BIG MOUNTAIN SKY Blog Challenge

Blog Conference Affiliation W L Win %
Mountain West Connection Mountain West 6 1 0.857
Big Sky Basketball Big Sky 15 0.167
Big West Confidential Big West 4 4 0.500

Box Scores week 11/13-11/20:
11/14 Fresno State 39, UCR 30
11/15 Cal Poly 64, Northern Colorado 53
11/16 Fullerton 77, Nevada 80
Pacific 61, Fresno State 66
11/17 Fullerton 112, Southern Utah 69
11/18 Northern Arizona 85, UC Davis 82
Southern Utah 61, Nevada 79



Friday, August 31, 2012

I Went To The Game 8/24/12 Edition - Women's Soccer: Houston Baptist vs UCR

Being as I am a UCR grad student, I went ahead and bought season tickets to support my team.  This new feature of the Big West Confidential is not a recap of the game, but rather a personal experience of the game.  Doing this, we will try to encourage you, the reader, to go support your local BWC team.  While most of my editions will be at UCR, I will try to get to other schools as well.  Brandon is kind of stuck being on the islands, so if/when he does this feature story, it'll most likely be at a Hawaii game.

It was a beautiful night, temperatures in the mid-90's.  The best part was that there was hardly any haze, so you got a picture like this:


On a clear day like this, the mountains behind the campus look extremely beautiful.  If you haven't been to UCR, the soccer complex borders the brand new Materials Science building (pictured right).  The introductions took place about 10 minutes before the game.  One thing I love about soccer matches as opposed to other sporting events is that the players are led out in a presentation format.  The referees lead the teams, who are lined up behind, side-by-side.  The Highlanders played in white, while Houston Baptist played in their orange, with blue stripes.

During Warmups

Team Introductions

At the complex, there's only one large set of bleachers, and on this particular night, there was probably almost one thousand people.  That being said, there was plenty of noise in the atmosphere.  UCR throughout the game was dominating on TOP, Shots and SOG, but they couldn't break through.  


After HBU struck with the only goal of the game in the 78th minute, the stadium got even louder with more supporters cheering on.  There were at least 3 more shots, but nothing went through.  The game ended with a Husky victory, though there was a standing ovation for the players performances.  There is not a huge Highlander fan base, but they are vocal about their team, and that's a great thing to see.

Now it's your turn: Do you go to Big West games frequently? Do you take pictures at the game?  Here's what you do: Take pictures at the game, post them to our Facebook page or our Google+ page, or if you're truly a social media guru; tweet me @greekpadre. Once every so often, I'll post a collage of pictures on this site from our viewers for our viewers.  Future Big West members SDSU and BSU are welcome as well, as is associate members (Sac State).  So grab your camera and get out there! 

Week 2: Men's Soccer Preview

A very successful Week 1 led to UCSB moving up to No. 9/4 in both the NSCAA and the Soccer America polls, while UCI moved up to No. 12/20 and both Northridge and UCR are in the "Receiving Votes" category.  Can Big West soccer sustain their hot start?

The Matadors get a chance to boost their reason for being ranked if they can beat No. 21 Georgetown today and Loyola (MD) on Sunday.  Likewise, UCR gets a chance to lengthen their shutout streak (currently at 276 minutes) when they face Detroit today and Long Island on Sunday at the UCI Invitational (yes, there are 2 UCI Invitationals this weekend), where the host Anteaters will be looking to keep their ranking.  UCSB travels north and sort of east, to the Gonzaga Nike Classic where they will play Oregon State and Gonzaga.  Sacramento State plays San Diego at home tonight, then head west to face Saint Mary's on Sunday.  UCD travels to Colorado Springs as Air Force plays the Aggies tonight, then on Sunday, UCD rekindles their rivalry with San Jose State.  Finally, Fullerton hosts two extremely different schools, Cornell tonight and UNLV on Sunday night.

Below is the list of where you can keep track of the games:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012
#21 Georgetown Cal State Northridge 1:00 PM GameTracker
Video (Pay)
#9/4 UC Santa Barbara [1] Oregon State 1:00 PM Live Stats 
Audio - UCSB
Video (Pay)
UC Riverside [2] Detroit 4:30 PM Live Stats
Sacramento State San Diego 5:00 PM Live Stats
Air Force UC Davis 6:00 PM GameTracker
Cal State Fullerton Cornell 7:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
#12/20 UC Irvine [2] Long Island 7:00 PM Live Stats

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2012


Loyola (MD) Cal State Northridge 10:00 AM
Denver UC Davis 12:00 PM
Sacramento State Saint Mary's 1:00 PM
San Jose State Cal Poly 1:00 PM
UC Riverside [2] Long Island 2:00 PM
Gonzaga #9/4 UC Santa Barbara [1] 2:00 PM
#12/20 UC Irvine [2] Detroit 4:30 PM
Cal State Fullerton UNLV 5:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats

Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.


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Week 2: Women's Volleyball Preview

Note: some games were played on Thursday night, they are not included in the preview.

A few games are being played right now as we speak, so here we go.  It was a good week for Big West volleyball, but the challenge will be to keep an overall conference win record.  UCR heads to Spokane to compete in the Gonzaga Invitational, as they play Eastern Washington today, Gonzaga tomorrow morning and South Dakota State in the afternoon.  UCI hosts the UCI Invitational and faceoff against ASU, LMU and Colgate.  UCSB also hosts an Invitiational as they play Idaho (whom Cal Poly beat last night), Northeastern and No. 3 UCLA. Fullerton travels a full hour to the Pepperdine Invitational where they square off against Arizona, No. 13 Pepperdine and Sacred Heart.  LBSU and Northridge play in the LBSU Mizuno Classic, where the Matadors and 49ers play Wisconsin and James Madison.  UCD hosts the Aggie Invitational where they will play Utah, Santa Clara and North Carolina.  Pacific hosts the Community Bankers Classic in Stockton where they will play Portland State, Nevada and Northern Illinois (twice).  Hawaii will host their second tournament of the year, the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic, as they play San Francisco, Baylor and No. 25 Cal.  Finally, after beating Idaho last night, Cal Poly will travel to Santa Barbara for a match against Northeastern.

Below are the lists of matches and where you can watch/listen and keep track of the games:
UC Irvine [4] Arizona State 10:00 AM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
UC Riverside [5] Eastern Washington 4:00 PM Live Stats
UC Santa Barbara [6] Idaho 5:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Cal State Fullerton [7] Arizona 5:00 PM GameTracker
Cal State Northridge [8] Wisconsin 5:00 PM GameTracker
Audio - CSUN
Northern Illinois [10] Nevada 5:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Long Beach State [8] #20 San Diego 7:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
GameTracker
Audio - LBSU
UC Davis [9] Utah 7:00 PM GameTracker
Pacific [10] Portland State 7:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Audio - PAC
Loyola Marymount UC Irvine 7:00 PM Live Stats
Video (FREE)
#3 UCLA [6] Northeastern 7:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Hawai'i [11] San Francisco 10:00 PM Live Stats
Audio - UH
Video (FREE)
Saturday, September 1
Gonzaga UC Riverside [5] 9:00 AM
UC Irvine [4] Colgate 10:00 AM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Portland State [10] Northern Illinois 10:00 AM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
UC Davis [9] Santa Clara 11:00 AM Live Stats
UC Santa Barbara [6] Northeastern 11:00 AM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Pacific [10] Nevada 12:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Audio - PAC
#13 Pepperdine Cal State Fullerton [7] 1:30 PM
Cal State Northridge [8] James Madison 3:00 PM Audio - CSUN
UC Riverside [5] South Dakota State 4:00 PM Live Stats
Idaho [6] Northeastern 5:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Portland State [10] Nevada 5:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Long Beach State [8] Wisconsin 7:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
GameTracker
Audio - LBSU
UC Davis [9] North Carolina 7:00 PM Live Stats
UC Santa Barbara [6] #3 UCLA  7:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Pacific [10] Northern Illinois 7:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Audio - PAC
UC Irvine [4] #1 Nebraska 8:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Hawai'i [11] Baylor 10:00 PM Live Stats
Audio - UH
Video (FREE)
Sunday, September 2
Cal Poly [12] Northeastern 12:00 PM
Cal State Fullerton Sacred Heart 5:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Live Stats
Hawaii #25 California 8:00 PM Audio - UH
Video (FREE)
Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.


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Thursday, August 30, 2012

Week 3: Women's Soccer Preview

It's going to be a long weekend, as Labor Day weekend usually is.  With 14 games lined up, the Big West has a good chance to gain some national presence with those wins.  No. 11/18 LBSU travels to Provo, Utah  tonight, to take on BYU and then immediately has to return home for a Sunday matchup with B1G opponents Michigan.  No. 21/23 Oregon State visits Fullerton tonight at 7 PM.  The Matadors who have started off the season decently, play the Wolverines tonight.  Pacific travels westward to face San Jose tonight before coming home on Sunday to play ACC opponents No. 7/12 Boston College (pronounce Bah-stan Cah-lege in Bostonian).

Tomorrow, the Labor Day weekend slate continues with Berkeley traveling to SLO to take on the Mustangs, Irvine flies north to play the Ducks, B1G opponents Indiana travels to the coast to play Santa Barbara, UCR plays at home in a tournament against WAC opponents New Mexico State and Drexel plays Hawaii on the Islands.  Sunday's action finishes up with UCI continuing their Northwest tour, playing No. 21/23 Oregon State, San Jose State travels east to play their rivals, UCD, and UCR finishes their tournament playing UTEP.

For a full schedule list and how you can follow, look below:
Thursday, August 30, 2012
BYU #11/18 Long Beach State 5:00 PM Live Stats
Cal State Fullerton #23/20 Oregon State 7:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Cal State Northridge Michigan 7:00 PM Live Stats 
Audio - CSUN
San Jose State Pacific 7:00 PM Live Stats
Friday, August 31, 2012
Cal Poly California 6:00 PM Live Stats
Audio - CP
UC Riverside [3] New Mexico State 7:00 PM Live Stats
UC Santa Barbara Indiana 7:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
Oregon UC Irvine 7:00 PM Live Stats
Hawai'i Drexel 10:00 PM

Sunday, September 2, 2012
Pacific #7/12 Boston College 12:00 PM BW.TV (FREE)
Live Stats
#23/20 Oregon State UC Irvine 12:00 PM
UC Davis San Jose State 1:00 PM
UC Riverside [3] UTEP 1:00 PM Live Stats
#11/18 Long Beach State Michigan 6:00 PM

Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.


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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

2012 Week 2 Results

Note: instead of doing individual sports results, I'm going to bunch them all together.  This way it makes the "awards" more competitive in spirit.

Men's Soccer:
The Matadors started on a hot note, absolutely dominating Portland 4-0 on Friday, and then following up with a 2-1 effort against American to start the season 2-0.  UCR followed their South division mates, and started their season 2-0 with East Coast wins at Marist (3-0) and Iona (1-0).  UCD beat UNLV 1-0 at home but couldn't gain the win on the road, settling for a draw against Bakersfield.  UCI and UCSB both gained their first wins of the season against San Diego and LMU respectively, while Cal Poly and Fullerton both started their seasons on poor notes, with the Mustangs losing against Seattle and Washington on the road and the Titans losing to Portland and American.  Northridge's Edwin Rivas and Sagi Lev-Ari both lead the conference with 2 goals apiece.

Women's Soccer:
The Beach kept proving why they were highly ranked with wins over Saint Francis and No. 24 Baylor.  Cal Poly in the meantime showed reasons to why they should be ranked with a 1-1 draw with Nevada and a dominating 4-1 win over Sacramento State.  The Aggies drew with their regional rivals (Sac State) and beat Nevada in overtime.  After a thrilling 5-4 win over UNLV, the Rainbow Wahine continued their hot streak, defeating Sacred Heart and Utah Valley both by a score of 2-1.  After big wins last week, the Matadors cooled down with a loss to Baylor and a draw to Fresno State.  Suffering a 2-1 loss to Michigan in Ann Arbor, Fullerton responded nicely by beating Michigan State.  Starting the season 0-3 UCI responded by beating No. 21 Auburn 1-0.  Pacific and UCSB both have yet to pick up wins as they both suffered losses this weekend.

Volleyball:
Tournaments galore in the Big West, as Hawaii and Pacific started off their seasons undefeated at 3-0.  Hawaii won their tournament in dominating fashion as they beat No. 6 Stanford 3 sets to 1, while Pacific crushed Northwest teams at the Idaho Nike Invitational, defeating Idaho, Montana and Washington State.  Dropping the first game to the home team in the Georgia Tech Classic, Fullerton responded by beating up on SMU and Charleston Southern, while Northridge fell to Utah Valley and beat Arizona and Evansville at the Wildcat Classic.  Davis went 2-1 at the Middle Tennessee invitational beating Furman and MTSU and losing to UAB.  UCR also went 2-1 as they beat Farleigh-Dickinson and Providence and lost to the hosts Hofstra at the Hofstra Asics Invitational. UCSB travelled south to Los Angeles to the LMU Invitational where they defeated Iona and LMU, but lost to UConn.  UCI and LBSU both started the season 1-2 as the Anteaters dropped matches against Kansas State and Oregon State (however, beat Oakland) in the Kansas State Tournament and the 49ers beat Lipscomb before losing to UNC and Kentucky in the Kentucky Classic.  Finally, Cal Poly could not pick up a win in the Burnt Orange Classic, falling to USD, Texas and LSU.


Big West Confidential Team of the Week: Hawaii women's volleyball going 3-0, beating No. 6 Stanford for the tourney title.
Big West Confidential Offensive Player of the Week: Hawaii's Tiana Fujimoto, 3 G, 0 A
Big West Confidential Defensive Player of the Week: Brandon: Marrina Meyers GK LBSU women's soccer had 5 saves in the win over #24 Baylor.
Chris: Cal Poly's GK Alyssa Giannetti had 16 saves over the course of the weekend.
Awards in bold mean unanimous decision.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Wahine soccer takes down Utah Valley in OT

 The Wahine soccer team won the OHANA Hotels and Resorts No Ka Oi tournament with a thrilling 2-1 overtime win tonight at the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Stadium.

Chelsea Miyake's penalty kick in the 103rd minute proved the game winner as UH improved their undefeated home streak to seven matches (6-0-1) dating back to last season. Tournament MVP Tiana Fujimoto scored the other UH goal, making it her third straight match she scored at least once.  Fujimoto has now scored a team-high four goals on the season.

Utah Valley scored first when Lexi Robison shot a rocket from inside the box in the fourth minute. UH dominated the second half but needed a late goal to pull off the win. The Rainbow Wahine out-shot the Wolverines, 18-6, with eight of their shots coming on goal.

The Rainbow Wahine improved to 3-1 with their third straight win.

They will now host Drexel on Friday, August 31 at 7pm HST

Sunday, August 26, 2012

WAHINE BEAT #6 STANFORD IN FOUR!!!

In what looked like a short night for the Cardinals in the first game, Hawaii came back and won three straight in a three sets to one victory 17-25, 25-23, 25-15, 25-17 tonight in the championship match of the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational.

Jane Croson was hot with with 21 kills, 11 digs and 2 blocks. Emily Hartong was consistent again with 17 kills, 8 digs and an ace.

Jordan Burgess led the Cardinals with 10 kills, 11 digs and 4 blocks.

Hawaii out-killed Stanford 61-50 and out-dugged them 55-48.

The atmosphere was awesome as usual when the Rainbow Wahine play a marquee team like Stanford. They played a big part in Hawaii's victory getting loud and causing mental errors to Stanford's servers. The official stats didn't come out yet but there were at least 7,500 fans watching a classic Wahine volleyball match.

Up next for the Wahine isn't getting any easier with the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball tournament next Friday featuring top teams like San Francisco, Baylor and 17th ranked Cal.
 BOISE STATE
 CAL POLY
 CAL STATE FULLERTON
 CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE
 HAWAI'I
 LONG BEACH STATE
 PACIFIC
 SAN DIEGO STATE
 UC DAVIS
 UC IRVINE
 UC RIVERSIDE
UC SANTA BARBARA
 
TRIED TO MATCH THE SCHOOLS COLORS WITH MICROSOFT PAINT..SORRY


Wahine volleyball beats Gaels in four

The Rainbow Wahine again got off to a slow start due to poor passing but eventually pulled off a win 25-20, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19. I think it'll just take game reps for the team to gel and learn each other strengths. They will certainly have to gel quick when they play Stanford tonight 5pm for the championship game in the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational.

The Wahine were led by Emily Hartong with her 17 kills, a match high and three solo blocks.
One of the newcomers redshirt freshmen Jade Vorster had 12 kills and no errors.

Saint Mary's Kristina Graven had 15 kills and 16 digs for the Gaels who fall to 0-2 on the season. Lauren Corp added a match-high 21 digs.
Stanford swept their previous two matches and are hoping they can leave the islands 3-0.

Once again the best volleyball fans in the United States came to the Stan Sheriff Center with 6,242 tickets issued for the contest, with 4,701 fans coming through the turnstiles. UH usually averages 5,500 to 6,000 a night and tonight's match up against Stanford should exceed that.

#6 Stanford vs. #8 Hawaii. Are you ready volleyball fans!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Wahine soccer edges Sacred Heart 2-1

After trailing Sacred Heart 1-0 from a Jennifer Shu Mulvey goal in the 15th minute of the first half, the Wahine strike back in the 18th minute with a goal from Tiana Fujimoto. The half ended 1-1 but in the second half Fujimoto scored again in the 84th minute as they win their home opener 2-1.

On the second goal Addison Carroll had the assist passing to Fujimoto in the box.

The Wahine dominated the stats with shots 19-4 with 10 being on goal.

They will continue the Ohana Hotels & Resorts No Ka 'Oi tournament and play Utah Valley on Sunday at 5pm HST. Utah Valley won on Wednesday against Sacred Heart 3-2.

Wahine volleyball open season with win

With a bit of a slow start for the Wahine volleyball team, they looked shocked as they were trailing in the beginning of set one. But after trailing 10-8, the #8 Wahine rolled on to sweep the Great Danes of Albany 25-17  25-6  25-17 in the first night of the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational.

Emily Hartong led the Wahine with 15 kills, 9 digs, and 2 blocks. Jane Croson had 11 kills and 4 digs while Kalei Adolpho contributed with 6 kills and 3 blocks.

Also for Hawaii, Penn State transfer libero Alyssa Longo had a great night with 11 digs and 2 service aces.

Albany's Dunja Prgomet led her team with 6 kills, 6 digs and one service ace.

In the earlier match Stanford swept Saint Mary's in three sets 25-14, 25-16, 25-20. Tomorrow matches has Stanford playing Albany at 5pm HST and the feature match will be Hawaii against Saint Mary's at 7pm.



Friday, August 24, 2012

COAST TO COAST! Boise State officially joins the Big West starting in 2013

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Wait, I'm conflicted...is this good or bad? The official press release can be seen here.  I know that there are a lot of Big West fans who aren't particularly excited (Cal State fans...) but the price was worth it.  Considering that the entry fee for the Big West in general is $1,000; the conference got their moneys worth from the Broncos.  A 2.5 million dollar entrance fee to be paid over 5 years plus a initiation fee of $50,000.  The Broncos will also be paying an annual $750,000 subsidy cost for travel purposes.

And now here's my MS Paint version of me and my "house divided apparel."

So welcome Broncos, I'm at least happy you're here.

Week 2 Preview: Women's Soccer

As we saw earlier this week, five Big West teams started the season undefeated, three of them going 2-0 to start.  Can the women of the metric football continue the conference's hot streak? BWC teams will be facing 5 ranked teams this week:  No.24/NR Baylor, No. 22/24 Illinois, No. 25/21 Santa Clara, No. 8/17 Pepperdine and No. 21/NR Auburn.  Remember that this is metric football, and any upset can happen at anytime, particularly because of how the game is set up.

For any UCR fans out there, I am going to the game tonight and probably Sunday as well.  This announcement is also for any sport: If you go to the games and would like to send pictures in, email me the picture, with the game and score, and your name (unless you would like to remain anonymous, it's perfectly alright!).  The email is cjhondros at gmail dot com.  You can also tweet it to me here.

Here's the full schedule with where you can follow the games live:

FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2012


San Francisco Pacific 3:00 PM Live Stats
Video (FREE)
Michigan Cal State Fullerton 4:00 PM GameTracker
Sacramento State UC Davis 5:00 PM Live Stats
UC Irvine Loyola Marymount 6:00 PM Live Stats
Cal State Northridge #24/NR Baylor 7:00 PM Live Stats 
Audio - CSUN
#15/23 Long Beach State Saint Francis 7:00 PM GameTracker
UC Riverside Houston Baptist 7:00 PM Live Stats
UC Santa Barbara #22/24 Illinois 7:00 PM Live Stats
Nevada Cal Poly 7:00 PM GameTracker
Hawai'i* Sacred Heart 10:00 PM

SUNDAY, AUGUST 26, 2012

Michigan State Cal State Fullerton 9:00 AM GameTracker 
Cal State Northridge Fresno State 1:00 PM Live Stats 
Audio - CSUN
#15/23 Long Beach State #24/NR Baylor 1:00 PM GameTracker
UC Davis Nevada 1:00 PM GameTracker
Sacramento State Cal Poly 1:00 PM Live Stats
#25/21 Santa Clara UC Riverside 1:00 PM Live Stats
Video (FREE)
#8/17 Pepperdine Pacific 1:00 PM GameTracker
Video (FREE)
UC Irvine #21/NR Auburn 3:00 PM Live Stats
Hawai'i* Utah Valley 8:00 PM

*Note that the Hawai'i games are being played at OHANA Hotels & Resorts No Ka Oi, in Honolulu



Keep reading here for continuous updates on Big West news.


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