First-round matchups
The Mountain West Conference Tournament gets under way today in Las Vegas, Nev.
BYU and Utah won’t be in action until Thursday, earning first-round byes as the top two seeds respectively. The tournament begins at noon when the No. 3 seed TCU takes on the No. 6 SDSU Aztecs. The two teams met Friday in Fort Worth, Texas, in the final game of the season for both squads. The Horned Frogs came away with a 2-1 victory, which locked up the No. 3 seed. TCU finished two places higher than predicted in the preseason polls while SDSU was picked to finish No. 3 alongside Utah before the season started.
The second game of the tournament kicks off at 3 p.m., when the No. 4 seed New Mexico takes on No. 5 seed and tournament host UNLV. Like TCU and SDSU, these two teams matched up in the final weekend of the regular season, resulting in a 2-1 victory for the No. 4-ranked Lobos. The match was played in Las Vegas, Nev., and the Rebels will look to avoid consecutive home losses at the hands of New Mexico. UNLV has only lost back-to-back games once this year8212;at the hands of BYU and Utah.
Day two
The Utes will square off against the winner of the TCU-SDSU game in the first match of day two. Utah has reached nine straight semifinals, whether it be by playing its way in or earning the bye as it did this year.
This year marks the seventh time in the program’s 10-year history that the Utes have earned one of the top two spots going into the tournament. Utah split this year against SDSU and TCU. The Utes first handled the Aztecs 4-1 at Ute Field, which matched Utah’s highest scoring output of the season. Utah was shut out later in the year by the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth, Texas, by a score of 2-0.
Later that day, the Cougars will face off against the winner of the UNLV-New Mexico first-round match. BYU was picked to win the conference this year with its wealth of returning starters, and the Cougars did just that, posting a perfect record of 7-0-0 in conference play. However, the Cougars weren’t untouchable in non-conference play. At one point, the Cougars lost three games in a row. During the season, BYU outscored its potential tournament opponents 3-1, shutting out UNLV 1-0 in a matchup in Provo and dispatching the Lobos in Albuquerque, N.M., by a score of 2-1.
Utah’s outlook
Rich Manning’s squad hit its stride just in time for the conference tournament to get under way. After the slow start, Utah surged through the Mountain West Conference, racking up a 5-2-0 conference record, good enough for a No. 2 seed this year. Utah surprised some of its critics around the conference, considering the Utes were picked to finish No. 3 in the preseason polls.
The last time Utah faced SDSU, the Utes were coming off their worst loss of the season at the hands of archrival BYU. The Cougars shut out Utah 5-0 at home, but in its next game out, against SDSU, Utah began to turn its season around. Including the 4-1 defeat of the Aztecs, Utah has since gone 6-1-0 to close out the regular season.
The last team to beat the Utes was the Horned Frogs. The two met Oct. 18 in what was only the second career start for Utah freshman Hannah Turpen between the posts, with the lack of experience in goal for the Utes being a major reason for TCU’s win.
This is now a very different Ute team than what the Aztecs or Horned Frogs faced earlier in the season. Turpen has had the opportunity to get some more minutes under her belt and has meshed well with her backline. Offensively, sophomore Lauren Hair has come to life in conference play and is currently on a four-game scoring streak. Add Hair to the already potent attack tandem of Katy Reineke and Kelly Isleib and you get one of the most dangerous attacking forces in the tournament.
Erik DaenitzLauren Hair helped the soccer team earn a second place seed and a first round bye for the Mountain West Conference tournament held this week in Las Vegas. The Utes will face ether TCU or SDSU in the second round.