Briefs: UCI baseball players earn honors
UCI baseball honorees
Adam Alcantara, who will be a senior for the UC Irvine baseball team next spring, as well as incoming Anteaters freshman Christian Koss earned first-team All-West Coast League honors for summer competition.
Konnor Zickefoos, who has transferred to UCI after earning Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Year laurels as a freshman third baseman at Chapman University last season, and Cameron Bishop, who will be a senior in 2017, were named to the second team.
Koss, out of JW North High in Riverside, played second base for the Yakima Valley Pippins. He hit .306 with 22 runs batted in and 12 stolen bases in 13 attempts in 180 at-bats over 45 WCL games. He had one home run and scored 28 runs, though he did commit 16 errors and struck out 34 times.
Alcantara, a first-team All-Big West Conference performer as a junior, hit .333 with three home runs and 16 RBIs in 114 at-bats for the Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) HarbourCats.
Bishop, a left-handed pitcher voted by scouts as the top prospect in the WCL All-Star Game, posted a 1.45 earned-run average in 31 innings for the Corvallis (Ore.) Knights, who won the WCL crown.
Bishop, who made six starts and appeared in seven games, struck out 43 and allowed just 18 hits to fashion a 1-3 record. He started the deciding third game of the league championship series against Bellingham on Tuesday. He left the game in the fifth inning, trailing, 3-1, but his team rallied for a 6-4 triumph to capture the best-of-three series.
Bishop also had five hits and three runs batted in while appearing in 12 games as a hitter.
Zickefoose, who hit .423 with seven home runs and 38 RBIs for Chapman last season, hit .300 with 16 RBIs in 120 at-bats for the Gresham (Ore.) GreyWolves this summer.
— Barry Faulkner
— Barry Faulkner
UCI lands three
A pair of West Virginia transfers are among a three-player recruiting class for first-year UC Irvine women’s basketball coach Tamara Inoue.
Yazzmeen “Yazzy” Sa’Dullah and Lauren Saikai were both freshman at West Virginia last season, who will sit out next season due to NCAA transfer rules.
The third member of the class is Brook Baymen, an incoming freshman out of JSerra High.
Sa’Dullah, a 5-foot-7 guard, played in five games for the Mountaineers last season after averaging 18.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game as a senior at Burbank High in 2014-15. She was ranked No. 31 among point guard nationally by ESPN HoopGurlz in 2015, when she was ranked the No. 6 prospect in California’s Class of 2015 by All-Star Girls Report.
She was Co-MVP of the Pacific League as a junior, when she averaged 20.3 points per game in league play and she twice earned second-team All-CIF Southern Section honors. She began her prep career at Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas.
“Yazzy’s athleticism and ability to score off the dribble is something I always appreciate in my program,” Inoue said. “Her excitement and energy will lift the team this year and bring even more competitiveness into practice, I can’t be more excited about having her here for the next four years.”
Saiki, a 5-5 point guard, played in six contests at West Virginia. She finished the season with two points, six assists, two steals in 28 minutes of action. All-Star Girls Report ranked Saiki the No. 13 prospect in California in the Class of 2015, while ESPN HoopGurlz tabbed her the No. 76 guard in her class.
At Mark Keppel High, Saiki was the 2015 CIF Southern Regional Championship MVP, a three-time All-Almont League honoree as well as a member of the Los Angeles Times and Pasadena Star-News All-Star Teams in 2015.
As a sophomore, she helped Keppel compile a 27-6 record and it was ranked No. 34 in the state by Cal-Hi Sports. She was a second-team All-CIF pick as a freshman.
Saiki played AAU basketball for California Storm Team Taurasi, which she helped claim the inaugural Nike Elite Youth Basketball National Championship before her senior year.
“To have Lauren in our program puts a huge smile on my face every day,” Inoue said. “Her unselfishness and ability to take over a game as a point guard is always welcome in my program.
Bayman, 5-6 guard, was a member of the 2015 CIF Southern California Regional Division 1 Champion. She was named her team’s Defensive Player of the Year twice. The Cavaliers were also Division 4 State Champions in 2013 and league champions three times with Baymen on the squad.
“Brooke is a worker,” Inoue said. “She is willing to do anything and everything to get better. The gym-rat mentality that she has expressed will allow her to be welcomed by her teammates and coaches.
“I am fortunate to have my first three commitments be such great competitors and more importantly great people who will represent UCI proudly,” Inoue said. I want to publicly thank two of my assistants, Krystle Evans and Cecilia Russell-Nava, for coming into this program with instant pride and working extremely hard to get these commitments.”
— From staff reports
— From staff reports
UCI adds assistants
Kimberly McConaha and Megan Moenoa have joined UC Irvine women’s volleyball coach Ashlie Hain’s staff as assistant coaches.
McConaha is coming off a professional playing career in Tunisia. She most recently played for Club Sportif Sfaxian, but had stints in France, Spain, Switzerland, Puerto Rico, Indonesia and Iran.
She was the head coach at the American University of Kuwait from 2011-2015 after serving as an assistant coach at Earlham College in 2011. McConaha is also the owner and coach of Infinity Athletics in Indiana.
McConaha was a middle blocker at Purdue from 2000-04 and earned first-team All-Big Ten honors as a senior. She ranks in the Top 10 in six career records for the Boilermakers, including fourth in block assists with 382. She is one of 25 Purdue players to record at least 1,000 kills in a career. McConaha graduated in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in management and minors in marketing and organizational business human resources. She was a four-year letter-winner in volleyball, basketball and track at Centerville High.
Moenoa, who will step in as the volunteer assistant, is a 2014 graduate of UCLA, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. The setter was a part of the Bruins’ 2011 NCAA championship team and averaged 8.42 assists per set over her four-year career.
At Lakewood High, she was named an ESPN Rise All-American, first-team All-CIF Southern Section, and Moore League Co-Player of the Year as a senior.
Moenoa earned Moore League Co-Player of the Year acclaim as a junior in 2009 and was also a three-time Press Telegram Dream Team selection. The two-time Lakewood High Athlete of the Year helped the Lancers to the 2007 CIF state championship.
She was selected to the U.S. women’s junior national training team in 2010.
Moenoa helped the Mizuno Long Beach Club program win gold at the 2009 junior nationals. She went on to coach at Mizuno and is currently the director of the Long Beach Volleyball Club Girls’ program.
“Kim is an enthusiastic coach with many years of international experience,” Hain started. “I have coached with her in the past and believe she will bring great energy to the gym.
“Megan is a rising star in coaching and has shown a commitment to excellence this past offseason,” Hain said. “I look forward to having her on our bench this season.”
— From staff reports
— From staff reports
Fight Club OC
Fight Club OC returns to the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa with a seven-bout card featuring professional boxing and mixed martial arts inside the Hangar on Thursday at 7 p.m.
The headline MMA event features Fullerton’s Curtis Millender (9-3) against Huntington Beach’s Ozzie Alvarez (7-3). The two welterweights are fighting for the Fight Club OC MMA championship belt.
Millender has lost three of his last five fights, while Alvarez has won six of his last seven.
The rest of the card has four unbeaten boxers, starting with Kazakhstani heavyweight Ruslan Madiyev (7-0, three knockouts), who faces Australian Trent Rawlins (3-0-1, three KOs).
The other two unbeaten fighters are from Santa Ana, super lightweight Gloferson Ortizo (3-0-1) and middleweight Ricky Frausto (1-0). Ortizo last fought on March 3, 2015 and Frausto is in the ring for the second time since April, his next opponent is Hawaiian Chazz Moleta, who is making his pro debut.
Other fights include Huntington Beach featherweight Guadalupe Arroyo (1-1) against Victorville’s Victor Ramos, who is making his boxing debut, and Covina’s Javier Garcia makes his MMA debut against Los Angeles’ Craig Plaskett (0-1) in a welterweight bout.
Tickets are $60 each. For tickets and more information, visit www.fightcluboc.com.
— From staff reports
— From staff reports