SportsScope : Cal Poly Women Cagers, Off to Sparkling Start, Face Fullerton

The Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball team, off to a start reminscent of its shining 1983-84 season, will try for its eighth consecutive win when it plays host to dangerous Cal State Fullerton in a non-conference game at 7:30 tonight at Poly Pavilion.

Fullerton dropped a 74-73 decision to Pomona on Nov. 29.

Pomona’s Broncos, two-time defending NCAA Division II champions, are 9-1 after winning the four-team Northern Arizona University Sizzler Classic last Saturday in Flagstaff. The Broncos won 10 of their first 11 games in 1983-84.

The Broncos play Southern Utah State at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Pomona before a two-week break.

Pomona will be favored in both games. Fullerton entered this week with a 2-4 record and Southern Utah State is 4-1.

Fullerton is led by center Cathi Hall, who averages 11.5 points, and forward Amy Torczon, who averages 11.8 points and 5.8 rebounds. Southern Utah is headed by forwards Sherrie Davies, who averages 16.6 points and 10.4 rebounds, and Darla Hunt, who averages 13.8 points.

Pomona features the inside play of 5-10 senior forward Debra Larsen, who averages 18.4 points and 12.2 rebounds, and the outside shooting of 5-6 senior guard Michelle McCoy, who averages 15.1 points and 6.6 assists.

“Larsen and McCoy are our inside and outside game,” Coach Darlene May said. “They are the backbone of our team. Larsen played well at the tournament.”

Larsen was named the most valuable player at the tourney with 49 points and 21 rebounds in victories over Fort Lewis of Colorado and Northern Arizona.

The Broncos have been bolstered by 6-2 freshman center Niki Bracken, a former Compton High standout who is averaging 13.2 points and 7.1 rebounds, sophomore forward Marcine Edmonds (6-0) and junior guard Paula Tezak (5-8).

May, who has posted a 320-79 record in 13 years at Pomona, said she has been impressed by the play of her reserves. “We are working with our bench and those people are coming along and getting stronger. Lisa Potts (6-2 senior) is playing well, and Cathy Gooden (5-5 sophomore) has been doing a good job.”

For the first time the Azusa Pacific University football team has landed three players on the NAIA Division II All-American first team.

Senior running back Christian Okoye (6-2, 255) also made the team last season. The others are senior nose guard Rod Price (6-1, 265) and senior offensive guard David Bumstead (6-3, 235).

Okoye was the top offensive player for the 5-2-2 Cougars. The fast and powerful back, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds, rushed for 1,680 yards and 21 touchdowns in 235 carries and averaged a nation-leading 186.7 yards rushing. He led NAIA Division II in scoring and rushing.

A three-year starter, Okoye rushed for a school-record 3,569 yards in his career. Azusa Pacific posted a 19-3-3 record when Okoye started.

Price, a two-year starter who was the team’s defensive leader, led the Cougars this season in quarterback sacks with seven and had 50 tackles, seven blocked passes and a fumble recovery. Bumstead was the team’s only four-year starter.

The Cal State Los Angeles women’s basketball team received its highest ranking since 1980, No. 3 in an NCAA Division II Western Regional poll last week.

The Golden Eagles, 7-1 after rolling to a 75-61 victory over Northern Colorado on Monday, are listed behind Cal Poly Pomona and UC Riverside.

Cal State, idle until the Big Sky Holiday Classic on Dec. 28 in Butte, Mont., played perhaps its best game in a 90-52 rout of UC Santa Barbara--its first Division I opponent--last week.

“It was one of the best displays of unselfish basketball I’ve ever seen,” Coach Fran Buckless said. “We moved the ball extremely well, doing it with confidence and poise. We played our game. It was great team basketball.”

The Golden Eagles have been led by 5-6 junior guard Geri Montanio, who averages 13.7 points and 5.1 assists, and 6-0 sophomore center Lupe Quintana, who averages 10 points and 11.1 rebounds. With 10 rebounds against Santa Barbara, Quintana moved up to No. 9 on the school’s all-time rebounding list.

Cal State has other players scoring in double figures in 5-8 junior guard Shelly Bowcutt, who averages 12.6, and 5-9 sophomore forward Monica Cansler, who averages 11.

San Gabriel High’s Rachel Norris may have received more attention for her basketball ability but has also developed into an outstanding volleyball player.

The 6-4 junior middle blocker, one of the top prep basketball players on the West Coast, heads San Gabriel Valley players named to the All-CIF 3-A volleyball team by coaches.

Junior outside hitter Colleen Moore of Maranatha was selected to the 1-A first team. Covina’s Dana Chalis, a senior middle blocker, made the 1-A second team.

In the Small Schools Division, senior hitter Leslie McCarroll of Pasadena Poly is a first-team selection and sophomore setter Monica Molina of Mayfield and senior middle blocker Joanna Stearns of Ramona Convent are second-team choices.

Five players from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference were selected to the All-West first team of the National Soccer Coaches Assn., NCAA Division III.

SCIAC champion Claremont-Mudd-Scripps placed midfielders Mike Thomas and Hong Chang and forward R. J. Romero. The others are halfback David Rodi from Pomona-Pitzer and forward Pete Gonsalves from La Verne.

Five SCIAC players earned second-team honors: La Verne midfielder Rod Wright and forward Onnig Deravedissian, goaltender Van Erick Stein of Caltech and forwards Sal Mota of Occidental and John Leusner of Pomona-Pitzer.

Among players selected to the Division I first team are goaltender David Jacques of Cal State Los Angeles and former Walnut High standouts Jeff Hooker and Paul Caligiuri of UCLA. Hooker is a forward and Caligiuri a halfback. Both are from Diamond Bar.

David Palic of Santa Clara, a former All-CIF Southern Section forward from La Salle of Pasadena, was named to the Division I second team.

After its best season in recent years, the Cal State Los Angeles women’s volleyball team has placed two players on the All-California Collegiate Athletic Assn. second team.

The Golden Eagles, who posted a 26-14 record and were ranked No. 17 in NCAA Division II, landed junior setter Tina Lei and freshman setter Marta Noriega.

Lei was named most valuable player of the Golden Gate Conference at DeAnza Community College last year, and Noriega, a standout from Quretaro, Mexico, played for the Mexican Junior National Volleyball Team that finished fourth in the 1981 World Junior Championships.

Former South Pasadena High Coach Jim Cherniss, women’s volleyball coach at Idaho State University for five years, has been named Mountain West Conference coach of the year.

Cherniss guided the Bengals to a 23-7 record, the conference title and the NCAA playoffs. It was their best record ever. Idaho State lost to top-ranked Pacific in the first round of the playoffs.

Cherniss, who has a 75-107 record at Idaho State, is expected to have a stronger team next season with five of six starters returning. One is junior Jill Cherniss, his daughter, who was a standout at South Pasadena.

The Muir High girls basketball team, which has finished second in the CIF 4-A Division the last three seasons, is seeded No. 2 in the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions that starts today.

The tournament includes many of the top teams in the state including Louisville of Woodland Hills, Gahr of Cerritos and Chino. Other strong clubs are defending Nevada state champion Reno and St. Patrick’s of Sarnia, Ontario, one of the top teams in Canada.

Muir, the only San Gabriel Valley team, has a first-round bye and will face the winner of today’s Lompoc-Thousand Oaks game at 5:15 p.m. Saturday.

The Mustangs, who finished 29-1 last year, have struggled to a 5-4 record. But Muir has talent in 6-3 junior center Tasha Bradley and 5-9 junior guard Angie Grant.

Louisville is top seed in the 13-team, double-elimination tournament that runs through Sunday.

Wilson High senior Tony Chanove is the only San Gabriel Valley player on the All-CIF 3-A Division water polo first team.

Muir placed sophomore Torey Culbertson and senior Hideo Franco on the 3-A second team and Wilson senior Kurt Robles and Los Altos sophomore Erick Peterson are third-team selections.