College Sports with Michelle Gardner

Three local college soccer teams are in the hunt for national titles.

Pairings for the NCAA Division II and II men's and women's field were announced today. Cal State San Bernardino made the men's field for just the second time in school history and the first since 1991.

The Coyotes (15-5-1) will play tournament host and top seed Cal State Los Angeles (17-3-1) at 7 p.m. on Friday. They lost to the Eagles twice - 3-1 and 3-2. But the second of those was in overtime after LA tied it at 2-all with a penalty kick in the closing seconds of regulation.

The Coyotes have nothing to lose and sometimes those are the most dangerous teams to play.

In Division III Claremont-Mudd-Scripps will host UC Santa Cruz in an 11 a.m. match on Saturday. The Athenas were by far the best team in the SCIAC. They were the regular season champion and they won the SCIAC Tournament.

The CMS will hit the road to play UC Santa Cruz on Saturday. The Stags are the reason many like the idea of a conference tournament. They were fourth but finished with a flurry, upsetting regular season champion Pomona-Pitzer and perennial title contender Redlands to earn the berth.

Posted by Michelle Gardner at 12:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The University of Redlands has been selected as the host for the NCAA Division III West Region Volleyball Tournament which starts on Thursday.

The announcement came down Monday morning but surprised no one. There are seven teams in the field and four are from Southern Calfiornia so it wouldn't have made sense for the NCAA to ship those four to one of the other three.

Colorado College (33-4) is the top seed and has a bye. It will got to the semifinal against the winner of Cal Lutheran-Puget Sound. University of La Verne gets Pacific Lutheran and Redlands will draw Chapman.

The quality of competition in the SCIAC was evident in last week's four-team tournament that ended with a thrilling 3-2 win by Redlands over La Verne. The semifinal between Cal Lutheran and La Verne was equally exciting. By including all three teams the NCAA got it right!

Posted by Michelle Gardner at 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Chaffey College has picked a new athletic director but it won't be anyone new to the local college scene.

Football coach Carl Beach has gotten the nod, replacing Bob Olivera, whose resignation takes effect on Dec. 1. He had been in education the last 41 years, 27 of that as athletic director at Chaffey.

With all that is involved in running an athletic department nowadays, few colleges have a person runnning the athletic department that also heads a sport, especially a major sport such as football.

But with the state budget crunch, Chaffey has little choice. If anyone can do it, it's Beach. Chaffey has a solid support staff and most of its head coaches have been there a decade or longer. So they don't need a lot of guidance.

The plan is to separate the jobs at some point but who knows when that will be.

Posted by Michelle Gardner at 1:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Injuries are a growing concern for University of Redlands football coach Mike Maynard, whose Bulldogs will play at Chapman at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

It may be a nonconference game but it is still crucial because if the Bulldogs can beat Cal Lutheran the last game of the season and forge a three-way tie with Occidental it will need that win to further its case for an at-large playoff bid which the SCIAC rarely gets.

The Bulldogs (6-1) are thinning out at wide receiver Tyler Aubrey and tight end Pete Tobiason are already out. Brian Putman, Brendan Barkate and Evan Reuter, who form possibly the top receiving trio in the conference, are all game-time decisions.

The defensive line is also a concern.

The Panthers (3-4), who have two wins by a combined seven points, always find a way to come up big against the Bulldogs no matter how much they seem to be struggling. Sot it should be a battle.

Posted by Michelle Gardner at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The San Bernardino Valley College football team has moved into the California Community College Football Coaches Association rankings at No. 20.

Coaches and players will tell you they don't play for rankings, but it is nice recognition for a program that seems to have turned the corner under first-year coach Kevin Emerson. The Wolverines (4-4) have two games left in the season and are in contention for a playoff berth in the American Division Mountain Conference.

The Wolverines will be looking for their fifth straight win this week when they face their most formidable foe of the conference thus far - Golden West. That game is set for 6 p.m. at Orange Coast College (Golden West does not play home games on its own campus).

The Wolverines end the season against L.A. Harbor (8-0, 5-0) which has a one-game lead in the conference over SBVC and Golden West.

Cerritos is No. 1 with Fullerton, Mt. SAC, El Camino and Bakersfield rounding out the top five.

Posted by Michelle Gardner at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)