Notebook : Buena Ambushes Monarchs Again

Mater Dei girls’ basketball Coach Mary Hauser predicted last week that her team would need to be 15 points better than Ventura Buena on Saturday because she expected a battle from a large partisan crowd, officials and the second-ranked Southern Section Division I team.

She apparently knew what she was talking about.

Buena beat Mater Dei--which was ranked No. 1 in Division I and in the state--for the second time in two years, 55-48, in front of about 1,500, most of them Bulldog fans.

Buena also beat Mater Dei in last year’s Division I-A title game, 50-41.

This year’s loss dropped Mater Dei to 17-1.

If that wasn’t enough of a downer, Hauser’s weekend was compounded by root canal surgery on Friday. Saturday’s three-hour bus trip didn’t help, and neither did her team’s performance. On Sunday, when her whole lower face swelled, she needed an emergency dental appointment to drain two root canals that still were infected.

“Childbirth was more painful,” Hauser conceded, “but this was the second-most amount of pain I’ve ever felt in my life.”

As for the game itself, Hauser said before the season began that she would be happy to win two of three games against Mission Hills Alemany, Brea Olinda and Buena--which the Monarchs accomplished.

“They’re the best team we’ve played all year,” Hauser said of Buena. “They’re exactly like Woodbridge--they’re big, strong and physical.

“Any time you lose, you can use it as a learning tool. . . . I think we learned you don’t just show up and expect to win.”

Someone who might be an emerging star for the Monarchs is sophomore Lori Hurlbut. She was averaging six points before scoring 16, 10 and 12 points in the last three games--twice making four three-point baskets.

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A team in perpetual foul trouble because of its numbers, first-year, 70-student Fairmont won its girls’ basketball game Thursday against Pasadena Imperial, 37-35, despite playing the final 4 1/2 minutes with four players. The free-lance Huskies (3-1) had an 11-point lead, 35-24, when its 6-foot-1 center, Katy Barstow, fouled out.

Six of the team’s seven players are freshmen; one was academically ineligible and the team’s only sophomore missed the game.

Sara Mohkami (averaging 17 points, 11 rebounds) scored the decisive basket while the Huskies led, 35-31. Morgan Cottrill stole an inbounds pass with 9.9 seconds left to seal the victory.

“The girls did a nice job of managing the clock,” Coach Scott Eskelson said. “They only scored two points, but they wasted enough time to hold them off.”

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After El Toro girls’ basketball Coach Carol Murphy delivered her first child, Ryan Michael, by Cesarean section on Jan. 12, she received an unexpected surprise. After missing two games to recover, Murphy was preparing for the Jan. 19 Irvine game when, less than four hours before tipoff, she was informed by the Saddleback Unified School District office that she could not coach that night--or the rest of the season.

The situation, according to the second-year coach: Murphy, an opportunities assistant at El Toro (she teaches a study hall) could not receive maternity leave and a coaching stipend. She chose the maternity leave. However, the district also said she couldn’t volunteer her time as a coach (i.e., coaching for free) without forfeiting her maternity leave.

Of course, this is all very exasperating for Murphy, who readily admits that the district is well within its legal bounds.

“All I want to do is finish coaching the rest of my season,” she said. “If I’m not getting paid to coach, why can’t I just volunteer my time? (The month of) August is about the only time we’re not doing something, but we only get paid for Nov. 15 to February.”

First-year assistant Andrea Speaker has taken over the program; she is being paid by the booster club.

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Orange County swimmers were well represented on the United States Swimming Top 16 list, which was included in the January issue of U.S. Swimming.

The rankings are based on the fastest times recorded in the nation for the 1993-94 short and long course swimming seasons. For the girls, Wendy O’Brien of Irvine was ranked fifth in both the 50-yard freestyle (23.57 seconds) and the 100-yard freestyle (51.06). Katie Lowes of El Toro High was fourth in the 100-yard free (51.02). Other girls are Santa Ana Valley’s Amber Wines, who was ranked second in the 100-meter breaststroke and seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke; Nancy Jo of El Dorado High (200-yard free) and Alison Mijares of Marina (500-yard free).

For the boys, Bart Kizierowski of Mission Viejo High had the most rankings in individual events, the 50-, 100- and 200-yard freestyle, 100- and 200-yard backstroke and the 100-yard butterfly. Other boys listed are Mark Kwok of Laguna Hills (100-, 1,000-yard freestyle, 100- and 200-yard butterfly), Ahmad Filsoof of Mission Viejo (200-yard free); Tim Haney of Los Alamitos (200- and 500-yard free); Tim Martin of Kennedy (500-, 1,000- and 1,600-yard free); Karl Hyross of Mission Viejo (100-yard backstroke); Steve Ronson of Irvine (100-yard breaststroke); Sean Moore of Woodbridge (200-yard breaststroke); Phillipe Demers of Santa Margarita (100- and 200-yard butterfly).

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Sixteen players in Wednesday’s Sunset League boys’ soccer showdown between No. 1 Fountain Valley and No. 2 Edison should be familiar with each other; they played club soccer together over the last three years. Three of the 16, Edison’s Jon Ginnaty and Travis Clutter and Fountain Valley’s Joey Vasquez, have been teammates on two different club teams, North Huntington Beach in 1991 and Westminster in 1993 and 1994.

Both teams have 5-1 league records. The game, at Edison, begins at 3 p.m. It could also decide the top-seeded team in the Division I playoffs.

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Tustin (9-12, 1-5) is in danger of missing the girls’ basketball playoffs for the first time in its 21-year history. The Tillers’ leading scorer and best defensive player, Katie Scheuerman, is out for the season with a viral infection. She missed the last four games and was averaging 16.1 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Said Coach Rick Falk: “It’s the easy way to explain the five-game losing streak.”

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The Capistrano Valley Christian girls’ basketball season has taken an unexpected turn. Six-foot senior Lisa Bradberry, the team’s returning leading scorer, broke her foot in the first three minutes of the Eagles’ first game and has been sidelined since. Senior Karen Crary, expected to be the team’s top outside shooting threat, got in eight games before a season-ending ankle injury.

But junior Jessica Olivier (14.4 points, 16.6 rebounds) and sophomore point guard Hayley Hall have picked up the slack. Olivier even tied Bradberry’s school record with 23 rebounds in Saturday’s 42-36 victory over St. Margaret’s, and the Eagles (8-10, 4-2) are tied with Connelly for first place in the Academy League; they play host to Connelly on Saturday.

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Third-ranked Sonora has one of the county’s leading rebounders, center Craig Clark, and Raider Coach Mike Murphy hopes Clark will finish on top.

“If he’s thinking of getting rebounds,” Murphy said, “he’ll get easy offensive baskets.

“But I also think it would be great for him psychologically (to lead the county) since before this year (began), all he ever heard was he was big and tall and no good; that he played soft.”

Staff writers Erik Hamilton, Michael Itagaki, Dave McKibben and Mike Terry contributed to this story.