No. 12 Utah Looks to Capture Southwest Division Regular Season Title

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. --The University of Utah will look to capture the program's first Southwest Division regular season title since 2006 this weekend as the Utes travel to the West Mesa Aquatic Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the second of two division tournaments.

Utah, which enters the weekend with a 4-0 mark in division play and a No. 12 national ranking, needs at least two wins in its four games this weekend to guarantee the division regular season title and the No. 1 seed for the Southwest Division Championship on April 4-5 at the United States Air Force Academy.

The Utes appeared primed to accomplish the task as the team will take on the University of New Mexico, Air Force, Northern Arizona University and Colorado State University which enter the weekend with a combined mark of 4-12 in division play.

Overall, if Utah can clinch the regular season title it will snap a string of back-to-back division regular season titles by the University of Arizona.  The string is notable as the past three regular season champions, including Utah in 2006, have claimed the division title and a spot at the National Collegiate Club Championship.

The last time Utah earned the regular season title was in 2006 as the Utes went on to capture the division championship and place sixth at the National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by Northwestern University.

However, the regular season title and No. 1 seed at the division tournament does not guarantee success as Utah also took the 2005 regular season crown, but fell to Air Force in the division title game to place second in the division. 

The wildcards in Utah's hopes for the division title are the University of Arizona and University of Colorado.

Arizona, ranked No. 16 in the latest National Collegiate Club poll, and Colorado both enter the weekend at 3-1 with their lone losses coming at the hands of Utah. 

The five-time division champion Arizona Wildcats will attempt to join Utah as the only teams in division history to claim three-straight regular season titles.  However, the Wildcats will need help as a single loss by Utah still hands the Utes the title and the No. 1 seed courtesy Utah's 10-9 win over Arizona in head-to-head competition on February 14.

Two-time division champion Colorado, which fell to Utah 9-3 on February 15, will also need help due to the head-to-head loss to the Utes.

Arizona and Colorado's comeback hopes facing another challenge considering that the two will meet this weekend at 10:40 a.m. on March 7 to guarantee that at least only one of the two will have an outside shot of catching and surpassing Utah.

A complete schedule of games and the bracket for the division championship are available on the Southwest Division page.