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Show Statesman Sports Page 6 Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010 Aggie club team handles UVU in tournament By MIKE REES staff writer USU DEFENSIVE LINEMAN CASEY DAVIS (92) FIGHTS off a block to make a tackle on New Mexico State running back Seth Smith (20) during Saturday's 27-22 win.With the win, Utah State picks up its first WAC victory of the season.The Aggies will look to win back-to-back games for the first time in the Gary Andersen era when they travel to San Jose State this Saturday,The Spartans are 1-8 this season, their only win coming against Southern Utah. TODD JONES photo WAC power poll: Week 11 With teams entering the final stretch of the season, the conference race is about to get a whole lot more interesting. Boise, Nevada, and Hawaii are all locks for the preseason, but will Fresno State be able to sustain enough momentum to make a bowl game? After losing to Hawaii last month, is Nevada poised for a late season run and upset of Boise State? We should get more clues after this Saturday, but for now, here's where I rate the nine WAC teams: the team has won three straight, they do have a daunting final four games, starting with Nevada this weekend and ending with Illinois. - Boise State (8 0, 4 0): While Texas - Nevada (8 1, 3 1): Think Colin - - - Christian made a strong case as a national championship caliber team with their 47-7 win at Utah, the Broncos posted an equally impressive beatdown of Hawaii. The Warriors may have been hot coming into the game, but that was before they met Kellen Moore and his 507-yard passing performance. Boise State's offense gets a lot of props — and rightly so — but how about the defense? Consider for a minute that by holding the Warriors to just 196 yards, Boise State held Hawaii to its lowest offensive output in 12 years! Makes you scared to think what's going to happen when the Aggies head up to smurf turf at the end of the year. - Kaepernick and the Wolf Pack were down for the count after last month's loss to Hawaii? Think again. The Wolf WOLF PACK Pack showed they're more than just a running team by dismantling Idaho's defense, with Kaepernick throwing for 320 yards and five touchdowns. The team's 844 total yards in the game set a school record, and was the highest offensive output by a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) team since 2004. Fast ascending in the rankings, don't think Nevada is ready to surrender command of the WAC to Boise State quite yet. They get Boise St. at home Nov. 26, but will first have to dispatch Fresno State this weekend. Hawaii (7 3, 5 1): Tough to drop the Warriors here considering that they beat Nevada in week seven, but Hawaii just looked out of sync against Boise State. For the time being, the Warriors' win against Nevada looks more like a case of catching the Wolff Pack on a down night. Still, despite allowing seven sacks on Saturday, Hawaii's offense is a well-oiled machine, and the team isn't completely out of the discussion for winning the conference. Should Boise State fall against Nevada in late November, the Warriors would likely win the WAC outright. With a remaining schedule that features three teams with a combined four wins, the Warriors should find much calmer seas in the weeks to come. - Louisiana Tech (3 6, 2 3): The Bulldogs got off to a fast start by jumping out to a 14-0 lead on Fresno State, but ultimately it was Sonny Dykes' defense which denied ®Louisiana Tech the chance of upsetting Fresno State. The Bulldog defense was gashed by Fresno's running game, and while the offense was steady, it has yet to find a play-maker. Tech should pick up wins over the next two weeks against New Mexico State and San Jose State, but the team will need to upset Nevada on Dec. 4 if they're going to become bowl eligible. - Fresno State (6-2, 4-1): Idaho (4 5, 1 3): While Nevada's offense - - had a lot to do with Idaho's 63-17 loss on Saturday, I've got to be honest with you. I don't think the Vandals could hold Logan High to under 20. Given the team's onesided offensive attack, the Vandals will be hard-pressed to make a bowl game with four games left, especially since they must play Boise State. Not only has the Vandal offensive line struggled, but the offense has just been too inconsistent, despite the fact that quarterback Nathan Enderle has big-time pro potential. Many people know about the Utah State women's volleyball team, with its talented, record-breaking players. And although the number is growing, fewer people know about the men's club volleyball team, which competes with other club teams from universities in and around the state. The men opened their season at home in the HPER this last weekend against club teams from the University of Utah and Utah Valley University. Also competing in the tournament was the Utah State Alumni team and a club team from Utah County of elite high school players. The men's volleyball team was split into an A team and a B team, opening tournament play against Utah Valley's B team and the Utah State Alumni, respectively. The B team lost their match against the more experienced alumni team, and then went on to lose to the UVU B team in the consolation bracket. The A team, seeded number three going into tournament play, handled sixth seeded UVU-B to move on to face the Alumni. While they did give up two games against the Alumni, failing to avenge the B team's loss, they had the opportunity for a rematch with UVU-B, which had just beat the Aggies' B team. The A team strung together two solid games of 25-20 and 25-12 to knock the UVU Wolverines out of the consolation bracket and get a little revenge on behalf of their B team brethren. The consolation championship game against the University of Utah saw two of the hardest fought matches of the whole tournament go Utah's way in the end. The first set saw the score tied 11 times, although Utah State maintained a slight edge for much of the contest, until a few consecutive errors at the end. In the second set, Utah was in the driver's seat for most of the way, with Utah State relatively close on their heels midway through when the score was 13-7. Utah then picked up momentum and went on a 10-5 run to make it 23-12, before sealing the deal at 25-14. Utah State's performance earned them fourth place in the tournament. Utah State's Alumni team danced all the way to the championship game versus the Utah County Elites. They lost two grudge matches to the talented high-school age club players, who were crowned tournament champions. Coach Shantell Durrant, senior middle blocker for the Aggie women's volleyball team, was optimistic about the outlook for her team. "I'm happy with how we played this early in the season," Durrant said. "It's nice to play against another school's team, since we've just been playing against ourselves lately. Near the end we just started getting tired and it didn't end up the way we wanted." For Durrant and the team, this tournament served as a learning experience and a springboard into the rest of the season. Upcoming tournaments for the men include a trip to the University of Utah this upcoming Friday and Saturday, followed by another tournament at Southern Utah the next week. "We played well," libero Jared Minson said after the consolation championship. "Right now we're kind of working some of the kinks out." The amount of volleyball experience accrued by much of the team is sure to hasten the sharpening of the Aggie ax. Minson said he has been playing volleyball for about eight years, along with teammate Miles Maynes, who has been playing for a similar amount of time. A-team member Jeff Merrell has been playing volleyball since he was 11 years old. Look for these spike-hungry Aggies to make waves across the state this season. — mike.rees@aggiemail.usu. edu Utah State (3 6, 1 4): The Aggies - - picked up their first conference win of the season, but it wasn't without drama. USU was actually outgained by New Mexico State, with the southern Aggies picking up some 50 yards more than USU. While running back Derrvin Speight and linebacker Bobby Wagner had big games for USU, Diondre Borel played only OK in the win, while beating an otherwise hapless NMSU team isn't anything to write home about. Still, Logan's own showed the ability to come from behind in Saturday's win, and have two winnable games over the next two weeks. azz are cardiac kids New Mexico State (2 7): No matter how - bad things get for New Mexico State, at least the Aggies can say they aren't as bad as San Jose State. To be perfectly fair, NMSU is finally on its way up, and seems to have found a reliable quarterback in 6-foot-3 junior Matt Christian. His 48.1 completion percentage might be God-awful, but at least his five touchdowns to no interceptions during the last three games gives Aggie fans hope for the future. San Jose State (1 8, 0 4): The - - nation's most inept offense got a much needed bye week this past weekend, and will look to upset Gary Andersen's Aggies in San Jose this Saturday. The team has shown flashes of promise this season, but until quarterback Jordan Le Secla can find some reliable play-makers, the team isn't likely to be competitive. Congratulations to the Bulldogs, who became bowl eligible with their thrilling 40-34 at Louisiana Tech last Got beef with my picks? Think I missed the mark? We want to hear Saturday. Running back Robbie Rouse from you. Drop me a line at adam.nettina@aggiemail.usu.edu . showed he's fully back from an early season injury by rushing for an almost unheard-of 286 yards against the Tech defense, while the Bulldog defense proved to be just strong enough to deflect a Louisiana Tech offense that finally found a groove in recent weeks. While DERON WILLIAMS GOES up for a dunk in Utah's 109107 double-overtime win against the L.A. Clippers.The Jazz defeated Miami last night 116-114 in overtime. TODD JONES PHOTO |