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Show 10 Tuesday September 4, 2012 SPORTS UPCOMING SPORTS EVENTS www.dailyutahchronicle.corn FOOTBALL lot i FRIDAY: Football Utah @ Utah State 6 p.m. Logan SATURDAY: Soccer Utah vs. Texas 12 p.m. Ute Field Volleyball Utah vs. Portland State 10 a.m. Provo Volleyball Utah vs. Bowling Green 5 p.m. Provo Cross Country Utah @ Nevada Twilight 6:20 p.m. Reno, Nev. VOLLEYBALL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Nebraska Penn State UCLA Texas Southern California Florida State Washington Stanford Hawaii Dayton Purdue Pepperdine Oregon Minnesota Florida Tennessee San Diego Iowa State Kentucky Illinois BYU Kansas State Michigan Louisville Northern Iowa CHAD ZAVALA/The Daily Utah Chronicle Freshman quarterback Travis Wilson ran two touchdowns in Utah's 41-0 win over Northern Colorado on Thursday. Wilson proves value as QB Derek Siddoway STAFF WRITER Ask anyone who witnessed the Oregon Ducks' season opener Saturday night, and they'll probably tell you that freshman quarterbacks aren't all that bad. Granted, Utah's own young buck Travis Wilson might be a year or two away from the 200yard, three-touchdown performance that Oregon's Marcus Mariota displayed during the first half in Eugene, Ore., but there is still plenty of reason for Ute fans, coaches and players to look forward to the coming of Wilson. The Utes ended any talk of Wilson redshirting by playing him in the season opener, in which he completed both of his passes and rushed for two touchdowns. "When coach [Aaron Roderick] said I was going in, I was really thankful and really blessed," Wilson said. "I just really wanted to play well when I got the chance." And play well he did. Although Wilson saw limited action in Utah's 41-o win over Northern Colorado, he still made the most of his career debut Thursday night against Northern Colorado. With the Utes up just seven points late in the second quarter against a clearly inferior Bears team, Wilson entered the game and commenced to bully his way through multiple defenders for a three-yard touchdown. The same play was called later, as Wilson jump-started the third quarter from six yards out with a touchdown. He finished the night with Is rushing yards on seven attempts. In the waning minutes VOLLEYBALL of the game, Wilson took over for Jordan Wynn at quarterback and finished 2-for-2 with 21 yards passing. The numbers might not be staggering, but in terms of production, Wilson scored nearly 3o percent of the time his number was called. In a conference full of astounding offenses, being able to add another dimension to the offense with Wilson at the helm will be extremely valuable as the season progresses. See WILSON Page 12 Football season can ruin fans JAKE BULLINGER \or Sports Editor 111 IR AI 47; oe -4 4 C - -■•■■■■■•■■■■■■■1101....116. 11111 * - CHRONICLE FILE FILE PHOTO Sophomore outside hitter Chelsey Schofield had her third double-double of the season. The volleyball team fell to North Carolina 3-0 Saturday at the UC Davis Aggie Invitational. Utes end streak at Aggie Invite Carson Huiskamp STAFF WRITER They fought, they battled, they hustled. But in the end, it was no use for the Utah volleyball team. After going 1-3 in the UC Davis Aggie Invitational, the Utes came home with some bruised egos. After coasting to a 5-0 start to the season, the Utes return home with a 6-2 record. "We need to get better," said head coach Beth Launiere. "We focused so much on offense. Our defense needs work now." The team opened up the weekend matches with a narrow 3-2 (25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 20-25, 16-18) loss against Santa Clara (6-0. In a match that went to the very end, the Utes just couldn't hang on, as they lost in extra points to the Broncos. "Santa Clara was a good volleyball match," Launiere said. "No team really jumped out ahead the entire time. It was definitely a back and forth kind of match." Sophomore outside hitter Chelsey Schofield posted 21 kills, a team-high io digs and four blocks in the match. The Utes rebounded by smashing UC Davis 3-o (25-14, 25-22, 25 21) in their second match Friday. Dominating nearly every facet of the game, the team came out ready to avenge its loss from earlier that day. Five Utes had seven or more kills throughout the match, and the team hit a season high .359 on its attacks. Sophomore middle blocker Erin Redd had kills in just 17 attempts, accumulating a season high .588 hitting percentage. "Erin played very well this weekend," Launiere said. "She put up big numbers." Utah's sweep of the Aggies was its fifth of the season. In the biggest test of the entire road trip, and the final match of the weekend, the Utes went up against the powerful North Carolina Tar Heels (4-1). UNC came out quickly and never let up from the minute the match started. Winning in straight sets (25-17, 2519, 25-16) the Tar Heels seemed to start out each game with a quick run and never looked back. In the first set, the Utes got down io-5 early and seemed to make too many mistakes to make the match competitive. The team had eight errors in the first set alone, and were held to a seasonlow four blocks per set. "They were the better team today. We didn't do anything ollege athletes are some of the most physically fit people on the planet. They can bench press more than 300 pounds, jump 4o inches in the air and cover 4o yards in fewer than five seconds despite weighing more than 220 pounds. Unfortunately, the same can't be said of those who watch college athletes on TV. Allow me to explain how week one of the college football season set me back on the health scale. Let me preface this column by explaining that I am not a complete slob. I hike, I jog (sometimes), I bike around town (sometimes) and I genuinely enjoy being outdoors. I lift weights regularly and am far from overweight — actually, I'm chronically skinny. I tell you this to explain that watching sports, particularly football, can make normally fit people do terrible things. I thank God for that chronic skinniness, because after this weekend, I'd have a fullblown obesity issue. The problem with college football is that it is a built-in excuse for every unhealthy event known to man, even though using college football as an excuse for anything is often illogical. Allow me to illustrate with some conversations my girlfriend and I've had during the past couple years regarding my college football tendencies: Candace (my girlfriend): "Bratwurst for breakfast?" Me: "Relax, it's college football season. What else can a person eat for breakfast?" wrong — they are a just good team," Launiere said. "They made no errors. We couldn't put together enough to challenge them in the end." The Utes have hit a road bump, but there is no reason to hit the panic button. "It's early in the season. We need a break from play because we have been going so hard," Launiere said. "We're going to watch film when we return and we'll get back in it. We have three days of practice. It will be really helpful." The Utes will have a couple days off until they head down to Provo to play in the BYU Tournament on Sept. 7. Once again, they will face another road test of three games in two days. c.huiskamp@ chronicle.utah.edu See FB SEASON Page 13 |