May 10, 2001

By Patrick Kinahan
The Salt Lake Tribune

SALT LAKE CITY - In February, starting its second season of Division I softball, Brigham Young set a modest goal to be competitive.

Talk about exceeding expectations.

After winning the Mountain West regular-season championship, the Cougars begin the conference tournament today at New Mexico as the No. 1 seed. At 4:30 p.m., BYU plays the winner of UNLV-Colorado State.

At 2 p.m., No. 2 seed Utah plays San Diego State or New Mexico.

In building her program last year, BYU coach Mary Kay Amicone went heavy on junior college players and transfers. The Cougars stumbled through a 16-27 season but returned 16 letter winners and eight starters.

With new players sprinkled into the lineup, BYU has won six of its last seven games.

"Things have just clicked with certain players," Amicone said. "We have a great team chemistry. They really enjoy each other."

The team never had a better time than last week, when it took three of four games from Utah to clinch the championship. The Cougars swept a doubleheader on the last regular-season day.

BYU is shooting to make the 48-team NCAA playoffs. The Mountain West's tournament champion will receive an automatic bid.

Picked to finish fifth among six conference teams, BYU now bears the burden to win.

"They're playing loose and with that confidence they need to," Amicone said.

The Cougars (32-23) are one of four teams that can win the tournament. Utah and San Diego State each finished the conference season with eight losses, two more than BYU.

New Mexico, which had the conference's best overall record at 37-22, enjoys home-field advantage.

"It's going to come down to who's hot at the plate and who makes the fewest mistakes," Amicone said.

Utah goes into the tournament carrying a grudge. Needing to win just two of their last six games, the Utes blew a chance to gain the top seed.

The doubleheader loss to BYU was particularly irritating.

"They were so disgusted with that whole series and how it panned out," said coach Mona Stevens. They also had an excuse. Pitcher Kristin Arbogast still was recovering from a bruise on her throwing hand. Arbogast, last season's tournament MVP, threw without pain before the team left for Albuquerque.

Like Amicone, Stevens said the tournament is wide open.

"We all have different kinds of pressure," she said. "In my estimation, what's really nice is now that we're not the one seed going in, we'll let BYU deal with the pressure of being the team that has a target on their backs."

Both coaches think the tournament champion might be the only Mountain West team to get an NCAA bid, announced Sunday night. In the conference's first season, New Mexico finished second and did not get into the tournament.

"If we get a couple to go, gosh, we'll be pretty lucky," Stevens said.