This season, the Pioneers women’s basketball team absconded to California for two games against University of California-Santa Cruz and University of Redlands.

“The games were tough,” said head coach Megan Wilson. “They were tough, physical, scrappy teams.”

The long travel and a flu bug that spread throughout the team caused problems for the Pioneers. “Our biggest issue was that we didn’t have two players that put back-to-back good games together out there,” Wilson said.

Despite the difficulties, the Pioneers were able to split the two games, defeating UC-Santa Cruz 54-47 but falling to Redlands 58-51.

Off the court, the Pioneers had time to partake in a variety of Golden State entertainment, such as driving through downtown Beverly Hills, going to Huntington Beach, and a two-hour tour of Universal Studios, highlighted by visiting the set of ABC’s Desperate Housewives.

“We like to take trips like this because it gives our players an experience beyond the games that our players might not have had otherwise,” Wilson said.

“My most memorable moment would be when we went to Huntington Beach together in Orange County for the day,” junior forward Ashley Henry said. “I am glad that I got to experience going to California with my teammates and coaches. It is one of the best memories so far that I have from this year’s basketball team.”

Junior guard Liz Lawinger echoed those sentiments. “My favorite experience on the trip was being able to go to California for the first time and experience it with a very close knit team [and getting] to see the famous ‘HOLLYWOOD’ sign on the mountains,” Lawinger said.

The Pioneers have six games left in the season, all of which Wilson has high expectations for. “We need to do better at executing our offense, but we’re taking the right steps on defense that will help us compete in all of our remaining games,” Wilson said. “We have to be road warriors. Playing on the road is tough, but if we can play all 40 minutes and avoid giving up big runs to the other teams, we should be in all these games.”

The Pioneers men’s basketball team defeated University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh 74-69 in overtime Jan. 25, marking the Pioneers second overtime win of the season.

The game was back and forth through the first 11 minutes of action; the largest lead held by either team was a four-point advantage by UW-Oshkosh. Near the end of the first half, however, UW-Oshkosh was able to increase its lead to 16 with two minutes to play. The Pioneers closed out the half on a 7-0 run, aided by a last-second 3-pointer by sophomore forward Chas Cross.

“We really focused on picking up our intensity,” said head coach Jeff Gard. “We needed to pick up our pressure on the perimeter because they were shooting so well. We had to play more pressure defense and help each other on defense longer.”

The Pioneers came out hot in the second half, scoring the first six points of the half, cutting the UW-Oshkosh lead to three. At the 14:30 mark of the second half, the game was tied, but again the Titans went on a run to take the lead by six. This run was immediately answered by Pioneers senior Brett Stangel hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to knot the game up.

The end of the second half resembled the beginning of the game, with neither team taking the lead by more than three. Cross came up big for the Pioneers at the end of the half by blocking what could have been the game-winning shot for the Titans.

“At the end of the game we were kind of in scramble mode not wanting to give up anything easy around the basket,” Cross said about the block. “Our defensive rotations were good, which helped me slide over in time to take away the potential game-winning shot.”

In overtime, the Pioneers took the advantage early. Stangel and Cross, who combined for 11 of the 12 Pioneers points in OT, put in consecutive buckets to put the Pioneers ahead by four, and the team didn’t look back.

Stangel finished the game with a game-high 27 points, bolstered by a 7-14 performance from 3-point range, tying a university record for 3-pointers in a game. He also led the team with three steals. Cross ended the contest with 26 points, making 11 of his 13 shots from the field.

“It was nice to see us battle back from being down 16,” Stangel wrote in an e-mail. “We never gave up and kept fighting and slowly crept back into the game and ended up pulling out the win. We really figured out how to score against their zone in the second half but our defense was key to keeping us in the game when shots were not falling.”

The Pioneers have six more games this season, three of which are at Williams Fieldhouse, and are fighting for a spot in the playoffs.

“We have to take it day by day,” Gard said. “We have to get better every practice. One of our sayings is, ‘Make an impact.’ If you’re a scout team guy or a starter, make an impact however you can.”

Acceptable documents for identification cards are Wisconsin state drivers licenses, Wisconsin state identification cards, US passports and UW-Platteville issued voter identification cards.

The Pioneer Passport is not an acceptable form of identification for students. School ID cards must have a signature, picture and expiration date of two years.

The first UW-Platteville voter ID card is free and can be issued at the Passport Office in the Markee Pioneer Student Center.  The campus ID card has an advantage over Wisconsin State ID cards. Voters who have been issued a state drivers license cannot receive a Wisconsin ID, according to Interim Assistant Chancellor for Student Affairs D. Joanne Wilson.

However, if students are using a campus issued voter ID card, a enrollment verification form will also be needed upon voting.  The form can be accessed on PASS. Before printing the form, students need to update their current address.

“The form was created to provide proof of residency for on-campus residents and off-campus residents who do not have utility bills in their name,” Registrar David Kieckhafer said.

Finding a way to allow non-local students the right to vote at UW-P has been a process for Student Affairs.

“Only four other states have a similar voting system,” Executive Director of Auxilary Services James Mueller said. “It’s been like reinventing the wheel to figure out how to deal with this new law.”

Proof of residency is needed to register for voting. University employees will not be able to register to vote in Wisconsin without proof of residency and a state ID.

There has been discussion throughout Wisconsin as to whether or not the voter ID law is constitutional. The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit in Dane Country back in October claiming that the new law violates the state constitution by creating a third class of ineligible voters- people without an ID.  Under the state constitution, only felons and people deemed incompetent cannot vote.

If a recall election is held for Gov. Walker in August, Student Affairs may have to make changes to the wording on the enrollment verification form for students staying in Platteville over summer recess.

The System will launch a website later this week to provide students more information on voting regulations. Access it at wisconsin.edu/vote.

“With each week’s reports and rankings, participating [universities] watch how their results fluctuate against other [universities] and use this to rally their campus communities to reduce and recycle more,” wrote Andrea Winkler, RecycleMania coordinator.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville residence halls will also be hosting their own friendly competition amongst each other. The results for this competition will be tallied in a similar way to the nation-wide competition. The residence hall winners of RecycleMania will receive a residence hall wide prize.

The residence hall competition is in place to encourage participation in not only the nationwide competition but also to promote recycling in everyday lifestyles.

“We want to emphasize that people shouldn’t just be recycling ten weeks out of the year, it should be 52 weeks out of the year,” said Ed Faherty, vice president of waste management facility Faherty Inc.

Faherty Inc. assists RecycleMania by picking up the waste and recycling on campus each week and calculating the weights and measurements of the recyclables.

“It (RecycleMania) brings the idea of recycling to the forefront of everyone’s minds,” said Faherty.

“RecycleMania provides a tool for campus recycling coordinators, student green teams and facility service professionals to engage their campus community in recycling and waste reduction in a fun and friendly way,” wrote Winkler.

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Pioneers 133-pound wrestler T.J. Wunnicke named WIAC Wrestler of the Week for third time this season.

Football

Defensive coordinator and UW-Platteville graduate Rob Erickson was named College Assistant Coach of the Year by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association.