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Sophomore Hollie Beaman
  
 
Wolverines Host South Dakota State, North Dakota State

UV looking to end five-game losing streak as independent play begins

Jan. 24, 2007

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Coming Up...
Utah Valley State (10-8) will begin United Basketball League play by hosting South Dakota State (13-5) on Thursday at 7:05pm in the McKay Center. North Dakota State (7-8) will be in Orem on Saturday at 3:05pm in a game that will be played in the Shurian Family Activity Center.

Gametracker for both games and audio for Saturday's game can be found at WolverineGreen.com while audio for Thursday's contest will be availble via South Dakota State's broadcast at www.GoJacks.com.

The Wolverines are in the midst of a season worst five-game losing streak after falling at UC Santa Barbara way back on January 11th.

This will be the first meeting ever between Utah Valley and South Dakota State while the Wolverines have faced North Dakota once before, a 76-57 UV win last February in Orem.

Utah Valley will travel to play both schools in mid-February as part of 10 United Basketball League Games.

The United Basketball League is a group of six Division-I independent schools including IPFW, Texas-Pan American and New Jersey Tech along with NDSU, SDSU and Utah Valley.

Robyn Fairbanks Watch..
Robyn Fairbanks was named Division-I Independent Player of the Week on January 16th, the fourth time this season she has earned the award.

The sophomore All-America candidate is currently averaging 24.8 points per game, second behind Western Michigan's Carrie Moore.

Unfortunately, due to Utah Valley's provisional status, the school's stats are not counted by the NCAA but Yahoo.com does include the Wolverines on its stats page and Fairbanks' name can be found there among the nation's elite scorers.

Fairbanks continues to lead all independent players in scoring and field goal percentage and is second in rebounding and fourth in blocks per game.

She has reached the 30 point plateau on six occasions this season, including a school-record 43 point performance against Montana State on December 20th.

"Think Pink" to Promote Cancer Awareness...
The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) has encouraged its membership, all coaching staffs and game day support staffs to help unify the women's basketball world in a show of support for all coaches in our profession who are battling cancer throughout the weekend of January 26-28.

All coaches have been asked to wear pink on the bench and join together to educate, create awareness and motivate everyone to learn about cancer prevention.

Utah Valley head coach Cathy Nixon will be in pink on Saturday in support of the WBCA's efforts and in memory of her high school coach Sandra Meadows. The Women's Basketball Hall of Famer coached at Duncanville High School for 25 years and during her time there led the school to four state championships. Meadows passed away in 1994 after a battle with breast cancer.

The WBCA will continue to build on making this a joint venture every year nationally. The WBCA is dedicated to creating initiatives with their partner AstraZeneca that all women's basketball programs can count on for a unified effort to promote cancer awareness.

Scouting the Jacks...
South Dakota State is 13-5 and is in the midst of a phenomenal season with wins that include #19 Middle Tennessee, USC, Virginia, Missouri and Minnesota.

Megan Vogel is averaging 16.6 points per game to lead the Jacks while Jennifer Warkenthien is averaging 9.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest.

SDSU is playing in its final season as an independent. The school will join the Mid-Continent Conference for the 2007-08 season, along with North Dakota State and IPFW.

Scouting the Bison...
North Dakota State is 7-8 heading into a Thursday contest at Texas-Pan American. The Bison are led in scoring by Lisa Bue's 14.5 points and Brenda Slyt's 11.5 points per game.

The Wolverines and NDSU have had one common opponent so far, Montana State, that both teams defeated.

Like South Dakota State, this is the final year of independence for the Bison as they will join the Mid-Continent Conference next summer.

Looking Ahead...
The Wolverines will be at New Jersey Tech and IPFW next weekend as they continue UBL action. They will face NJIT on Thursday, February 1st before traveling to Fort Wayne, Indiana to face IPFW on Saturday, Febraury 3rd.