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Show StatesmanSports Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 Page 9 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL VOLLEYBALL Best start in 30 years By LANDON HEMSLEY staff writer Freshman point guard T. J. Goddard lit up the nets for 17 points, and four Aggies finished the night scoring more than 10 points in USU's 63-57 win over Portland Monday night. Goddard made all eight of her shot attempts, three of which were from 3-point land. She raked in four more points at the charity stripe and finished as USU's leading scorer. Not far behind her was junior guard Amber White with 10 points, junior guard Alice Coddington with 11 points and senior center Lydia Whitehead, also with 11 points. This win comes on the heels of the monster upset against the University of Utah — only the second Aggie win over the rival Utes. "The Utah win was a definite confidence builder for our program, one that I think shows our team's potential," said USU head coach Raegan Pebley. "But I think we have to keep working hard to get better." If USU women's basketball history is any indicator of greatness, the Aggies seem to be on sure footing. USU is 2-0 for the third time in the history of the program, and the last time USU started its women's basketball season 2-0 was 1979. Clearly, the program appears to be headed in the right direction. USU's backcourt has been a tremendous source of strength so far in the season. Pebley praised her guards' work in the win. "Our guards played really well," she said. "T. J. and Amber had great scoring in the first half. Alice had to play one of the best players in the West Coast Conference, Laiken Dollente. She did a really good job on her. We were able to play deeper in our bench tonight, getting some of our younger guards some more experience, and they did well with their minutes." Coddington's defense was excellent against Dollente, who is one of Portland's leading scorers. Coddington and her teammates held Dollente to 2- 11 shooting and 1-3 from 3-point land. More than half of her 11 points were from the charity stripe. Portland stayed fairly steady with the Aggies until the 4:28 mark, when a Jenna Johnson steal was converted into an Alice Coddington 3-pointer. USU played solid defense and crashed the boards on defense, then Goddard knocked down a trey in USU's half-court offense. That put the Aggies up by 11 with 3:49 left in the first half, and USU retained the lead until halftime as the Aggies led 37-26. The Pilots didn't give up in the second half. Pebley said the 11-point lead was needed heading into the locker room. "In the first half we took care of the ball pretty well," she said. "In the second half we turned it over too many times, and that allowed them to cut into that lead." Portland went on a 8-0 run spurred by turnovers in USU's backcourt and offensive rebounding. Portland came out and put USU in what Pebley said was a rotating, trapping and agressive press. The hard defense paid off. With 16:13 remaining in the game, Portland scored the first two of its 8-0 run off a Goddard turnover. USU went scoreless for three and a half minutes and Portland managed to cut the deficit to two points after obtaining two consecutive offensive rebounds. Then, USU tooks its turn with a quick run that extended the lead back to eight points. Back and forth the game went, but checkmate wouldn't come for the Aggies until the final minute of play. With 20 seconds remaining, Portland's Lauren Angel sank a 3-point shot that pulled the Pilots to within two once again. Portland immediately called a timeout and was forced to foul Alice Coddington. She hit both free throws. Portland missed its next shot, Nicole Johnson pulled down the rebound and Coddington took the pass. She was immediately fouled and sent to the line where, again, she hit both shots to extend the lead to six and put the game out of reach. USU will next face San Francisco on the road Sunday. — la.hem@aggiemaiLusu.edu Medlin: Familiar freshman to face off continued from page 8 said. "I might be a little taller, that's about it." While playing styles coincide, the personalities of Medlin and Henderson could not be more different. While Medlin comes across as humble, gracious, and soft-spoken, Henderson is known for his brash, fiery on-court demeanor. As evidence, the Utah guard picked up a technical foul in the first half of the Utes' season opening loss against Idaho last Friday, after tossing the ball at a Vandal player during a timeout. "He's a real good player," Medlin said of Henderson. "When he starts hitting shots and he starts talking a lot, he just gets rolling." While there is a good chance Medlin and Henderson will find themselves guarding each other at some point tonight, they will enter tonight's game assuming vastly different roles for their respective teams. Utah is currently in the midst of trying to replace its top four scorers from last season's NCAA tournament team, a dilemma that has allowed Henderson to not only secure a starting spot for the Utes but to also emerge as a key offensive contributor early on in the season. In the loss to Idaho, Henderson's 18 points came on a teamhigh 14 shots. Medlin, on the other hand, began his freshman campaign on one of the most experienced teams in the country and will likely be counted on to provide the Aggies with a spark off the bench. "I've been trying to get better on my (defense)," Medlin said. "I'm just going out and trying to hit shots, hit the open shots that I have and try to make plays for everybody else on the team." — majerusforpresident@yahoo.com Upgrade: New digs at the Spectrum continued from page 8 The men's locker room had three of its eight showers removed in order to make room for a new therapy pool. The women's locker room was renovated to include individual showers, and electrical outlets are provided at each individual locker to allow for the use of hairdryers and the like. Individual player lockers are available for donor sponsoring at $10,000 apiece, with a number of notable Aggie alumni having already stepped forward to claim one. Junior Tyler Newbold will be using the locker sponsored by Aggie alum and current Utah Jazz assistant coach Phil Johnson, and junior Brian Greene will be occupying the locker sponsored by former Aggie great Mary Roberts. Three men's lockers are still available for sponsoring. A new women's film study room has been added, complete with 20 leather chairs featuring the USU logo, new tables, a projector and a dropdown screen. The women also received a coaches' staff locker room, as well. The new training room, formerly occupying the space now used for the men's study and lounge area, has been moved down the hall closer to the women's locker room. The room has a new therapy pool exclusively for women and, according to Barnes, is now a bigger, more functional space than what it was previously. Barnes stressed the men and women have been represented equally in both the type and number of facilites provided. This project is one of a number of athletic facility upgrades at USU in the past year, and Barnes said it may be a little while before anymore are completed. "What we're doing is we're taking a breath," Barnes said. "We're partnering with the department of landscape architecture on campus to create a master-plan process. What we want to do is take a step back and look at a long-term vision for our needs, and while we're doing that we'll be looking at some other potential facilities." Ready for a Baby? You may be eligible for $$cash upon delivery! Benefits pay able in addition to other insurance. — majerusforpresident@yahoo.com ExpelCom CHELSEA FOWLES, 2, AND LORI WILSON-BECKSTROM, 17, pick themselves up off the floor during their match against Hawaii Monday. PATRICK ODEN photo No. 3 Wahine too much for Ags tually getting up by eight, before putting the set away with a powerful kill by senior outside hitsports senior writer ter Kanani Danielson. Danielson finished the night with a career-high 32 kills. Third-ranked Hawaii overpowered the "You just have to get in the right spots and Aggies Monday night in a four-set match (25try to do everything you can," Durrant said of 19, 22-25, 25-29, 25-13), dropping USU to an defending Hawaii's physical play. "Sometimes even record of 14 wins and 14 losses and ultiyou can't control what they're going to do so mately taking USU's hopes for a post-season you just have to control what you can and hopeberth away. fully in the end it works out for you." Hawaii continued its quest for a national Hawaii showed its dominance in the fourth title with its 26th win of the season — its only set, jumping out to a 8-2 lead, placing its kills two losses came in September against Texas on the Aggies at will. The Wahine went on a and California. 10-3 run to end the set 25-13. Hawaii had 14 After Hawaii jumped out to an early sevenmore kills than the Aggies, with 20 and six, point lead in the first set, the Aggies climbed respectively. The fourth set was USU's worst hittheir way back into contenting percentage on the night tion with kills by juniors "We're catching with a .067 (6-4-30). Hawaii Christine Morrill, Shantell hit a .368 (20-6-38). glimpses of our Durrant and Katie Astle Durrant finished the potential. It's just and help from service and night, leading the Aggies attack errors by Hawaii. The unfortunate that with a career-high 12 kills, Rainbow Wahine regained hitting a .429 (12-3-21). Liz it's coming at this control near the end of the McArthur and Kortsen both point during the set to pull out the win 25 19. had eight kills, Kortsen with season; that we've USU had a .091 hitting perone error on 17 attempts centage (10-7-33) in the set caught the vision and McArthur 10 errors on while the Warriors hit .333 45 attempts. Morrill led the this late in the sea(17-5-36). match with 17 digs while son." The Aggies held the secHawaii's Dani Mafua led ond set close, never allowing - USU head coach the match in assists with 61. Hawaii to break away with a "We competed well Grayson Dubose lead of more than one. The tonight," said USU head hard-hitting Wahine were coach Grayson DuBose. kept in check by the blocking of USU. Astle led "We're catching glimpses of our potential. It's the set in team blocks with four, while sophojust unfortunate that it's coming at this point more Emily Kortsen had three and freshman during the season that we've caught the vision Josselyn White had two. The Aggies had 10 this late in the season. But we have a young blocking assists in the set with two blocking team, and it'll help us prepare for next season. errors while Hawaii had no blocks with two We have to continue to work hard and improve. blocking errors. Although the Aggies had four We have one more match this season so we have less kills in the set they were able to pull out to come out and defend the Spectrum." the 25 22 win for their first-set victory against USU is 8-37 against women's volleyball powHawaii since the 2007 season. Hawaii had 17 erhouse Hawaii, with half of those wins coming kills on 35 attempts with eight errors (.257 hitat home. The last home win came more than ting percentage) while the Aggies had 13 kills two decades ago on Nov. 12, 1981. USU's last on 33 attempts with three errors (.303 hitting victory over the Wahine was on Nov. 11, 2007, percentage). Durrant led the Aggies in kills breaking a 108-match conference home winwith five, followed by Kortsen who had three. ning streak for the then 10th ranked Wahine. "I thought we played really well in the secThe Aggies play their final match of the seaond game," Durrant said. "We just got them son Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. against Nevada out of system a lot, and we were just doing the in the Spectrum. things we needed to do." — c .h. j @ aggiemausu. edu The Aggies hung with Hawaii early in the third set before the Wahine pulled away, evenBy CONNOR JONES - - Low Mac Prices FastMac Service Apple Specialist Perfect Partner Need service on your Mac? • In-house warranty service • Out-of-warranty repairs • Upgrades <) • Trade-ins Denise Abbott 435-757-7834 denise_abbott@us.aflac.com - Super Crossword Answers To Today's Crossword Puzzle! 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