COLLEGE DIVISION : UC Riverside’s Benson Going Out in Style

With the possibility of a national championship on her mind, Sheri Benson realizes her volleyball career at UC Riverside is ending much differently from the way it started.

Benson, a 5-10 senior, was selected Monday as the most valuable player in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. She had shared the honor with Karen Langston of Cal State Northridge last year.

And Benson, an NCAA Division II All-American last season, is also one of the favorites for Division II player of the year.

“Sometimes I’ve questioned myself and what I was doing and all the attention that I’ve gotten,” the 23-year-old Benson said.

She has been consistently listed among the Division II leaders this season in kills and digs for the Highlanders, who won the CCAA title with a 10-2 record and are ranked No. 3 in Division II with a 25-4 mark heading into the start of playoffs Dec. 1.

All this follows a humble beginning at Riverside.

She had been an All-Southern Section player at Cajon High in San Bernardino.

“My senior year was my best year in high school,” Benson said. “Then I got to college and it was a totally different thing. It was a big adjustment and I had a major attitude problem when I came in. My college experience has been a real growing period.”

It has also been a painful experience.

She sat out a year as a redshirt after her freshman season because of a shoulder injury.

“I hurt it in high school and it progressively got worse,” Benson said. “After the season was over I couldn’t even lift my arm enough to wash my hair. So I went in (to a doctor) and they found three tears in the (shoulder muscles).”

Benson returned to the squad the next season, as a sophomore, and helped the Highlanders win the Division II championship, although she was not nearly in peak form.

With her shoulder still hurting, she decided it was a good time to take a leave from school and travel with her boyfriend, who was playing professional basketball in Australia.

“It sounded like a good idea at the time because my academics were going to pot, too,” she said. “We had just won the national championship and I should’ve been high as a kite but I wasn’t.”

While in Australia, she spent most of her time in Victoria and played volleyball for a club there, although it wasn’t a good experience.

“It was a league that I played in but everything was so different there,” she said. “ . . . My playing skills went down real fast because I was trying too hard to show those girls what I could do and they ended up showing me.”

After staying in Australia for less than three months, considerably less time than she had originally expected, she returned to the U.S. before the 1987-88 season although she didn’t play.

“When I left (Australia), I finally put things in perspective and I realized that this was what I wanted,” Benson said. “I missed it bad, and after I came back my grades improved.”

In returning to the team last season, she even found that her shoulder had healed.

“That was the best plus of the whole experience because when I came back for my junior year I didn’t have any pain at all,” she said. “I was hitting better than I had in a long time.”

Benson played so well that she wound up on the Division II All-American team. The team also played well, finishing fifth in the Division II Elite Eight tournament in Fargo, N.D.

It has been more of the same for Benson this season.

“For myself, I always had this fear that I would drop (in talent) this year,” she said. “You get all that attention and then you drop. So I just wanted to be the best I could be and that’s what I pushed for. I think awards are just something that comes with your success.”

Benson says she couldn’t ask for a much better ending to her college career.

Except maybe for another Division II championship.

The Westmont College men’s soccer team would just as soon forget what happened when it appeared in the national championship tournament of the National Assn. for Intercollegiate Athletics last year.

After winning the District III title, the Warriors lost their first two tournament games by 1-0 scores and were eliminated.

They are hoping they will have a longer stay this year in the 12-team national tournament that began with pool play Monday in Las Cruces, N.M.

Westmont is in a more favorable position than it was last year. The Warriors have a 17-2-3 record and are seeded fourth. The team’s only losses were to UCLA and San Jose State, both NCAA Division I teams.

The Warriors advanced to the national tournament with a 4-0 win over The Master’s in the District III final, giving Coach Bob Fortosis his 100th victory at Westmont, where he has a 100-37-17 record in seven years. The team is led by sophomore midfielder Patrik Persson, an NAIA All-America selection last season, and senior forward Peter Bourland.

The Warriors are in a three-team pool with Belmont Abbey of North Carolina and Wilmington of Ohio. Pool winners advance to the semifinals Friday and the championship match is set for Saturday.

College Division Notes

With freshman Jamie Parks finishing third, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo easily won an unprecedented eighth consecutive NCAA Division II women’s cross-country championship Saturday at Marshalls Creek, Pa. . . . Running back Albert Fann of Cal State Northridge has been selected Western Football Conference offensive player of the year and defensive end Robert Morris of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was chosen the conference’s top defensive player. Fann rushed for 1,377 yards, best in the WFC, and Morris, 6-foot-5, 270 pounds, is considered among the top linemen in the NCAA Division II. Pokey Allen of conference champion Portland State was voted coach of the year.

Goalkeeper Steve Goodson of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, who led his team to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title, has been named conference player of the year in men’s soccer. The senior posted 33 shutouts in his career including 12 this year. The Stags, who finished at 17-2-1, also placed forward Mahntie Reeves, halfback Armando Luna and defender Mark Whittle on the all-conference squad. . . . Cal State San Bernardino, which finished 23-19 and reached the NCAA Division III playoffs for the fourth year in a row, has landed middle blocker Tinette Vaillancourt and outside hitter Paula Bougie on the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. All-West Region team for Division III. Vaillancourt was among the Division III leaders in blocks.

Fullback Patrik Persson, who helped lead Westmont to its second straight NAIA District III men’s soccer title, has been named district most valuable player and Bob Fortosis of Westmont was chosen coach of the year. The Warriors also placed forwards Peter Bourland and Darren Fishman and midfielders Justin Wall and Mike Avery on the all-district team.