Coyote soccer teams in playoff position

  If the NCAA West Regional soccer tournaments for men and women were held right now, both Cal State San Bernardino teams would be among the participants.

    The latest polls issued by the championships committee for both sports show that the Coyotes men’s team is ranked No. 4 and the women’s team is No. 5 as of Tuesday.

    However, there are four matches remaining in the regular season for both teams, starting Friday at UC San Diego and continuing Sunday at Cal State East Bay, certainly an out-of-the-ordinary road trip since East Bay is currently considered part of the South Division of the CCAA conference.

    CSUSB women, currently 8-6-2 overall and 7-3-2 in the CCAA, will be tested Friday by a UCSD team that is ranked No. 2 in the West Region and No. 11 in the nation. The Tritons are 12-2 and defeated the Coyotes 2-0 in San Bernardino on Sept. 27. The women’s match is set for 4:30 p.m.

    The Coyotes men, now 12-3-1 overall and 8-3-1 in the CCAA, face the Tritons — 7-5-4 overall and 4-5-3 in the CCAA at 7 p.m. at the La Jolla campus field. CSUSB won the first meeting, 1-0, on Sept. 27.

    Both teams then travel 400-plus miles to Hayward to face the Pioneers on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. CSUSB swept the first meetings with East Bay by scores of 7-0 (men) and 5-0 (women).

    The regular season ends with a home-and-home doubleheader with Cal Poly Pomona on Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. The Oct. 30 matches will be the final home matches of the season for both Coyotes teams.

                    NCAA WEST REGIONAL POLLS
    MEN — 1. Cal State L.A. (13-2-1); 2. Sonoma State (11-2-2); 3. Seattle Pacific (10-2-3); 4. COYOTES (12-3-1); 5. Grand Canyon (10-2-1); 6. Cal State Dominguez Hills (9-5-1).

    WOMEN —  1. Seattle Pacific (13-1); 2. UC San Diego (12-2); 3. Cal State L.A. (12-2-2); 4. Chico State (7-3-5); 5. COYOTES (8-6-2); 6. Cal State Dominguez Hills (9-6); 7. San Franciso State (7-6-3); 8. Western Washington (8-4-2); 9. Dixie State (8-3); 10. Humboldt State (7-7-2).

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UR football coach tries to rally his troop

The toughest job for a coach isn’t always deciding on a starting lineup and it rarely has anything to do with strategy. It’s the mental part of handling the pysche of his or her players, more specifically rallying a team from a devastating loss.

That is the senario this week for University of Redlands football coach Mike Maynard. The Bulldogs suffered a heartbreaking 27-24 overtime loss last week to Occidental. While there are plenty more games to go, that game has traditionally had a huge impact on the SCIAC race. And with football three are nine games, so there is little room for error,

The loss was that much more deflating because the Bulldogs dominated for three quarters.

So this week Maynard has to convince his squad it is still playing for something.No doubt he will appeal to his players’ competitive spirit and character.

Yes a lot of things can happen. Two years ago the Bulldogs lost to Oxy, then ran the table, with the outcome of other games resulting in them winning the SCIAC. That was just two years ago and there plenty of players left who were part of the team. Maynard has that to fall back on.

Maynard says his team still has a shot of getting in the playoffs, even if it finishes second. That wouldn’t seem like a strong possibility since the SCAIC hasn’t had a second team make the playoffs in his two decade tenure. But with the current economic climate, the NCAA could take a second team, possibly Redlands, and send it to Oxy for a first round playoff game because the cost would be next to nothing.

Of course the Bulldogs have to run the table to think about that playing out and that would mean beating a Cal Lutheran team, that from what other coaches tell me, is probably better than Occidental.

Next up for Redlands is Saturday’s 7 p.m. home game against Whittier. It should be one in which the Bulldogs have no trouble getting back on track.

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No. 2 Coyotes prep for biggest rival

The Cal State San Bernardino volleyball team will make its annual trek to La Jolla on Saturday to play old rival UC San Diego in a 7 p.m. showdown for CCAA bragging rights.

Barring a major upset of either team on Friday, the battle will be for a share of first place in the CCAA. The Coyotes (18-0, 11-0) are one game up on the Tritons (18-1, 10-1). The teams are No. 2 and 3 in the country as well with the Tritons lone loss coming to the Coyotes when they were manhandled at Coussoulis Arena.

It will be interesting to see if travel has any affect on the Coyotes. Cal State is playing Cal State East Bay on Friday night, then must scurry to the airport in San Francisco in hopes of catching a 10:30 p.m. flight to San Diego. The Coyotes should dispatch the Pioneers in three without coach Kim Cherniss having to use her timeouts!

There is no reason for those two teams to be travel partners. It puts every visiting team at a disadvantage because all of them have those tough back-to-backs. If they have to be travel partners, schools should be given a day in between, much the way basketball lets its teams play Thursday and Saturdays for the tougher road trips.

Granted, that would mean added expense which the Cal State university system doesn’t need at the moment.

A win by the Tritons would move then into a first-place tie. A win by the Coyotes puts them in good position to secure their fourth straight conference title and the seventh in nine years.

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