UI’s Rice Honored By Sky

Despite two tough defeats for the Vandals, Idaho senior forward Mindy Rice is the Big Sky Conference women’s basketball player of the week.

Rice hit 18 of 35 field goal attempts (51.4 percent), 12 of 13 free throws and averaged 24.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in losses to Washington State and Portland.

Rice is the first Vandal to win the award since current graduate assistant Brenda Kuehlthau won it twice in 1993.

Although this is Rice’s first basketball award, she was the volleyball player of the week twice her senior year (1994).

Rice, a first team All-Big Sky performer in basketball last season, is leading the Vandals in scoring (21.1), rebounding (10.6), and blocked shots (3) per game. In her last four games, Rice is averaging 25.8 points and has scored at least 21 in each of those contests.

Soccer

Terri Patraw, an assistant coach at Washington State University, been hired as the first women’s soccer head coach at Arizona State.

Patraw has been an assistant at WSU for two years.

Arizona State will begin playing women’s soccer in the fall of 1996. Adding the sport gives ASU a total of 21 varsity sports offering scholarships.

, DataTimes