A Perfect Six: UC San Diego’s Teams Sweep Into Postseason

UC San Diego’s fall sports were a perfect six for six in qualifying for postseason play this season.

In soccer, the defending NCAA Division III champion men’s team and runner-up women’s team will play this weekend in the West Regionals. The women (15-1-1 with 16 shutouts) are the top-ranked team in Division III, the men are 17th.

In cross-country, the No. 13 women’s and No. 17 men’s teams, each ranked for the first time, will run in the West Regionals Nov. 11 in Santa Cruz. There is a chance the meet may be switched to San Diego because of damage caused by the Bay Area Earthquake.

With two matches remaining, the defending Division III champion women’s volleyball team has already qualified to compete in the West Regionals Nov. 10-11 at a site to be determined. No. 1 UCSD (17-12) plays No. 2 La Verne tonight at 7 at UCSD.

Men’s water polo (17-12) has qualified as the No. 1 seed for the eight-team Western Water Polo Assn. championship tournament Nov. 10-12 at UCSD. The winner of the tournament earns an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.

Sue Chen, the University of San Diego’s 37-year-old cross-country wonder, finished three seconds behind Pepperdine’s Kim McElhinney in the West Coast Conference championships to finish second for the second consecutive year.

USD’s men’s and women’s teams both finished fifth in the WCC meet Saturday and will run in the NCAA West Regionals Nov. 11 in Fresno.

There was no heavenly whisper telling them: ‘If you hold it, they will come.”

There was no upper-level management demand for it. In fact, the higher-ups in this case were pessimistic.

But they held it, people came from all over, and it was an enlightening afternoon.

They are the 13 schools of the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics District 3. It was the first ever NAIA basketball media day held Monday at the Gateway Plaza Holiday Inn in La Mirada.

It was not held to ease an inferiority complex. There is no complex. These NAIA coaches know they do not have the depth of talent that Division I schools have. But they also know the competition level is congruent. (And their players know what congruent means.)

“We’ve talked about it for a long time, and we usually wound up talking ourselves out of it,” said Dan Van Ommen, Point Loma Nazarene’s sports information director. “I think our biggest concern was that no one would show up.”

Said John Anthony, District 3’s sports information director and the man in charge of the event, “It really worked out better than I had hoped.”

Admittedly, it will never receive the attention of a Big 10 media day. But said Dominican College Coach Dave Weber, “Anything that enables us to let people know what we’re trying to do, we’re all for it.”

Some notes from the NAIA basketball media day:

* Christian Heritage (24-9 in 1988) was picked fifth in the preseason coaches and SIDs poll. PLNC (8-21) was not one of the seven teams ranked. Southern California College is the top pick, followed by Westmont College, Biola third and The Master’s College.

* Dominican College, the smallest NAIA school with just 85 men on its Marin County campus, has 15-members on its basketball team. That means 17% of its males play basketball for the Penguins. One of those is Mark Manning, an El Camino High graduate.

* Cal Lutheran graduate Steve deLaveaga, who led the NAIA in scoring last season, is now playing for San Diego-based High Five America.

* Ty Nichols, a former Poway High guard, and Erick Maeding, a transfer from UC San Diego, play for The Master’s in Newhall. Cal Lutheran’s Loren White played at Lutheran High in San Diego, and Westmont’s Brad Smith played at El Capitan.

* Michael Bateman, a redshirt at the University of San Diego last season, is at Azusa Pacific. Azusa’s Jeff Wells returns to basketball after five years as a member of the San Diego-based U.S. national volleyball team.

* Fitz Wilson, a quarterback on Azusa’s football team the past two years, is now playing basketball. In 1988, Wilson ran for one touchdown and threw for another in the Cougars’ 14-13 victory over USD.