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Show ' 5Monday, Dec. 5,2005 Take Note: The men's basketball team will play Middle Tennessee State Monday at 7 p.m. in the Spectrum. 797-1761 sports@statesman.usu.edu Disappointing finish for USU volleyball team Aggie women fall to Arizona in the first round of the NCAA torunament BY ANDREA EDMUNDS Sporb Editor It's over. That's about all that can be said about the Utah State volleyball team's three-game loss to Arizona in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night in Salt Lake City. The loss knocked the Aggies out of the tournament and ended their season earlier than they had hoped. But USU isn't so much disappointed the season is over, it is disappointed at how the season ended. "There is no shame in losing to Arizona, not this year," Utah State Head Coach Burt Fuller said. "They're good. They're probably going to go a long way. "Our disappointment is that we wanted to give our friends and family a little bit better showing and maybe represent the [Western Athletic Conference] a little bit better, as the second-place team in the WAC, than we did tonight." For an injury-ridden team that finished 9-18 last season, the turnaround this season very nearly became a Cinderella story for the Aggies. They finished second in a new conference and went to the NCAA tournament for only the third time in school history. Senior Zuzana Cernianska is at the top of the Aggie Season Over SEASON RECORD: 21-13 CONFERENCE RECORD: 11-5 • SECOND PUCE IN IHL WAC • FIRST ROUND NCAA • TOURNAMENT DISAPPOINTMENT See page 8 The puck stops short for USU in Las Vegas Photo illustration by Jessica Alexander and Dustin Baird ^ B Y BRYAN HINTON Assistant Sports Editor The free-fall continued last weekend for the Utah State hockey club as it lost two games to UNLV and another one to BYU at a tournament in Las Vegas. Thursday, the Aggies lost to the Rebels 2-1. Friday, they lost to the .Icecats 6-3 and Saturday, USU lost - to UNLV again in a 2-0 shutout. "This weekend was just weird," Aggie Roberto Leo said. "Things just didn't work out. No one stepped up and led." Leo said nothing went right for •«USU "It was bad," he said. "Nobody could put the puck in the net. We were not playing as a team." It was thefirst-evermeeting between USU and UNLV The Rebels are currently unranked in the region. "Those losses to UNLV will hurt," Leo said. The Aggies were playing without three of their players. Defenseman Brett Bryslie did not play any games due to an injury he suffered two weeks ago against Eastern Washington. Ryan Osterheldt was still suspended from an on-ice incident against UVSC on Nov. 5. And Jordan Francom received a misconduct penalty in the first game and had WEPT . See page 8 Women's basketball team falls to Idaho State BY UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Athletic Media Relations Senior Ali Marchant scored a season-high 23 points and was one rebound shy of her 13th career double-double as Utah State women's basketball fell to Idaho State on the road, 96-73, Friday night. The loss was the Aggies' eighth straight, dating back to last season as they dropped to 04 overall. Idaho State's win was its third straight as they evened out at 3-3 on the year. Marchant's season-high mark came on an ll-for-15 shooting effort from the floor. She is now shooting a team-high 59.5 percent from the floor. Marchant also blocked a gamehigh four shots and is now tied for third-place on USU's career blocked shot list with 60 swats. Things looked promising for the Aggies in the opening half as they fought the Bengals to eight ties in the first 13 minutes of • Loss See page 8 On the road again Or the plane, or the car, or the bus ... USU student athletes work school in around traveling schedule BY BEN WALKER Staff Writer Sometimes an occasion arises when students have to miss class. For the student-athlete, the occasion presents itself on a regular basis. The Aggies' sports teams play in the WAC, with their opponents spread across six states. Not only do road trips take the Ags to Idaho and New Mexico, but also on 1,700-mile swings to Louisiana and 3,000-mile journeys to Hawaii. "Our trips [before] have always been to California with the Big West," said Ingrid Roth, senior volleyball player. "Now we travel much farther distances with the WAC, so the airport is our best friend." ' Roth said the volleyball team misses an average of two days of classes every week. Sometimes, when the athletes are hosting an opponent, no classes are missed. Every once in a while, it's much more extreme. "My first year at USU, we missed 20 of the first 35 days of school due to travel," Roth said. Athletes must maintain a 2.0 grade point average to remain eligible to play, though most coaches encourage a 3.0. With how much Athletes have to be students, too WARRIORS Total miles traveled by: FOOTBALL: ; 4,384.97 MEN'S B-BALL: 11,499.27 WOMEN'S B-BALL: 11,547.16 BY CLAY MOFFITT Staff Writer As popular as sports are on university campuses, most students and fans never see the other, less-glamorous side of college athletics — the side that requires serious dedication from the athletes to be successful academically. The time commitment required of studentathletes is the biggest obstacle to their academic success, particularly for road games when more time is spent traveling. Varsity sports are not the only teams asked to make the sacrifice. Although some club teams are less competitive, some club sports like the Aggie hockey team practice every day VOLLEYBALL • TRAVELING 12,716.42 See page 8 •ACADEMICS See page 6 USU FOOTBALL 2005 New pieces, same old story "We have a huge hole," Guy said of the class of '06. "We had so many on the top At the start of the season, end and bottom end, there there were plenty of questions just wasn't a class there. Now, for Utah State we'll have a big junior Head Coach class but not that N Brent Guy. He ^. many seniors." might not have The main reaall the right K^ son for the lack of answers at the • $ ' YvfS^* s e r u o r s IS t n e switch end of his first i>^ • ^ , ; in philosophy that season, but he came along with knows which the coaching change. direction to head in to find Guy didn't go after many them. junior college players and he Transition was the name said he doesn't plan to add of 2005. Not only with the anymore than two or three new staff, but with the 14 this offseason. With all the Aggie seniors leaving and a junior college players former nearly non-existent upcoming Utah State Head Coach Mick senior class, the underclassDennehy recruited during men had their chance to get his tenure, the transition to into the game and show the bringing in freshmen basicoaches what's in store for the cally removed most everyone next couple of years. from the class that will be BY KEVIN NIELSEN Senior Writer \_ seniors next year. "The best decision I made was to not sign the junior college guys and go with youth," Guy said. "Now I think there's a bright hope that not just the team sees, but the fans and alumni can see the youth and that they're going to build the program." In order to build with youth, they have to play, which definitely happened this season. Twenty freshmen saw playing time while 12 of them started at least once. Some of the freshmen were even pushed into starter's spots, which aren't normally given to freshmen. Marquise Charles and Josh Taylor started at cornerback, • A G G I E FOOTBALL See page 7 Statesmen File Photo |