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PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Offensive
Kim Harvey, a senior from Garland, Texas, posted five goals and two assists in two games, opening WAC play over the weekend. She collected her second hat trick of the season and of her career, scoring three goals in the 5-1 win over Fresno State. Harvey tallied two goals in a 4-0 win over San Jose State. Harvey now has 53 career goals, placing her second on the WACs career list and third on SMUs.

Defensive
Amanda Clark, a junior from Londonerry, Vt., posted a pair of shutouts over the weekend in her 334 minutes of play. She made eight saves and now has four shutouts on the season, sporting a 1.01 goals against average.

OTHER NOMINEES
Offensive
Brittany Zoellner, Boise State; Arlene Devitt, Hawaii and Christine McCartney, UTEP.

Defensive
Cassidy Temple, Boise State; Krystalynn Ontai, Hawaii and Heather Clark, UTEP.

THIS WEEK IN THE WAC - The WAC continues league play this week with seven matches. Hawaii stepped out of conference Sept. 29, for a match with Oral Roberts. The Wahine suffered their first road loss, falling, 1-0. Boise State and Nevada begin conference this week, as they travel to California for matches with San Jose State. The Broncos also face Fresno State in Fresno, while the Bulldogs travel to Reno for a match with Nevada. The Bulldogs and Spartans are both looking for their first conference wins, going 0-2 in the first week. In SMUs (2-0) lone match of the week, it travels to Honolulu for a match with Hawaii (2-0). Rice (0-1) faces city rival Houston before hosting Tulsa (0-1) on Oct. 5.

WAC VS. THE TOP 25 - The Western Athletic Conference is 0-11 against the NSCAA/adidas top 25 this season. Last week, Nevada fell to No. 22 Auburn, Sept. 28, 2-0.

KAI TIES CONFERENCE RECORD - Natasha Kai, Hawaiis sophomore forward, posted five goals against Morehead State (9/14). She tied the mark set by Ashlee Richmond of TCU in 1996 against McNeese State. Kai also tallied one assist, giving her 11 points for the match. She also posted a hat trick against Utah Valley State, giving her eight goals for the two Wahine matches.

HARVEY, KAI, MCCARTNEY AMONG NATIONS BEST - Hawaiis Natasha Kai, SMUs Kim Harvey and UTEP freshman Christine McCartney are among the best in the nation in both goals and points this season. Harvey, a senior, leads the country in points with 34 and goals with 14. Kai, the 2003 WAC Preseason Player of the Year, is second in the NCAA with 13 goals, posting an average of 1.30 per contest, third best. McCartney owns a 1.25 goals per game average and a 2.63 points per game average, good for sixth and eighth, respectivley. Kai had the NCAAs best single-game performance when she tallied five goals and 11 points against on Sept. 14 against Morehead State. UTEPs 12 goals against Prairie View A&M are the second best output in the NCAA this season.

TOPPING THE 250 MARK - SMU eclipsed the 250-win mark for the program since its inception in 1986 on Sept. 19 with a 2-1 win over Colorado College.

AROUND THE WAC
Boise State opens WAC play this weekend on the road at Fresno State and San Jose State. The Broncos are 2-2-1 in their last five matches and 3-7-1 overall. Senior Brittany Zoellner continues to lead the Broncos with six goals and one assist on the season, as she has increased her school records for career goals and points to 26 and 61, respectively.

Fresno States six conference matches during the month of October represent all that remains of the 2003 season for the Bulldogs. Fortunately for Fresno State, four of those contests will be played in front of the home crowd at Bulldog Stadium. The Bulldogs could use such an advantage at this point, having dropped four straight matches. Fresno State hosts Boise State Oct. 3, before battling Nevada in Reno Oct. 5.

Hawaii suffered its first road loss of the season, falling, 1-0, to Oral Roberts in Tulsa, giving them a 4-1-1 record away from the island. The Wahine did pick up two conference wins over Tulsa and Rice to start WAC play. The Rainbow Wahine have just two losses in 10 matches. The Wahine will look for the conference lead, as they take on SMU who is also 2-0 in WAC play.

Nevadas opens WAC play with this weekend with matches against San Jose State in the Silicon Valley and Fresno State in Reno. The Wolf Pack look to better their 1-6-1 conference record from a year ago.

Rice fell to 2-6-1 with a pair of losses last week. The Owls dropped their conference opener, falling to Hawaii, 2-0 and then lost to No. 22 Auburn, 2-0. Junior Sarah Yoder extended her career starts total at Rice to 44. She has started every game in Rice history. Goalkeeper Lauren Shockley has been in goal all season for the Owls, posting a 1.02 goals against average.

San Jose State continues to struggle as it fell to WAC foes SMU and UTEP in the conferences opening weekend. The Spartans look to get back on track as they take on Boise State and Nevada this weekend.

SMU is now 7-0 in WAC openers and currently holds an all-time regular season league record of 42-4-3. Ten different Mustangs have scored this season. The Mustangs look to continue their unbeaten streak (5-0-1) versus Hawaii as the travel to Honolulu Oct. 3.

UTEP opened the 2003 season as they did in 2002, 2-0 and look for another strong season. Freshman Christine McCartney scored four goals over the conference opening weekend, with a hat trick versus San Jose State. She broke the UTEP freshman record with 10 goals and 21 points just eight games into the season.

Tulsa sophomore Kelly Wilson has 56 saves this season and a total of 158 for her career, which ranks her third among Hurricane goalkeepers. Tulsas trio from Owasso, Okla., continues to provide the scoring spark for the Hurricane. Staci Morgan, Jamie German and Kristie Keirsey have combined to score 19 of Tulsas 39 total points this season.

SMU FAVORED TO WIN 2003 CROWN - SMU is coming off a 13-6-4 season in 2002 that saw the Mustangs fall just short of the NCAA Round of 16, losing to Texas A&M in the penalty kick session at the NCAA Tournament. The Mustangs are returning seven starters including junior defender Amanda Jordan, a 2002 first team all-WAC selection. Kim Harvey, a second-team member also returns for her senior season. The Mustangs will enter the 2003 season under the helm of new head coach John Cossaboon, the former head coach of San Diego. He replaces George Van Linder who ran the Mustang program for four years before leaving for Baylor.

FACING THE NATIONS BEST Seventeen teams that participated in the 2002 NCAA Tournament will be opponents of WAC teams this season. The list includes the likes of 2002 National Champion Portland, 2001 NCAA champion, Santa Clara and Pepperdine.