College Notebook : Strength of Kansas St., Wichita St. Affirmed Long After CSUN Tests

Pete Cassidy wasn’t pulling any punches when he scheduled Wichita State and Kansas State on the road at the beginning of the season to give his Northridge basketball team experience against tough Division I opponents.

But after the Matadors were beaten by Wichita State, 78-53, and then blitzed by Kansas State two nights later, 91-46, it was difficult to ascertain whether the two opponents were that good or the Matadors were simply that bad.

By the looks of things, the opponents were more than good.

Wichita State is 20-8 and 11-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The Shockers, who finished second in conference behind 12th-ranked Bradley (25-4, 12-2) and were eliminated from the conference postseason tournament by Illinois State, are being considered for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament.

Kansas State is ranked 18th in the nation. The Wildcats, who are competing in the Big Eight tournament in Kansas City this weekend, are 20-7 and finished 11-3 in the Big Eight, just behind fourth-ranked Oklahoma (27-3, 12-2).

CSUN finished the season 15-12.

Home, sweet home: The Moorpark College softball team Friday played its first home game in a month.

Moorpark (9-7-1 overall, 1-0 in conference play) was on the road for nine consecutive games and had last played on its own field Feb. 12. The Lady Raiders apparently enjoyed being home again. They trounced Ventura, 11-0, in the Western State Conference opener for both teams.

Best pitch: Northridge pitcher Dave Feeley, who is 3-2 with a 2.45 earned-run average, is the only Matador pitcher with an ERA under 5.00. Feeley, a junior right-hander, has pitched 22 innings, allowed 16 hits, walked 5 and struck out 9.

Freshman right-hander Mike Rooney (1-1) is next lowest at 5.06 in 26 innings pitched.

“We’ve been hurt by the walk, walk, walk, error syndrome,” Northridge Coach Terry Craven said.

Things may be improving, however. On Tuesday, senior right-hander Leo Ramirez pitched a two-hit complete game in Northridge’s 5-2 win over Fresno State, a Division I team. It was only the third complete game for the Matadors.

“He did a great job,” Craven said. “There were a few situations where he could have fallen into the syndrome, but he hung in there.”

Honor roll: Karina Hardman, a 5-7 sophomore forward who averaged 25 points to lead Moorpark College in scoring, was selected most valuable player in the Western State Conference.

Hardman led the Western State Conference in scoring and free-throw percentage (81.6%). She was the only Moorpark player named to the All-WSC women’s first team.

Michele Brown, a 5-6 sophomore guard for Moorpark, was named to the All-WSC second team. Moorpark Coach Gary Abraham was named coach of the year in the WSC. The Lady Raiders lost in the first round of the Southern California regional playoffs after going undefeated in 13 conference games.

More honors: Butch Mettinger, who averaged 21 points to lead College of the Canyons in scoring, was named to the All-Western State Conference first team along with teammate Del Linzy.

Linzy, a sophomore forward, averaged 16.5 points.

Tom Neumayr, a sophomore guard who averaged 15.5 points to lead Moorpark in scoring, was the only Raider named to the All-WSC men’s first team. Neumayr is eighth among Moorpark’s career scoring leaders.

Net gains: Cal Lutheran tennis player Chris Groff is the No. 4-ranked singles player in the NAIA. Groff, a senior, started the season by winning 20 consecutive sets and 10 singles matches. He was an NAIA All-American as a junior.

Groff suffered his first loss of the season Thursday against John Carras of USC in the Southern California Intercollegiate tournament at Valley Hunt Club in Pasadena.

Net losses: Approaching the midway point of the season, the Cal Lutheran women’s tennis team is 1-6. But the way Coach Bowie Hahn sees it, that mark can only get better in the second half of the year.

“We’ve been playing a lot of really good teams,” Hahn said. “In the second half, we’ll be playing more teams that are at our own level.”

CLU’s first-half record includes a loss to Division I Cal State Fullerton, along with defeats to Pomona-Pitzer and Westmont. Pomona-Pitzer was 11th in the NCAA Division III preseason rankings and Westmont was the 14th-ranked team in the NAIA last season.

The Regals’ only victory has been an 8-1 decision over Redlands three weeks ago.

Freshman Joey Dooley, CLU’s No. 1 singles player, is 4-2, but the Regals have been hurt by the loss of several key players. Anja Lee, the No. 4 player, has been out because of a wrist injury. Kristi Miller, the No. 5 player, suffered a knee injury and could be sidelined the rest of the year.

Track meet: The Cal State Northridge men’s and women’s track teams will travel to UCLA today for a quadrangular meet against the Bruins, Long Beach State and perennial NAIA power Azusa Pacific.

Sophomores Tyrone Jeffries and Darcy Arreola will lead CSUN.

Jeffries, from Muir High, has qualified for the NCAA Division II championships in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, and Arreola, from Grossmont High in La Mesa, has qualified for the Division II meet in the 800 and 3,000 meters.

UCLA is the defending NCAA men’s champion.

Staff writers Gary Klein, Lauren Peterson, Ralph Nichols, Gordon Monson and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.