ST. GEORGE — Last week was a really good week to be Lexi Brown.
The fourth-year Utah Tech head coach led the Trailblazers to their first Division I win of the year on Thursday in Riverside, California, and turned around three nights later for arguably the biggest win in program history.
That was Sunday night, when Jocelyn Wright scored the match-winner to lift Utah Tech to a 2-1 win over the University of Utah — the Trailblazers’ first victory over a power conference opponent since jumping to Division I in 2020.
“It’s great to come out of a weekend 2-0, no matter what,” Brown said during her weekly coaches’ show on Utah Tech’s Trailblazer SportsVision YouTube channel. “But the way we did it against an in-state rival and a power-four opponent was very divining for us.
“I told the team right after in the huddle, that was my favorite win of my career; no question,” she later told Utah Tech’s Rod Zundel. “It was both the magnitude of what it meant, and also the way they played — how gritty and tough they were … Now for us, it’s about how can we turn one big win into two big wins as we play at Utah State on Thursday.”
It’s been a tough few weeks for the Trailblazers, who opened the season 1-2-1 with only a non-D1 win over Westminster that concluded with a 3-0 loss to previously winless Portland.
Additionally, Utah Tech lost two starters to injury and Lacy Fox — the fifth-year forward from Lone Peak who was originally granted an extra season of eligibility under the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility model — was then declared ineligible by the courts.
But the team stuck together — and came together last week with a pair of key wins, first 1-0 over UC Riverside and then the 2-1 victory over the Utes at home.
“Obviously starting off the season like that was a little bit rough,” said Wright, last year’s All-WAC freshman of the year from Herriman who was earned preseason All-Big Sky honors as a sophomore. “It’s easy to get frustrated and pick at the negative. But I think all the girls are competitive, everybody cares, and it shows in games and in practice where nobody else sees it.
“We all know what we want, and we do it for each other.”
Watch the complete coaches’ show on Trailblazer SportsVision on YouTube.
