CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : If Soccer Loss Discounted, Titans in Contention for NCAA Berth

Big West Conference Commissioner Jim Haney has not completed his investigation of last Thursday’s bench-clearing brawl between the Cal State Fullerton and Nevada Las Vegas soccer teams, but there’s a good chance the game will be ruled a no-contest.

The decision hinges on referee Majid Jay’s game report, which is expected to be filed with the conference this morning. If Jay says he terminated the game in the final minute, as he told Fullerton officials he did Monday, the Titans’ 4-3 loss will be wiped off the record.

NCAA soccer rules state that if a referee terminates a game before time runs out, the game doesn’t count. It is then up to the conference or the schools to either forfeit or replay the game.

Fullerton Coach Al Mistri said he spoke Monday to Jay. “He said he terminated the game in the 89th minute, so it will be declared no game,” Mistri said. Jay did not return a call to him Monday.

If the defeat is cleared from Fullerton’s record, the Titans would be back in contention for the conference championship. If the loss stands, Fullerton would be 6-3 and two games behind Fresno State with one conference game remaining, Friday against the Bulldogs.

But if the Titans were to defeat Fresno State and UNLV in a rematch, Fullerton would tie Fresno State for the title and gain an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by virtue of their two victories over the Bulldogs.

However, Fullerton Athletic Director Bill Shumard said he would be hesitant about playing UNLV again considering hostilities between the teams. Each team was called for 23 fouls Thursday; there were six yellow (warning) cards, four for UNLV and two for Fullerton, and one Rebel player was ejected.

“If we beat Fresno State, then we’d look at how to replay the UNLV game,” Shumard said. “Al is uneasy about playing there again, and I have some strong concerns considering the volatile situation.”

Haney said he will hold a conference call with athletic directors from both schools today and hopes to have a ruling by the afternoon.

“It sounded ugly and I’m not happy about it,” Haney said. “Clearly, we’re going to try to get as much information as we can and take the appropriate steps.”

Looking Ahead: The football season has been another bust for the 1-7 Titans, who went 1-11 last year, but a little gleam comes back to Coach Gene Murphy’s eyes when talk turns to the new Titan Sports Complex and how it will affect recruiting this winter.

“This will be the first year we’ll be able to take a recruit on campus and say, ‘Hey, this is where we’re going to play,’ ” Murphy said. “I hope it helps, but how kids react, you don’t know. It depends on who else is recruiting them.

“To me, the new stadium is like the Taj Mahal--to a kid who’s been to Fresno State, San Jose State or Pacific (which have 30,000-seat stadiums) it’s just a 10,000-seat stadium. How he reacts depends on what pushes his buttons or how his buttons are pushed by opposing recruiters.”

Murphy said this will be his most important and most difficult recruiting year, not just because of the team’s poor records in 1990 and ’91 but also because of perceived instability in the program, which was nearly dropped last January.

The Titans again will focus primarily on community college players, and they’ll have at least one selling pitch to standout players: Come to Fullerton and you will play right away.

“That’s what we used last year and it worked, so we’ll do it again,” Murphy said. “But more times than not, that doesn’t work.”

Pleasant Surprise: Titan junior Kristen Peters turned in one of the most surprising performances of Saturday’s Big West Conference cross-country meet, finishing fourth in the women’s race, the best-ever individual finish by a Fullerton runner.

Peters had been running behind Titan freshman Heather Killeen all season, but Coach John Elders said she ran “the race of her life” Saturday. Peters covered the 5,000-meter course at New Mexico State in 18 minutes 35.8 seconds, 32 seconds behind winner Rayna Cervantes of UC Irvine. Killeen finished 10th in 19:22.5.

“It’s a big breakthrough,” Elders said of Peters, a San Dimas High School graduate. “She’s a real sleeper, but she’s been developing, getting better every year.”

Killeen was the pace-setter for much of the race and was third with about a mile to go before she faded. The former Valencia runner had hoped to finish in the top five.

“She might have went out too hard, and that took a little out of her,” Elders said. “But placing 10th as a freshman is nothing to sneeze at.”

Add Cross-Country: Steve Frisone was the top Titan men’s runner, placing 13th to lead Fullerton to a third-place finish, its best ever. Frisone covered the 8,000-meter course in 26:12.9, more than a minute behind winner Jamey Harris of Fresno State.

Elders said Jose Castellon (15th) and Marty Baratti (17th) ran their best races of the season, and all seven Titans passed at least one runner in the final half-mile to improve their team standing.

Titan Notes

A women’s volleyball-men’s basketball doubleheader will be played in Titan Gym Saturday night, with the volleyball team facing third-ranked University of the Pacific at 5 p.m. and the basketball team playing an exhibition game against the University of Victoria, British Columbia, at 7:30. The women’s basketball team will play its first exhibition against the Latvian national team Monday night in Titan Gym. . . . Sophomore volleyball player Becky Howlett ranks 16th in the nation in kills per game with a 4.51 average. Howlett has led the Titans (6-22) in kills in 24 of 30 matches and has moved into second place on the school’s career kill list with 1,131. . . . Initial X-rays on injured linebacker Chad Lindsay’s left shin were negative, but the senior, who is the team’s leading tackler and most consistent defensive player, probably will miss Saturday’s game at San Jose State. Cornerbacks B.B. Hudson (wrist) and Michael Brown (Achilles’ tendon) are questionable, and receiver Victory Prince, who fractured his clavicle against New Mexico State Saturday, is out for the season.