The Las Vegas Aces achieved its first-ever championship in franchise history on Sept. 18 impacting Utah Tech University women’s basketball players.
The championship win sets a new standard and higher respect for women’s sports. The Utah Tech women’s basketball team strives to experience the same rewarding win.
Emily Isaacson, a senior recreation and sports management major from Perry, said she is more than inspired and grateful to have a Women’s National Basketball Association team so close to home.
Isaacson said: “We got the opportunity to go to their last regular season home game as a team. It was super fun, and it was a cool environment. I am so happy to see a lot of support for the WNBA.”
The Aces game that the team attended was the first WNBA game Isaacson has ever been to. Isaacson said the experience was thrilling and more fun than she thought it would be.
Isaacson recognized the support and recognition for the Aces championship win relating it to all women’s sports.
Maggie McCord, a senior criminal justice major from South Jordan, said having a WNBA team so close to home is an awesome experience because of the learning and growing opportunities.
“We can call them our home team even though they are still about two hours away from us,” McCord said. ”It’s really cool to see the environment keep growing and growing after all of these years.”
McCords favorite player on the team is Kelsey Plum because of her personality, confidence and hard work. Plum stands out to McCord as she strives to be a similar athlete on the court.
“I love and value her confidence, and even though she is a younger player she is still able to compete against these icons,” McCord said.
McCord said the overall goal of both the WNBA team and the Utah Tech women’s basketball team is to win championships. Watching the Aces do it gives an even bigger drive for the team to get its Division I championship.
Breaunna Gillen, a senior exercise science major from West Jordan, said it was a cool experience to watch the Aces play because it gives our team something to base our season off of.
“Being able to watch the aces do something that hasn’t been done before shows that things that haven’t been done can be done,” Gillen said.
Gillen said the ultimate benefit of having the Aces so close is having so many learning opportunities from just watching them play.
“For me, it is definitely more engaging to be a part of their environment and see how they operate and how they warm up,” Gillen said. ”This is something you might not see from watching on the T.V., it is a good way to base things off of.
Since Gillen plays the same position as Kelsey Plum and Chelsea Gray she admires and looks up to them because she can pick up on some of the things they do on the court.
“From my position standpoint those two always have the mindset of petal down, it’s go time, which is something I admire and something I need to do,” Gillen said. ”Watching them shows me what I want to be.”
The Utah Tech women’s basketball team looks forward to their season with hope to accomplish a similar goal and win its own first Division I title.
