Hockey to host MWC Tournament over weekend

Coming off of one of the best seasons in school history, the Weber State University hockey team will host the Mountain West Conference Championship Series today and Saturday. This is the first year the championship is being held in the MWC hockey league.

“We are hoping, with this being the first year that they have the Mountain West Championship, we want to win,” said WSU team captain Braxton Green, “especially because we are playing at our rink. We have a game…Saturday, and hopefully we are the first winners of the Mountain West hockey conference.”

The Wildcats, who have punched their ticket to the national tournament in March, look to use the game to get ready for nationals. They will play for the championship Saturday.

“It will be huge and awesome for our seniors,” Green said. “Hopefully we can win it. We haven’t had a game in a couple of weeks so we are using it to get (another) game then we have to wait three or four more weeks before we play again.”

A semifinal match will be held at 7 p.m. Friday between Utah State University and Montana Tech of the University of Montana.

“I think it will be us and Utah State for the championship, which would be nice,” said WSU head coach Joe Pfleegor. “What more could you want? A championship game at the Ice Sheet in Ogden. It would make for a good marquee game and it would get a lot of fans there.”

This will be the last home game of the season for the Wildcats. It will be their last opportunity to play a game before nationals.

“This will mean something,” Pfleegor said. “It’s like the conference tournament in basketball. Let’s see if the Ice Sheet will hang a banner for us.”

The team will travel to Boston, Mass., to play in the American Collegiate Hockey Association’s Division II national championship March 21-25.

Matthews named co-Big Sky Player of the Week

Weber State University women’s basketball player Kalie Matthews was named co-Big Sky Conference Player of the Week on Wednesday for her work in three games for the Wildcats last week.

Matthews helped WSU go 2-1 last week, guiding the Wildcats to an 84-71 victory over Idaho State University last Monday, a 56-54 win over the University of Montana on Thursday and a narrow 75-71 defeat to Montana State University on Saturday. The win over ISU marked the first Big Sky win for WSU in 51 games, and the first for the sophomore Matthews.

Over the last two games, Matthews averaged 10.3 points and 8.7 rebounds, shooting 52 percent from the field. She added four points and a team-high five rebounds against ISU on Monday.