November 2010 Archives
The American Volleyball Coaches Association announced its Division II All-American nods today and four players from Cal State San Bernardino are among those honored.
Junior Samantha Middleborn and senior Jane Chafeh made the first team while senior Nicole Moore made the second and sophomore Camille Smith the third team. It is the first time the school has had four All-Americans. It has three on four occasions.
It is a quite an accomplishment given that just 42 players are selected nationwide - 14 to each of the three teams. The only school that had more named was No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul which had five players honored. That is the team the Coyotes will play in the NCAA quarterfinals on Thursday.
The Coyotes are a very balanced team which makes it hard to rack up the lofty numbers needed for individual honors most of the time. Coach Kim Cherniss was disappointed junior Megan Johnson didn't figure into those All-American selections as well.
But she'll be just as happy if the Coyotes bring home the big proze this week!
The men's cross country team from San Bernardino Valley College already has won a state title this month. Could the women's soccer team be far behind?
The Wolverines advanced to the Final Four for the first time in school history with a 4-2 win over Ventura on Saturday. The game was not THAT close. SBVC had 15 shots to six for the Pirates. And the shots they had were all good shots as most of the game was played in the Ventura end of the field.
It was team that came out poised and aggressive from the start. Not even a gusting rain that blew across the field for most of the game could slow the determined Wolverines.
Goals were scored by Crystal Sanchez, Kayla Kellstrom, Amanda Simpson and Mariela Ortega.
Now its on to the state semifinal on Friday at College of the Canyons where SBVC will square off against Fresno at 4 p.m. This is a team that has overcome adverstiy time and time again. So I would not bet against it.
The University of La Verne has fired women's volleyball coach Marlon Sano and football coach Andy Ankeny. Could someone else be next? There are a lot of sports there struggling right now. So is it really the coaches or are there other reasons teams are failing? Maybe the school isn't hiring the right people. Only time will tell.
The termination of Sano is probably a little surprising because he just completed his second year and had a mark of 42-25. But this is volleyball and standards in that sport at that school are pretty high. It has produced three national championships and 27 All-Americans. The Leopards failed to get into the playoffs this year and that's big news.
Ankeny had been there four years and was 4-32. The program was in trouble when he took over. To the Leopards credit, they kept battling and never gave up. There were a lot of close losses - 20-14 to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 28-26 in triple overtime to Pomona-Pitzer, 35-28 to Chapman.
Canning the coaches now gives the school plenty of time to look for quality successors but it also gives those coaches time to find other employment so they can do what is best for their families.
Soccer games don't get much better than the one between the women's teams from Cypress and San Bernardino Valley College which took place today.
The Wolverines (18-1-3) won it in penalty kicks after the teams battled through regulation and two overtimes tied at 1. SBVC had to play a man down for most of the second half and the OT's after a second yellow card to Angelina King.
The game got a little chippy, especially in the second half which led to some hard feelings on each side. SBVC got the short end because it had a player disqualified. The referee did nothing when a player from each tumbled to the ground, then the player from Cypress grabbed a fist full of jersey to prevent the SBVC player from getting up. Our photographer got a great picture of that!
A bit later the goalkeeper from Cypress shoved SBVC's Ruby Leon after a play in which Leon was racing toward the goal and been denied.
Give the SBVC team credit for playing through the adversity of being a person down for the better part of 50 minutes.
Then it went to penalty kicks, 11 for each team.Even the goalkeepers had to kick them. I can't think they have much practice kicking them, They usually have to focus on stopping them.
SBVC keeper Bianca Contreras was one of the heroes for the Wolverines. She made a penalty kick and stopped four, one of those to end the marathon game.
Crystal Sanchez had SBVC's goal in regulation and made her two penalty kicks in the shootout. Jensen Keith and Lauren Evans were stellar on defense all afternoon.
It's been a pretty good fall sports season at San Bernardino Valley College.
The men's cross country team came back from Fresno on Saturday with yet another state championship. That's five in a row and counting. That streak seems like it will go on as long as Wes Ashford is there as coach. This one was a little closer than the others but the streak is still in tact.
The football team went 7-4 overall. The Wolverines were 7-3 in the regular season and finished first in the American Division Mountain Conference. They lost a Bowl game on Saturday at L.A. Pierce but it doesn't take away from a fine season, led by the record-breaking showing of Kristin James.
It's hard to believe this team was 0-10 two years ago.
The women's soccer team is 17-1-3 with three straight Foothill Conference titles. They won a first-round playoff game on Saturday and host Cypress at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
Those teams all have fine coaches that have done a lot with modest resources. It also goes to show you can win with local talent.
The Cal State San Bernardino volleyball team did what was expected and chalked up a 15-22, 25-22, 25-14 win over Seattle Pacific in the NCAA Division II West championship match at Coussoulis Arena.
Seattle Pacific was tough, especially for a team that before this season had never won a playoff game in school history. But the focused Coyotes were on a mission and no team was going to stand in the way.
The Coyotes won all three of their regional matches 3-0 and 23 of their 28 wins this season have come in sweeps.
Nicole Moore had 15 kills and Samantha Middleborn 10. Both made the All-Tournament team along with fellow Coyotes Camille Smith, Megan Johnson and Jane Chafeh.
Seattle Pacific has a nice freshman middle blocker in Nikki Lowell, who hails from Claremont. She had nine kills, three solo blocks and six block assists. Look for her to lead the Falcons back next year.
Now its on to nationals for the Coyotes. Their next opponent . . . Concordia St. Paul. That's the same team that beat them in a five-set thriller in 2008 and the national semifinal in 2009.
The good thing for the Coyotes is that there will be no packing of the winter garb for a trip to Minnesota. This year the event will be on neutral ground in Louisville, Ky. I like their chances.
After Saturday's match players talked about the match-up. They say they got a little too wrapped up in the revenge factor last year after the heartbreak the previous year. That only added to the pressure. This year they are just focused on their own game and won't let who they are playing distract from the ultimate goal.
Call that a lesson in maturity.
The Cal State San Bernardino volleyball team coasted past UC San Diego 25-14, 25-11, 25-23 in the NCAA West Region semifinal Friday at Coussoulis Arena. The Coyotes will face Seattle Pacific in the 7 p.m. title tilt on Saturday with a berth in the Elite Eight on the line.
That's pretty convincing. Think 6-0 in a soccer game or hockey game. It was that one-sided. The Coyotes played as well as they could possibly play in the first two games. The Tritons put up a mild fight in the third game to no avail.
Cal State (27-2 had a balanced attack as Nicole Moore had 10 kills and Jane Chafe nine. Then came Samantha Middleborn, Megan Johnson and Morgan Carty with seven each. That's hard to beat. You can't block five people. Johnson had seven block assists while Chafeh had a team-high 12 digs.
What was interesting was that both semifinals featured the most compelling rivalries in their respective conferences with Cal State and San Diego long time rivals in the California Collegiate Athletics Association with Western Washington and Seattle Pacific the equivalent in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
Seattle Pacific (26-2), led by Claremont High product Nikki Lowell, took a 3-2 win highlighted by15-11 finish in the pivotal game.
It will be interesting to see how the Falcons respond. It is the first time they have won a playoff game, let alone made it to the regional final. Cal State will be in the final for the 11th consecutive year with the balance of the roster have multiple appearances.
The Coyotes look like a determined bunch. Seattle Pacific will be a more formidable foe than what the Coyotes have seen the last two nights but it hasn't faced a foe the caliber of Cal State yet.
The Cal State San Bernardino volleyball team did as expected and defeated Brigham Young-Hawaii 3-0 (25-22, 25-14, 27-25) in the NCAA Division II west Region quarterfinal at Coussoulis Arena.
The first and third games were particularly entertaining. Give BYU credit for coming back in a the third game after getting pummeled in the second game. It was probably good for the Coyotes to get pushed a bit and should better prepare them for the matches that are to come.
Nicole Moore was the star on the night with 18 kills, including seven each of the first two games. Samantha Middleborn, named Most Valuable Player in the CCAA earlier in the day, added 10. Jane Chafeh had nine kills and 15 digs. Camille Smith, the topic of our feature story in Thursday's paper, delivered 35 assists, 11 digs and three block assists.
Next up are the semifinals. Cal State will play its rival UC San Diego, which had no trouble disposing of Sonoma State. The Coyotes have beaten the Tritons twice 3-0.
The 5 p.m. semifinal will pit Western Washington against Seattle Pacific.
The Cal State San Bernardino volleyball team is warming up for its NCAA West Region quarterfinal against Brigham Young-Hawaii. The Coyotes (25-2) are seeded first and ranked sixth nationally.
The first three quarterfinals are in the books. At the risk of being called a homer, I don't see a team that should beat the host Coyotes. And I did sit through all three earlier matches.
The other results:
No. 2 Seattle Pacific beat No. 6 Cal State Los Angeles 3-2 (25-23, 20-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-6)
No. 3 Western Washington beat No. 6 Alaska-Anchorage 26-24, 25-12, 20-25, 25-20)
No. 4 UC San Diego easily beat No. 5 Sonoma State 3-0 (24-23, 25-14, 25-17)
The most disappointing match was probably the Sonoma-San Diego showdown. You expect a match between the 4 and 5 seeds to be the best match of the day, not the worst. San Diego gets the winner of this last match. So probably an All-CCAA matchup.
Seattle Pacific didn't quite live up to billing. A No. 2 shouldn't need five games to dispatch a No. 7.
In the early match, Anchorage had a lot of trouble with serve receiving and passing. Now in the post-season that really shouldn't be an issue.
So it will be a conference rematch between Seattle Pacific and Western Washington.
A lot of these teams are young so expect most of them to be back next season. Sonoma and Anchorage have just one senior on their rosters. Seattle Pacific and San Bernardino have just two.
The Cal State San Bernardino men's basketball team had a chance to set the tone when it took the floor against Brigham Young-Hawaii in its season opener at Coussoulis Arena.
BYU is a traditional regional contender. Its conference is the worst of the three that make up the West Region and the Seasiders don't play a particularly strong schedule. They win when they stay on the island and struggle when they leave it.
So the game was important for the Coyotes. Beating in-region teams means a lot when rankings are tabulated at the end of the year and a site for the regional is determined. So the Coyotes missed a golden opportunity in losing 87-83 in overtime.
BYU didn't play particularly well. But the Coyotes played worse. They were out of sync from the opening tipoff and never got their act together. They were lucky to be close, really.
The Coyotes shot 38.7 percent but were just 8 for 28 from long distance. They had 22 turnovers and were out rebounded by 10.
There were missed free throws, including an air ball with 47 seconds left in regulation in a 1-point game. There were turnovers - lots of them. And there were the wrong people taking the wrong shots at the wrong time.
Is there potential? Definitely? But the Coyotes can't afford to get off to a bad start because the conference is loaded. And the bad news is that the Coyotes first CCAA game is against Cal State Dominguez, which just so happened to beat BYU by 27 on Monday.
Even more reason the Coyotes should have won. BYU was on the second night of a back-to-back. So that does not bode well.
David Jefferson scored 17 points and collected eight rebounds to lead Cal State. Aaron Hill and Corey Caston had 15 each but were a combined 6 for 20 from the field. Caston did have eight assists though.
Three players from Cal State San Bernardino and one from Cal Poly Pomona were among those named to the Division II Daktronics All-West Region Men's Soccer team.
The Coyotes (13-6-1), who won the CCAA South Division and were ranked as high as third nationally this season, were represented on the first team by sophomore goalkeeper Tanner Olinger and senior forward Obu Agwu. They also had junior defnder Brett Faggioni named to the second team.
Olinger recorded a goals-against average of 0.62, highlighted by nine shutouts. Five of those came consecutively near the end of the regular season.
Agwu, a graduate of Alta Loma High School, led the team in scoring with 12 goals and three assists. He was tied for first in the CCAA in goals and second in points.
Faggioni was an anchor in the defense that helped pitch nine shutouts.
The lone representative for the Broncos (10-7-1) is junior Luis Gonzalez who was named to the second team.
The transfer from Cerritos College led the CCAA in points (33) and tied for first in goals 12. He also broke a conference record with a 10-point game against Cal State Monterey Bay that included four goals and two assists.
It has been a tough few days on the University of Redlands campus.
The school announced on Monday that it had gotten word the All-SCIAC pitcher Olivia Ellis, the backbone of the Bulldogs pitching staff the last four years, had passed away unexpectedly. She had been part of four straight SCIAC title teams, graduating just last spring.
The school will hold a candlelight vigil at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday on the Softball "Field of Dreams" to honor her. Everyone is welcome to join her teammates and coaches at the field for a short program to celebrate Ellis' life.
Her her family has announced that services will take place on Nov. 24, which is Ellis' 22nd birthday, at Colfax High School.
Read more at GoRedlands.com.
Focused on turning the page and accomplishing new goals during the 2010-11 year, the Cal Poly Pomona men's basketball team will join the university community in Kellogg Gym Wednesday to reflect on the magical playoff run in March that ended in the program's first NCAA Division II title.
The Broncos begin their new campaign with a 7:30 p.m. home contest Wednesday against Pacifica. CPP traveled to Durham, N.C., and challenged Duke on Nov. 4, as the Broncos held the Blue Devils to a six-point lead at halftime before falling 81-60.
Last year, CPP went 1-1 during non-conference games before the conference schedule started up. This year, the matchup against Pacifica will be the Broncos' final tuneup before California Collegiate Athletic Association play begins with a Dec. 3 road game at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
Greg Kamansky begins his 11th year as CPP head coach and heading into the new season, the Broncos return a balanced offense with their typical energetic defense. Against Duke earlier this month, three CPP players scored in double figures: Tobias Jahn, Dwayne Fells and Matt Rosser.
Donnelle Booker, who was named a preseason Honorable Mention All-American by the Sporting News in September, helped the Broncos limit the Blue Devils' offense as the senior finished with seven points, six rebounds and three blocks.
It's official! Cal State San Bernardino will host the NCAA Division II West Region tournament which begins on Thursday.
The Coyotes (25-2) will be making their 11th straight regional appearance and will get No. 8 seed Brigham Young-Hawaii (16-7) in Thursday's quarterfinal. That's a favorable matchup for Cal State with BYU out of a Pac West Conference that isn'tparticularly strong in volleyball.
Of course the top-seeded Coyotes are playing so well it probably won't matter who they will be facing, They have won 12 straight matches and have an even more impressive streak of 43 wins on their home court.
If the Coyotes take care of business in their opener, they would face the winner of the quarterfinal featuring two CCAA teams - No. 5 Sonoma State and No. 4 UC San Diego. Cal State beat both those teams twice with scores of 3-0 each time.
The other bracket pits No. 3 Western Washington (19-3) against No. 6 Alaska-Anchorage (18-8) and No. 2 Seattle Pacific (24-2) against No. 7 Cal State Los Angeles (16-10).
The Cal Poly Pomona women's basketball team made its home debut on Sunday and had no trouble cruising past Dominican 80-55 at Kellogg Gymnasium.
It was really never a game. The visitors led 14-10 nine minutes in but the Boncos dominated after that. The Penguins has 29 turnovers. You're not going to win many games when you can't handle the ball.
The star was senior forward La'Kenya Simon-West who netted a career-high 22 points with six rebounds, and three steals. Simon-West came off the bench last year and was used primarily as a three-point specialist.
Reyana Colson and Megan Ford added 16 points each. Colson had hre normal solid all-around game with five rebounds, six assists and five steals.
The Dominican team also included a local in Don Lugo graduate Kayla Valentine, a freshman guard, who had six points.
The University of Redlands football team will not be going to the playoffs.
The Bulldogs finished a stellar season 8-1, the lone loss coming to Cal Lutheran 24-22 in the first week of SCIAC play. Even that early it looked as if that loss would be costly and it was because the Kingsmen ran the table in the conference to claim the automatic bid.
In football second place in the SCIAC has historically not been good enough for an at-large bid. In Mike Maynard's two decades directing the Bulldogs a second place team has not gotten in the playoffs.
Geography hurts the West coast teams when it comes to football. Linfield (Ore.) was the lone representative out of the Northwest Conference. It had a solid second place team too in Pacific Lutheran (8-1), which is ranked nationally, and it didn't make the playoffs either. So in all likelihood, Redlands probably wasn't close.
It's too bad for the 24 Redlands seniors, particularly ones like Dan Selway and Mike Nicolini who have been the backbone of the program in recent years. At least the Bulldogs went out in memorable fashion with Selway scoring on a 2 yard run with 1:19 left for a 21-17 win over Chapman on Saturday at Ted Runner Stadium.
They gave it their best shot. Now it's up to Cal Lutheran to represent the SCIAC.
The Cal State San Bernardino volleyball team put the exclamation point on the regular season easily turning back UC San Diego 25-14, 25-19, 25-18 tonight at Coussoulis Arena.
This wasn't a typical Coyotes-Tritans throw down. Matches between the two teams have always been filled with intensity heightened by the fact that there is always a lot on the line. But the Coyotes wrapped up the CCAA title long ago.
Cal State (25-2, 21-1) finished six games ahead of second-place San Diego. Yes they are that much better than all the other teams in the CCAA which was a little down this year as a whole.
Cal State's two seniors were solid in their last regular season match. Nicole Moore tallied 12 kills and Jane Chafeh contributed nine with 10 digs. Samantha Middleborn added nine kills. On the weekend Middleborn had 18 kills and no attack errors. That's a pretty amazing stat given that the Coyotes were playing the No. 2 and 3 teams in the conference and not some cellar dwellar.
The announcement on the West Regional will be made at 7 p.m. on Sunday. Cal State was ranked first in the region and doesn't figure to drop so it should be hosting.
My educated guess as to the other teams that will get into the field are San Diego, Sonoma State and Cal State Los Angeles from the CCAA, Western Washington, Seattle Pacific and Alaska Anchorage from the Great Northwest Athletics Conference and Hawaii Hilo out of the Pacific West.
If that were to be the field, seven of the eight teams were in the field last year.
It's the last week of play for area college football teams but only a couple have anything on the line.
The most important game will have San Bernardino Valley College (6-3, 4-0) traveling to East Los Angeles (4-5, 3-1) for a 6 p.m. showdown with a win bringing the Wolverines an American Division Mountain Conference title. Coach Kevin Emerson's squad is already guaranteed its first winning season since 1998.
Emerson inherited an 0-10 team in 2009 and went a respectable 5-5 last year in his first at the helm. Now he's on the brink of a conference title. That's a quick turnaround.
The other team with something on the line is the University of Redlands. The Bulldogs (7-1) will be hosting nonconference foe Chapman at 1 p.m.
Coach Mike Maynard's team can not earn a SCIAC automtic bid because of its head-to-head loss to Cal Lutheran. So Maynard is hoping for an at-large berth. It's a stretch though. A SCIAC runner-up hasn't gotten one in at least the last 20 years. I have a hard time believing it will happen this year either.
The Peace Pipe game will see Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (6-2, 3-2) cross the street to face Pomona-Pitzer (1-7, 1-4) for a 1 p.m. neighborhood tussle. It's all about bragging rights.
The University of La Verne (0-8, 0-5) will face Whittier, also at 1 p.m. If the Leopards don't pull it off they're going to have to go through another off-season thinking about an 0-9. La Verne has lost 19 straight games but maybe there is something in that fact that the last time the Leos one back in 2008, Whittier was also the foe.
Chaffey rounds out the regular season by hosting Antelope Valley at 6 p.m. I am guessing this goes down to the wire. It shouldn't. The Panthers have way more talent. But every other Chaffey game has followed that pattern.
Victor Valley (2-7) will be at Mt. San Jacinto. Coach Dave Hoover is just happy this season is about over.
University of Redlands freshman wide receiver Taylor Irwin has been named SCIAC Male Athlete of the Week for his contributions in the Bulldogs' 26-14 victory over Whittier on saturday.
Irwin racked up 102 yards on nine catches, including a long of 21 yards, during Redlands' final SCIAC game of the 2010 season. He posted two touchdowns, which came off of 14-yard and 13-yard strikes into the Poet end zone.
The freshman receiver has totaled 393 receiving yards on 28 catches for 56.1 yards per game. He currently leads the 7-1 Bulldogs in scoring with 36 points on his rookie season.
Redlands wraps up the regular season on Saturday by playing host to the Panthers of Chapman University in a non-conference bout at 1 p.m.
Junior forward Courtney Carroll of the University of Redlands women's basketball program garnered D3hoops.com Preseason All-America honors. She is the sole representative from the West Coast on the five-woman First Team.
Following the 2009-10 season, Carroll landed on the D3hoops.com All-America Third Team for her impressive contributions during the Bulldogs' historical run, which included winning the regular-season and postseason tournament titles before advancing to the NCAA Championships for the first time in school history.
During 28 games played last season, she led the team with 18 points and 9.2 rebounds per game while boasting double-doubles in half of the contests. She broke the Redlands record for blocks in a season with 45, surpassing the previous mark by eight. Overall, she knocked down 81.8% of her free throws, going 148-for-181 at the line. Carroll also contributed to her teammates' success by supplying 53 assists to go along with 27 steals.
Carroll also landed on the D3hoops.com All-West Region First Team as a sophomore and was named to the D3hoops.com West Region Rookie of the Year in 2009.
For a complete list of this year's Preseason All-America selections, please log on to www.d3hoops.com.
The Bulldog women's basketball team tips off the regular season with a non-conference bout against La Sierra University on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Currier Gym.
It was good news and bad news for the Cal State San Bernardino men's soccer team.
The Coyotes (13-5-1) made the postseason for just the third time in history. The bad news, though, is losses in the last two matches cost the Coyotes the right to host a game, so they'll be hitting the road.
Chico State will host the Super Region 4. The Coyotes will be facing Pacific West champion Grand Canyon (14-2-2) at 4 p.m. Friday in the first round while the host Wildcats (13-6) will play CCAA North foe Sonoma State (14-5-1) at 7 p.m.
"Our guys are excited about the opportunity," said Cal State San Bernardino coach Noah Kooiman, this year's CCAA Coach of the Year. "It's a little disappointing we're not hosting, but it's the playoffs. "We got a taste of it last year, so we're better prepared this time around."
The Coyotes have been ranked as high as No. 3 in the country and were No. 1 in the West Region the last three weeks, but Cal State lost its regular-season finale to Cal State Dominguez Hills 1-0 and its CCAA tournament semifinal to Sonoma State 1-0.
Sonoma State won the event by beating Dominguez in the final. Kooiman thinks Sonoma State winning tipped the hosting right to Chico. Had Dominguez gotten in, the South would have had two teams and the Coyotes likely would have been the host team.
"We'll never know, but that's how we think it would have worked out," Kooiman said.
It will be the third playoff berth for the Coyotes, who were beaten last year by Cal State Los Angeles 5-3. The previous berth was in 1991, when the school was competing at the Division III level.
The Coyotes haven't played Grand Canyon this season. They defeated Chico State 2-1 and lost to Sonoma State twice, 3-1 and 1-0.
Division III women's soccer
Surprise SCIAC tournament winner University of Redlands has drawn a first- round playoff matchup against Chapman on Thursday.
The Bulldogs (10-9) were seeded fourth for the SCIAC tourney but earned the conference playoff berth by upsetting top- seeded Cal Lutheran and No. 2 Occidental in the conference tournament.
Redlands hasn't given up a goal in more than 285 minutes dating back to its 5-0 victory over Whittier on Oct. 30. It has seven shutouts.
Chapman (12-6), which competes as an independent, gained one of 21 Pool B/C bids to the NCAA tournament. It defeated Redlands 3-2 in nonconference play earlier this season.
Division III men's soccer
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (14-3-2) will be the SCIAC's lone postseason representative and compete in a four- team sectional. The Stags will play host team Texas-Tyler University (12-3-1) on Saturday.
The winner of that game will face the winner of the game between Trinity-Texas and Pacific.
Claremont-Mudd finished second to the University of Redlands in the regular season but upended the Bulldogs 1-0 in the SCIAC tournament to earn the automatic bid.
Division III volleyball
For the first time since 1999, the University of La Verne will not be participating in the postseason.
Regular-season champion Cal Lutheran won the SCIAC's automatic bid by also winning the conference tournament.
The Leopards (19-11) were 11-9 in mid- October but went 8-2 over their last 10 matches to make a push for an at-large bid, then lost the tournament finale to Cal Lutheran.
West Region representatives Cal Lutheran, Colorado College and Whitworth each received automatic bids into the 63-team field by virtue of winning their respective conferences. Puget Sound (18-6) earned the West's lone at-large berth.
Cal State Los Angeles middle blocker Marquis Mora has been named Molten/California Collegiate Athletic Association Women's Volleyball Player of the Week for the week of Nov. 1-7.
Mora, a sophomore from Rancho Cucamonga, played big in the middle as the Eagles defeated Cal State Dominguez Hills and No. 25 Cal State East Bay and lost to UC San Diego.
In 11 sets, she totaled 33 kills, 12 total blocks and posted an impressive .508 attack percentage. In 59 attack attempts, the Cal State L.A. sophomore had just three hitting errors.
In a three-game sweep of Cal State Dominguez Hills, Mora collected eight kills without an error, two block assists and recorded a .571 hitting perencetage. She followed that effort with 10 kills, four block assists registered a .625 attack percentage againt Cal State East Bay.
Mora, a graduate of Etiwanda High School, ended the week with 15 kills, six total blocks and a .414 hitting percentage in a five-set win over UC San Diego.
Molten CCAA Women's Volleyball Player of the Week:
Aug. 30 - Sept. 5: Roxanne Brunsting (UC San Diego)
Sept. 6-12: Roxanne Neely (Cal State East Bay)
Sept. 13-19 Rheann Fall (Cal State Monterey Bay)
Sept. 20-26: Lianne Vicchio (Cal State Stanislaus)
Sept. 27 - Oct. 3: Jane Chafeh (Cal State San Bernardino)
Oct. 4-10: Melanie Lashbrook (Cal State Monterey Bay)
Oct. 11-17: Roxanne Brunsting (UC San Diego)
Oct. 18-24: Ally Sather (Sonoma State)
Oct. 25-31: Roxanne Neely (Cal State East Bay)
Nov. 1-7: Marquis Mora (Cal State L.A.).
Well now the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos can turn the page on last season and get on with defending their CCAA, West region and national titles.
They represented quite well in a hostile environment on the big stage against the top Division team in college basketball, losing to Duke 81-60 at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Thursday.
The experience the Broncos have gained in their last two games will serve them well as they proceed. There can be no more pressure than playing for a national title on television or going toe-to-toe with one of the most storied programs in the country.
The Duke folks, their wacky fans and the media were all impressed with how the Broncos performed. It was quite an endorsement from knowledgeable basketball folks.
Perspective is interesting though. The local papers talked about a blowout. Well is 21 points really a blowout? It might be if its Duke vs. North Carolina or Wake Forest. Is 20 points really a blow out against a Division II school?
Cameron is smaller than one would think. It's one of those quaint old buildings with lots of history. And the Cameron Crazies were just as advertised. They are literally right on the backs of the writers on press row. At first I thought it was going to be annoying. It actually turned out to be quite amusing. The Crazy behind me was actually from Santa Cruz. Go figure! They know how to heckle without getting personal.
Covering smaller colleges is a great gig but it was great to get a taste of the big time too!
Well the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos ran out of gas and succumbed in the battle between reigning national champions, losing to Duke 81-60.
They trailed by just six at the intermission 39-33 but ran out of gas early in the second.
Duke led by as many as 31 at the 7:51 mark - 76-45. It got a little closer when Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski but in his subs late in the game. He was very complimentary of the Broncos afterward saying his team easily could have lost had it not started making some shots in the second half.
Tobias Jahn was the standout with 15 points and eight rebounds. Coach K said early his team didn't respect Cal Poly's ability to drive the ball inside against his bigger men.
Dwayne Fells added 12 and Matt Rosser 10. Donnelle Booker had seven points, six rebounds and three blocked shots.
Duke hit just 2 of 15 tries from long distance. Must have been that Cal Poly match-up zone.
Duke All-American Kyle Singler finished with 14 points and five rebounds after being held to one bucket and one rebound in the first half.
The team is flying out Friday at 2:30 p.m. but a coach's work is never done. Cal Poly coach Greg Kamansky will be leaving at 8 a.m. because he has to be back for a fundraiser later in the day.
Well so much for that.
Duke has asserted its will and its now 76-45 with 7:15 to go.
Donnelle Booker, Matthew Rosser and Mitchel Anderson all have four fouls. That's what happens when you only carry 10 players and you're playing a major Division I school with lots of bigs
Duke has gotten the majority of its second half points on fast-break points. A 12-0 run put it up 63-40. The highlight of that run were back-to-back alley-oop dunks by Ryan Kelly and Nolan Smith that made it 61-40 and raised the noise level at Cameron Indoor considerably.
No matter what happens the Broncos can be proud of how they handled themselves, both on and off the court. They represented the school, the CCAA and Division II basketball quite well.
The Cal Poly Pomona Broncos are acquitting themselves quite nicely in their battle against Division I juggernaut Duke.
It's 39-33 Duke at the half. Who would have thought the Broncos could keep it that close. It's not like Duke isn't playing their starters either.
Duke's biggest lead was 30-16 at 9:28.
Tobias Jahn is the star this far. He has 13 points and five rebounds. Matt Rosser had eight with Dwayne Fells, Kevin Menner and Donnelle Booker each adding four. Menner, a transfer from Cal State Northridge, also has seven rebounds. Booker has two blocks.
Duke had five guys that are 6-10 and the Broncos have out rebounded them 23-17. A lot of those are hustle rebounds.
Duke is 15-for-31 from the field while Cal Poly is 15-for-38.
Blue Devils All-American Kyle Singler has two points and one rebound in 19 minutes.
Well we're at the first time out at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the battle of the Division I and II champions. So far so good for the Broncos. It's 10-10. Who would have thought?
The Broncos started out strong and scored on a layup by Tobias Jahn off the opening tipoff. Intimidated they're not.
Jahn has six points and Dwayne Fells has four. Jahn even lowered his shoulder and elbowed his way past 6-10 Mason Plumlee for his second hoop. He looks more physical than he ever did in the past.
Fells just knocked a Duke defender to the floor going for an offensive rebound.
Now 17-14 Duke with 12:25 left in the half.
Second timeout of the game and it's 21-14 Duke with 11:51 left in the half.
The Broncos are holding their own. But they're not getting any calls. They know better than to expect one though!
Well its about an hour from tipoff at Cameron Indoor Stadium where the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos will face the ultimate test - reigning Division I champion Duke!
The Broncos were already out and had their warm-up and are now back in the locker room. The Duke players are now out shooting. They have a lot of very big players. David vs. Goliath it is!
The fans have started streaming in and the pep band is warming up about 10 feet away. The fans are so close to press row they can read what I'm typing. I have a feeling it is going to get real loud in here real soon.
Duke has 10, count them 10, assistant coaches.
I had lunch with the team at 3 p.m. Donnelle Booker said his injured left hand is doing better. It wasn't wrapped but he still plans to get an X-ray on Monday.
The players aren't that impressed with the Duke campus or they like University of North Carolina more. They walked around the Chapel Hill campus yesterday, touring the Deandome as well as that school's basketball Hall of Fame. They were very impressed by that,
Broncos coach Greg Kamansky was hoping to talk to his counterpart - the other Coach K after his team's shoot around yesterday since the Blue Devils were practicing right after. But THE coach K didn't make an appearance until long after the Broncos left.
So I don't feel so bad that I was told earlier in the week he wasn't available to the media for even five minutes.
Bad news from Durham, N.C., where the Cal Poly Pomona men's basketball team is preparing to play Division I juggernaut Duke
Senior forward Donnelle Booker injured his hand during the two-hour practice at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday. Coach Greg Kamansky said the Cajon High School product is going to try and play because this is the chance of a lifetime. But how long he will play and how effective he will be is anyone's guess.
Kamansky said the injury occurred when Booker went to block a shot. He fears the hand is broken which would likely end his season. There is considerable swelling and Booker will have an X-ray when the team gets back to Southern California.
Losing Booker would be devastating because the Broncos only carry 10 players to begin with he is the most experienced player on the roster, now in his fifth year. Booker has already been out one year, injuring his knee in 2008-2009 - his true junior year,
Well it's a little less than 24 hours before the Cal Poly Pomona men's basketball team takes on perhaps the biggest juggernaut in the college game - Duke.
It will be Division I champion vs. Division II champion. Just what is the difference. I guess we'll see. But obviously no one is expecting the Broncos to come within 50 points.
Duke played another Division II team on Saturday - St. Augustine's (NC). Not a great D2 team, but a solid one. The final - 141-68. St. Augustine's trailed 16-1 and 30-3 and didn't get its first field goal until eight minutes into the game.
That can happen when a smaller school gets thrown onto that kind of stage. A few years back Cal State San Bernardino squared off against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. It wasn't quite that ugly,but it was pretty ugly in the first half with the Coyotes definitely playing with that "deer in the headlights" look.
We'll see how the Broncos do. They have always prided themselves on poise under pressure. Making big shots when it matters is what they do, even after the personnel changes. But this is no ordinary situation. Greg Kamansky is a great coach and he'll have his team ready - or as ready as they could possibly be.
The Broncos have nothing to lose. The exposure will be great for the program no matter what the result. It will also, no doubt, be the thrill of a lifetime for the nine Bronco players, as well as the coaching staff.
The Cal Poly Pomona cross country teams will host the 2010 California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships this weekend at Whittier Narrows Regional Park.
In the 2009 conference championships on the men's side, the Broncos finished second to Chico State. The Wildcats enter this year's meet as the favorite once again, with CSUC holding the top spot in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association (USTFCCA) West Region rankings.
"It's going to take a championship attitude and a championship race from our team," CPP head coach Troy Johnson said. "We've prepared the best we can. The rankings don't matter at this point, it's all about what happens Saturday."
The Broncos will look to carry over their momentum from last month into November, after CPP took first at the UC San Diego Triton Classic while topping CCAA rival UCSD by five points. Leading the Broncos in that race was senior Matthew Prentice, who put together CPP's top time in that event for the second-straight year.
This Saturday's men's race will start at 9 a.m., while the women's event begins at 10 a.m.
Scouting the Field
Aside from Chico State holding the top spot in the latest USTFCCCA regional poll, four other CCAA squads are featured in the rankings. The Broncos are ranked No. 6, the Tritons of UCSD are at No. 7, Humboldt State stands at No. 8 and San Francisco State holds the final No. 10 spot. The Wildcats' top returner is senior Brett Handa, who finished second in last year's championships behind teammate Jimmy Elam. UCSD's top runner is Jesse Morrill and in the Triton Classic about a month ago, he placed just ahead of Prentice.
Past Postseasons
After a second-place finish in the 2009 CCAA Championships, the Broncos went on to compete at the NCAA Division II West Regionals held at San Francisco State. There, CPP took fifth with 129 points, as CSUC finished first with 42 points. This season, the D-II regional event will be held at Lake Padden Park in Bellingham, Wash., with Western Washington hosting. The last NCAA Championships appearance for the CPP men's cross country team came in 2006, when the Broncos finished 17th overall.
About the Course
Whittier Narrows Regional Park is the site of both this weekend's meet and the CCAA Championships. The park holds Legg Lake, which is circled by the runners as part of the 8,000-meter men's course. If using a map service online, the address of 600 Santa Anita Ave., Whittier, CA, is approximately the parking lot that is set up for race visitors.
For the Cal Poly Pomona fans unable to make the cross-country trip to Durham, N.C., for Thursday's exhibition game, there will be a couple of different ways to follow the action between the Division II champion Broncos and the Division I champion Blue Devils.
If you're close enough to campus, the live video feed will be played in the Center Court area of the Bronco Student Center. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. on Thursday.
If you want to watch the game in the comfort of your own home, go online to GoDuke.com and sign up for their Inside Access package, which will give you the live webcast on your computer for a $10 fee.
Thursday's exhibition game at Cameron Indoor Stadium pits, based on the preseason poll, the best of Division I against the best of Division II. Duke amassed a 35-5 record en route to capturing the D-I title with a 61-59 win over Butler in Indianapolis, Ind.
Cal Poly Pomona closed the 2009-10 conference slate on a 13-0 tear and despite suffering a loss in the California Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament, rebounded to win its next six games and capped off that run with a 65-53 victory over Indiana (Pa.) to secure the D-II national championship.
The Broncos ended the historic year with an overall record of 28-6, marking the highest win total for the program.
Entering the 2010-11 campaign, Duke earned the No. 1 spot in the USA Today/ESPN preseason coaches poll and CPP is ranked first in the Division II Bulletin preseason poll.
Directions to the Bronco Student Center
The campus has easy access from 10 and 57 Freeways.
The Bronco Student Center (BSC) is a short walk from the Parking Booth located in the main parking lots C & D. Please inquire at the Visitor Information/Parking Booth how to get to the BSC.
From 10 San Bernardino Freeway
1. Exit: Kellogg Drive
2. Coming East, turn right at the end of the exit ramp.
3. Coming West, turn left at the end of the exit ramp.
4. Continue on Kellogg Drive past University Drive and Red Gum Lane until you get to the parking booth and park as directed by the attendant at thebooth.
Campus Parking is $5
From 57 Orange Freeway
1. Exit: Temple Ave.
2. Coming North, turn left at the top of the exit ramp.
3. Coming South, turn right at the end of the exit ramp.
4. Continue on Temple Ave. going over railroad tracks, past Valley Blvd.
5. Turn right at South Campus Drive signal.
6. Turn left at Kellogg Drive signal.
7. Continue until you get to the parking booth and park as directed by the attendant at the booth.
Campus Parking is $5
About Michelle
Michelle Gardner has been a staff writer for The Sun and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin since 2002 and has covered the local college sports scene since 2004. She ventured West after working at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale for eight years and is a graduate of the University of Florida.
E-mail Michelle here.
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