The Colleges : Making District 3 Volleyball Playoffs Takes More Than Wins

It used to be that the teams that won the most games advanced to playoff competition. That is not the case anymore--especially in NAIA District 3 volleyball.

Consider the plight of the Master’s College women’s team.

The Lady Mustangs, under first-year Coach Dean Conk, were 16-11 this season with a 7-5 record in District 3 play.

Yet Master’s was passed over for the playoffs in favor of Christ College of Irvine (7-10 in district play), which Master’s defeated twice.

The apparent inequity exists because of a power-point system that, theoretically, is based on strength of schedule. In a nutshell, a team gets more points for beating a team with a winning record.

This is how the system works:

A team receives 6 points for beating a winning team away, 5 points for beating the same team at at home, 3 points for losing to a winning team away, 2.5 for losing to a winning team at home, 2 for losing to a winning team home or away and 0 for losing to a losing team.

The power rating is calculated by dividing the point total by the number of matches played against district opponents.

Based on the system, Biola, Cal Baptist, Westmont, Fresno Pacific, Christ College and Cal Lutheran received berths in the District III playoffs. Christ College and CLU did not qualify.

“Christ College got more points for losing to us than we got for beating them,” Conk said. “There was no cheating involved, but it was not the best system for selecting the best teams.”

Conk, hoping to prevent a reoccurrence, plans to push for a change in the system tonight at a District 3 meeting.

Conk said he will suggest adopting a system similar to the one followed for District 3 soccer and basketball, which requires all members of the Golden State Athletic Conference--of which Master’s and Biola are not members--to play every district member at least once.

“Conference members play everybody twice so they have the option of not playing Biola and ourselves if they don’t want,” Conk said. “Our schedule hurt us. We didn’t get the opportunity to play the teams with winning records. That’s something I can work on next year, too.”

Spartan effort: San Jose State quarterback Ken Lutz, a former Royal High and Moorpark College standout, had the roughest outing of his collegiate career Saturday in a Big West Conference game against Fresno State.

Lutz threw 5 interceptions and completed only 9 of 25 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked 4 times.

Lutz also injured his right (throwing) shoulder in the second quarter, forcing him out of the game in the second half. He had to return when backup Jason Schmid suffered a knee injury late in the game.

Lutz re-entered with San Jose State trailing, 17-7. And, with his arm hanging limply at his side, he almost engineered a successful Spartan comeback.

On fourth and 11 with 4:59 to play, Lutz connected with Kevin Evans on a 36-yard touchdown pass. He then passed for a 2-point conversion to cut Fresno’s lead to 17-15.

San Jose State got the ball back with 2:30 to play, but a last-ditch effort failed when another Lutz pass intended for Evans fell short.

San Jose State’s Claude Gilbert, in his 12th season as a major college coach, characterized Lutz’s effort as “among the most courageous I’ve ever seen.”

Lutz, a senior, has completed 160 of 265 for 2,095 yards and 11 touchdowns this season. He has not practiced all week but is listed as a probable starter in San Jose State’s game Saturday at home against Cal State Long Beach.

Return engagement: Quarterback Jeremy Leach, who led Granada Hills High to the City Section 4-A Division football championship last season, likely will return to New Mexico’s starting lineup Saturday at Hawaii.

Leach--thankfully, perhaps--missed last week’s 65-0 loss to Brigham Young because of torn cartilage in the left side of his rib cage. He also had a pulled muscle under his left shoulder blade. Both injuries occurred in the first quarter of New Mexico’s Oct. 22 game against Texas El Paso.

Leach has completed 118 of 225 for 1,486 yards and 8 touchdowns. New Mexico is 1-8.

Regals spiked: The Cal Lutheran women’s volleyball team received good and bad news this week.

First, Cal Lutheran backed into the NAIA District 3 playoffs after Menlo College was ordered to forfeit its games because of a rules violation.

Then the bad news: the Regals drew rival Westmont in Tuesday’s first-round match.

The outcome was predictable. Westmont, which had defeated CLU in a Golden State Athletic Conference game only 3 days earlier, defeated Cal Lutheran, 15-4, 15-7, 15-10 to eliminate the Regals from playoff contention.

Playoff bound: The Master’s College soccer team recovered in style from an 0-7 start to finish 7-12-1 overall and 5-3-1 in District 3 play.

The second-seeded Mustangs open at home Saturday against third-seeded Biola at 1 p.m.

“We feel pretty good about our chances as long as we play intense,” said Master’s Coach Mark Schubert, whose team beat Biola, 2-0, during the regular season.

For the second year in a row, opponents have had trouble controlling Master’s forward Chris Palm, who led the district in points with 11 goals and 14 assists.

Palm, sophomore midfielder, Randy Whitfield and junior defender Jim Rickard were selected All-District 3 this week.

Kingsmen honored: Cal Lutheran soccer players Dave Salzwedel and Ken Epperson have been selected first-team All-Golden State Athletic Conference.

Salzwedel, a senior goalie, also was selected All-District 3.

Epperson was selected to the All-District second team. Coach George Kuntz was named district Coach of the Year.

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