Kyle McDonald | Sports editor | @kylesportsbias
Friday the 13th wasn’t so friendly to the Utah Valley University Wolverines. The men’s and women’s cross country teams finished 11th and 14th respectively in the NCAA Mountain Regional. The top men’s runners, Jason Lynch and Tyson Lambert, were both sick so they didn’t race as well. In fact, Lynch actually dropped out of the race even though he was leading at 7,000 meters. Lambert finished 41st but wasn’t at full strength. Sam Heaton came in 40th for the women.
Well new head coach Mark Pope wants to take the UVU men’s basketball team to the next level but it didn’t happen on Friday night. The Wolverines were outmanned and outsized as BYU dominated the rebounding category 69-36 in the 85-54 win in front of 17,683 at the Marriott Center. UVU only shot 26.8% from the field and started the game 1-14 shooting to find them in a 22-4 hole to start the game. They never recovered and BYU won the first of four games over the next four years between these two teams. One bright spot for UVU was transfer Konnor Frey, who scored 19 points and had six rebounds and constantly attacked the basket. He also got to the free throw line where he was 4-5 on the evening.
The UVU women’s basketball team held their own on Friday against BYU. Although BYU wonthe game 78-62, UVU kept this one close for the majority of the second half before Makenzi Pulsipher went off for BYU and Lexi Rydalch turned on her offensive game. Pulsipher ended with 27 points including 6-10 from 3-point land. Rydalch had 19 points and the pair were the only Cougars in double figures. Sam Loggins had 15 points and eight rebounds, Maria Seals scored 13 points, and Taylor Gordon had 10 points and four rebounds for UVU in a losing effort. If you look at the stats, UVU actually had more points in the paint and more points off of turnovers. One of the differences might have been the 3-point shooting as BYU hit nine compared to just three for UVU and the bench points as BYU’s bench outscored UVU 17-11.
The biggest bright spot on Friday the 13th for UVU was the the UVU men’s soccer team. They had the task of facing defending Western Athletic Conference champion UNLV in the semifinal match of the WAC tournament. Skyler Milne scored his ninth goal of the season in the 66th minute off a corner kick from Aaron Meyer and the UVU defense held off a relentless attack by the Rebels in the final minutes. The Wolverines now move on to face 15th-ranked Seattle on Sunday for the WAC Championship. The Redhawks have won 15 out of their last 16 and beat UVU 2-0 just a week ago.
