CAL STATE FULLERTON NOTEBOOK : Titans Left Out in NCAA Soccer

Al Mistri, right once again, would prefer his powers of prognostication were not so keen.

Mistri, Cal State Fullerton soccer coach, thought his team could be confident of a bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. tournament only if it beat Big West Conference champion Fresno State Sunday.

Fresno State won, 3-0.

And when the bids were announced for the 28-team NCAA tournament Monday, there was none for Fullerton, which finished 12-7-1 overall and took second place in the conference with a 6-3-1 record.

What rankles Fullerton in the choices of at-large teams is the selection of San Diego State, which lost to the Titans, 1-0.

But as Fullerton has seen in the past, the only sure way to make the tournament is to get an automatic bid--the way nationally ranked Fresno State did by winning the Big West title.

The soccer team did have something to celebrate, Steve George’s selection to the All-Big West Conference first team.

George, a junior from Mater Dei High School, had seven goals--four of them game-winners--and four assists for the Titans.

Titans named to the second team were junior goalkeeper Jay Nettekoven, senior forward Adam Lehner and junior midfielder Andy Martz.

Blue-Orange game: The men’s basketball team holds its intrasquad scrimmage at 7:30 Wednesday night in Titan Gym, offering the public an early chance to watch Cedric Ceballos, the Titans’ senior forward who is being called one of the country’s best-kept secrets by The Sporting News. Ceballos led the Big West in scoring last season with a 21-point average. The magazine calls Ceballos the sixth-best small forward in the country--behind Nevada Las Vegas’ Stacey Augmon.

The Clash of the Titans, as the wrestling team calls its intrasquad scrimmage, will be at 7:30 tonight in Titan Gym.

Fullerton, ranked 35th in the nation in the Amateur Wrestling News preseason poll, is led by heavyweight David Jones, who is ranked eighth.

“We are going to be a lot better than we were last year,” Coach Dan Lewis said. “With four top starters back, combined with a successful recruiting year, I look for the Titans to be better than ever.”

Fullerton opens its season Nov. 26 against Arizona State, which had a 32-3 record last season and finished second in the nation.