No Football Team So Crusaders Dribble to Homecoming Game

Point Loma Nazarene College may not have a football team, but that does not stop it from holding homecoming festivities.

Instead of the more familiar surroundings of a football field, the Crusaders have two days of events leading up to the basketball season opener at 7:45 p.m. Saturday against Dominican College.

Along with the traditional parade and coronation ceremonies, PLNC has alumni contests scheduled in tennis, baseball, soccer, volleyball and basketball (against the junior varsity at 5:45 p.m. Saturday before the varsity game).

With student enrollment around 2,100, the basketball game is an annual standing-room-only affair attracting about 4,000. Reserve seats are sold out, and additional bleachers are being erected along the baselines.

Said assistant coach Ted Anderson, “I understand to the rest of the world, it is kind of strange. But for me, since I went here and basketball was the main sport at my high school, it just seems so natural to have basketball as the homecoming.”

Dominican, a tiny liberal arts college in Marin County, has just 96 men in the school. With a roster of 15, 16% of the male population plays for the basketball team. The Penguins were 12-23 in 1988-’89 after going 0-26 in their first year, 1987-’88.

Dominican point guard Earnest Riggins is the son of Earnest Riggins, the former San Diego women’s basketball coach. The younger Riggins played at Grossmont Community College before earning all-conference honors at Dominican last season.

PLNC’s women’s team opens its season at home Friday at 5:45 against UC San Diego.

The men’s cross-country team, winners of the NAIA District 3 championship, will be competing in the national championships Saturday in Kenosha, Wis. Sophomore Goshu Tadese (61st in 1988) and junior Rick Penman will be making a return trip having qualified individually last year. From the women’s team, AnetteRonnerman will run as an individual.

Coach Jim Crakes said the team’s goal is to finish in the top 10. PLNC is ranked No. 9. Of its eight trips to the nationals, PLNC’s best finish is 11th in 1985.

How important is a good start? There will be approximately 400 runners in each race, but Crakes--in his 30th year as coach--said the course is one of the few he’s seen that can handle such a mass. It is also one of the few places he has seen where they charge money for a cross-country event.

UC San Diego just had perhaps its greatest sports weekend in history. (The day last November when it won national championships in both men’s soccer and women’s volleyball was a worthy one, too.)

UCSD won a national championship in one sport and had four others advance to national tournaments.

Women’s soccer won its first NCAA Division III national championship with a 3-2 overtime victory over Ithaca Sunday.

The water polo team won three matches, the Western Water Polo Assn. championship and its automatic berth into the NCAA tournament next week. It is the first time UCSD has qualified for the eight-team tournament to be held at Indiana.

The men’s soccer team, the defending Division III champion, won the West Regional Sunday and will play in the semifinals Friday against Elizabethtown, Penn., the tournament’s host. The finals are Saturday.

By sweeping the men’s and women’s cross-country Western Regional Saturday, UCSD will travel to Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. for the national meet Saturday. In the regional, which Coach Mark Stanforth called the greatest in UCSD history, Mike Fox finished first, Roger Webb third and Merrell Hora fourth for the men. Michelle Conlay won the women’s race with teammate Sabrina Jensen second.

Women’s volleyball, which was ranked No. 1 and had won the past three national titles, was the only UCSD team to lose last weekend. The Tritons were upset in the Western Regional against Menlo College, but it took five games to do it, 6-15, 6-15, 15-10, 15-7, 11-15.

As if the sports information office doesn’t have enough to do, men’s basketball begins at 7 p.m. Saturday with a home scrimmage against an Australian team, women’s basketball plays at PLNC Friday and the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams play host to the UCSD Relays at 10 a.m. Saturday at Canyonview Pool. Thank goodness, the fencing team is on the road Saturday at UCLA.

The West Coast Conference held its basketball media day Tuesday, ending what is believed to be the longest preseason media event in the country.

Because of the location of its schools, the WCC held five separate meetings--in Spokane, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego--beginning nine days ago.

The University of San Diego, depending on which poll is looked at, is destined to finish anywhere from third to seventh.

Loyola Marymount is picked most often to win the conference followed by Pepperdine. Commissioner Michael Gilleran believes Pepperdine has the best team followed by Loyola. Three through eight he says are up for grabs.

USD and St. Mary’s are mentioned most often as favorites in the women’s WCC race.

The Christian Heritage men’s basketball team begins its season with seven games on the road, including the opener in Northern California against Cal State Stanislaus followed by three games in Michigan. Later in the season, the Hawks take to the air with games in Oregon, Alaska and Arizona.

Christian Heritage held its fourth annual Blue-White scrimmage Saturday and the White team won (110-99) for the fourth consecutive year. Brad Soucie had 26 of his game-high 35 points in the first half.

The night before, coaches Swen Nater and David Kirksey participated in their alumni game at Cypress Community College. Nater, a former NBA star, was playing his first alumni game and scored 12 points.

Christian Heritage will have five of its games televised (delayed) on Cox Cable’s Channel 11. A crew from The Turning Point Network, the television ministry of Scott Memorial Baptist Church, will handle the production.

Times have not been finalized, but the games to be shown are home games against Biola (Dec. 9), Cal Baptist (Dec. 16), Grand Canyon (Jan. 16), The Master’s College (Jan. 20) and Azusa Pacific (Feb. 10). The Hawks will be playing their home games at Grossmont College this season.

U.S. International and Rancho Bernardo Inn are the hosts of the Women’s Intercollegiate Golf Invitational beginning today through Friday. USIU has won the event three years in a row with San Diego State finishing second the past two years.