Northridge’s Home-Court Advantage Is in Expenses

For the Cal State Northridge tennis program, playing host to the NCAA Division II championships in the next two weeks means giving its No. 1-seeded women’s team a chance to win a national title in front of family and friends.

For the CSUN athletic program in general, it means cutting costs.

The NCAA does not pay the expenses of athletes traveling to championship events in individual sports, such as tennis. Instead, those costs are picked up by the institutions involved. So, by staying home for the nationals, CSUN saves on travel expenses.

“Very frankly, we will not make any money on the thing,” CSUN men’s Athletic Director Bob Hiegert said of the national tournament. “In fact, we’ll probably lose some money. But, in the overall picture, for us to send our women’s team across the country, for instance, it would have cost us for airfare, per diem, et cetera.”

And, as athletic director, Hiegert said he would rather spend money to upgrade the facilities at CSUN for the nationals than to send a team out of town.

If they gain a competitive edge while cutting costs, that’s all the better.

Nobody’s complaining, least of all CSUN Coach Tony Davila.

“We have all the advantages of not having to worry about traveling--or about all the distractions that go with it,” Davila said. “And we seem to play exceptionally well on our courts.”

Davila’s women’s team, despite its No. 1 seeding, may need any advantage it can get.

The Lady Matadors, who won the Division II title in 1982 at Edwardsville, Ill., are seeded No. 1 by the NCAA Division II women’s tennis sub-committee and are 26-1--their only loss coming to Iowa, a Division I team, 5-4, on March 25.

Northridge, though, is not everybody’s favorite.

According to pre-tournament rankings released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn., Southern Illionis-Edwardsville is No. 1 and CSUN is No. 2.

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville is seeded No. 2 by the NCAA.

“It’s close,” Davila said. “We’re not going into this thing giddily and thinking we’re going to walk through the tournament.”

CSUN, which will meet Northern Colorado in a quarterfinal match Monday at 9 a.m., is led by Karen Frawley, Susan Campbell, Missy Conn and Kelly Grattan, all of whom have qualified for the Division II singles and doubles championships, which will be played Wednesday through Saturday.

Campbell, a sophomore from Louisville High in Woodland Hills, is 26-1 as CSUN’s No. 2 singles player and 28-1 in doubles with Conn, a junior from Westlake High.

Campbell’s record with Conn includes a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 victory last month over defending Division II champions Sandra Elliott and Nancy Roe of Northern Colorado. Campbell and Cindy Woodhaus lost to Elliott and Roe in last year’s Division II final.

Elliott entered the season as the nation’s No. 1-ranked player, but lost in March to freshman Christina Bokelund of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. Bokelund, a member of the Swedish Junior Cup team, has replaced fellow Swede and two-time Division II singles champion Elisabeth Calander as the No. 1 player for the Cougars.

CSUN and Edwardsville have not met this season, but CSUN has beaten four of the other six teams in the tournament, including Northern Colorado.

But, said Davila, “I’ve found that beating a team a second time is very difficult.”

Still, Davila has confidence in his players. “They’re as mature and mentally tough as any team I’ve had,” he said.

They’re also playing at home.

“Our gals don’t seem to choke up, so to speak, in front of the home crowd,” Davila said. “At least, that’s what the plan is.”

Notes

The other quarterfinal matchups: No. 2 seed Southern Illinois-Edwardsville vs. Abilene Christian; No. 3 Cal Poly Pomona vs. Cal State Bakersfield; No. 4 UC Davis vs. Georgetown. . . . The quarterfinal matches will be played Monday at 9 a.m., followed at 2 p.m. by the semifinals. The championship match will be played Tuesday at 9 a.m. . . . Seedings and pairings for the singles and doubles tournaments will be announced Tuesday afternoon. . . . Next week’s schedule for the men’s championships: Team tournament, Monday-Wednesday; singles and doubles tournaments, Wednesday-Sunday. . . . Although the eight teams have not been selected for the men’s team championships, Cal State Northridge is not expected to be chosen. . . . Elisabeth Calander of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, who won her second Division II singles championship last season as a sophomore, has left tennis and is studying tourism in Sweden. . . . Tennessee-Chattanooga, which beat CSUN in the quarterfinals last season en route to its third straight women’s title, did not qualify for this year’s tournament.