UCI’s Matyuch, Rabbitt Receive Postgraduate Aid

Former Cal State Fullerton basketball and softball player Jill Matyuch and UC Irvine distance runner Buffy Rabbitt have won $5,000 NCAA postgraduate scholarships.

Matyuch, who was named Fullerton’s female Big West Conference Scholar-Athlete her junior and senior years, is one of 17 Division I women athletes to be selected for the NCAA honor. She will be a graduate assistant coach for the women’s basketball team in 1991-92.

Only two other Titan athletes, gymnast Julie Goewey-Garcia in 1984-85 and softball player Kathy Van Wyk in 1982-83, have earned such honors.

Matyuch, an El Dorado High School graduate, earned her bachelor’s degree in communications in May, 1990, and expects to complete her master’s in communications in May, 1992. She played softball from 1988-91 and basketball from 1987-90.

Rabbitt, a five-time All-American in track and cross-country, is the first woman athlete from UC Irvine to receive the scholarship. She placed fourth in the NCAA cross-country championships last fall, the best finish by a UC Irvine female runner.

Rabbitt, a graduate of Newport Harbor High School, has a 3.43 grade-point average in psychology and comparative literature. She was a third-team academic All-American selection this year.