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Show SPORTS B2 NOVEMBER 25, 2013 UVU Football Club wins its second championship Wolverines take down the defending champs before beating the No. 1 playoff seed By Jessica Whalen Sports Writer jlhwhalen@gmail.com PHOTO COURTESY OF UTFL Jordan Gleason celebrates with the UTFL Championship trophy. Entering the playoffs with the No. 4 seed, the Wolverines football club team knocked off each of its opponents on their way to a championship. It was the fourth playoff game in four seasons for UVU in the Utah Tackle Football League, finishing off the year with its second UTFL championship, wining 20-6 against Darkness. You can call it whatever you want— inconceivable, shocking or stunning—yet, you'd better believe the Wolverines are two-time champs. "We came in fourth out of eight playoff teams, but we had the tougher teams in our path," team captain and four-year veteran Jordan Gleason said. UVU beat the Iron Wolves during the final week of regular season games, which was a huge confidence boost for the Wolverines going into a first round rematch with them. The Iron Wolves were the returning champions and had a dangerous offense. UVU was able to stop them with an electrifying defensive performance and won, 14-7. Up next the Wolverines were to face the No. 1 ranked team, who beat them in the regular season by seven. Yet, UVU was able to stop the Ea- gles this time, winning 20-13 to advance to the championship. "Despite that loss we were confident," Gleason said. "We felt that we should have beaten them the first time." The Wolverines began the season in September with high expectations to advance to the championship for a third time after making it to the semifinals and championship the last two seasons respectively, coming up with losses both times. To qualify for the finals this year the Wolverines had to knock off the back-to-back champion Iron Wolves, and defeat the best regular season UTFL team in the Eagles. "This win meant quite a bit more considering that the league has so many more teams and is much more talented than it was when we won before." Gleason said. There were eight players on this season's roster of 25 that played on UVU's first championship team "The key to our success was everybody did their job all season, nobody played selfish football," Gleason said. "We had some great players and when we finally gelled together we felt unstoppable." The Wolverines began the season with a shutout against Darkness, 18-0. Darkness was on a hot streak entering the championship showdown, winning its last few games, but this didn't frighten UVU. The Wolverines were confident going into the championship against Darkness knowing the upset they caused in the season opener. UVU dominated the championship game as they did against Darkness in the season opener. The only scoring opportunity for Darkness came from a fumble, which led them to their lone touchdown. The offensive player of the game was UVU's Matt Roberts after he recorded 87 receiving and scored two touchdowns. The defensive player of the game went to UVU's Alan Sheffer for his six tackles and one sack. Wolverines that led the UTFL in their respective statistical categories during the season include quarterback Kyler Frampton with 936 passing yards, Roberts with 452 receiving yards, Chase Orwin with 411 rushing yards and Sheffer with 30 tackles, Jake Jensen was second in sacks with three, James Anderson hauled in the second-most interceptions (three) and only one player had more touchdowns than Orwin's seven. Orwin's rushing total broke the UTFL individual record for one season, as did Sheffer's 30 tackles. UTFL spring league registration has opened. The deadline to signup is Feb. 8 and all players must be registered by Feb. 15. The spring season begins Feb. 22 and ends April 26. The season will consist of five regular season games and the eight best teams advance to the three-round playoffs. Games take place each Saturday morning or afternoon. Visit www.hitsomeone.com for more information. Wolverines winless on road trip UVU struggles to find chemistry in early road losses By Matthew Baiamonte Sports Writer @baiamontematt The Wolverines have returned from a two-game road trip in Virginia, unfortunately, they did not return with a win. UVU started its road trip with a matchup against George Mason, which it lost 82-64, and then two days later the Wolverines lost a close one to Longwood 59-57. The Patriots of George Mason jumped out to a quick 10-2 start and they never looked back. UVU was able to close the margin to seven in the middle of the first half, but George Mason finished the half on a 19-4 run. The game was out of reach after that. The game provided the first time sophomore Katie Kuklok has struggled from the field. She was 4-of-14 overall and 2-of-10 from the 3-point line. She was a shooting 64 percent from behind the arc coming into the game. A bright spot against the Patriots was the play of redshirt freshman Karlee Kartchner, who had 19 points and 14 rebounds off the bench. "Karlee was huge," head coach Cathy Nixon said. "There aren't many players that are as quick as she is, and I thought she really sparked us 66 I'm excited to see how [Kartchner] continues to impress and grow up as the year goes on. CATHY NIXON Head coach defensively and on the boards. I'm excited to see how she continues to progress and grow as the year goes on." Kartchner was rewarded two nights later with her first start of the season against Longwood. She did not disappoint with 10 points and 11 rebounds. She had a double-double in both games during the eastern road swing, as did Kuklok. The Wolverines out rebounded Longwood 45-26 but were unable to secure a victory as a last second heave by junior Tina Doughty came up short at the buzzer. Longwood was at the free throw line with 3.6 seconds left, and made its first three throw and missed the second. UVU had no timeouts left, which forced Doughty to toss up an unanswered prayer off the rebound. It's difficult to understand how the Wolverines manage to lose the game. The rebound margin was an astounding 4526 in favor of UVU. The Wolverines have not started hot out of the gate, winning only one of their first four games. UVU wants to play at an uptempo pace, which works well with the strengths of Doughty and Kuklok, but that type of pace does not highlight the skills of sophomore center Sam Loggins. She does her best work in half court sets. Her minutes have greatly decreased since the Walla Walla blowout. The Wolverines are having more success with Kartchner and freshman Rhaiah SpoonerKnight in the faster tempo offense. It may be beneficial to have Loggins play with the second unit in order to play at a slower tempo that would allow her abilities to be better utilized. Also, seniors Whitney Jenkins and Kyra Prause are having a hard time discovering what roles they should play on this team. Both players are searching for ways to be integrated into the offense, yet how that transpires is the million dollar question. We should expect these kinks to be worked out over time. It's impossible to create chemistry overnight. The future is going to be bright due to the amount of obvious talent on the roster. Sadly, time is not something the Wolverines have in abundance. Conference play is coming quickly and UVU will want to have found its groove before that begins. PHOTO COURTESY OF UVU ATHLETICS Rhaiah Spooner-Knight attempts a layup against Southern Utah. VOLLEYBALL from B1 LAURA FOX//UVU REVIEW Kalani Norris, McKenna Tuit and Nakisha Willden helped UVU go 11-5 in WAC play. can win this tournament." Each team took one match apiece at home in the previous two contests between Seattle U and UVU, the Wolverines falling 3-2 on the road before beating the Redhawks 3-0 in Orem. "We need to get healthy, be able to get ourselves back in the right frame of mind to get back on the court and compete," Atoa said. "They're (Seattle U) able to play as good as anybody in the league. Every match in this tournament is going to be a challenge, and it's going to come down to who wants it the most." If UVU is able to get past Seattle U, a rematch with Bakersfield, who the Wolverines lost to in their second-to-last and Homecoming match, would occur in the semifinals. The Roadrunners also took the first tilt at home between the conference foes. Although the Wolverines would have liked to begin the quest for their initial NCAA tournament berth on a more positive note, UVU did win five straight, and seven of eight, prior to concluding the regular season slate. "We gave ourselves a chance at the end of the year to fight for the conference championship," Atoa said. "We fell short, but we were in a position to do that. Being in the WAC for the first time I felt that there were some great things that we were able to do. We expect to be able to contend for WAC titles in the future and every year." New Mexico State has been the favorite to win the WAC since the preseason, and captured the regular season league crown with a 14-2 record in conference play. One of those two losses came in Orem to the Wolverines, and for UVU to make history it would likely require a duplicate result against the Aggies in what would be the title game. "I want my seniors to be able to experience what it's like to go to the NCAA tournament," Atoa said. "It's not an easy road, but we're going to lean upon the seniors quite a bit to help us to get there." |