UVU campus briefs

WOMEN'S GOLF: At Arroyo Grande, Calif., the Wolverines finished their season with a 14th place finish at the Cal Poly Invitational at Cypress Ridge Golf Course.

The Wolverines improved by eight shots over Sunday's opening round and finished in the team standings right where they began the day.

Abbie Lei Archibald was UVU's top finisher, tying for 45th after an 81 on Monday. All five Wolverines shot between 80-82 on the day led by Brittany Butler's 8-over 80. Butler and Monica Fox tied for 57th while Erika Baldwin and Stacey Parkinson both tied for 73rd.

"All-in-all I'm happy with how the fall went," said UVU head coach Chris Curran. "As a team today we struggled to get anything going early and then finished poorly. We had some really impressive nine-hole scores but couldn't put two nines together."

Cal State Northridge, which entered Monday in second, got a 6-under 66 from Ashlee Nagamine to win the tournament by a shot over Northern Arizona. Nagamine edged host Cal Poly's Maddy Fletcher by one shot to earn medalist honors.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: The Wolverines were picked to finish second in the Great West Conference preseason poll by a vote of league coaches. Wolverine senior Julie Smith was named the conference's Preseason Player of the Year after averaging 18.3 points and 6.4 rebounds for UVU last year.

Smith, who was married during the off-season and whose maiden name is McMurray, was one of five first-team selections along with Kayla Begaason (North Dakota), Jessica Gerald (NJIT) and sisters Courtney and Alyssa Waldon (Chicago State). UVU senior point guard Asumi Nakayama was named honorable mention.

"Julie deserves that recognition for her contributions last year," said Utah Valley head coach Cathy Nixon. "I think in some ways its easy to overlook the imprint that she's had on our success the last couple of years because Robyn (Fairbanks) was so dominating, but I don't think you can underestimate the impact she's had at all. She's prepared and ready to step up into a bigger role."

North Dakota was chosen to win the league by a narrow margin of two points over both Utah Valley and Chicago State. All three teams received two first-place votes each.

The Sioux received 42 points with the Wolverines and Cougars both netting 40. South Dakota was voted fourth with 28 points, while Texas-Pan American (17 points), Houston Baptist (16 points) and NJIT (13 points) rounded out the poll.

The Wolverines will host Montana Tech on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the team's lone preseason contest. UVU opens the 2009-10 campaign on Friday, Nov. 13 at BYU before hosting Mesa State in its home opener a day later.