CSUN Women Head for Tennis Championships

In retrospect, it was a no-win situation from the start.

Cal State Northridge was among several teams being considered for the final berth in the Division II women’s tennis championships, which begin Sunday at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in St. Louis.

To that end Tony Davila, CSUN’s coach, got some good news Tuesday morning: His team was in.

But quickly came a chaser of bad news: Northridge’s first-round opponent is top-ranked Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, a familiar foe.

San Luis Obispo has defeated CSUN twice this season--both times by 8-1 scores. The Lady Mustangs won the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship and enter the tournament with a 23-3 record.

“They kicked us pretty hard on paper, but we had some close matches,” Davila said of the previous meetings between the teams. “I think we’ll take a pretty good shot at them. And we stack up well against all the other teams there.”

A key for Northridge (10-15) will be the performance of Allison Kincaid, its No. 1 singles player. “If we can get a win out of Allison--and she’s capable of it--she can get the train going for us.”

Kincaid, a junior, is the only Northridge player to qualify for the national tournament in singles. San Luis Obispo has four, including Vicki Kanter, the most valuable player in the conference.

Two of San Luis Obispo’s three doubles teams also qualified for the tournament. Northridge’s best team didn’t make it.

If Northridge fails in an upset attempt there is still hope for Kincaid, who had a 7-15 record this season. She has played the role of spoiler before. Last season, Kincaid teamed with Missy Conn in a series of surprising wins that resulted in a second-place finish in doubles.

Kincaid and Caren Hasselo of Northridge were selected to the All-California Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s women’s tennis team in a vote of conference coaches. Six players from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo made the squad, including Kanter.

The Northridge women’s track team covered a lot of bases by signing five recruits to letters of intent last week. Among them: a distance runner, a middle-distance runner, a hurdler and two throwers.

Laura Doering, from Villa Park High, has lifetime bests of 4 minutes, 45 seconds for 1,500 meters and 10:15 in the 3,000; Persephone Lowery, from Norco High, has a best of 2:13.52 for 800 meters. The hurdler is Erin Morris, from Santa Monica High, who has bests of 14.54 in the 100-meter hurdles and 45.9 for 300 meters.

Christy Bruno, from North County Salinas High, has a best of 39-8 in the shotput and 137-6 in the discus. Tracey Meadors, from Kern Valley High, has top marks of 40-8 1/2 in the shot and 138-9 in the discus.

Albert Fann, Sherdrick Bonner, Preston Hayslette and Richard Ane have been selected captains of the Northridge football team in a vote of players.

Fann, CSUN’s leading rusher the past two seasons, and Bonner, the team’s starting quarterback, will lead the offense. Hayslette, a linebacker, will call signals for the defense and Ane, a tight end and long snapper, will captain the special teams.

Tina Schnare, Jude Kylander and Ted Hollahan were the big winners at Northridge’s swimming and diving awards banquet Sunday.

Schnare, a senior who finished her career with eight individual Division II championships in the breaststroke, shared the most valuable swimmer award for the women’s team with Kylander, a senior who captured three individual and 13 relay titles in four seasons. Hollahan, national champion in the 100-yard freestyle, was honored as most valuable swimmer of the men’s team.

Other award winners were:

Erica Freeman and Tim Arnold (academics), John Kunishima (men’s best newcomer), Corinne Churchill (women’s best newcomer), Kurt White (men’s most improved), Toady Kimble (women’s most improved), Joe Brosler (men’s most improved newcomer), Jeanine Bertram (women’s most improved newcomer).

Ramon Perez, a Moorpark College sophomore, won the 5,000 and 1,500-meter races and was selected most valuable athlete at the Western State Conference track and field championships last weekend at Bakersfield College.

Perez was the only competitor to win two events. His winning times were 15:16.46 in the 5,000 and 3:59.31 in the 1,500. The top five men and top six women finishers from the WSC championships advanced to the Southern California Junior College prelims Saturday at Cerritos College.

Other top finishers for the Moorpark men’s team were Travis Cooksey, who won the 800 in 1:54.67, and Korey Fleck, who was third in the javelin with a school-record throw of 187 feet, 3 inches.

Colleen Gavin was the only Moorpark woman to capture an individual title, winning the 400 in 57.0.

Moorpark’s team of Lisa Noller, Vicky Wagenbach, Gavin and Anna Howald won the 1,600 relay in 4:05.28. The Lady Raiders also set a school record in the 400 relay while finishing fourth. Noller, Wagenbach, Gavin and Mary Bittner combined to run the distance in 50 seconds, surpassing the previous mark of 50.2 set in 1985. Bakersfield won both the men and women’s team titles. The Moorpark women’s team placed second and the men’s team was fourth.