UCI volleyball signs 4

Cassidy Caprista, a 6-foot-5 middle blocker from Foothill High in

Pleasanton, Calif., tops a list of four who have signed national

letters of intent to continue their careers with the UC Irvine

women’s volleyball program in 2005, Anteaters Coach Charlie Brande

announced Friday.

Devon Sutherland, a 5-6 libero and setter from Santiago High in

Corona, Lauren Kellerman, a 5-10 outside hitter from Escondido High,

and Stephanie Thomas, a 6-4 middle blocker from Mission Prep in Shell

Beach, Calif., have also aligned their futures with UCI.

Caprista is rated one of the top 30 middle blockers in the country

by PrepVolleyball.com and one of the top 125 players in the nation by

the same web site.

Caprista led the Golden Bear Club to 10th place in the open 18

division of the USA Junior Olympics in Houston last summer.

Sutherland was the 2003 Amateur Athletic Union Beach Player of the

Year. She has earned all-tournament honors at the Junior Olympics in

the 15 and 16 open divisions and she represented the United States at

the FIVB Junior World Beach championship in Thailand last summer.

Kellerman was named Valley League Player of the Year as a junior

and team MVP as a senior. She is a three-time all-league selection

and is the school’s career leader in kills.

Thomas, her team’s MVP this fall, is a three-time All-Coast Sierra

League honoree.

“We’re very excited about the four incoming freshmen,” Brande

said. “They bring athleticism, size and a competitiveness that will

allow us to continue our growth as a volleyball program.”

Thune paces Lions

* CROSS COUNTRY: Vanguard University senior Jenny Thune earned

All-American honors by finishing 29th to lead the Lions to a

19th-place team finish at the NAIA women’s cross country

championships Saturday in Louisville, Ky.

Thune completed the 5,000-meter course in 18 minutes, 34 seconds.

It was the second-best national finish for a Vanguard woman, behind

Sherri Hall’s ninth-place effort in 1990.

Thune finished 34th at last year’s nationals, four spots away from

the final All-American nod.

Senior Liz Huipe, an Estancia High product, finished 55th in

19:04. It was 20 seconds and 45 places better than her performance at

nationals last fall.

Laura Bowman was 92nd in 19:35, junior Irma Gonzalez was 196th in

20:32 and Bridget Lonsdale was 242nd in 21:31.

Freshman Allison Kunkel did not score, but ran a personal best of

24:38.

“It was a real good day for us,” Vanguard Coach Bryan Wilkins

said. “We ran great and finished six places ahead of our ranking. It

was also the highest finish of any of our national qualifying teams.”

Eaters’ Erazo shines

* SWIMMING: Eddie Erazo finished fourth in the men’s 200-yard

butterfly Saturday to highlight UC Irvine swimmers competing on the

final day of the Speedo Cup at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

Erazo finished in 1 minute, 53.10 seconds.

The UCI women finished fourth in the team standings, while the UCI

men were fifth.