UVU Roundup: WAC still attempting to ban UVU from basketball tournament
Courtesy UVU Athletics
Utah Valley's Jackson Holcombe (2) dribbles the ball against San Diego State in a men's college basketball game in San Diego, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.On the eve of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament, Utah Valley is being threatened with banishment from participating.
The WAC is basically saying, “Pay up or don’t play.”
At dispute is a $1 million exit fee the WAC says was agreed upon since the Wolverines are leaving for the Big West in July of 2026.
Here’s the WAC’s statement on Tuesday afternoon: “As of this time, Utah Valley University has not complied with the Utah judge’s order that directs Utah Valley University to place $1 million in escrow with the court — the amount of their agreed-upon exit fee from the Western Athletic Conference. As the court ordered preliminary injunction is contingent upon that directive, the WAC Board of Directors has instructed the Commissioner to plan for the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments without Utah Valley University, as it would be a member not in good standing.
“The conference will release new brackets if the University does not comply with the court’s directive within the order by 5 p.m. MT on Tuesday, March 10. The Conference regrets that the intentional actions of Utah Valley University have caused uncertainty and harm for institutions, student-athletes, coaches, staff and fans across the WAC — including at Utah Valley University.”
Last week a temporary restraining order forced the WAC to reinstate UVU to all WAC-sponsored media broadcasts and to permit all UVU teams and student-athletes to participate in the league’s post-season tournament.
The wording of the injunction indicates the $1 million escrow is a “directive and not an order.”
It’s obvious the WAC has interpreted that to mean they have the right to ban UVU from their tournament if the directive is not followed.
Utah Valley’s legal team responded with their own statement indicating they had contacted the court last week about the process of following the directive to place the $1 million in escrow and were awaiting instructions.
The statement continues: “Moreover, despite the WAC’s determination that UVU ‘has not complied’ with this Court’s Order, and the WAC’s unilaterally imposed deadline of 5:00 p.m. MST today for the deposit to be made, the Preliminary Injunction Order did not impose any such deadline and made it clear the deposit ‘remains a directive and not and order.’
“In short, the action threatened by the WAC today to bar UVU from the WAC basketball tournament would be an overt violation of this Court’s Preliminary Injunction Order. This threat, let along the actual removal of UVU from the tournaments, should not be countenanced by the Court.”
The injunction seems intended to force the two parties to figure out their dispute without having an adverse affect on teams and athletes but the WAC has decided its strongarm tactics are necessary to collect the $1 million exit fee.
The UVU men’s team is the No. 1 seed in the WAC Tournament and was scheduled to play on Friday in the semifinals at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The UVU women’s team is the No. 4 seed and was scheduled to Tarleton State in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
The WAC is losing UVU and Cal Baptist to the Big West and Utah Tech and Southern Utah to the Big Sky. The WAC is rebranding as the United Athletic Conference in July, consisting of Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and UT-Arlington as well as five members of the ASUN (Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, West Georgia and Arkansas-Little Rock).
Baseball takes care of Northern Colorado, 5-1
Utah Valley baseball won the fourth game of its five-game series on Monday with a 5-1 victory over Northern Colorado.
The Wolverines (9-7) picked up its second series win of the season behind two-run singles from Kaden Carpenter and Mason Strong. Cooper Littledike tossed 2 2/3 innings to earn his first win of the season as UNC (2-17) did not record a hit after the sixth inning. Ray Hernandez made his second start of the season for UVU and tossed three shutout innings. The senior was matched by his counterpart, Lucas Stone, who finished with four innings and allowed two hits.
Both pitchers set the tone early, as it looked like runs would be at a premium on Monday. The Bears scored first in the top of the fourth inning as they pushed across a run with runners on the corners on a ground ball to second baseman Chipper Beck. Beck moved from third to first for the play, then fired across the diamond to try to get the lead runner, but the throw from third to home bounced past Strong to make it 1-0.
The Wolverines recorded their first hit of the game in the third inning when DJ Massey singled to left field with two outs, but he was caught stealing to end the inning. The Bears threatened again in the fifth inning when they loaded the bases against Trey Jacobsen. Jacobsen came up with the needed out when he got a popout to shallow centerfield and got Zeke Minic to lineout to centerfield to end the threat and strand the bases loaded.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the sixth, Hunter Katschke led off with a double to right field to put the tying run in scoring position. Brody Block followed with a high, shallow fly ball that fell in front of the UNC center fielder to put runners on first and third with no outs.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Carpenter singled home two runs to put UVU in front 2-1. He now has six multi-RBI games this season, with three of them coming this weekend against Northern Colorado.
The Wolverines were not done in the sixth inning, extending their lead to 3-1 when Massey hustled home on a pitch that bounced in front of home plate and away from the UNC catcher. Strong then singled home two more runs during the five-run sixth inning to push UVU past the Bears. Chance Wallace and Aaron Rice combined to pitch the ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts, as Wallace faced the leadoff hitter before Rice came in to retire the final two batters.
Utah Valley is set to host Colorado Mesa on Wednesday.
Softball holds off UC Davis, 6-5
DAVIS, Calif. — Four different Wolverines had multiple hits as Utah Valley (15-8) rode a fast start to top the UC Davis Aggies (12-12), 6-5 on Monday afternoon at La Rue Field.
Britney Moreno set the tone at the top of the lineup with a 3-for-4 game, picking up a double, RBI, and run scored. Bailey Marvin, Emma Haygood, and Tatum Hall each had two-hit games with an RBI.
Utah Valley did what it’s done all season long, putting up a three-spot in the first inning. The Wolverines have scored in the first inning 13 times this season, and have scored first 16 times.
Moreno led off the game with a double just inside the bag at third. A Ry Binne bunt single and a Marvin smash through the right side made it 1-0 as Binne advanced to third. A perfectly-executed double steal play with Binne and Marvin’s pinch runner, Maddie McSorley, turned in the second run. Haygood picked up the third run of the inning with a double up the gap in right center.
McSorley picked up a memorable first collegiate hit, blasting a no-doubt solo homer in the top of the third to make it 4-0. The Aggies got that run back in the home half of the inning, but the Wolverines were able to limit the damage to the one run.
UC Davis trimmed the lead down to one on a two-run homer by Naomi Kalanetra in the fifth.
Utah Valley got both those runs back in the sixth with a two-out rally as back-to-back doubles by Payge Armendariz and Hall made it 5-3. Moreno snuck a single up the middle to pick up the second run of the inning.
The Aggies cut the lead down to one once again in the sixth via a bases-loaded groundout and a wild pitch. Hannah Ortega was able to get out of the jam with a strikeout to strand two in scoring position.
UC Davis threatened in a big way in the seventh and looked to have loaded the bases with one out, but an infield single by Brienna Weekes was wiped out due to her being out of the box when making contact, resulting in the third strike. Ella Miller was able to bounce back from a walk that loaded the bases, snagging a comebacker to end the game.
Utah Valley will close out the road trip Tuesday against future Big West rival Sacramento State as head coach Cody Thomson seeks career win No. 100.
