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Show I I Wednesday, October 4,2006 fage 8 TONY PIZZA Fell in love with a girl...sport ;; I LENNIE MAHLER/ The Daily Utah Chronicle : ;;r\. Forward Carisse Winegar fights off Pepperdine midfielder Emily Wynne in Friday's 2-0 win at Ute Field. After fending off 20thVV7,. ranked Pepperdine, the Utes face UNLV and BYU in two home games this weekend on Thursday and Saturday. W; Changing of the forward Now playing defender, Winegar leads Ute soccer against BYU, UNLV Tom Quinn The Daily Utah Chronicle According to at least one player on the U women's soccer team, head coach Rich Manning is a "creature of habit." When he finds something that works, be it a lineup, a breakfast cereal or a shirt/ tie combination, he sticks with it. This season, however, the Utes' roster has seen more turnover than a game of musical chairs. The back line has been decimated by injuries, and Manning has had to get pretty creative in order to fill some of the holes. Not all of Manning's stopgap solutions have been successful, but one that is paying astonishing dividends is the move that put reserve forward Carisse Winegar on the field as a defender. "She's been terrific," Manning said. "She's a fast learner. She got to practice a lot and watch a few games at the beginning of the season, and I think that helped with the transition." Although she still appears on the roster at forward, Winegar is playing almost exclusively at outside defender and logging more minutes than ever. Manning wanted a more physical presence on the back line, and Winegar has done a good job of providing muscle in spite of her inexperience. "I've always played offense pretty much my whole life," Winegar said. "But I really like playing defense. It's a new challenge, and it brings new excitement." Winegar's defensive odyssey began during the team's recent road trip to BigIO country. She came in against Purdue with about io minutes left in the first half and has played virtually every minute of every game since. "The other girls on defense still help me a lot," Winegar said. "They still have to tell me who to cover and when to drop." Winegar's defensive play was one of the key elements that led to the Utes' 2-0 win over visiting Pepperdine last Friday. The entire back four was stalwart, holding the Waves without a shot in the second half. Utah's defense will need to be just as impressive this weekend as the Utes begin Mountain West play at home against UNLV and hated rival BYU, the only other teams that have claimed Mountain West titles since the league was organized. The Utes' showdown against the Rebels will take place Thursday afternoon at Ute Field. UNLV is coming off a hardfought, i-o win over Pepperdine, a victory that lifted them to 5-6-1 on the season. The Rebels' unspectacular record is not a good indicator of their talent. Senior midfielder Tanya Roberts was named the MWC's Defensive Player of the Week after her performance against Pepperdine, which included a game-winning goal in the second overtime. Keeper Ciera Nero is also making quite a name for herself, compiling three shutouts in the Rebels' last four games. Junior Katie Carney leads the team with three goals and three assists. "UNLV is always good defensively," Manning said. "I think this will be a tight game. It will probably come down to one or two plays." The Utes will have little time to catch their breath after the UNLV game; the Cougars come to town two days later for a Saturday afternoon contest. Winegar and the rest of the Utah defense will have to keep an eye on BYU forward Katie Fellows, a sophomore with a knack for making big plays. Her three goals have her tied for tops on the team, and two of those were game-winners. The Cougar defense is even more statistically impressive than its offense. Keeper Erika Woodbury is BYU's alltime leader in saves and has allowed only five goals all season long. Admission to Thursday's game will be free to all on account of Fan Appreciation Day. Saturday's contest, however, will feature reserved seating. t.quinn@chronicle.utah.edu have a confession to make, and it isn't one that I am necessarily proud of. Before Sept. 23, it had been a long time since I attended one of the U's virtually unknown sporting events. In. fact, I couldn't remember the last time I attended. a volleyball, soccer, baseball or swimming event And since I recently wrote an article that tried tp explain why students didn't attend these events more often, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and make it out to one of these events as a spectator. I have always had trouble getting into women's sports. I mean, women's gymnastics has always been one of my favorite Olympic events (Kerri Strug's one-footed vault in the 1996 Olympics is still one of my all-time-favorite sports moments), and I also grew up watching women's tennis along' with men's tennis regularly, but that was about the extent of my interest in women's sports. When I went to San Diego two weekends ago to t cover the U football game against San Diego State, I had no idea that I would fall in love with another women's sport. Chris Bellamy, that whimsical Chronicle sports editor, informed me that we were heading down' to SDSU's Peterson Gym to watch the volleyball, team take on the Aztecs. Realizing this was an opportunity to see what I was missing, I told him. I. was game. I had no idea that it would be love at first i sight. The first instance that made my jaw sag was watching Kat Lovell snap one of her lethal jump serves at the opposing team. In the following few minutes, I also saw Lovell, Airial Salvo and Kate" Robison all flush gorgeous kills down the SDSU; Aztecs' throats. I watched Emillie Toone and LorU Baird dominate at the net, and I even learned whaK a libero was and why Connie Dangerfield was the* only Ute in white, as she went down and dug out: another SDSU kill. Like a kid that had just found out there was a^ new flavor of Pez, or that time I first saw "Cirque'' du Soleil," I kept looking at Bellamy with that, "I. can't believe how good these girls are" look on myjj face. I don't know too many of the rules in vol-* leyball. I was so ignorant that I thought a tearrii couldn't score unless it was on its own serve, bu$ I can tell you that my ignorance did not affect myj enjoyment of the game. 5 Those women are skilled athletes, and wow, carjjj they hit the ball. Hard. Volleyball is such a fast-" paced and intense game that I found myself wondering why we don't see more of it on TV. I can say that it was much better watching it in person. The 1 atmosphere was so far removed from the remote- \ ness that a typical fan experiences in a basketball; or football game that I found myself wondering; when the next match would be. From my S3 seat, I was right in front of the ac- • tion and I could hear every word being expressed. I could even hear the frustrated expletives that : came mostly from SDSU setter Leah Lathrop, as; her team could not handle the barrage of kills that; were being shoved down its throats like cough medicine from the U's outside hitters. My fascination was not in the fact that women were doing it, either—gender did not matter. I was impressed that human beings were playing this: sport the way the U women were able to. \ The best surprise of the afternoon was how close ' the players seemed to be. If one of them missed a dig, the others encouraged her, no matter what the score. If one served a ball into the net, there were no blaming glares; everyone just huddled back up and told each other to get out there and get SeeT>IZZA Page 10 \ Utes win, now one away from record Cody Brunner Tin Daily Utah Chronicle The U volleyball team took another step toward a record for consecutive wins last night, sweeping Idaho State for its nth-straight victory. The Utes are now just one win away from the record, which was set in 2004 when Utah went unbeaten from Sept. 11 to Oct. 16. They will have a chance to tie and surpass that mark this weekend when they take on New Mexico and TCU at Crimson Court. Utah stepped out of conference play yesterday to take on Idaho State (7-12, 3-3 Big Sky) and did not disappoint, defeating the Bengals 30-21, 30-21, 3028. Airial Salvo and Whitney 1Vebb led the potent U offense from their outside positions with 12 kills a piece. Kate Robison also pitched in seven kills and led the team in hitting percentage with .400. Middle-blocker Lori Baird tallied six blocks to stymie the Bengal offensive attack. Emillie Toone, who leads the nation in blocks with a 2.12 block per game average, pitched in an additional three blocks. No Bengal scored more than seven kills in the contest as the U held Idaho State to a meager .107 hitting percentage. "I thought we played well. We were consistent throughout the match and the execution didn't drop off at all," U head coach Beth Launiere said. "We could have had a letdown after that BYU game, but we came to play and competed." The Utes will look to tie the consecutive wins record on Friday when they resume conference action against New Mexico on Crimson Court. The Lobos (6-10, 2-3 MWC) come into the match tied for sixth in the conference and have won two of their last three. Most recently, New Mexico lost a five-game battle at home against the UNLV Rebels. Sophomore outside-hitter Jeanne Fairchild put down a career-high 19 kills against the Rebels and will be the focal point of the Lobo offense this weekend. On the opposite side, freshman Rose Morris had a career game of her own with 14 kills and will provide an adequate counter-attack for New Mexico. Sarah Kwasigroch guides the Lobo offense from her setter position after recording 63 assists and 12 digs against the Rebels. The Lobos bring a solid defense into the match with four players averaging over one block a game. Middle-blocker Joelle Ingram leads the Lobos with 1.20 blocks per game, but has her work cut out for her hi stopping the high-powered Ute offense. Any attacks that get past Ingram will be fielded by Gayle Tripp. The sophomore libero comes into the match averaging 4.57 digs per game to rank fourth in the Mountain West Conference. If the Utes can sneak past the Lobos, they will be looking for their record-breaking 13thconsecutive win against TCU on Saturday. The Horned Frogs (14-4, 32 MWC) are coming off of a crushing sweep over San Diego State last weekend and will look to stifle the Utes and their win streak at 12. Outside-hitter LeMeita Smith carries the hot hand into Crimson Court after shredding the Aztecs for a career-high 20 kills. Anna Vaughn complements the junior on the other side, averaging a stellar 3.79 kills per game on .349 hitting to lead the Horned Frogs. "Both TCU and New Mexico have been playing a lot better the last few weeks," Launiere said. "All of the Mountain West Conference are strong and we're all very competitive. We have to go out there and be ready to play and compete this weekend." LENNIE MAHLER/ Tfie Daily Uiah Chronicle c.brunner@ Kathryn Lovell takes a swing over LIndsey Mahan in the ; chronicle.utah.edu Utes' 3-0 victory at SDSU on Sept. 23. —- |