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Show StatesmanSports Friday, Sept. 7, 2007 Page II Third and final tourney for Ag spikers Academy ^Racquet ? Club — By G. CHRISTOPHER TERRY staff writer USU women's volleyball will play in its third and final preseason tournament this weekend, traveling to Berkeley, Calif., to test the competitive waters of the 2007 Golden Bear Invitational. Play begins Friday with a game against the home team, the 15th-ranked California Golden Bears, at 8 p.m. On Saturday, USU will play back-to-back games, first against the 12th-ranked Minnesota Golden Gophers and later in the afternoon against unranked Eastern Kentucky. USU Head Coach Grayson DuBose said that although his team is physically fit, he is interested to see how they respond to the quick turnaround game on Saturday. "They're in good shape, so physically I don't USU MIDDLE BLOCKER MELISSA LARSON think it affects them," DuBose said. "It's the serves the ball during a practice. The Aggies travel to mental side of it; are we going to be able to come California for a two-day tournament in which they will back quickly? We'll play at noon this weekend take on two Top 25 teams. TYLER LARSON photo on Saturday, and then again at 4:40 p.m. So the turnaround time, that's the hard part to recover team of both the 2007 University Plaza Wildcat from." Classic, hosted by the University of Arizona, and the 2007 Holiday Inn Classic, hosted by The Aggie spikers will be looking to improve Montana State. on their 2-4 record, although getting a win ^ _ M ^ ^ ^ _ An interesting subplot of against the highly ranked Bears or Gophers is a tall order. The this weekend's tourney will be final match, the first pver meetNielson, a West Valley native, ing between Utah State and trying to make it on three allEastern Kentucky, falls squarely tournament teams in three tries. •Outside hitter in the winnable category. Another angle to watch is the Amanda Nielson continuing development of USU's Speaking on the high quality six freshman players. of his team's opposition, DuBose looking to be said, "They are very good named to third DuBose said the young playteams. Berkeley is good. They're consecutive allers are "picking it up pretty fast. ranked in the top 15, and so is They're learning what it takes tournament team Minnesota. They're big and tall to be a Division I athlete. They and physical, so it will be a chal- •Ags taking on two come out of high school, and lenge for our team. Hopefully we Top-25 teams you're kind of the best player in learn some stuff from it and go your school. You get to the level and compete hard." that we play at, and you're not the best player. It's a learning curve for those Senior opposite side hitter Amanda Nielson guys; how do you eat, how do you sleep, how do leads Utah State with 5.18 points per game, 4.21 you study, all those things." kills per game, 2.05 digs per game, .63 service aces per game, and .63 blocks per game. 'graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu Nielson has been named to the all-tournament In 7 Know Into Shape! Introduce a friend to the club to enjoy a healthier lifestyle... ... and get your chance to ride away on a new scooter! See Your Membership Coordinator For Details Today! .Drawings Held Aug 31st and Sept 10th f Rugby World Cup coverage suspended PARIS (AP) — A day before the opening of the showcase tournament, the world's three leading news agencies suspended coverage Thursday of the Rugby World Cup in a dispute with the sport's governing body over media restrictions. The Associated Press said its journalists would not attend any World Cup events until the dispute over media credentials is resolved with the International Rugby Board. Reuters and Agence-France Presse also said they were suspending coverage. "It is more than two days since the news media organizations put forward a possible peace plan, but the IRB has yet to formally respond or to set up a meeting," the media coalition said in a statement late Thursday. "We do not believe it is the best interest of the game of rugby for the IRB to drags its feet any longer." The AP said it hopes for a resolution soon and to be able to return to full coverage of the six-week tournament before play begins Friday with the opening match between host France and Argentina. The AP said it would not distribute text stories, photos or TV images from pre-competition events Thursday to its thousands of subscribers around the world. "Most AP staff members assigned to cover the preliminary events this week have been unable to obtain credentials without first accepting terms proposed by the International Rugby Board which a broad coalition of news organizations finds unacceptable," said David Tomlin, the AP's associate general counsel for news. The AP, AFP and Reuters are part of a global coalition of news agencies and newspapers that has been negotiating with the IRB over reporting restrictions. The IRB has modified some of the original terms offered to the media for Cup coverage but has refused to change others. "RWCL will not be swayed by unreasonable demands and the threat of non-attendance," it said in a statement. "RWCL welcomes all media to the tournament and simply asks that normal conditions be respected." French Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin also intervened Thursday, telephoning the IRB's CEO, Mike Miller, to appeal for a rapid resumption of talks to ensure the World Cup "is not ruined," her office said. AFP chief executive Pierre Louette said the Paris-based agency also would not send text, video or photos from the World Cup on Thursday. Soccer: Looking for team identity f 1 * '^,-^-E-, i I CardioTheatre Room Expanded Weight Room Indoor Run/WalkTrack Swimming Pools 80+Aerobics Clasf iqn up with a friend 9 continued from page 8 Another asset for the Ags will be the return of junior forward Candice Clark, who is coming off a knee injury. Clark played in 16 of the Aggies* 20 games last season, contributing two goals, both of which were game winners. Sophomore forward Erin Salmon, who scored three goals last season, is still recovering from a knee injury. Cairns said she hopes Salmon will be ready to play soon. Cairns said she feels her team is coming together and learning how to play together. "The true test is going to be, do we put the ball in the back of the net this weekend?" Cairns said. "This team thrives on new challenges, and it wasn't a good things we lost. You never like >*•' to lose, but they thrive from the challenge of being better than we were when we lost. So that's really what I'm most excited about, to see the learning that takes place, and can we eliminate the mistakes that we had? "We're still in that flux time of the year. We're still trying to feel ourselves out and find our team identity," she said. Tangle: Ags still looking for a win opener last year in Laramie, Utah State was within striking distance going into the last quarter and ended up losing the game 38-7. "We've talked about (last year's game) as a team," Hutton said. "It's the same with UNLV. We lost in the fourth quarter. So we've been stressing playing all four quarters." Other players are motivated by last year's game for different reasons. "Last year the receiving group didn't do so well, and (Wyoming) thought they got the best of us," Robinson said. "So this year we're going to come in and show them that wasn't us." As a team, the Aggies are looking to come out and show that their loss to UNLV wasn't them either. "We got upset last week at home, and our deal is, we're going to try to go upset them at home," Guy said. "They played really well against an ACC team and set a record for home attendance, so we've got to go in there and prove that we can upset somebody because we get to play a lot of games on the road. "So now we're going to be the spoiler, and that's the way we look at it." •da. bake@aggiemaii usu.edu • - - contract 3 ">'&m nlimitedTahnin ONLY $S PER MONTH Di continued from page 8 Thursday's 23-16 home loss to UNLV, the Aggie offense and defense have been focusing this week on playing a full 60 minutes. "We played a real good first half," Guy said. "We've just got to put together and play two halves ... We know that we're going to play a lot of tight football games. We've got to get to the fourth quarter with an opportunity to win the game and then make the plays. We didn't do that last week in the fourth quarter, and we got beat in the fourth quarter." Late game woes also plagued the Aggies in their last meeting with the Cowboys. In the season : (Rig. $44.95) 3 1ft C Mon-Thurs 5AM-12AM * Fri/Sat 5AM-9PM • Sun 11AM-5PM 1 6 5 5 N . 2 0 0 E. N o r t h L o g a n , U T 8 4 3 4 1 T e l . 4 3 5 - 7 5 3 - 7 5 0 0 WWW.SPORTSACADEMY.COM MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED.SOME RESTRICTIONS APPLY. CALL OR VISIT CLUB FOR DETAILS. .. •&5*lii*.£aE 5 3 i •a |