After a third-place finish at the Colorado State Open, the Utah cross country team will head to Bozeman, Mont., for the Montana State Invitational.

MWC Defensive Player of the Week Emalee Rogers and the Utah defense will put their shutout streak on the line this weekend in back-to-back home games at Ute Field.

Friday night the Utes ended their four game losing streak in front of a record-breaking crowd at Ute field. They followed that up Sunday with a trip to Los Angles to face Loyola Marymount University, where the team had to endure its fourth overtime game of the year, and eventually had to settle for a 0-0 deadlock. The weekend was capped off Monday when Ute Rogers was named MWC Defensive player of the week.

The Mountain West Conference turned 10 this year, and no matter what Commissioner Craig Thompson and his office had planned to commemorate the first decade of the conference's existence, there was certainly nothing planned about this past weekend.

Volleyball notebook: Offense, defense, injuries and birthday presents

After two solid rounds the first day at the Ron Moore Invitational in Denver, the Utes slipped and finished in a tie for 13th.

The Pirates knocked off Virginia Tech and West Virginia, but take a closer peek at these victories, they aren't as astonishing as people are making them out to be. BYU and Utah have just as strong a case8212;if not stronger8212;forgetting a trip to a Bowl Championship Series goal as East Carolina does.

East Carolina will play in a BCS game at the end of this year if they continue to win, no matter if BYU or Utah wins out as well. Back-to-back upsets over Top 25 teams will do that. The only ranked team that either the U or BYU will play is likely each other in the final game of the season.

If you confused the Ute punt returners with circus performers during Saturday's game against Utah State, your mind was on the right track.

After taking last week off to focus on training, the Utah cross country team was back in competition on Saturday at the Colorado State Open.