Small Colleges : CCAA Finally Has Its Rules Figured Out

This weekend’s California Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball tournaments have taken several unexpected turns, thanks to some bizarre twists arising from the league’s tiebreaker rules.

With UC Riverside losing twice last weekend, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal State Dominguez Hills tied for the men’s title with 10-4 records. By most of the tiebreaking criteria, including better overall record, Dominguez Hills bests Cal Poly SLO and hoped to play host to the tournament, which features the top four men’s and women’s teams.

Instead, Cal Poly SLO’s women’s team decided the issue and sent the tournaments to San Luis Obispo.

Since the co-champion men’s teams split their head-to-head games, the next tiebreaker was which women’s team had the better record. Neither the Dominguez Hills nor San Luis Obispo women’s teams originally qualified for the women’s tournament. However, when the Cal State Los Angeles women were disqualified for playing 28 games, one more than permitted to go into a league tournament, the Cal Poly SLO women moved into the fourth spot.

That left the question of which men’s team should be top seeded. Usually, it’s the host team, automatically. So, San Luis Obispo was originally seeded first, although there was some sentiment for Dominguez Hills, based on its overall 20-7 record compared to SLO’s 18-9.

On Monday, league officials decided to make Dominguez Hills top seeded. That means SLO faces Riverside (19-8) at 8:30 p.m. Friday, after Dominguez Hills has opened against Chapman College (15-13) at 2:30.

The favorite is more clear-cut in the women’s tournament. Cal Poly Pomona (24-2) is favored to defend its league title.

The defending Division II national champions will open against fourth-seeded Cal Poly SLO at 6 p.m. Friday. The other game matches Chapman and Cal State Northridge at noon.

Add Playoffs: The NAIA District III basketball playoffs will begin with the men’s first round tonight and the women’s on Wednesday.

Opening men’s matchups are Christ College at top-seeded Biola, West Coast Christian at second-seeded Southern California College, Fresno Pacific at Point Loma Nazarene and Azusa Pacific at Westmont.

Semifinals will be held at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday at Chapman College, with the title game next Tuesday at Chapman.

Point Loma’s Steve Bruce was named Player of the Year in the Golden State Athletic Conference, and Bill Reynolds of Southern California College was named District III Coach of the Year.

Women’s opening matchups are St. Mary’s at Fresno Pacific and Cal Baptist at Biola. The championship game will be held Friday at the court of the highest remaining seeded team. Fresno is seeded No. 1, Biola second.

Baseball Coach Chuck Deagle of Cal State San Bernardino takes a family-that-plays-together-stays-together approach as the Coyotes bring baseball into the school’s three-year-old athletic program.

Deagle, a 19-year veteran who coached Redlands the last four seasons and was NCAA Division III Coach of the Year in 1985, said: “The first month of the season is when I like to bring the team together as a family. That is my job. If I can make the players enjoy playing together we will be successful.”

The team won its opener, 10-1, over Cal Baptist, then split a doubleheader with Redlands. The Coyotes are showing some punch, with 27 hits and 23 runs in their first three games. On the mound, the top gun appears to be junior Col Larsen. The transfer from College of Marin threw a seven-inning one-hitter to help win the first game.

Small College Notes Cal State Bakersfield defended its CCAA swimming title, outscoring runner-up Northridge, 710-435. Northridge won the women’s title, edging runner-up Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 703-672. Rick Graves and Bartt Frye of Bakersfield, who won three events each, were named men’s outstanding swimmers. Lisa Dial of Northridge was the women’s standout, also winning three events. Ernie Maglischo of Bakersfield was named men’s Coach of the Year, and Bob Madrigal of Cal Poly SLO was selected women’s Coach of the Year. . . . Bakersfield also defended its Western Regional wrestling title, qualifying seven for the nationals and winning four championships. Champions included Junior Saunders at 142 pounds, Darryl Pope at 177, Eric Mittlestead at 190, and Mike Monroe at heavyweight. Mike Dallas at 126, Doug Holley at 150, and Mike Montonye at 167 also qualified.

Occidental opened the baseball season with a four-game sweep to win the Claremont tournament. Left-hander Jon Billingsley opened with a seven-hitter against Pomona Pitzer and struck out 13. . . . Cal State Northridge junior Leo Ramirez took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Southern California College, but the Vanguards rallied for four runs to tie the game and won in the 11th, 5-4. . . . John Balfanz tied the Cal State Northridge home run record with the 29th homer of his college career last week. . . . Center fielder Chris Hernandez of The Master’s College capped an eight-run comeback against Hawaii Pacific, hitting a two-run, inside-the-park homer in the bottom of the 13th inning for an 11-10 victory. It was his second two-run homer of the game. . . . Cal Poly Pomona won the first Pepsi-Cal State Bakersfield spring softball tournament, going 7-0 in the tournament and defeating Northridge, 2-0, in the final game.

In Cal Poly Pomona’s four-overtime basketball game against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Pomona guard Bill Dobbs played 58 minutes and had 26 points. In the team’s final game last weekend, he had 34 points and set a conference record, making 19 of 20 free throws. Dobbs shot 52% from three-point range in CCAA games. . . . Azusa Pacific junior center Bill DesRochers has moved into fifth place in school scoring with 1,592 points. . . . Todd Thomas of Claremont-Mudd recorded the school’s first basketball triple-double ever--19 points, 15 rebounds and 12 assists against Cal State San Bernardino. . . . Cal State L.A. swimmer Jim Julian broke his own school record in the 400-yard individual medley for the second time this season in 4 minutes 24 seconds. . . . Claremont-Mudd’s men’s swim team had an SCIAC unbeaten streak of 33 meets going into the league final. . . . Cal Poly Pomona’s gymnastics team has lost senior Marianne Ness for the rest of the season with a torn ligament in her left knee. . . . Cal State Northridge soccer star Joey Kirk has been named to the U.S. national team that will play in the Marlboro Cup competition in March and Olympic qualifying matches in Canada in May.