April 28, 2010

NAPERVILLE, Ill. - Utah Valley's Asumi Nakayama and Jace Brinkerhoff have been selected Great West Conference Student- Athletes of the Month for March. The awards were announced Wednesday by the conference office.

Nakayama led UVU to an improbable championship run in the Great West Conference Postseason Basketball Tournament, averaging 17 points and 7.7 assists on her way to Tournament Most Valuable Player honors. She led the Wolverines to upset wins over No. 3-seed Chicago State, second seed Texas-Pan American and top-seeded North Dakota in consecutive days, and combined with a UVU win over NJIT, the senior from Saitama, Japan, averaged 14.8 points and 8.5 assists per game during March.

Brinkerhoff, a senior from Spanish Fork, Utah, hit .571 during the month of March (28-for-49) with four home runs, six doubles and 15 RBI, while slugging .939. The third baseman had at least two hits in all 10 of 11 games during the month, including four 3-hit games and two 4-hit games. Brinkerhoff went 4-for-6 with a home run, two RBI and four runs scored in a win over Gonzaga and was 3-for-3 with a home run and five RBI (including the game winning RBI in the eighth inning) in a win at Utah.

Others nominated for student-athlete of the month were Houston Baptist's Andrew Gonzalez (Basketball) and Paige Gibson (Golf), NJIT's Bryan Bleakley (Baseball), South Dakota's Kendall Cutler (Basketball) and Amber Hegge (Basketball) and Texas-Pan American's Garrett Bivone (Baseball) and Haley Hocott (Golf).