PacWest teams shine under glow of Friday Night Lights

PHOENIX, AZ – Sometimes when the lights burn the brightest on center stage, the actors respond with performances of a lifetime. Sometimes the temperature is so perfect you can’t feel the air that surrounds your body. Sometimes the stars just align.

And sometimes the teams in a collegiate athletic conference have a night where they seem incapable of doing anything wrong.

On Friday, Nov. 12, the Pacific West Conference saw its men’s and women’s basketball teams tip-off the 2010-11 campaign with stunning upsets and crucial early-season victories that will have long-range ramifications, while a men’s soccer team opened up the NCAA II post-season with a crushing victory.

The Dixie State women’s basketball team under the direction of Angie Kristensen overcame a 19-2 deficit to stun Division I Utah State 71-67 on Friday in the regular-season opener for the Red Storm. It was an upset that many could have seen coming since Dixie State already had exhibition wins over Division I Utah Valley and Southern Utah just over a week ago.

“For us to be down 19 points and comeback and beat a D-I team on their home court speaks volumes about the caliber of team we have,” Kristensen said after the contest.

The Dixie State men secured maybe an even more important win under Jon Judkins to start their season on Friday. The Red Storm throttled Alaska Anchorage 77-58 in the opening round of the Disney West Coast Tip-Off Classic. Even more important is the fact that the game was an NCAA II West Region match-up that will have implications come March.

The Chaminade men’s basketball team traveled to Lacey, WA, to face Western Oregon on Friday in the Silverswords season opener. Matt Mahar’s squad came away with an impressive 77-66 NCAA II West Region victory that, like Dixie State, gives the PacWest a proverbial leg up in the run for a post-season berth – even though it is only November.

The Grand Canyon women’s basketball team, under head coach Trent May, also is competing at the Disney West Tip-Off Classic in Anaheim and came away with a big 76-69 victory over Texas Woman’s University.

And the Grand Canyon men’s soccer team unleashed a four-goal barrage on Cal State San Bernardino Friday in a 4-1 win that advanced the Antelopes to the West Region title game vs. Chico State on Sunday. Grand Canyon Head Coach Petar Draksin has been punching all of the right buttons for the Antelopes as they make a run at an NCAA II National title.