If there has been one constant throughout Heather Cairns' reign as the Utah State women's soccer coach, the preseason means little. Since entering the Western Athletic Conference in 2005, the Aggies are 23 games better than .500 in league play, including a 7-0 mark in 2008.

Once more, thanks to a pair of goals by junior forward Shantel Flanary in USU's 2-0 win Sunday against high-scoring Idaho, the Aggies (8-4-5, 4-0-1 WAC) sit atop of the conference standings. Their next tests come this weekend at Fresno State and San Jose State.

"We feel like we're playing really well," said Cairns, now in her eighth season at USU. "The past weekend was important for us."

Early on, Utah State went through a grind of nine games, including ranked opponents BYU and Long Beach State as well as in-state rival Utah, with one win and four ties. Since then, the Aggies are 5-0-1.

"I think that playing the hard teams that we played in the preseason made us a lot better for this," freshman midfielder Kendra Pemberton said. "Now we are prepared, and we have kind of gotten into our rhythm. So now we are starting to play really good, and hopefully we just keep getting better."

Although USU boasts one of WAC's top scoring combos in Flanary and Lauren Hansen, who have combined for 17 goals, the Aggies are winning with defense. They have allowed just one goal in their past six games.

Junior goalkeeper Molli Merrill and her four defenders, sophomores Natalie Norris and Katie Crosland, and juniors Marissa Sanchez and Summer Tillotson, have recorded eight shutouts, two shy of the school record.

On Monday, Merrill was named the WAC Defensive Player of the Week.

Cairns believes her defense and opportunistic offense offer USU a chance to win its first conference tournament title. The league's top six teams will gather at Louisiana Tech Nov. 4-7.

"Qualifying is the first step," Cairns said. "There's a lot of parity [in the WAC]. It's going to come down to the last game."

On the run

With nationals looming, the BYU men's cross country team continues another run at a top-10 finish. The 19th-ranked Cougars finished second at the pre-nationals on Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind., piling up enough individual points to ensure a full team result at the Mountain Region meet Nov. 13.

The NCAA National Championships are scheduled for Nov. 22; the Mountain West Conference meet is Oct. 29.

"We had a great outing today, probably one of our best finishes ever," BYU coach Ed Eyestone said. "Everyone stepped up and performed very well and that's all you can really ask for from a team. This will allow us to relax a little bit and put it all on the line at nationals."

BYU's women placed 11th.

martyr@sltrib.com