Community College Notebook : Rochow Named MVP in Volleyball

Sophomore Kim Rochow, a setter on the Orange Coast College women’s volleyball team, was voted the most valuable player of the Orange Empire Conference this week by conference coaches.

Rochow, a sophomore from Marina High School, had 346 assists as the Pirates went 10-0 in conference. OCC doesn’t keep nonconference statistics.

Rochow’s had her best match Wednesday night with 70 assists as the Pirates defeated Citrus, 15-7, 14-16, 11-15, 15-11, 15-4, to clinch a tie for the conference title. OCC defeated Riverside Friday to win the title.

OCC’s Ann Javage and Karen Nickel also made first team. Other first-team picks: Michelle Richard, Jan Janklovski and Kim Miles of Citrus and Geri Higgins and Melissa Lopez of Riverside.

Second-team members included Cindy Thomas and Gail Schmidt of OCC, Melina Schuler and Trisha Fasan of Rancho Santiago, Lisa Johnson of Cypress and Heidi Watz of Saddleback.

In the South Coast Conference, Barrie Dafforn, Leslie Osterman and Kathy Wissman of Golden West and Mary Spader and Susie Hooper of Fullerton were voted to the first team.

Golden West finished second to El Camino, which was led by conference MVP Christy Renirt.

Dionne Powers and Susie Turner of Golden West and Cindy Hansell of Fullerton were voted to the second team.

Golden West College was seeded third and Orange Coast fifth in the Southern California volleyball regional pairings announced Wednesday.

The Rustlers play Palomar (13-2), which finished second in the Pacific Coast Conference, at home Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Fifth-seeded OCC travels to El Cajon Wednesday to play Pacific Coast Conference champion Grossmont (13-2) at 7 p.m.

Cuesta was seeded first and El Camino second.

Despite losing two of its last three football games, Golden West (8-2) plays College of the Desert (8-2) in the Southern California Bowl Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at the College of the Desert’s Boone Field.

College of the Desert won the Southern California Conference with a 5-1 record. Golden West was 4-2 and finished second in the South Coast Conference to Cerritos.

Cerritos (7-2-1) plays Taft (6-3) in the Potato Bowl Dec. 6 at 1:30 p.m.

The National Football Foundation Bowl at San Diego City College Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m. holds area interest, if nothing else. San Diego Mesa (7-2-1) tied with Southwestern (6-2-2) for second place in the Mission Conference and the teams also tied, 22-22, during the regular season.

Orange Coast and Palomar were the only teams to defeat Mesa this season. OCC defeated Mesa, 24-14, in the upset of the season.

Glendale (10-0) tops the final regular-season Southern California football poll with all 12 first-place votes. Riverside (9-1), which meets Glendale in the PONY Bowl Dec. 6 in LeBard Stadium, was second.

Golden West was the top-ranked county team (fifth) and Saddleback (5-5) seventh.

Those weren’t the real names, were they? Every time the Potato Bowl is mentioned, someone seems to snicker and ask if that’s the game’s real name.

Don’t laugh. The name has horticultural precedent in California.

There was the Alfalfa Bowl (1955-1960), the Lettuce Bowl (‘61-66) and the Olive Bowl (‘48-61). Even the prune had a bowl to call its own, from 1961 to ’64.

Arizona State, the Pacific-10 champion, will train at Orange Coast from Dec. 21-31 to prepare for the Rose Bowl.

Several workouts are expected to be open to the public but there is no set schedule yet.

Bret Mersola of Saddleback College, who caught a single-game school record 12 passes Saturday, was one of only three Gauchos to catch passes in the 24-14 victory over Rancho Santiago. Wide receiver Craig Ostrander caught three and running back John Jungkeit one.

Mersola has been a favorite target of quarterback Pat Hegarty all season and caught 91 passes to set a single-season national community college record. He finished his two-year Gaucho career with 138 catches to tie the national record set by Dave Oliver of Grossmont in 1973-74.

It was thought Mersola set the career record with 143 catches but the state doesn’t count catches in bowl games. Mersola had five in last season’s PONY Bowl.

The regular season has ended in football but basketball is already filling the void.

Rancho Santiago plays host to the Tip Off Tournament, which opens Friday with College of the Desert playing Pomona Pitzer JV at 6 p.m. and Rancho Santiago playing Biola JV at 8. The championship game is Saturday at 8 and the consolation game at 6.

Saddleback plays hosts to the PONY Tournament of Championships this weekend. Pasadena City plays Grossmont at 6:30 p.m. Friday and Saddleback plays Moorpark at 8:30 p.m. The consolation game is 6:30 Saturday and the championship at 8:30 p.m.

The Orange Coast College women’s soccer team defeated El Camino, 2-0, Saturday to win the state soccer title. Kris Engels and Barbara Souza scored. The Pirates (17-1-1) also won the South Coast Conference, which contains the only eight women’s soccer teams in the state.

The top four teams advanced to the playoffs at Long Beach City College last weekend. El Camino defeated Golden West and OCC defeated Bakersfield Friday in the semifinals.

OCC’s only loss of the season was to Golden West, 1-0.

Cypress College wrestler Sean Goodwin (29-0) remains the state’s top-ranked 193-pound wrestler.

The Chargers finished the dual-meet season as the Western State Conference tri-champions with Moorpark and Rio Hondo.

Goodwin moved to heavyweight and pinned his opponent last week as the Chargers defeated Rio Hondo, 23-18.

Cypress is the state’s fourth-ranked team. Golden West is 10th.