Five stories that shaped the fall semester

By: Juan López

Monday, December 7, 2009 - 11:06 PM

1. Rushing into the record book

Nevada running back Vai Taua. Photo by Brian Bolton/The Nevada Sagebrush

With a 32-yard touchdown run in the third quarter of Nevada’s game against New Mexico State (Nov. 21), Wolf Pack running back Luke Lippincott eclipsed the 1,000-yard plateau for the season.

Lippincott joined running back Vai Taua and quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the 1,000-yard club, making Nevada the first team in NCAA history to have three players top the 1,000-yard mark in the same season. To put this in perspective, NCAA college football history dates back to 1869.

Lippincott, Taua and Kaepernick led the nation’s best rushing offense (4,347 yards) and finished the season with a combined 3,539 rushing yards.

2. Soccer team breaks school mark

John Callahan /Nevada Sagebrush

When junior defender Erin Smith scored a goal in the 96th minute against San Jose State on Nov. 7, Nevada took a 2-1 lead in the Western Athletic Conference semifinal. Minutes later, the Wolf Pack won the game by that same score, notching its fifth-straight victory on the season.

The five-straight wins matched a school record which was reached only once before (2006).

From there, it went downhill for Nevada.

Two days after beating the Spartans, the Wolf Pack lost in the WAC Championship game to Boise State and eight days after that, former head coach Jaime Frias announced his resignation. In two years as coach with the Wolf Pack, Frias led the team to the most-ever wins in WAC play (five) and posted a seven-win improvement from his first year to his second (three in 2008, 10 in 2009).

3.Palmer faces near-death tragedy

Courtesy of sparks fire department

Forty-two minutes seemed like forever to Nevada cross country and track and field athlete Kristin Palmer when she was trapped under a car in her bed on the morning of Oct. 20.

Palmer and her boyfriend, Trent Wood, awoke to the sounds of a vehicle crashing through their home in Sparks. They were pinned for 42 minutes before being rescued.

While Wood emerged with minor injuries, Palmer suffered second-degree burns on her right leg.

“I was screaming like crazy,” Palmer said. “There were moments when I was sure we weren’t going to make it. The oil burning my leg was unbearable … it was just the worst experience of my life.”

4. Rebel stomping starts big win streak

Nevada running back Luke Lippincott. Photo by Casey Durkin / Nevada Sagebrush

The season couldn’t have gotten off to a poorer start.

The Nevada football team was 0-3 and was outscored 101-41 in those games.

Then came the good, old University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

The Rebels came to town for the annual battle for the Fremont Cannon and left with a 63-28 whooping.

Nevada’s offense exploded for nine touchdowns and a school-record 559 rushing yards. Three Nevada players rushed for more than 170 yards (Mike Ball, 184; Colin Kaepernick, 184 and Luke Lippincott, 170).

The win kept the Cannon blue for the fifth straight year and started a string of eight-straight wins for the Wolf Pack.

Many Nevada players, coaches and fans credit this game as a season-saving win.

5. Women’s hoops tops the century mark

Nevada forward Shavon Moore. Photo by Brian Bolton/Nevada Sagebrush

If the Nevada women’s basketball team would not have scored a point after the 10:00 mark in the second half of its game against Sacramento State on Dec. 2, it would have only lost by one point.

The Wolf Pack shot a blazing 53.3 percent from the field against the Hornets and ended up winning 101-72, making this the first time Nevada scored more than 100 points in a game since 1986.

Four Nevada players scored in double figures, including freshman guard Holly Jones, who set career highs in nearly every category in the game (14 points, eight rebounds, five assists and five steals).