Putting up goose eggs

Fate can be so cruel. Orange Coast College’s women’s volleyball

team is ranked No. 1 in the state according to the most recent

California College Women’s Volleyball Top 25 Coaches Poll released

Wednesday, the same day, virtually hours, before the Pirates lost

their first match on the season to Fullerton at OCC, to fall to 14-1,

8-1 in the Orange Empire Conference.

Here’s where the cruel part comes in -- just a couple of hours

after I turned this column in to my editor, as in 9:30 p.m.

Wednesday, he hands me a faxed game account with a quirky smile and

said, “Your column won’t run until Friday.”

I was ready to gloat on the Pirates’ undefeated season so far.

Heck, I even had it in my headline, lead and sequential paragraphs.

But enough about my life, let’s get on to the meat of the matter

-- the success of the women’s team this season.

The Pirates sit in front of second-place Moorpark of the Western

State North Conference, who have tallied a 13-1 record this season.

Golden West, at 8-5, jumped five spots to No. 7 in the state from

a No. 12 ranking and is ranked fourth in Southern California. The

Rustlers are the only other OEC team besides Orange Coast to crack

the state’s top 10 this week. Irvine Valley College sits at 11th in

the state with a 10-4 mark.

The Pirates have put up startling numbers so far.

Freshman outside hitter Melissa Zapiain leads the team in three

categories -- kills (220), solo blocks (28) and digs (161), but she

has much help coming from players like Krystle Davis, who leads the

team with 37 service aces and has racked up 151 kills, Kelly Overby

with 121 kills, Elisha Counts and her 452 assists, Jessica Lingo

(second to Zapiain in digs with 82) and Casey Petersen (second to

Zapiain in solo blocks with 28).

During the Pirates run they have only lost 10 games and won 42.

One of the keys to the Pirates success could rest with the lineups

Coast puts on the floor. The Pirates have not used the same starting

lineup two matches in a row yet this season, which could give

opposing teams problems in scouting the Pirates.

And every player contributes, said Coast head coach Chuck

Cutenese.

“People are contributing more now that at the beginning of the

year,” he said. “We have 14 talented players. But one of the things I

stress now is that we’re turning toward the second round of the

season and are ranked No. 1 so people are going to be gunning for

us.”

(Irvine Valley College) is fighting for second place with

Fullerton and Cypress and Riverside all battling to try to get at

least fourth place (in the OEC) for a berth in the playoffs, he

added.

Cutenese said he has learned from last season.

“One of the things I learned from last year is that we overlooked

people in the second round and struggled to beat that team, so this

year it’s one opponent at a time,” Cutenese said.

Coast lost to Golden West in three games for the state

championship last season and finished with a 22-3 record.

Coast enters the second half with several players nursing nagging

injuries such as Davis, who has tendinitis in her ankle, Janelle

Jeremiah with an injured foot that Cutenese said is healing and

Jessica Lippi with back spasms.

The injuries didn’t seem to bother Lippi and Jeremiah in Coast’s

three-game victory over Santa Ana Friday. Lippi led the Bucs with

four service aces and Jeremiah led the Pirates with seven digs.

“They’re all limited as far as jumping ability, but how do you not

jump in volleyball?” Cutenese said. “They’re working on passing and

defense. We’re trying to get the most out of people without injuring

them further. With three weeks left, we’re trying to stay focused and

give the (injuries) time to heal in preparation for the second round

of the season.”

Lippi has tallied 242 assists and 36 blocks (solo and unassisted

combined) and Jeremiah ranks third on the team with 94 digs.

*

Ten Orange Coast College student athletes maintained a 4.0 grade

point average in their respective sport’s season to head the 152

Pirate student-athletes that made the college’s Athletic Honor Roll

for the 2001-02 academic year which amounts to 35% of the 440

athletes who competed for OCC’s 24 men’s and women’s teams in the

2001-02 school year.

Women’s golfer Lauren Johsz, football player Robbie Pate and

women’s volleyball player Melissa Roberts maintained a 4.0 during the

fall season while Amali Cardenas, Nicholas D’Antoni, Jeff Shepard,

Alan Twigg and Steve Wukawitz, all of the men’s crew team and women’s

crew members Bernadette Sanicola and Jennifer Vigneault made 4.0

during the 2002 spring sports season.

Of the 152 student-athletes, 142 had GPA’s between 3.0 and 3.9

with 65 students making the honor roll for fall 2001 and 87 for the spring.

Coast’s athletic department released the list in October. In order

to qualify for the honor roll, students had to maintain at least a

3.0 GPA during the season of their sport and each student had to

complete a minimum of 12 academic units during the season.

*

Newport Beach resident Bob Schermerhorn, an assistant to longtime

UC Irvine head men’s basketball coach Bill Mulligan (1980-91), is the newest entrant into the California Community College Men’s Basketball

Coaches Hall of Fame.

Schermerhorn went 247-135 at Chaffey and Riverside colleges from

1979-98 with four state final appearances. He was an assistant to

Mulligan during Mulligan’s tenure at UCI that saw the Anteaters make

the first round of the National Invitation Tournament in 1982 and

1986.

Mulligan will introduce Schermerhorn at the Hall of Fame luncheon

in March. Schermerhorn currently serves as Riverside College’s

athletic director.