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Show The Utah Statesman Experience to help rugby this season CLAY MOFFITT Staff Writer With 15 new players and a new head coach, the USU women's rugby team plans to overcome the challenges of an inexperienced team to return to nationals this year. Michelle Olpin, who played four yearsforUSU, took over the head coaching responsibilities when the position was vacated this year. Olpin will be working with a much different group of players than the team that went 13-1 in the fall and 11-3 in the spring, but suffered a disappointing loss to San Jose State in the first round of the Pacific Coast Playoffs. The team lost over half of its players, including Erika Hansen, who left on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Tara Earl, who was deployed to Iraq. The team will only have 12 players returning from last year's roster, which qualified for the Pacific Coast: Playoffs. Six of the 12 returning players were on the team that finished fifth at nationals two years ago. But the key to the team's success this year will be the development of the rookies. "For the most part, we've been really lucky," team captain Whitney Doe said. "Most of the rookies have been catching on really well." Qualifying for nationals is the team's main objective this year. Doe said, and the talent level is there, so with enough dedication, the team could make it to the Elite Eight like they did two years ago. Doe, along with Lissa Woolf, Sara Gilmore and Hayley McMillan, will lead a strong forward pack. The backs are young and inexperienced, but feature the team's best all-around player, Brooke Lambert. The group of b acks will also be bolstered when veteran Bryn McMillan returns from an ACL injury in October. A lot of the players on the team played their first competitive rugby game when they faced Colorado earlier this year in the Jackalope Tournament. "After they got their feet wet, they played really well," Lambert said. "I think if we make it past the fall season and keep the rookies there, we will rely on them to help." USU dropped the first two games of the tournament to Colorado and Colorado State, but rebounded to beat Nebraska 26-0 in the final game of the tournament. Lambert and Olpin said they think the momentum will carry over and are confident going into their next game against BYU at home on Saturday. "We haven't lost to BYU in three or four years," Olpin said, "and we're looking forward to a win on Saturday." -ctnoffitt@cc.usu.edu >BURRELL From page 9 ALLEY T TALKING WITH THE COACH Jessica Alexander/jalexander@ccusu,edu USU COACH BRENT GUY along with quarterback Leon Jackson III and cornerback Marquis Charles, host a radio show outside of Merrill, Moen and Reeder halls Thursday evening. Guy and the players answered questions about the team's game last Saturday against Utah and what they will be doing to improve for their next game at home against UNLV on Sept. 24. Guy said, "We need you all there," and that students can make a differece by coming to the game next weekend. USU to be part of Bracket Buster event U T A H STATE UNIVERSITY Athletic Media Relations Utah State was named as one of 100 teams to participate in college basketball's annual Bracket Buster Saturday event. The fourth annual event, a one-day men's college basketball extravaganza pitting potential NCAA tournament hopefuls against each other on Feb. 18, will feature 11 nationally televised games selected from an expanded pool of 100 teams representing 18 conferences. Last year's field included a potential 64 teams representing 13 conferences (vying for 11 Bracket Buster Saturday games) while the 2004 event featured 46 teams (for 10 Bracket Buster Saturday games) and the inaugural event in 2003 included 18 teams (for nine Bracket Buster Statesman File Photo only game in which Captain Burrell came to the rescue. In some ways, Burrell's outstanding talent made the rest of the team underachieve. Occasionally, they would simply bide their time and do just enough so they could give Burrell the opportunity to score. Otherwise, they could have made the big play themselves if they didn't have him to fall back on. But you won't see that happen this season. The Aggies have the talent to win nationals this year if they can come together and play as one team. That's their plan. Aaron Burrell was an amazing player that took the USU hockey team to new heights. This season may see Hashimoto, Roberto Leo, Jordan Francom or anyone else assume the duties of goto scorer. But the team isn't going to sit around and wait for that to happen. Bryan Hinton is a senior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to bhhinton@cc. usu. edu. Baty Cache Maternity Supplement Insurance Costs as little as $39 a month? j pay-out as high as $4000. must be in effect 10 months before delivery, works great with other health insurance policies. Cache Valley Insurance, Inc. 94 South Main, Logan (435)752-4560 Ask for Quent Casperson or JaNae or Shea 10 from the Missouri Valley and Metro Atlantic Athletic; nine from the Western Athletic Conference and Horizon League; eight from the Big West and Colonial Athletic; four from the Sun Belt and the Big Sky; three from the Big South; two from the America East, Mid-Continent, Southern, Southland and West Coast; and Bucknell from the Patriot League and Fairleigh Dickinson from the Northeast. Four new conferences join the pool this year: Big South, Northeast, Patriot and Southland. The West Coast conference returns after a oneyear absence. While each conference selects their participating teams prior to the season, the 11 matchups for Bracket Buster Saturday will be determined from the pool of 100 teams by ESPN in conjunction with the conferences approximately three weeks prior to the event (this year - January 29 2006). As part of the agreement, all 11 of the Bracket Buster Saturday home teams, as well as the remaining 39 home squads, will play a "return" game at the home facility of their opponent in November or December of the following season. Bracket Buster Saturday is an example of ESPN college basketball franchise programming. Others include Rivalry Week, Feast Week, Judgment Week and Championship Week. This year's Bracket Buster Saturday pool features teams with 31 appearances in the last two NCAA Tournaments, including two Sweet Sixteen squads: UW-Milwaukee (2005) and Nevada (2004). • HOCKEY From page 8 Offense AARON BURREU CONTROLS the puck during a game against San jose State last season. Saturday games). In addition to the expanded field, this year's event will also feature five Bracket Buster Saturday games exclusively on ESPNU, the 24-hour collegesports network. ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise the remaining six contests. Bracket Buster Saturday, named because of the success of the teams in NCAA Tournament play over the past few years,' will provide the 22 televised teams (selected from the pool of 100 schools) an opportunity to play other top non-conference opponents three weeks prior to Selection Sunday. The 78 teams not selected for Bracket Buster Saturday will compete against each other on the same day. The 100-team field will feature 12 teams from the MidAmerican Conference; 11 from the Ohio Valley Conference; Despite losing their alltime leading goal scorer, Aaron Burrell, the Aggies still feel like they will be able to be productive offensively. Forward Robert Hashimoto said the Aggies will play more as one and not lean on one player to score all their goals. "This year is more of a team," he said. "We're not going to count on two guys anymore." Hashimoto said this is his year to be the offensive leader. "I've been in the shadow of Burrelt for the last three years," he said. "I need to step up and try to lead this team to nationals." Forward Roberto Leo said the team expects Hashimoto to have a breakout year. "We're looking for big things from Hashi and the older guys," he said. "But we have enough talent that anybody could have a breakthrough season." Crossley said he is not sure yet how the lines will be made up for the season. "I'm still toying around with them," he said. "We're sorting out the team chemistry." Crossley said he is confident no matter how the lines work out, USU will score a lot of goals this season. "We have the potential to be a very good team," he said. "We've got guys that will score goals. We'll have a pretty solid four lines. I like the depth." Defense After struggling with depth last season, the Aggie defense now has eight solid defensemen for the first time, Brett Fryslie said. "It's real nice," he said. "We do not have to play 40 minutes a game now." Although last year's big man Ben Froehle will not play this season, the Aggies have added another large body in thr form of Maciej "Machy" Machalik. Machalik played for the Junior-A Puget Sound hockey Great Service Opportunity I team last season along with newcomer Ryan Osterfeldt. "They just showed up out of the blue," Fryslie said. "[Machyj's really smart. He won't take dumb penalties." Crossley also said he likes both Machalik and Osterfeldt's decision making on the ice. "Machy will help on defense," he said. "He has good techniques and he makes good decisions. I'd imagine Ryan will be a good player too." Fryslie said with the added depth, the Aggies are looking to finish even higher than last year. "We're looking to be national champs," he said. "A lot of us are in the best shape we've ever been in. We want a championship. We want to go to Rochester and win." Goaltending Last season, the Aggies had two starting goalies in Chris Webber and Adam Lain. With Webber signing a pro contract to play in Madrid, Spain, over the offseason, the net appears to be all Lain's this year. "I'm excited about getting more games," Lain said. "I feel I can be a better asset to the team. I'm ready to take it on." Lain said the consistency in net will help him, although last year's system was not a bad one. "We both had our higher and lower points," he said. : "We were both very streaky. But it turned out to be a good season." Lain said even if he had the net to himself last season, he wouldn't have been as good as he will be this year. "I got my feet wet these last two years," he said. "I'm more prepared this season." Crossley said he hopes he can have another go-to goalie in case of emergencies. "I'd rather have two or I three go-to guys," he said. "Something always happened where you needed one more guy. It's good to know you have a solid leader, but you don't want to put all your eggs in that basket." -bhhinton@cc.usu.edu My Printing is pone on timer Do You Have 1 Spare Hour a Week? Do You Like Working With Youth? Would you like to help youth in Cache Valley? Do you need an extra credit.. and it's free! If you answered YES to any of these questions, you should be a mentor. The Cache County School District REACH Mentoring Program is looking for Volunteers, including students & professors, to work at various schools in the county. 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