OCR Text |
Show ~FridoyJeb.Z2OO7f The Utah Statesman Lady Ags to take on San Jose State without coach Pebley BY ERIN WADSWORTH Staff Writer Assistant Coach George Brosky will act as head coach for the lady Aggies in San Jose, Calif, this Saturday for USU's second meeting with the San Jose State University Spartans. Head Coach Raegan Pebley will be unable to make the trip as she gave birth to her second child, a daughter, last Tuesday. Although she will not be with the team as they take on the Spartans, she said she plans on traveling to Las Cruces, N.M., for their first game against New Mexico State University. San Jose remains 2-20 overall this season, with a 1-7 record in the Western Athletic Conference. Their previous meeting with the Aggies ended in their defeat as the game closed at 58-50 in favor of USU. A 57-56 Spartan win against the University of Hawaii's Rainbow Wahine on Jan. 25 ended a sevengame losing streak and gave the Spartans their lone win in WAC play. New Mexico State was next for the lady Spartans, but a loss of more than 20 points leaves them at the bottom of the WAC standings. Coming off two consecutive losses - 80-38 against Boise State University and 62-57 against the Rainbow Wahine - the Aggies have been getting into practice and experiencing that execution offensively, Brosky said. This allows the team the confidence they need to move onto their next challenge, he said. "Offensively we haven't been scoring or shooting at the percentage we'd like," Brosky said, "so we worked a lot this week on some adjustments. It's just a confidence issue. It's seeing it a lot, being successful with it in practice and then applying that in games." As the Aggies prepare MEXICAN FOOD MEXICAN FOOD OPEN 2 4 HOURS EAT IN, TAKE-OUT, DRIVE-THRU 1 1 4 7 NORTH MAIN STREET GEICO. A15-minutecall could save you 15% on car insurance. Trevor Nielson/ctnt&ccusu.edu JUNIOR GUARD TAYLOR RICHARDS drives around Hawaii's Megan Tinnin in the Aggies' 62-57 home loss on Jan. 27. Richards is averaging 12.9 points per game. for their next competition at San Jose's Event Center, some offensive change-ups will be put into play to counteract some defensive strategies USU noticed of the Spartans during their last meeting, Brosky said. "We were pretty successful with the game plan," Brosky said, "so as a staff we feel that it worked well. We've just got to execute a little bit better. Pretty much everything is going to stay the same." USU's record stands at 7-12 overall and 3-4 in the WAC, putting them at number six in the WAC standings. Bringing in more wins this year than last, the Aggies continue to bringsomething new to the athletic scene at USU. "We're happy with the progress that the program is making," Brosky said. "We're obviously better record-wise than last year. But outside of the record, we're better at everything, I think. Our execution, our focus is better than it was last year." This game will be the first of three on the road for the Aggies. Next up are the Aggies of New Mexico State on Feb. 5 after which USU will take on the University of Idaho Vandals on Feb. 10 in Moscow, Idaho. -eawads@ccusu.edu Track looks to top last year's success BY ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS Utah State's track teams are set to compete at the Air Force Invitational in Colorado Springs, Colo. On Friday, Feb. 2, and Saturday, Feb. 3. Teams competing are Air Force, Colorado, UCCS, Colorado State, Fresno State, Furman, Long Beach State, Northern Colorado, Western State, Wichita State, and Wyoming. At last year's meet senior DJ Smith was one of three Aggies to finish in first place. Smith finished first in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.76. Junior Scott Bell took second in the 60meter hurdles with a personal best time of 8.09. For the women junior high jumper Aimee Savageau placed third with a jump of 1.65m (5-05.00) with sophomore Tara Pickett coming in seventh tying her teammate in the finals with a personal best jump of 1.65m (5-05.00). The Aggies head off to Colorado Springs coming off strongfinishesat Saturday's Washington State Invitational where sprinter DJ Smith clinched the 60meter dash with a time of 6.79 and senior Kevin Liu came in second place in the weight throw with a mark of 62-06.00, which leaves him with the fourth longest throw in school history. On the women's side senior Amber Peterson clocked the ninth-fastest time in school history in the 400-meters with a time of 56.76. In the 60-meter hurdles Peterson finished in fifth place still maintaining a top ten mark of 8.74. Senior distance runner Stacie Lifferth claimed first place in the 3,000-meter clocking the fifth-fastest time in school history with a time of 10:01.60, beating her previous record time of 10:06.19. The Aggies will split up next weekend with a number of athletes heading to the Boise State Invitational while the other student athletes head to the University of Washington. The dates for both invitationals are scheduled for Friday, Feb. 10, and Saturday, Feb. 11. • W A C BOWLS Log* VISIT THE CONVERGYS JOB FAIR! Monday, February 5th • 10:00AM-4:0OPM If you have strong customer service experience ancLbasic . computer skills, we want you to Join our winning team today! Inbound Customer Service Representatives Start Here. GO Far. At Convergys We Offer: • A $400.00 Sign-On Bonus! • Student Friendly Shifts • Career Pathing - ALL of our Team Leads and Ops Managers were promoted from within our Center! • Competitive Pay and Benefits From page 8 gave the WAC as many bowl wins as the Pac-10 and Big 12 Conference and one more win than the Big Ten Conference. This shouldn't have surprised anyone. According to a WAC press release, the conference's bowl teams had a combined winning percentage of .776, which was the best record for any conference's bowl teams this year. "I think the WAC is a conference that's on the rise," USU linebacker and WAC Freshman of the Year, Paul Igboeli said. But the success didn't come out of nowhere. According to a WAC press release, over the last five years the WAC has the best bowl winning percentage of any conference in the nation. The conference has an 11-7 record in that fiveyear span and is 6-3 against teams from BCS conferences 1513 N. Hillfield Rd., Suite 3 (8O1) 752-O485 - the Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10, Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference. "It's been building over the last few years," Dave Chaffin, WAC assistant commissioner, said. Chaffin said it began with Boise State joining the WAC in 2001. The national recognition they have garnered has added a lot to the WAC, he said. Boise State finished this year as the only undefeated team in Division I football and was ranked No. 5 in the season's last poll. The future looks bright for the WAC, with the possibility of two teams, Boise State and Hawaii, being ranked in the top 25 in the preseason polls, Chaffin said. Although he's optimistic, Chaffin said it could be very hard to get back into a BCS bowl. But, with players like Colt Brennan of Hawaii and coaches like Boise's Chris Petersen, optimism still abounds. Brennan, who decided to stay for his senior season instead of entering the NFL draft, led the nation in passing yards, efficiency and completion percentage, and set an NCAA record with 58 touchdown passes. Petersen was named the Paul "Bear" Bryant College Coach of the Year. And, according to a WAC press release, the conference can also boast the nation's top receiver in yards and catches - New Mexico State sophomore Chris Williams - and the nation's interception leaders, Idaho junior Stanley Franks and San Jose State junior Dwight Lowery. Franks and Lowery had nine picks each. "The WAC will just keep getting better and better," Igboeli said. -dabake@cc.usu.edu • A Fun Work Environment with Lots of Incentives • Inbound Customer Service Representatives • Free DirecTV service Join the global leader In customer care, human resources and billing services today! See you at the Fair! 1525 N 600 E, No. Logan CONVERGYS • Or apply on-line today! • • • • Outthinking Outdoing wvrw.convergys.grealjob.net Media Code: USU Job Code: GDB7 435-750-1414 Ask for extension: LTSU-GDB7 Convargyi Is an EOE M/f/D/y- DIRECTV. |