Sports

With the first half of the 2011-2012 season in the books, Coach Stasha Richards now looks to lead the University women’s basketball team in search of a spot in the American Southwest Conference tournament.

After a tough start to the season, Coach Kenny Bizot and the University men’s basketball team are looking to bounce back into the mix for a spot in the American Southwest Conference playoffs.

The team showed signs of promise in Thursday’s 49-45 victory over Sull Ross State University.

Guard Brandon Levine lead the team with 17 points, including 12 points from beyond the three-point line.

The men’s soccer team wrapped up their fifth American Southwest Conference Championship in school history with a victory over The University of Mary-Hardin Baylor on Sunday.

The Patriots won 3-0, earning the team a spot in the NCAA men’s soccer championships.

The game was played at Citizens 1st Bank-Perkins Soccer Complex in Tyler.

The University of Texas at San Antonio administrators’ recent decision to start a football program has some students wondering if The University of Texas at Tyler will follow suit.

The UTSA Roadrunners began their first football season in 2011 and will compete as an NCAA Division I Football Championship Series Independent school.

Following a promising 15-8 start to the season, the University’s volleyball team members said first year head coach Suzanne Truitt is looking to lead a chase for the American Southwest Conference title.

Truitt has the task of leading a team with 10 freshmen to an ASC title, which no Patriot volleyball team has accomplished.

ASC head coaches and sports information directors projected the team to finish third in the conference’s East Division, according to a 2011 ASC preseason volleyball poll.

The men’s soccer team concluded the 2011 Homecoming Week with a 5-0 shutout of the East Texas Baptist University Tigers on Saturday.

Earlier in the week, the Patriots led the LeTourneau University Yellow Jackets 1-0 until a power outage forced officials to declare the game a no contest.

The theme of the week for the Patriots was ball control, and they displayed plenty of it between their two games.

Although faced with a new season and new players, the men’s soccer team keeps the same consistent attitude that led them to three American Southwest Conference victories.

Under the reign of Kenny Jones, head coach, the men’s soccer team has been projected to repeat as ASC men’s soccer champions through a preseason poll.

The University’s multisport club struggled with bad luck at the collegiate national triathlon in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 9.

Sophomore Marc Noble withdrew from the race due to medical complications and Adam Booth flatted out and wrecked during the bike.

“This is our third year competing at nationals,” multisport club president Cody White said.“We are still trying to grow as a club, always looking for new members.”

Nationals is an olympic distance race composed of three events: swim, bike and run.

The starter went by at a blur, with his orange sleeve catching in my peripheral, as I started the bell lap of the 1500-meter run at Brook Hill High School.

The unusually warm April afternoon—at least for a Northerner—showed on my face. My cheeks were flushed with red, and my hair was pushed back from the wind.

No matter how hard I tried, my body would not let me go any faster. In the last 10 meters of the race, another runner passed by me just before I crossed the finish line.