THIS WEEK IN THE MWC
San Diego State (28-9, 13-1 MWC) remains on top of the conference standings, despite its first loss to fourth-place UNLV (22-33, 6-10 MWC). Utah (32-15, 10-4) stands in second place, while BYU (36-17, 11-5) takes the third spot, as both teams are three games back. The MWC kicks off the final week of regular season play this week. The Cougars and Utes will host instate-rival Utah Valley State on Tuesday, May 2 and Wednesday, May 3, respectively. The Cougars then travel to San Diego, Calif., to face the conference-leading Aztecs on May 4. UNLV looks to host Utah on Friday, May 5, followed by BYU on Saturday, May 6. New Mexico and Colorado State will meet in Fort Collins on Saturday, while Utah and San Diego State roundout regular-season play on Sunday, May 7 at 1 p.m.
MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE QUICK HITS
BYU
BYU honored five departing seniors in a doubleheader sweep over New Mexico...The five are Brooke Boyce-Humbert, Ianeta Le`i, Paige Paramore, Ashlyn Russell and Summer Tobias...All five played in their final home game...Le`i has recorded 37 RBI in the past three weeks...She also set the career record for hits at BYU and moved into second place all time in the MWC.
COLORADO STATE
Colorado State is ranked in the top 15 nationally in four categories: batting average (7th), home runs (10th), doubles (T-15) and slugging percentage (11th)...Head Coach Mary Yori became the all-time winningest coach in CSU softball history with 161 career wins at Colorado State, passing Candi Letts' (1994-98) record of 160 wins.
NEW MEXICO
Senior Cassie Chavez hit two home runs this weekend, giving her 27 for her career and moving her into sole possession of second place on UNM's all-time list...Senior Kristina Schmallen is batting .399 and has a .703 slugging percentage...She is trying to become the second Lobo to hit over .400 and have over a .700 slugging percent mark in a season in school history...Junior catcher Liz Young has thrown out a MWC leading 20 would-be base stealers in 2006 which is a new Lobo single season record.
SAN DIEGO STATE
The Aztecs tied a school record with their 13-game winning streak, which ended in a 7-1 loss to UNLV in the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday...A week after being named MWC Player of the Week, Monica Alnes drove in all four SDSU runs in two games at UNLV...The Aztecs are 8-3 on the road this season for a .727 winning percentage...The school record for road winning percentage in a season is .632 set in 1991 and again in 2004...SDSU is 22-0 this season when scoring at least four runs and 27-1 when scoring three runs or more.
UNLV
UNLV's win over San Diego State in the second-game of the Mountain West Conference doubleheader was the first loss for the Aztecs in league play...With UNLV clinging to a one-run lead in the top of the seventh at Cal State Fullerton, Maggie Livreri came up to the plate and showed some heroics displayed three times in 2005...She had the bases loaded and promptly, hit her fourth-career grand slam as a Rebel...The homer gives her two for the year and 11 as a Rebel... UNLV closes out the MWC regular season with home doubleheaders against Utah and BYU this upcoming weekend.
UTAH
Diana Phillips and Jackie Wong continue to ride their career-long hitting streaks, as Phillips has a team-best 17-game hitting streak while Wong has hit safely in 14 straight...Over the last 10 games, six of the nine Ute starters are hitting better than .300...Jessica Shiery leads the way with a .545 batting average, followed by Wong in second with a .485 average and Phillips (.395) and Andrea Hoffman (.393) are just below the .400 plateau...Utah broke the 30-win barrier with four wins in five games last weekend...It marked the first time in three years that Utah has had 30 wins...The last 30-win season was in 2002, with a 30-36 record...The last time Utah had winning season with 30-plus wins was in 2001. The Utes went 37-25 that year.
