• HPU opens tourney play against Cal State-Bakersfield • Nevada’s Towns, Fine named WAC players of week • Rodriguez wins AL MVP title HPU opens tourney play against Cal State-Bakersfield Hawai’i Pacific University has been seeded fifth in the six-team,
• HPU opens tourney play against Cal State-Bakersfield
• Nevada’s Towns, Fine named WAC players of week
• Rodriguez wins AL MVP title
HPU opens tourney play against Cal State-Bakersfield
Hawai’i Pacific University has been seeded fifth in the six-team, single-elimination NCAA Division II Pacific Region women’s volleyball tournament.
HPU (15-7) will face fourth-seeded Cal State-Bakersfield (20-7) on Thursday at the regional hosted by UC-San Diego.
Hawai’i Pacific received the Pacific West Conference’s automatic bid to the regional after Brigham Young University-Hawai’i forfeited the PacWest title for using an ineligible player. BYU-Hawaii said it only learned of the infraction last week.
The tournament champion will join the champions of seven other regionals at the national tournament, Dec. 3-7.
Nevada’s Towns, Fine named WAC players of week
Nevada linebacker Daryl Towns and kicker Damon Fine were named Western Athletic Conference players of the week Monday for their play in the Wolf Pack’s 24-14 win over Hawai’i, it was announced in Reno Monday.
Towns, a senior from Pasadena, Calif., tabbed the WAC’s top defensive player of the week, had an interception, a fumble recovery and six tackles as the Wolf Pack defense held Hawai’i nearly 19 points below its season average.
Fine, a junior from Indianapolis, named WAC special teams player, hit four of five field goals in the game including a long of 42 yards. He has 37 field goals in his career, 20th on the WAC’s all-time list.
Rice tight end Ben Wiggins was the offensive player of the week. He caught three passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns in Rice’s 41-20 win at SMU.
Rodriguez wins AL MVP title
Alex Rodriguez became the second player from a last-place team to win a Most Valuable Player award, beating Carlos Delgado and Jorge Posada in American League voting announced Monday in New York.
An hour later, Rodriguez confirmed that the Texas Rangers have talked to him about a possible trade.
The Texas Rangers shortstop received 242 points in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Delgado had 210 points and Posada 194.
Rodriguez was the only player picked on every ballot. He hit .298, tied for the major league lead with 47 homers, and led the AL in runs (124) and slugging percentage (.600). He had 118 RBIs, second in the AL to Delgado’s 145.
Rodriguez completed three seasons of a $252 million, 10-year contract, the richest in baseball history. He has been paid $56 million, gets another $1 million Dec. 1 and is owed $12 million plus interest in deferred payments from the first three seasons. An additional $4 million of the signing bonus is due in 2004 and 2005.
