Show Tuesday t September 3 2002 - A8 The Herald Journal Sports briefs Cartwright named Ag Athlete of the Week VWleyball player Erin Cartwright was named the first Utdh State Athlete of the Week for the 2002-0- 3 academic year it was announced on Monday The weekly award is selected by a local media panel Cartwright was an unanimous selec- tion as she was the only Aggie player named to the Southwest Missouri Stale team Fall Invitational Cartwright a junior from Mountain Crest averaged 40 kills 19 digs and 14 blocks while hitting 210 in the three-gam- e tournament The Aggies finished the tournament record losing 1 to both with a Southwest Missouri State and Arkansas before defeating Southeast Missouri State 0 Cartwright's best match in the tournament was against SE Missouri Stale when she hit 548 and recorded six blocks and five digs Last season Cartwright was an honWest orable mention selection and finished second on the team with 361 kills She is one of three returning starters for this year's team Utah State will continue its season when it competes in the Texas Longhorn Classic playing at Texas on FriPaso and day and meeting Texas-UT-Sa-n Antonio on Saturday Other nominees included men's cross country runner Mike Nielson women's cross country runner Carol Cabinillas football player Jesse Busta and soccer player Amber Tracy 3-- -2 3-- all-B- Aggies try to shake off poor outing task vs Nebraska on horizon Tough By Shawn Harrison sports editor With a few days to digest the season opener Utah State head football coach Mick Dennehy still feels the same way he did after Saturday nighfs game "We’re a better team than that" Dennehy said Monday The Aggies (0-1- ) lost to rival Utah 23-- 3 at Romney Stadium Saturday The USU offense never showed up and that will be the focus this week in preparation for No 9 Nebraska (24D "What you saw is how good we are on paper but we never came out and played" Dennehy said "I’m not as worried about the University of te Nebraska as I am with Utah State We need to pay attention and play the way we are capable of That starts today with us working on execution" Most of the fixing needs to come on the offensive side of the ball The Aggie defense held its own despite spend- -' ing more than 37 minutes on the field including most of Aggie the fourth quarter Dennehy also felt the special teams did a good job against the Utes While there were many things that went wrong on offense the top priority is finding a running back "We need to establish a running game" Dennehy said "We are not going to Nebraska by committee We will make a decision on a lead guy We can't afford to split reps Whether it's (James) Samuel (David) Fiefia (Roger) Robinson or (Richard) Watson we will decide and live by it" That decision should come today Dennehy said it was still "up in the air" Monday There is not alot to evaluate from the Utah game The football four ball carriers each got in the game but combined for 10 rushes and eight yards Fiefia started while Robinson had the most yards with five Watson and Samuel got the most carries with three each Health may play a factor as well Fiefia was banged up a bit in the By Julie Ann staff writer 2-- Aggie forward Lacey Poulton said "It's really that we just have to win this game for our pride We just don't want to lose to them We want people to know Utah State is better that effort" In an exhibition game against Dixie State and at Idaho State Poulton said the the season-openteam felt like they woe playing two separate games — offense and then defense Monday everything just clicked she said There is still room for improvement though "I think it could be better but it's definitely getting better" Tracy said "We have to get used to each other and I think that's what's going on" Said Poulton: "I think it was just taking a lit- tie while for us to get used to each other's play- ing! Now we're kind of knowing where we're playing off the ball and we're talking a lot beter ter"- ' PCL Memphis 7 Salt Lake 2 Pioneer league Idaho Falls 7 Ogden 6 Provo at Casper late On television BASKETBALL 7 ESPN2 — FI BA World Championship for Mien second round teams TBA at Indianapolis MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 5:30 pm TBS — Pittsburgh at Atlanta TENNIS 9ajn US- A- USTA US Open men’s fourth round and women’s quarterfinals at Flushing NY 5 pm USA— USTA US Open men’s fourth round and women's quarterfi nals at Flushing NY ' V ' LmmmaI llnanmAlnmlll ifOUnicH MimJ MBKafurnBfBla Utah State Junior midfielder Ally Clegg right fights for the ball with Weber State freshman defender Ashley Wood during their game Monday at Chuck and Gloria Bell Field in Logan m i Tracy scored the Aggies' firstjoal of the game eight minutes in off a penalty kick Poulton scored USU otto goal at the 28:34 mark She received the ball upthe middle off a pass by forward Claire Schend Even though Wildcats coach Lynn Kofoed described the style of play between die two teams as comparable it didn't look that way on the See BLANKS on All Swingin’ in the rain: Sampras Probe into beats Rusedski team over NEW YORK (AP) — - Pete Sampras unfurled a backhand return winna down die line and let out ayell: “Aaaahhh-hh!- " The fto responded applauding andchanting support It was tough to tell'who was more pleased to see Sampras hit that type of shot again Playing in the tournament that’s brought out his best i during the past two difficult years Sampras powered into the fourth round by beating Greg Rusedski 7-- 6 (4) 4--6 7-- 6 (3) 6 6-4 Monday night at a US Open disrupted heavily by rain “I hung in there” said Sam- who had 81 winners and broke Rusedski’s serve in the match's final game ‘‘The crowd was great It got me going at the end” Notsini 1988 his first season as a pro had Sampras failed to make it at least to the fourth round at the US Open He's won the title four times and been the runner-up three others — including in 2000 and 2001 But the current edition of Sampras isn’t the one that i p-i- ri — ! Monday's scores - SOCCER - Utah State's Amber Tracy said defending the team's pride made a big difference in how they played The two most improved areas for the team were defense and communication "We're working on it" USU coach Jen Kennedy Croft said "I think the communication is a little bit better We definitely had a better time winning air balls I was very pleased with one-thir- Interieague UTAH STATE this far north" 1) Texas 7 Houston 2 ' i 1- -0 Colorado at San Diego late' Grosshanr Ride was on the line Monday The Utah State women's soccer team wanted to win its first game on Chuck and Gloria Bell Field and it wanted to show Weber State University why it deserved to win the Aggies did just that coming away with a 0 shutout against the Wildcats "We fed more competitive (against Weber) than with (Utah) or otto teams" ck Atlanta 5 Pittsburgh 1 Milwaukee 4 Cubs 2 1st game Cuba 17 Milwaukee 4 2nd game Florida at NY Mete ppd rain Montreal 5 Philadelphia 1 Cincinnati 5 St Louis 3 Los Angeles 19 Arizona 1 See POOR on All Ags christen new field with victory SALT LAKE CTTY(AP)— Back-to-bahome nins in the first inning by Mike Rank and Mike Coolbaugh propelled the Memphis Redbirds to a 7--2 win ova the Salt Lake Stingers in the ' final game of the Pacific Coast League’s regular season Monday afternoon After two outs in the first Frank hit a 0 pitch from Salt Lake startef Jason Stephens to give the Redbuds a 0 lead Coofeaugh followed by hitting another pitch from!Stephens (04) over the centa field wall to give Memphis a two ran lead Salt Lake would get a rim in the bottom of the first oil an RBI single by Robb Quinlan but Memphis would break die game open with a four nrn sixth inning Bill Qrtega and Wilson Delgado would each have a ran scoring double TbbyRumfield an RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Stubby Clapp to give the Redbuds a 6-- 1 lead Jason!i Simontacchi (5-- picked up the win for Memphis by allowing just d two rans on ten hits ova six arid four strikeouts with iniungs Sah Lake will now face the Oklahoma Redhawks in die FCL’s American Conference Championship Series Game one of the best of five series is scheduled for Wednesday night in Salt Lake City NL being too "greedy" Running a conservative offense is not in the game plan but keeping the ball longer and away from die opponent's offense is important The coach said some play calling could have been better The right side of the offensive line struggled a bit Tackle Grant Calver-le- y was playing on a sprained ankle and had to eventually give way to Brenen Bumingham Guards Greg Vandermade and Trevor Hutton split V Stingers fall in PCL regular season finale Boston 8 NY Yankees 4 Chicago White Sox 5 Toronto 3 Cleveland 11 Detroit 1 Oakland 7 Kansas City 6 Seattle 5 Minnesota 2 ys 10(11? El AL two-a-da- m y Mwh ig Utah game and Samuel who started the second half is still trying to get back to full strength from a heel began injury before Dennehy said he is not blaming the offense and accepted blame for 3-- h' ‘ PARIS (AP) — An exhaustive dop-- ’ ing probe into Lance Armstrong’s cycling team was closed last week because of a lack Of evidence a French judicial official arid After 2 1 months of inquiries irivesti- AP photo Pete Sampras returns to Greg Rusedski at the US Open gators found no proof that the US temte tournament Monday In New York Postal Service team used banned substances during the 2000 Tbur de captured a record 13 Grand Slairi titles He came into France the official told The Associated the Open with a 7 match record this year and hasRess on Monday spealdng on customn’t won a title at any event since July 2000 ary condition of anonymity Now he will play Tommy Haas — the Armstrong won his second consecuman who wasn’t allowed to wear his muscle shirt — for tive Tbur title in 2000 He won the a spot in the quarterfinals Tour for the fourth straight year in July Because rain wiped out all but less than an hour of "It's a relief that it's officially ova’’ play Sunday and then delayed foe start of Monday’s US Postal's director of operations ' action by more than 7 hours organizers scrambled to fit Dan Osipow told die AP in a phone interview "We've expressed our innoSee RAIN on All cence time and time again" i 20-1- third-seed- ed |