San Diego Sports Et cetera : UCSD Sweeps in NCAA Volleyball Title Game

UC San Diego defeated Elmhurst College, 16-14, 16-14, 15-10, Saturday in Elmhurst, Ill., to win the NCAA Division III women’s volleyball championship for the second consecutive season.

It was the fourth time in the last seven years that Doug Dannevik has coached the Tritons to the Division III title.

Janet Hughes led the Tritons (31-4) with 15 kills and 4 blocks, and Lori Luhnow added 11 kills. Freshman Becky Palmer had eight blocks, most of them coming against Therese Dorigan, Elmhurst’s All-American hitter.

“This was an incredible win for us because Elmhurst was very impressive in its win last night, and we were a little sloppy in the first part of our win,” Dannevik said. “We came out very loose and they seemed very tight, and we were able to use that to our advantage.”

After winning the first game, UCSD fell behind, 12-3, in the second game. Dannevik inserted freshman hitter Rachel Vetter into the lineup and, according to Dannevik, her play ignited the team. UCSD came back to win, 16-14. Dannevik said that that was the turning point of the match.

Carol Lipson and Luhnow were named to the all-tournament team.

Western Michigan defeated San Diego State, 8-15, 15-11, 13-15, 15-13, 15-10, in the finals of the Ransler Tournament in Kalamazoo, Mich. Angelica Jackson, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, had 41 kills for SDSU, which concluded its season with a 15-17 record.

Lori Rodman had 13 kills to lead host Loyola Marymount to a West Coast Athletic Conference victory over the University of San Diego (6-20, 4-10). Loyola (17-15, 10-4) won, 15-4, 15-7, 15-4.

U.S. International University defeated Cal Poly Pomona, 15-7, 5-15, 10-15, 15-7, 15-5 at USIU. Ximena Fajardo had 18 kills for USIU (18-8) and Renan Komurcuoglu had 41 assists.

GOLF

The U.S. International women’s golf team won the USIU Women’s Invitational for the second consecutive season at the Rancho Bernardo Inn.

USIU had a three-day, 54-hole total of 911. San Diego State was second with 934. USIU’s Allison Shapcott shot a 225 to win the individual title, and her sister Susan was third with a 227.

BASKETBALL

The University of Alabama defeated Athletes in Action, 93-89, at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Michael Wiley and Derrick Taylor had 18 points each for AIA (13-4).

Jim Cartoni scored 21 points to help host Occidental College defeat Christian Heritage, 84-77, in a nonconference game in Los Angeles. Christian Heritage led, 44-42, at halftime.