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Show SPORTS Page 7 Monday, October 9,2006 FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD MWC Football Wyoming 14 New Mexico 10 MWC Football UNLV 7 Colo. St. 28 MWC Football SDSU 17 BYU 47 Volleyball New Mexico 0 Utah 3 Volleyball TCU 0 Utah 3 Soccer BYU 0 Utah 1 11 [I TCU 7 ^ UTES 2 0 Return to form Utes recover from quick week, topple TCU in MWC showdown paydirt—something they couldn't do all of last week. Ratliff connected with Brent The U football team Casteel for a i-yard score in proved its critics wrong. All the right corner of the end week long—short as that zone to give Utah a 10-0 week may have been—the lead. The Frogs put together Utes talked about responding from their disastrous their only scoring drive minshowing against Boise State. utes later, capping it off with They did just that Saturday at Lonta Hobbs' i-yard touchRice-Eccles Stadium, staying down run. But the Utes had perfect in MWC play with a an answer—and once again, it was Casteel. 20-7 victory over TCU. The sophomore wide"I couldn't be prouder of our football team," head out found space deep down coach Kyle Whittingham the middle of the field, and said. "Great job showing re- Ratliff launched his second touchdown of the afternoon, siliency." Everything that looked so which bounced off a TCU poor against the Broncos— defender first before resting which is to say, nearly every- in Casteel's mitts, giving the thing—had a revival against Utes a 17-7 halftime lead. the Horned Frogs, who fell "I took a quick look at him behind early and never got and he had (the defender) closer than a field goal defi- beat. The throw was a little cit. The offense was sharp, behind him, but Brent made turning the ball over just a great catch; he stayed with once while Brett Ratliff com- it and made a great play," pleted 19 of 32 passes and a Ratliff said. pair of touchdowns against a Of course, such a lead strong TCU defense. isn't exactly safe, especially "We came out in Monday's against TCU. The Utes held practice, and it was out of a 17-7 advantage early in the our system," Eric Weddle third quarter of last year's said. "We knew that this was meeting between these two, conference play, and if we and TCU tightened up, evenmessed up, it's over—our tually coming back and prevailing in overtime, 23-20. season's gonna be done." The story wasn't all that From the start, the Utes looked like a completely dif- different this weekend. Yardferent group. After taking a age was hard to come by, and 3-0 lead on a 29-yard field - points were even harder. goal by Louie Sakoda, Ratliff "It was pretty much lights led the Utes on a 7-play, 56yard drive and finally hit ' U T E S Page 8 Chris Bellamy Chronicle Sports Editor CHRISTOPHER PEDDECORD/TVir Duly Ut<ih Chronicle Ute wide receiver Brent Castee! stiff-arms TCU's Matt Panfil after coming down with a reception during Thursday's 20-7 Ute win. Utes have record weekend, pick up two wins Cody Brurtner The Daily Utah Chronicle KJM PETERSON/ The Daily Utah ChnmkU Utah forward Adele Letro battles with BYU'5 Andrea Willis in Saturday's match at Ute Field. Letro's early goal early gave the Utes a 1-0 lead, which they held onto for the win. Two for the money Tom Quinn The Daily Utah Chronicle didn't carry over into Saturday's match, as the Utes were able to control the ball for the majority of the first half. Kiley Jones and the rest of the midfield used precision passing to keep the Cougars on their heels. "We should have been ready," BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. "We came out a little nervous, really tight and were a little hesitant. We had a couple opportunities in the first half, but they put theirs away." Utah forward Adele Letro tallied the game's lone goal in the 16th minute off an assist from midfielder Melissa Crespo, who split two Cougar defenders with a picture-perfect The U women's soccer team put itself on the fast track to a conference title by defeating the only two other teams that have finished on top of the Mountain West since its formation nearly a decade ago. The Utes were hard at work over Fall Break, posting a pair of hard-fought, 1-0 victories over two former champions: BYU and UNLV. The Cougars came in to Saturday's showdown at Ute Field, a venue at which they had never lost, boasting .an impressive 10-1-1 record. The whole team was riding high after a 2-0 win over TCU on Thursday. That success, however, • See S O C C E R Page 8 The No. 16 U volleyball team (15-2, 7-0 MWC) picked up a pair of wins last weekend, sweeping both New Mexico and TCU on its way to a record-breaking i3th-consecutive win. Utah's streak started in Southern California against Fresno State Sept. 3 and remains active more than a month later after two impressive 3-0 victories at home on Crimson Court. The streak was tied on Friday night when the Utes utilized an assorted offensive attack to blow by New Mexico (6-12, 2-5 MWC). The Utes opened game one with sloppy play, giving the Lobos a 4-3 lead early. It didn't take them too long to find their heads, though, and with multiple kills from middleblocker Lori Baird, they scored the next seven points to bring the score to 10-4. Strong serving kept the Lobos on their heels, and the Utes expanded the lead to 18-7. The Lobos didn't give up there, however, as they went on a 6-1 run to close the gap to 19-13. But the Utes weren't going to be outdone on their home court, closing the game in convincing fashion by scoring n of the last 13 points, ultimately winning 30-15. Utah kept up its dominating play in the second game, taking an early 5-1 lead with a trio of vicious kills from outside-hitter Whitney Webb. Airial Salvo furthered that lead with strong serving (two aces) and the Utes started to pull away, 12-2. Emillie Toone, the No. 1 blocker in the nation, widened the margin to 12 with a block of her own later in the game, and the Utes took a 20-8 lead. From there, the Utes cruised to an easy victory behind strong outside play and stingy defense, winning 30-13. KIM PETERSON/ The Daily Utah Chronicle Whitney Webb digs the ball In the first of two sweep victories for the Utes over the weekend, increasing their winning streak to 13. The third game proved to be the biggest challenge of the evening for the Utes, with New Mexico jumping out to a 3-0 lead early. The Lobos expanded that lead with the aid of multiple Ute hitting errors and found themselves with a 16-10 lead later in the contest. The Utes found their game later in the contest, however, combing three Webb kills with an absolutely decimating Salvo attack to tie the game at 20. From then on, Salvo took over. The super sophomore from Viewmont High strung together a slew of kills to lead the Utes to a 30-27 victory. Salvo and Lovell led the Ute offense in the match with n kills apiece, while Webb tallied 10. On defense, Salvo recorded 15 digs to lead the Utes to victory. "There was a little drop off in See V O L L E Y B A L L Page 8 |