Wild Get First Win of the Season Against Arizona Sidewinders

By Margaret Pugh

The Utah Wild finally captured a win last Saturday, May 3rd, at Zions Bank Stadium against the Arizona Sidewinders. Both teams went into this game hungry for their first win of the season, but it was the Wild that walked away with a long-awaited 22-15 victory.

With this win, Utah is ranked fifth overall in the WUL. 

Also to note, for this game the Wild were down a few players due to conflicts with college regionals. Carly Atwell and Lily Terpstra are both key players for the Wild, however even without their presence in the roster the team was able to take a strong lead and secure a win. In this win, Paige Kercher reached a historic milestone. Paige is the first player to reach 10,000 career regular-season yards in WUL history.

While Arizona started the game with a lead, Utah quickly tied it up by the end of the second quarter before absolutely dominating with a six point third quarter and an eight point fourth quarter. 

This was Utah’s game.

The team tied Arizona in holds, but led them 9-2 in breaks and 15-6 in blocks. 

Liz Bunderson was a real difference maker in the third. Bunderson pulled off stunning back-to-back pulls, helping the Wild regain their lead by scoring on a break chance. The Wild’s next point was scored by Kate Moulton and Cass Williams with a huck to extend the Wild’s lead. 

The last quarter was a big one with big moves from players like Kercher, Kat Songer, Abbie Davis, Eva Hayes, Justine Cherwink, and Amy Norris. 

Lastly, a final throw from Bunderson to Dee Knutson through some high pressure traffic earned the Wild their final point of the game with just 39 seconds left. 

The Wild head to the Bay area Saturday, May 17 to take on the Falcons in their last game of the regular season. All the action can be streamed through the WUL’s Youtube channel.