April 2008 Archives
By winning the 2008 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championship, the Bulldog softball team earned the right to host the first-ever conference postseason tournament. The inaugural double-elimination event takes place on Friday, May 2, and Saturday, May 3, at the Softball Field of Dreams at the University of Redlands.
As the top seed, Redlands faces #4-seed Pomona-Pitzer Colleges at 11:30 a.m. on Friday. The complete tournament schedule is listed below.
The winner of the postseason tournament earns the SCIAC's automatic qualification to the NCAA Championships, which begin Thursday, May 8, at the University of Texas, Tyler.
Friday, May 2:
Game 1 9 a.m. #2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps vs. #3 La Verne
Game 2 11:30 a.m. #1 Redlands vs. #4 Pomona-Pitzer
Game 3 2 p.m. Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
Game 4 4:30 p.m. Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
Saturday, May 3:
Game 5 9 a.m. Loser Game 4 vs. Winner Game 3
Game 6 11:30 a.m. Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5
Game 7 2 p.m. Only if necessary (first loss)
For the second year in a row, the University of La Verne golf team finished the conference schedule undefeated en route to claiming a SCIAC Championship.
This year, the Leopards put an exclamation point on the SCIAC title with a dazzling performance of 559 (284-275) at the SCIAC 36-Hole Championship Monday at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills to outdistance second-place Redlands (573) by 14 strokes.
Prior to 2007, no SCIAC golf team had ever finished an entire season undefeated in league competition.
La Verne had five of its golfers finish in the top seven in the individual standings. Sophomore Andrew Kramer paced ULV with a second-pace effort of 138 (70-68). Senior Jordan Talah placed fourth overall at 141 (73-68) with senior Chris Davis placing fifth at 142 (71-71). Junior Rizal Amin earned a sixth-place finish carding a 143 (73-70) over 36 holes while freshman Kevin Smith finished tied for seventh at 144 (76-68).
Redlands golfer EJ Stenftenagle took first place in the individual standings at 136 (70-66).
Under head coach Rex Huigens, the Leopard squad racked up several conference honors following the 36-hole competition. Amin was named Co-Player of the Year while Smith earned Freshman of the Year honors.
ULV dominated the First-Team SCIAC selections with four spots. The quartet included Davis, Talah, Kramer and Mitchell Fedorka. Smith earned a spot on the Second Team.
Amin also was the co-winner of the Jess Clark Sportsmanship Award.
As the SCIAC Champion, La Verne secures an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, held next month at Chateau Elan Resort in Braselton, GA. The Leopards are ranked sixth nationally in Division III.
University of Redlands senior track & field student-athletes Kevin Vollmer (Van Nuys, CA) and Natalie Calderon (Pasadena, CA) were named the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Athletes of the Week for April 7-13.
Both competitors provided outstanding results at the SCIAC Multi-Dual meet that was hosted by Redlands on April 12 and led their respective teams to second-place finishes.
Vollmer posted two individual wins at Saturday’s meet, earning first-place times in the 100m Dash at 11.14 and the 200m Dash at 22.09. He also ran the anchor leg of the winning 4x400 Relay that earned an NCAA Provisional time of 3:16.17. In addition, Vollmer helped the 4x100 Relay take fourth place with a time of 43.85.
Calderon won a meet-high four individual events while competing in a total of six. She earned NCAA Provisional marks in the Long Jump and Triple Jump with leaps of 18’ 6” and 37’ 9 ½”, respectively, earning first place in both events. She posted the winning time of 12.45 in the 100m Dash and took first in the 200m Dash at 26.60. Competing in the 100m Hurdles for the third time in her career, Calderon finished third with a time of 15.95 while contributing to the third-place showing of the 4x100 Relay that earned a time of 50.89.
The SCIAC Sports Information Directors nominate and vote on the SCIAC Athletes of the Week.
By Michelle Gardner
Staff Writer
The University of Redlands women and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men will take to the tennis courts this weekend looking to keep their perfect SCIAC records in tact. On the line will be a automatic bids to the upcoming Division III West Regionals.
“The way it used to be it didn’t matter if you lost early. You really wanted to peak at the right time,” Bulldogs coach Jim Ducey said. “Now you still want to peak at the right time but those matches early are also important because of the automatic bids.”
The two schools will be hosting the eight-team tournament beginning today. The women’s competition will be hosted by Redlands with some matches aslo played at Redlands East Valley High School.
The Stags will host the men’s draw with matches also played at neighboring Pomona-Pitzer as well as the Upland and Claremont Tennis Clubs.
The automatic bids will be awarded for a combined finish in the regular season and the tournament. Both host teams head in with 7-0 marks but that is just a coincidence since hosting rights are rotated alphabetically.
On the men’s side the Stags (20-7, 7-0) are currently ranked eighth nationally and third in the West but that was before they upset No. 1 UC Santa Cruz last Sunday.
CMS is led by junior Larry Wang, who holds down the No. 1 spot. Claremont native Drew Sabater has pulled out some clutch wins in the No. 5 hole.
“We’re playing pretty well right now and we’re coming off a couple of big wins,” CMS coach Paul Settles said. “We’re hoping to keep that momentum in this tournament.”
Redlands (18-6, 6-1), led by No. 1 Matt Liebman and No. 2 Eric Wagar, is seeded second and lost a hard-fought battle to CMS 5-4 a week ago in the regular-season conference finale for both teams.
No. 2 seed Pomona-Pitzer (11-7, 6-1) is the defending champion on the women’s side and boasts the reigning player of the year in sophomore Siobhan Finicane.
Redlands (13-4, 7-0) is currently ranked third in the West Region and has five of its six singles players returning. The new addition is sophomore Rachael Miller, whose father played for the Bulldogs in 1976 with Ducey.
“You like to think if you’re ranked high enough you can get an at-large bid if you don’t win,” Ducey said. “But you can’t take any chances.”
There is no admission charge for spectators at any of the sites.
MEN’S SCHEDULE
Friday’s matches (All at 9 a.m.) - No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps vs. No. 8 Caltech at CMS; No. 2 Redlands vs. No. 7 Whittier (at Pomona-Pitzer); No. 3 Cal Lutheran vs. No. 6 La Verne (at Upland Tennis Club); No. 4 Occidental vs. No. 5 Pomona-Pitzer (at Claremont Tennis Club).
Next round (All at 1 p.m.) - CMS-Caltech loser vs. Occidental-Pitzer loser (at Claremont TC); Redlands-Whittier loser vs. Cal Lutheran-La Verne loser (at Upland TC); CMS-Caltech winner vs. Occidental-Pitzer winner (at CMS); Redlands-Whittier winner vs. Cal Lutheran-La Verne winner (at Pitzer).
Saturday’s matches (All at 9 a.m.) - Seventh place match (at Claremont TC); Fifth place (at Upland TC); Third place (at Pitzer); Championship - (at CMS).
WOMEN’S SCHEDULE
Friday’s matches (All at 8:30 a.m.) - No. 1 Redlands vs. No. 8 Caltech (at Redlands); No. 2 Pomona-Pitzer vs. No. 7 Whittier (at Redlands); No. 3 CMS vs. No. 6 Cal Lutheran (at Redlands East Valley HS); No. 4 Occidental vs. No. 5 La Verne (at REV).
Next round (All at 1:30 p.m.) - Redlands-Caltech winnner vs. Occidental-La Verne winner (at Redlands); Pitzer-Whittier winner vs. CMS-Cal Lutheran winner (at Redlands); Caltech-Redlands loser vs. Occidental-La Verne loser (at REV); Pitzer-Whittier loser vs. CMS-Cal Lutheran loser (at REV).
Saturday’s matches (All at 10 a.m.) - Championship and third-place matches (at Redlands); Fifth and seventh place matches (at REV).
It was announced earlier today that senior short stop/second baseman Billy Lavelle (Phoenix, AZ) was named the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Male Athlete of the Week for March 31-April 6.
In last week’s three-game sweep over Cal Lutheran University, Lavelle led the Bulldogs with a .714 average on 10-for-14 batting. He tallied four runs, three RBI and 13 total bases, to go along with one double and one triple. Lavelle earned a slugging percentage of .929 and an on-base percentage of .750. He was 3-for-5 for stolen bases and was walked twice. Playing both short stop and second base, Lavelle provided a .947 fielding percentage with 10 putouts, eight assists, and one error.
By starting 29 games, Lavelle has been instrumental in the Bulldogs’ 20-11 overall showing and 8-4 mark in conference so far this season. He currently owns a .407 batting average with 48 hits, 20 runs scored, and 20 RBI. Lavelle has offered six sacrifice hits and three sacrifice flies while amassing 13 stolen bases, leading the team in each of these categories. Finally, he has provided 64 putouts and 69 assists with three errors for a .947 fielding percentage.
The Female Athlete of the Week was awarded to Caltech’s Rene Davis, who broke the school record in the high jump and long jump at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational.
The SCIAC Sports Information Directors nominate and vote on the Athletes of the Week.
Andrew Bogrand (JR, Portland, OR) of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was selected SCIAC Athlete of the Week for the week of March 24-30.
He finished second at the California/Nevada Championships in the javelin throw on Saturday with a throw of 192-0.
The meet is open to schools from all three NCAA Divisions as well as NAIA teams and there were five Division I (including the winner) and five Division II competitors in the final. His qualifying mark in Friday’s prelims was a personal best of 202-4. This mark qualifies him for the NCAA Championships, is third best in CMS history and 10th best in SCIAC history and is currently ranked second in the nation.
In Saturday’s finals he led the competition until the second to last throw in the final round. All six of his throws would have taken second place and five of them were better than the NCAA-qualifying mark.
The University of Redlands baseball team swept a doubleheader from host Cal Lutheran, winning 11-3 and 13-12 in SCIAC play Saturday in Thousand Oaks.
Mike McCarthy earned the win in the opener with another brilliant outing. He went eight innings and gave up just three hits. He gave up two runs but both were unearned.
The offense banged out 12 hits behind him. Jefre Johnson went 2-for-5 with three RBI and two runs scored. The highlight was a two-run homerun in the fourth. Matt Goldstein had three hits, two of them doubles.
The Bulldogs (20-11, 8-4) won a slugfest in a 10-inning nightcap, collecting 22 hits, four of those by Billy Lavelle. Brian Schumaker and Goldstein stroked home runs. Matt Hughes drew a bases loaded walk for the difference.
Nolan Nicholson (9-2) got the win in relief.
The Pomona-Pitzer baseball team remained in first place in SCIAC with a 13-8 and 9-8 sweep of local rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
The Sagehens (23-5, 10-2), ranked 18th nationally have a one-game lead over La Verne which swept lowly Caltech.
Shortstop Brandon Huerta supplied the power in the opener, stroking two grand slam home runs, opne ion the fourth and one an inning later.
Zach Mandelblatt, returning to leftfield after missing three weeks with a wrist injury, had two hits, as did Mike Silva and Michael Joannides.
CMS was led by Travis Nishioka with four hits and Andrew Blomberg with two home runs and four RBI.
The second game was closer with CMS taking an 8-7 lead into the seventh when the Sagehens got the tying and go-ahead runs. Drew Hedman walked and Mandelblatt doubled. After an intentional walk to load the bases and set up a double play, Nick Frederick knocked in two with a single to left.
James Brunswick (3-1) got the win in relief of starter Joannides.
University of La Verne Athletic Director Chris Ragsdale has announced that he has accepted a new position as the Commissioner of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference and will resign his position at ULV effective June 30.
The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) is a league comprised of nine Division III member institutions representing the states of Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.
“It has been a privilege to serve as the director of athletics the last five years at the University of La Verne,” said Ragsdale. “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with President Morgan, senior management, coaches and student-athletes on a daily basis to promote the athletic program and stress its value to the overall strength of the institution.”
Ragsdale, who came to ULV in July 2003, said he will continue his athletic director duties through the end of the current spring sports season.
"Chris Ragsdale brought his extensive experience and his commitment to Division III values to the University of La Verne at an important time,” said ULV President Stephen Morgan. “We are grateful for his many contributions to our athletic programs. We wish Chris and his wife Cindy well as they return to their Midwest roots."
He was instrumental in the renovation of the Sports Science & Athletics Pavilion. The Pavilion, formerly known as the Super Tents, also included the restructuring of Frantz Athletic Court, home to ULV’s volleyball and basketball teams. He also has helped develop plans for the new West Campus Athletic Complex.
He also hired eight new head coaches during his time at La Verne, including Rich Reed in men's basketball, Julie Smith in softball and Andy Ankeny in football. La Verne has captured 12 SCIAC team championships during Ragsdale’s tenure. Additionally over 30 Leopard student-athletes have earned All-America status while 13 student-athletes have been named SCIAC Player of the Year. In addition, he has helped establish annual department events such as the Scholar-Athlete Luncheon and the Leopard Senior Blanket Award Dinner.
