Matt Cowley and Brad Weaver (9-7) in the second round. Peterson and Thatcher are now 1-1 on the season. Men's tennis will wrap up fall competition this week. The team will head to La Vegas, where they will compete in the USTA/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Mountain Regional Championships through Oct. 23. — kaylaclark@aggiemausu.edu |