College Notebook : CSUN Practice Designed to Prevent Sleepwalking Through Schedule

Members of the Cal State Northridge men’s volleyball team had better not get used to sleeping in late during Christmas vacation.

CSUN Coach John Price has scheduled early morning workouts in preparation for the upcoming season. The Matadors will practice at 6 a.m. daily and again at 1 p.m. beginning Jan. 4.

“It just means that they’re going to have to cut down on their night life,” Price said. “We need to focus on volleyball now and everything else can come later.”

Price expects to improve on last season’s 15-21 record and his goal is to qualify for the regional playoffs. CSUN finished eighth in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. with a 4-14 record.

“We have the talent to beat any team in the league,” Price said. “The question is whether or not we have the mentality to beat them on a consistent basis. We have some talent, but we have not really experienced winning yet.”

CSUN begins conference play Jan. 25 against Hawaii.

Quick to qualify: Nineteen swimmers from Cal State Northridge already have qualified for the NCAA Division II National Swimming and Diving Championships that will be held March 9-12 at State University of New York in Buffalo.

Ted Hollahan, who set school records in the 50 (20.96) and 200 (1:39.65) freestyle, leads the men’s team that also includes qualifiers John Carpadakis (500 and 1650 free), Kurt White (200 and 400 individual medley), Sean Parker (100 and 200 backstroke), Jay Keeley (100 and 200 breaststroke), Jessy Kelly (200 breast and 400 individual medley), Mike Fitzpatrick (1,650 free), Luigi Demari (400 IM), Steve Kirkland (200 breast), Mike Crews (100 breast) and Sherman Poole (100 butterfly).

In addition, the 400 medley, 400 free and 800 free relay teams also have qualified.

The CSUN women are led by the 400 medley relay team--Stacy Mettam (back), Tina Schnare (breast) Tina Dodson (butterfly) and Jude Kylander (freestyle)--that clocked a Division II record 3:55.15 at the CSUN Invitational Dec. 12-13.

Dodson qualified in the 100 butterfly with a school-record 57.68. Mettam (100 and 200 backstroke), Schnare (100 and 200 breast) and Kylander (50, 100 and 200 free) all qualified in their events.

Erica Freeman (100 and 200 breast), Lisa Dial (500 and 1,650 free), Jeanna Giessinger (100, 200 and 500 free) and Michelle Sulak (100, 200, 500 and 1650 free) also qualified.

The Lady Matadors’ 200, 400 and 800 relays and the 200 medley qualified as well.

Redshirt: David Swanson, a freshman basketball player from Alemany High, will redshirt at Northridge this season.

Swanson, a 6-5 forward, averaged 18.5 points and 10.7 rebounds for Alemany last season. He also has cleared seven feet in the high jump and will compete for the Matadors in track and field.

Hacksaw Reynolds revisited: Kenny Smith, a 6-3 freshman forward for Master’s will be out of action for three weeks because of a hairline fracture of his left leg. Smith, who was averaging 5.9 points and 3.4 rebounds, played eight games with the injury before X-rays revealed the break.

“My coaches in high school always said you just gotta play when it hurts,” said Smith, who went to Taft High in Taft, Calif. “I never realized what my limit was.”

Smith might have suffered the injury on Thanksgiving Day in a game against Covenant. The injury was diagnosed as a bone bruise, so Smith kept playing until he knocked knees with a player from Occidental on Dec. 12 and finally had the leg X-rayed.

“It’s right at that level now where you can walk and everything feels OK until you bump into a coffee table,” Smith said. “I’m learning real fast where I should walk.”.

Sharpshooter: Butch Mettinger probably would be Canyons’ leading scorer if the Cougars had scheduled a few more games against Valley College.

The sophomore guard scored 25 and 41 points in the Cougars’ two victories over Valley. Mettinger, who averages 16 points a game, is second on the team in scoring behind sophomore forward Del Linzy, who averages 20 points.

The Cougars (9-6) play in the Palomar tournament at San Marcos beginning Monday and play host to Santa Monica in their Western State Conference opener Jan. 4.

Down and downsized: College of the Canyons (1-4) is the home of the incredible shrinking women’s basketball team.

Canyons was down to six players last week after Nancy Serrano decided not to play this season. The Cougar roster was cut to five after Coach Randy Yamanouye told point guard Lisa Miranda to leave the team.

Yamanouye said he dismissed Miranda after Friday’s loss to Glendale because of a personality conflict with the freshman.

“She’s a good player, but if you don’t work within the framework of the team talent doesn’t mean anything,” Yamanouye said. “It was a bad situation and I found it best to get rid of her.”

The Cougars have until Jan. 4 to regroup for their WSC opener against Santa Monica, but Yamanouye is not optimistic about their chances of winning conference.

“It’s a nightmare now so it can only get better,” Yamanouye said.

Awards: Moorpark College wrestlers Keith Hernandez (118 pounds), Ross Boomhower (190) and Vince Plymire (heavyweight) all were selected to the All-Western State Conference first team.

Moorpark’s Elizabeth Tagg and Lynn Goldstein were selected all-conference in volleyball.

Staff writers Gary Klein, Ralph Nichols and Mike Hiserman contributed to this notebook.