COLLEGE DIVISION NOTES / MARTIN BECK : Chapman Is a Pain in the Net to Riverside’s Volleyball Team

Regardless of its national ranking, the UC Riverside women’s volleyball team seems to have trouble when it plays Chapman in Orange.

Last season, Chapman defeated Riverside--then ranked No. 1 in the NCAA’s Division II--in five games at the Hutton Center. Later in the season, the Panthers lost twice at Riverside, including a match that decided a playoff spot.

Tuesday night, Chapman did it again, winning at home over second-ranked Riverside in five games. The victory came almost a week after Chapman opened the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. season by getting swept at home by No. 5 Cal Poly Pomona.

But defeating two National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics teams--The Master’s College and Cal Baptist--last weekend apparently recharged the Panthers, who are 16-9, 1-1 in the conference and ranked 13th in the latest NCAA poll. Chapman was led by Debi Waller, who had 30 kills and 17 digs, and Rena Strange, who had 18 kills.

“I knew that we were a much better team than that,” Chapman Coach Mary Cahill said, referring to the loss to Cal Poly Pomona. “This helps a lot. It will give the girls a little more confidence.

“They know they can play together and beat a good team.”

No one got a hole-in-one at the Chapman Athletic Foundation Golf Tournament Monday, so no one went home with a Honda or Dodge from the Goodwin car dealership in Fullerton or $10,000 from Orange National Bank.

But the event raised a big chunk of money for the college’s athletic scholarship fund, Chapman Athletic Director Dave Currey said. The final figure has not been totaled, he said, but the major sponsor, First American Title Insurance Co., presented $10,000 and 19 other corporate sponsors gave $1,500 each so the figure may be close to $40,000.

“It was a big victory, as we say,” Currey said.

The tournament was won by the foursome of Chapman baseball coach Mike Weathers and boosters Jack Brushert, John Baker and Craig Kuhsc, which shot 59 on the Newport Beach Country Club course. A group which included former Dallas Cowboy kicker Efren Herrera finished fourth.

Conference championship: Southern California College cross-country runner Sherri Hall, a 39-year-old mother of two, will attempt to win her second Golden State Athletic Conference championship in three years Saturday at Bonelli Park in Pomona.

Hall, who earned All-American honors in track for finishing fifth in the 10,000-meter race at the NAIA championship last May, likely will be challenged Saturday by Jenee Ellis of Azusa Pacific. Ellis is the only runner from a conference school to beat Hall this season, although Hall won three of their four meetings.

Christ College Irvine, will be running in its first meet with enough women to score as a team.

College Division Notes

Christ College Irvine ended a couple of losing streaks this week. When the men’s soccer team defeated Caltech, 6-0, Tuesday, it was their first victory in seven games. The Eagles (2-9) last won Sept. 14 when they defeated Christian Heritage, 5-0. The women’s volleyball team, after losing four consecutive matches to conference opponents, defeated District 3 foe Biola in five games Tuesday. . . . SCC’s men’s soccer team lost to UCLA, the No. 1-ranked team in Division I, 7-0.