UVU campus briefs

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: The Wolverines host Montana Tech tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the McKay Center in the team's lone exhibition game of the 2009-10 season. Admission to the game is free.

The Wolverines are coming off their best record in the school's six-year NCAA history after finishing 17-10 in 2008-09. UVU returns three starters including Great West Conference preseason Player of the Year selection Julie Smith. Smith averaged 18.3 points per game last year, second on the team to departed senior Robyn Fairbanks. In addition to Smith, seniors Blake Reynolds and Asumi Nakayama also return.

UVU opens the 2009-10 regular season, its first as full-fledged members of NCAA Division I, on Friday, Nov. 13, at BYU at 3:30 p.m. MT. The inaugural Great West basketball season opens on Jan. 9 with both the Chicago State men's and women's teams coming to Orem to face Utah Valley.

UVU is also the host of the first-ever GWC Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments running March 10-13, 2010, at the McKay Center.

WOMEN'S SOCCER: Utah Valley's Tasha Bell and Houston Baptist's Isla Cameron were named Great West Conference Soccer Players of the Week. The awards were announced Tuesday by the conference office.

On the defensive side, Bell won the honor after posting five saves on the week. The senior goal keeper from Farmington, Utah, registered two saves to preserve the Wolverines' win over HBU and first place in the West Division. She then had three saves in a 5-0 win over South Dakota to end the regular season for Utah Valley.

The Wolverines finished the GWC regular season an unbeaten 5-0-1 in the West Division.

Utah Valley, the No. 1 seed in the West Division, opens the inaugural Great West Conference tournament on Friday at noon (MT) against Delaware State, the No. 4 seed from the East. The tournament is being held at NJIT in Newark, N.J.