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Ashley Grimm and the Wolverines return from the Christmas break with a two-game trip in Portland
  
 
Wolverines Travel to Oregon for Two-Game Road Trip

Sophomore Robyn Fairbanks leads the nation in scoring at 25.9 ppg

Dec. 27, 2006

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Coming Up...
Utah Valley State (10-3) travels to Oregon this week for games at Portland (7-6) on Thursday and Portland State (3-8) on Saturday.

Thursday's game against Portland will be at 8pm MT with live stats and live audio available at www.PortlandPilots.com. Saturday's game at Portland State is slated for a 3:00pm MT tip-off with live audio and stats at www.GoViks.com and live streaming video at www.BigSkyTV.org. The video webcast requires a subscription.

The Wolverines last played on December 20th against Montana State, an 84-78 win that broke a two-game losing streak. Robyn Fairbanks scored a Division-I school record 43 points on 14-for-19 shooting from the field in the win.

Fairbanks is currently leading the nation in scoring with a 25.9 points per game average. She is also averaging 9.9 rebounds per game and hitting 57% from the field. She has 812 career points and is 13 points away from becoming Utah Valley's career NCAA scoring leader.

Utah Valley is one win away from tying the NCAA school record for wins in a season. In the fourth year of a six-year transition from junior college to NCAA Division-I athletics, the Wolverines won 11 games in the inaugural 2003-04 season and last season.

The Road Ahead...
Coming into the 2006-07 season, Utah Valley State had just one road win since making the jump to NCAA athletics. So far this year the Wolverines are 2-0 on the road with wins at Idaho State (89-82, OT) and Weber State (68-60).

Utah Valley plays 17 of its 28 games at home this year and heading into the weekend in Portland have 15 games remaining with six at home and nine on the road.

Independent Award Winners...
Robyn Fairbanks and Sandy Marvin have combined to win the Division-I Independent Player of the Week award three times this season. Fairbanks earned the award on November 28th and December 12 while Marvin won it on December 5th.

Fairbanks, the reigning D-I Independent Newcomer of the Year and 1st Team member, has won the award four times in her young career.

Scouting the Pilots...
Portland is 7-6 heading into Thursday's game and has lost two in a row, most recently a 68-58 loss at Utah State on December 20th.

Freshman guard Laiken Dollente leads the Pilots with a 16.9 point per game average. Junior center Rachel Warren is averaging 11.6 points and 7.8 rebounds.

The all-time record between Portland and Utah Valley State is tied 1-1 with each team winning on its home court.

The Wolverines won the last meeting between the two, 79-75 during the 2005-06 season.

Scouting the Vikings...
Portland State is 3-8 and broke a five-game losing streak in its last game, a 77-48 blowout win over Idaho on December 20th.

The Vikings will play at Nevada on Thursday before Saturday's game.

Sophomore Kelsey Kahle leads the team in scoring with 17.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

Like the series with Portland, this series is also tied 1-1, with the Wolverines winning the most recent game, 86-60, on January 10, 2006.

The game will be the fourth of five games this season against schools from the Big Sky Conference. The Wolverines are 3-0 so far this season with wins over Idaho State, Weber State and Montana State.

Looking Ahead...
Idaho State will be in town on January 6th at 3:05pm in a game that will be played in the Shurian Family Activity Center. The Bengals will be looking for revenge after Utah Valley's come-from-behind win on December 2nd in Pocatello.