NOTEBOOK - Meet at Cal Poly SLO Could Clarify Rankings

Most coaches swear that they are not concerned with rankings, but Cal State Northridge cross-country Coach Don Strametz is not one of them.

Although Strametz realizes that his team’s performance is more important than its ranking, he always wants to know where Northridge stands in the NCAA Division II polls.

“I’m curious to see how other people view us,” Strametz said. “That’s always interesting.”

In this week’s poll, the Northridge men are ranked sixth, the Lady Matadors fifth. And although Strametz was pleased with the men’s ranking--their highest during his 11-year tenure--he said that the CSUN women were ranked too highly.

After all, the Lady Matadors were two places ahead of California Collegiate Athletic Assn. rival Cal State Los Angeles, even though the Golden Eagles easily defeated them for the UC Riverside Invitational title two weeks ago.

“I don’t know what they’re basing it on, but they’re off base right now,” Strametz said. “We’re not that good.”

The picture could be clearer today when several of the top Division II teams meet in the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Invitational.

San Luis Obispo, Air Force and UC Davis, the top three ranked teams, will meet in the women’s race, and five of the top 12 ranked teams, including second-ranked San Luis Obispo, will battle in the men’s race.

The others are Northridge, UC Riverside (ninth), UC Davis (11th) and Cal State L. A. (12th).

Best defense: The Occidental football team is in first place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, partly because of its topsy-turvy defense.

The Tigers, 3-1 overall and 2-0 in SCIAC play, lead the conference in total defense, allowing 268.8 yards a game.

Occidental is first in rushing defense, allowing just 107.5 yards a game. However, the Tigers are last in passing defense (161.3 average).

Opportunity knocks: A rough road to the Western State Conference football title might be a little smoother for the Glendale football team as a result of Saturday’s 17-17 tie between Bakersfield and Los Angeles Southwest.

Bakersfield, the defending national champion, also tied Glendale, 19-19. The two ties are equivalent to a loss in the WSC standings. That leaves the door open for teams such as Glendale and Moorpark, both of which are unbeaten in conference play.

Glendale (2-1-1 overall, 2-0-1 in the WSC) will meet Santa Monica today before opening division play against L. A. Southwest next week.

Things change: In 1971, Cal Lutheran defeated Westminster (Pa.), 30-14, to win the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics Division II football title. The championship was the only NAIA football game to be nationally televised and marked the pinnacle of Cal Lutheran’s football fortunes.

Still a strong NAIA team, Westminster (5-0) is ranked No. 1 in Division II this week. Cal Lutheran joined the NCAA Division II in 1984 and will drop to Division III when its scholarship players have exhausted their eligibility. The Kingsmen are currently 1-4.

Bradley tank: Moorpark’s Freddie Bradley, named the Western State Conference offensive co-player of the week, has moved up in state and conference statistical rankings on the strength of his 191-yard, five-touchdown performance against Pierce.

Bradley is the second-leading rusher in the WSC and 15th in the state with 417 yards. He has scored 60 points to lead state players, averages 50.7 yards a kickoff return and leads the WSC in combined rushing, receiving and return yardage.

Road overkill: In its first year of existence, the Moorpark women’s soccer team opened on the road with two tournaments and then kicked off its South Coast Conference schedule with seven consecutive home matches.

Fine, but now Moorpark (10-1-1, 4-1-1 in league play) must go on the road for eight consecutive conference matches before ending the season with a home match against Bakersfield.

“I’m fairly upset about that,” said Coach Daniel Ohayon, whose team won’t play at home for more than a month. “The league screwed us up. It builds too much confidence, and then when we go into strange grounds, the players are lost.”

Day off: A Cal Lutheran men’s soccer game at Christian Heritage scheduled for today was canceled because Christian Heritage dropped its program to the club level.

The Kingsmen can use the time to regroup after a shocking 2-2 tie Wednesday against Southern California College, which had the worst record of the 10 teams in the NAIA District 3. Tuesday, Cal Lutheran will meet Westmont, which is tied for No. 1 in the NAIA poll.

Gary Klein and staff writers Brendan Healey and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.