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Show MONDAY • APRIL 3 • 2006 WWW.NETXNEWS.NET Wolverine Word The first year Blaze continue to struggle, but gave Las Vegas a scare at the Delta Center, UV lacrosse wins their fourth straight. Read about it on A8. Courtesy photo/UVSC Athktns Kam Mickolio pitches away for Utah Valley. Ultimate fighting is no longer forced to survive underground i aseball only manages inst D-II Crusaders one^ Kacey Robbins For those who cringe at the physicality and risk I associated with some sports, my advice is this: stay ,'" ! away from the new and ever-growing phenomenon of ultimate fighting. Nothing like the WWF. less , like boxing, and more like a no holds barred street fight than anything else, ultimate fighting transcends what most would probably consider humane. It's just two warriors in a cage, with few rules, and where blood is expected. Fighters could be trained in anything from kickboxing to Jiu Jitsu, tae kwon-do to Judo, sumo to black-belt karate. Maybe there's even a combination of styles, and perhaps even no recognizable style at all. But for many, ultimate fighting is just what they've been waiting for. A form of competition •5* with little room for pansies or the faint of heart. A sport where injury is more than likely and where pride is strong. Eric Cannon is one of a handful of students at UVSC who has recently clung onto ultimate fighting's increased popularity. After taking an on-campus kickboxing class to fulfill a P.E. credit, he realized that he was both decent enough and liked it enough to perhaps continue on with something even bigger. That's when he took a trip to Thailand of all places, training with some of the locals there. After his stay, he ended up bringing all kinds of technique back with him, and soon after, decided he wanted to start fighting competitively. "One thing I like about it," said Cannon. "Is you realize that it's not what a lot of people think, just a brawl. You're there to see what they're (opponent) m Sports Writer A fter returning home from a long 11 -game road trip. UVSC baseball was more than ready to play once again in Orem hosting Division II Northwest Nazarene from Nampa, Idaho. And after beating the Crusaders 9-6 in The first one, NNU fought their way back from an early Utah Valley advantage in game two to win 6-3 in a rain-shortened contest. In the opener, the Crusaders capitalized on a pair of 4th inning RBI's from both Eric Duke and Trevor McKinney to go up 6-3 before Utah Valley exploded offensively with four runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth. Eli Slesk started the rally by bringing home teammate Adam Openshaw, and Chris Benson's sacrifice fly to right brought in another run to bridge the gap at 6-4. Senior Canyon Vance then showed his leadership with a two-out clutch triple, scoring Benson to tie the game; and catcher Cory Newton capped the inning with a single to put Utah Valley up for good. In the opening inning, Utah Valley quickly jumped all over NNU with three runs after a two-run triple by local freshman Chris Benson out of Mountain View. NNU matched the score in the third with three runs of their own. Right fielder Tim Miller hit" a double to center, and that was followed with an error by UV first baseman Men's Volleyball places third in own tourney Ben Webster Sports Writer See RANT-A7 Baseball @ Utah @ 3 p.m. 4/4, 1 p.m 4/7 v?^; Baseball vs. Utah @ 7 p.m. 4/6, 1 p.m. 4/8 Softball vs. S.' Utah (DH) @ 2 p.m. 4/4 • • Softball vs. Utah @ 3 p.m. 4/5 •Lacrosse vs. O r e g o n @ 7 p.m. 4 / 7 . ; , ; ; : v ^ ;W^ Dan Bulow missing a tag off a bunt. With the bases loaded, center fielder Matt Pollard then cranked a double to center, and the tying run scored after another UV error. NNU tacked on another in the fourth inning after an RBI single by C.J. Severin. The Crusaders, however, failed to score again after the fifth. UVSC scored a couple insurance runs in the eighth with RBI singles from Jason Zundel and Brad Hales. Vance and Benson led the way for the Wolverines with three hits and two runs apiece. Benson also tallied three RBI's, and the win ended the Wolverine's six-game losing streak. UV reliever Marcus Moore pitched a solid 4.2 innings, allowing only two hits and no runs. In game two, UVSC went deep on three separate occasions with solo homeruns by Hales, Bulow and Benson to go up 3-1 after four innings. But that would be the end of the run support given to starter Ryan Jessop. NNU closed to within a run with a score in the fifth and added two more runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to move ahead 6-3, before eventually having the game called in their favor due to a rain downpour. Northwest Nazarene, with an enrollment of only 1200, improves to 11-13 with the split, while UVSC falls to 719. The Wolverines were previously swept in a three game series in Corvallis Oregon, losing 7-5, 9-4 and 13-6 to the 16th ranked Oregon State Beavers. UVSC men's volleyball, known for their regular travel, played the rare role of host during their 2006 UVSC Spring Invitational. A variety of teams met in the Activity Center to bump, set, and spike their way to tourney prowess, while UV's A-team beat the UVSC alumni in the third place match. "We practice here and the guys like to be at home," said first year coach Dave Richards. "We have a young team and our guys learned some good things today." Pool play started the action where seeds were determined for Saturday's tournament. UVSC entered the tournament as the fourth seed. "For sure we wanted to win our tournament, but there were some pretty big teams here, including BYU and UVSC alumni," said Richards. "UVSC alumni is a very good team. They've won a national championship, and it was nice to upset them." The Wolverines started off right in the first game against the Alumni, although the game was close throughout. Logan Karratti came up with a mammoth kill to give UVSC an early 2-1 lead, and he played above the net for most of the game as UVSC won 25-21 in the first of the best out of three. Karratti continued to spike the Alumni in game two. Down 5-0, UVSC battled back to tie the game by taking seven of the next nine points. It was back and forth from there. Led by 6*7 freshman Joe Moore from Highland, the middle blocker carried Utah Valley to the 2523 win and the third place finish. l i think we got really good this tournament. We played well and blocked really well. They worked hard in practice and I thought they played big today." said Richards. The BYU alumni used size and athleticism to outmatch everyone as they went undefeated in pool play and garnered the top seed for tournament play. Their dominance continued during the tourney beating the University of Utah in the final game, two sets to one. After splitting the.first two with the Utes, the Cougars won the final game in dominating fashion, 15-6. Unfortunately for UVSC, they also fell to the BYU alumni after meeting them in the semi-finals. After losing 25-18 in the first contest, the Wolverines mounted a small rally in g&me two and managed to take a 9-8 lead after a BYU service error. UVSC held on to that lead for a while, but eventually gave it up after BYU outscored the Wolverines 17-8 the rest of the way to win 25-17 and move into the title game. UVSC posted a 2-1 record during pool play on Friday. They first faced the Bouncers in the first round, and took care of them quickly in two games, winning 25-13 and 25-22. Later against Southern California, the match was tied at a game apiece before UVSC took a tight third game to advance in the tournament. The Wolverines barely survived with a 1614 win to get to the semis. This year's tournament shows the vast growth of the program. UVSC men's volleyball got started in 1993 and has continued to mature and improve ever since. After only a year, the team took first place in every tournament leading up to nationals where they ended up taking second. "UVSC volleyball has a tradition nationwide and a tradition of producing great players, and it is growing," said Richards. "Although we have a young team, we still expect to win." UVSC, playing in the Mountain West Volleyball Conference, will take those expectations into nationals next month and play to win it all at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake. "I expect to do well and hope to win," concluded Richards. "Our guys are starting to come together at the right time and starting to think the right things on the court." |