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Show 6 Monday, February 22, 2010 Wednesday SPORTS Men's Basketball Utah @ Air Force 6:30 p.m. Air Force Academy 17° / 9 a.m. 17° / 3 p.m. Thursday Women's Basketball Swimming & Diving MWC Championships Air Force @ Utah All Day Oklahoma City 7 p.m. Huntsman Center TODAY'S SKI REPORT Alta www.dailyutahchronicle.corn Track & Field Softball Oregon & Fresno State 3 p.m. & 5:30 p.m. PT Palm Springs, Calif All Day Albuquerque, N.M. All Day Oklahoma City conditions & weather from Some fresh snow over packed powder and bumps Brighton 17° / 9 a.m. 170 / 3 p.m. Canyons Swimming & Diving MWC Indoor Championships MWC Championships 22° / 9 a.m. 230 / 3 p.m. 22° / 9 a.m. p.m. Deer Valley 230 / 3 GYMNASTICS Snowbird 17° / 9 a.m. 17° / 3 p.m. utahskiweather.com Solitude 18° / 9 a.m. 18° / 3 p.m. WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Utah moves up Falls on bar, beam plague Rocks in loss with home win against Aztecs Paige Fieldsted SPORTS EDITOR TYLER COBB/The Daily Utah Chronicle Kyndal Robarts had the highest all-around score for Utah against Michigan on Friday with a 39.275. Utah had its worst meet of the year, scoring 195.100 as a team. In its worst performance this year, the gymnastics team was defeated for only the second time this season as it came up short against Michigan in a 195.725-195.100 loss on Friday night. The Red Rocks opened the meet on the uneven bars, typically their worst event, with three large errors that they were unable to overcome later on in the meet. The Red Rocks scored a 48.475 on the bars after Stephanie McAllister and Cortni Beers both hit their feet on the lower bar, an automatic two-tenths deduction, and Jamie Deetscreek struggled throughout her entire routine, which ended in a fall on her dismount. Jacquelyn Johnson, who replaced the injured Gael Mackie on bars, scored the highest score for Utah on the event with a 9.775. Despite their struggles on the uneven bars that left the Red Rocks with a .75 deficit to overcome in the final three events, the team was able to take a .3 lead heading into the final event, the balance beam, usually a strong event for Utah. The beam, however, held more problems for the Red Rocks than the bars. Utah counted its first fall of the season on the beam after Fumina Kobayashi and McAllister fell. Kobayashi competed for the first time on the beam, replacing Deetscreek, who was pulled from the lineup after falling on the bars and struggling with her vault. "We are heading in the wrong direction," said co-head coach Greg Marsden. "McAllister really struggled and Jamie (Deetscreek) obviously completely checked out. It's really hard when you lose two of your better kids because they really didn't come to play." The Red Rocks recorded their lowest score of the season on the beam with a 48.375. The Utes lost three of four events but were able to take the lead shortly with good performances on the vault and floor, scoring a 49.20 and 49.05o, respectively, as a team. Despite having a rough time on the bars, Michigan struggled even more on that event, scoring a 48.400 to the Utes' 48.475. Despite having a few athletes with subpar performances, several of the team members had outstanding performances. On the vault, Utah's best event of the night, the team scored a 49.20o, led by Kyndal Robarts, who won the event. Despite being out sick most of the week, Robarts scored a 9.95o, the highest score by a Ute all night and the only event Utah had a gymnast place first in. Robarts did the best in the all-around for See GYMNASTICS Page 8 Corbin Godfrey STAFF WRITER half, the Utes started the second half down 33 32. With 15 minutes 55 seconds left in the second half, the Utes took a 3937 lead and never trailed again, going on to beat the Aztecs 7355 "Tonight was a very good win for us," said head coach Elaine - The Utah women's basketball team took off in the second half against San Diego State on Sunday to secure its third straight victory, moving it into third place in the Mountain West Conference standings. After a back-and-forth first See WOMEN Page 7 MEN'S BASKETBALL LENNIE MAHLER/The Daily Utah Chronicle Luka Drca and the Utes lost to San Diego State on Saturday but felt like it was a moral victory. Utah will now face Air Force on Wednesday. Despite strong effort, Runnin' Utes fall short Joseph Simmons STAFF WRITER If moral victories counted in the win column, Utah would undoubtedly be one of the hottest teams in the nation. The Runnin' Utes battled courageously against the San Diego State Aztecs on Saturday night, only to come up short yet again. Utah weathered several impressive Aztec runs throughout the night and fought back to take a one-point lead in the game's final minutes, but the Utes made costly mistakes during crunch time and left San Diego with a 68-61 victory. See MEN Page 7 BASEBALL SOFTBALL Team struggles to adjust in weekend season opener Doubleheader snaps softball's win streak Bubba Brown STAFF WRITER cap. Trailing 6-o, the Utes tried to come back in the ninth inning, putting their first two batters of the Despite insistence from the inning on base and pushing across team that the momentum from last their lone run, but they were unseason's Mountain West Confer- able to sustain the threat. ence Championship and NCAA "We finally put some offense torun would carry into this season, gether in the last three innings of the U baseball team started the game one but didn't sustain it into season off on the wrong foot. The game two, which was a little disapUtes dropped two of three in their pointing," said head coach Bill Kinopening series of the season at UC neberg. "(Tyler) Yagi really swung Davis last weekend. the bat well and C.J. (Cron) had After splitting the first two some good at-bats but hit right at games, the Utes had a chance to them. This is a tough park to hit in, earn a series victory, but they were and it's going to be important that unable to halt the UC Davis of- when we play in parks like this and fense early in the final game, falling we get guys on second base we put 6-1. Starter Rick Anton yielded six a good swing on the ball. We hit runs and eight hits in 3 1/2 innings, too many pop-ups today." and the Utah offense wasn't able to During their first appearances catch up. as Utes, freshmen Brock Duke and After scoring seven runs in the Zach Adams held UC Davis scorefirst game of the doubleheader on less during the game's final 4 2/3 Saturday, the Utes were held to just one run on seven hits in the night- See BASEBALL Page 8 Corbin Godfrey STAFF WRITER The Utah softball team put its perfect 5-o record to the test in Las Vegas during the weekend in the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic, where the Utes came home with a 2-3 record after competing against some tough opponents. The Utes' first games came Friday, when they faced California and Hawaii in a tough doubleheader. Utah scored a combined nine runs in the first inning of both games but could not turn the quick starts into wins, falling to Cal, 10-4, and to Hawaii ii8. Head coach Amy Hogue said she was happy with the team's offensive performance on the first day but said the defense needs to step up. "We hit the ball well today to win the ball games, but we didn't pick it up on defense," Hogue said. "To beat good teams, you have to do both of those things well." Against Cal, Utah jumped off to a 3-o lead in the first inning and played a solid game until the fifth inning, when Cal exploded for eight runs, taking control of the game, 9-4, and never looked back. Utah got off to another great start in its second game against Hawaii, scoring five runs in the first inning. However, it wasn't enough, as Hawaii responded with seven runs during the first three innings. Utah put up three runs in the top of the fifth but was again overpowered by Hawaii, which responded with four runs in the bottom of the inning to seal the victory, 11-8. Saturday was a good bounce-back day for the Utes, who earned a pair of victories against Cal State Fullerton and Indiana. In the first game of the day, Utah posted an 11-3 victory over Cal State with a run-rule victory in five innings, followed by another solid victory over Indiana, 7-1. Pitcher Ashley Smuda led the Utes on the mound in both games and improved her record to 7-1, going 12 innings in two complete games and allowing just one earned run on II hits with eight strikeouts. Hannah Clements and Jasey Jens- en led the Utes on the day with four hits and combined for six RBIs and six runs. In their fifth and final game of the weekend Sunday, the Utes fell to No. 21 Northwestern, 10-2. The Utah pitching staff allowed just four hits but fell in the five-inning run-rule game. Northwestern scored six runs in the third inning to take control of the game and added three more in the fourth to earn the run-rule victory. "Of course we have plenty of things to work through, but I feel like this was a step in the right direction," Hogue said. "I'm proud of the confidence the team is bringing to the games. It doesn't matter who shows up in the other dugout, our focus has been on ourselves. That's why we're doing a lot of things well." The Utes will head to Palm Springs, Calif., this weekend for the Cathedral City Classic, where they will begin the first game of their five-game weekend Thursday at 3 p.m. c.godfrey@chronicle.utah.edu |
