Font ResizeBrigham Young is once again the host and favorite to walk away with the Mountain West Conference women's soccer tournament that begins today at South Field in Provo.
The 2009 regular-season champion Cougars are 15-3-1 all-time in the tournament and have been the No. 1 seed seven times. Sixth-ranked BYU (16-2-2, 6-0-1 MWC), which has a first-round bye and plays Thursday, has won it five times.
Utah, on the other hand, has struggled much of this season with a starting lineup that has featured up to nine freshmen and sophomores. The No. 3 seed Utes, who open at noon against sixth-seeded TCU, need to win the tournament in order to make the College Cup field of 64.
"We have such a young team," Utah coach Rich Manning said. "It's the first tournament for several players and it is important that we get off to a good start."
Manning said Utah can't be thrown off by the one-and-done pressure of tournament play.
"We have to play with confidence," he said.
Utah (9-9-2, 4-2-1 MWC) has performed better down the stretch, going 4-1-1 in conference. Earlier this season, the Utes defeated the Horned Frogs 3-1.
Should Utah win, it will meet No. 2 seed San Diego State on Thursday at noon.
BYU plays the winner of today's 3 p.m. match between No. 4 seed New Mexico and No. 5 seed Wyoming on Thursday at 3 p.m.
"We know the conference has better coaches and athletes," BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. "Anything can
Martin Renzhofer
Dominican (Calif.) 1, Dixie State 0 » At St. George, the Red Storm's 11-game win streak in the Pac West Conference was snapped by the Penguins.
Men's basketball
Mesa State 67, Southern Utah 64 » At Cedar City, the Thunderbirds trimmed a late 11-point deficit down to three, but missed five shots in the final 1 minute, 36 seconds of the exhibition game. Matt Massey had 16 points and 12 rebounds in his first game with SUU.
Trinity Western 77, Utah Valley 58 » At Orem, Kevin Woods led the Wolverines with 14 points, but UVU shot just 41.3 percent from the field in dropping its exhibition opener.
