COLLEGES / ALAN DROOZ : It Was a Tough Season for Dominguez Hills Soccer Teams

Like Amy Rubin, the Cal State Dominguez Hills soccer teams played well this year but seemed to fall just short.

The women’s team finished the season Wednesday with a 1-1 tie in overtime at Cal Poly Pomona, while the men’s team beat Pomona, 3-2, also in overtime.

The women finished with a 10-5-4 record and a No. 8 ranking in Division II, but are rated behind several other West Coast teams and won’t make a return trip to the NCAA Regionals. Their main stumbling blocks were an early-season scoring drought and key losses or ties against several Northern California rivals.

The men, who a week ago had hopes of a California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title, finished at 9-7-2 overall and 4-3-1 in the CCAA. They lost close games last week to league leaders Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal State Bakersfield to place third.

Rubin, the Lady Toros’ talented sophomore forward, approached Robyn Queen’s 4-year-old school record of 21 goals but was shut out in Wednesday’s game, finishing with 19.

Still, Rubin scored her last five goals in two games last week to make a run at the record, had two three-goal hat tricks and six multiple-goal games and is a candidate for regional and national honors.

The season was doubly frustrating for Marine Cano, who is head coach of both squads. Though he initially called this a rebuilding year, both of Cano’s teams were in the hunt for most of the season, only to stumble when they couldn’t afford to.

Ready for a month away from soccer, Cano said that he is nonetheless looking forward to the 1991 women’s season. Nine starters will return, including the prolific Rubin, who has scored 25 goals in her young college career. With a few key recruits--and he expects to bring in at least a handful of new players--Cano expects the Lady Toros to compete for a national title next year.

The men’s team may face more of an overhaul, losing many key starters.

After finishing last in the West Coast Conference in women’s cross-country a year ago, Loyola Marymount made a surprising jump this year behind two first-year runners.

Freshman Amy Harootian placed fourth individually and Gina Browne, a sophomore who didn’t run last year, surged into seventh to lift Loyola to a fourth-place finish in the conference meet in Belmont.

Both runners received all-conference honors as well as invitations to the NCAA Western Regional meet Nov. 10 in Fresno.

Unfortunately for the Lions, Harootian is leaving school before the regionals and will not run. Browne, a former track runner who had never competed in cross-country, will represent Loyola.

“Amy is leaving school next week,” Loyola Coach Mike Sheehan said. “This is family stuff, and I’m not going to probe any further. It’s a shame.

“Gina’s disappointed they won’t be running together, but I’m really pleased that she’s going (to the regionals). Losing Amy, it’s nice knowing somebody like Gina is just coming into her own. (In Belmont) she ran the race of her life.

“She was capable of that the whole season, but she always seemed to go a strong first two miles, then falter in the third. She’s studying TV and movies, so I told her to think of (the race) like a movie script, and the third mile is the big ending. It finally seemed to kick in.”

The team also got a boost from its third-place finisher, senior Srithip Sresthaphunlar, another first-year team member who had never run cross-country before this year.

“She started as our seventh or eighth runner,” Sheehan said. “She ran a great race at conference. If you’d told me our seventh runner was going to run third at conference, I’d say, ‘OK.’ She stepped right up in there.”

The enthusiastic Sheehan is convinced that the program has turned a corner. “We’ve set a precedent,” he said. “I think we’re right there to do something next year. We’re doing better recruiting-wise, and we’ve got about 30 more contacts than we had last year. We’re getting alumni saying, ‘We didn’t even know there was a women’s team on campus,’ so we’ve started something.”

Sheehan said he expects the men’s team--which also placed fourth--to rebound next year.

The men, like the women, were led by a freshman, Rick Sansing, who finished 13th in this year’s conference meet. Last year’s No. 1 runner, Mike Thom, missed the season with an injury but is expected back, along with No. 2 runner Eric Merk, who ran No. 1 earlier this year.

“I’m looking forward to next year,” Sheehan said. “We’re a moving, evolving team.”

Pepperdine can virtually clinch its fourth consecutive West Coast Conference volleyball title Saturday, but Loyola hopes to put a hold on the Waves’ celebration when they meet at 7:30 p.m. in Gersten Pavilion.

Pepperdine (18-5, 9-0), is ranked 10th nationally and holds a one-game lead over Gonzaga (two in the loss column) and a two-game advantage over Loyola (15-12, 7-2). The Lions haven’t defeated the Waves since 1986, when they won their only WCC title. The Waves have won 28 straight conference matches--which doesn’t make Pepperdine Coach Nina Matthies overconfident.

“Saturday’s match figures to be a tough battle,” she said. “They will be emotionally up to beat us on their home floor.”

Matthies is also putting some pressure on her team to close out its schedule impressively enough to sway the NCAA to let Pepperdine play host for the first round of the NCAA playoffs. No WCC team has played an NCAA game on its home court.

“If we can continue to play well during the final month of the regular season, I believe we can make a good case to serve as a first-round host,” she said.

The school has formally submitted a bid to the NCAA.

Digging It the Most: Loyola’s Kerry House went into last weekend ranked first in the nation in Division I volleyball in digs, averaging 4.989 per game. National rankings aren’t out for this seek, but she doesn’t figure to go down. The Lions’ senior outside hitter had 60 digs in two matches last week and improved her average to 5.198. House is averaging six digs per game in West Coast Conference matches.

Notes

The Loyola soccer team broke a 15-game losing streak Sunday with a 3-1 victory over Chapman College. However, the Lions lost to third-ranked UCLA, 9-1, to fall to 3-17, and close out the season playing host to 14th-ranked Portland at 1 p.m. Saturday. . . . Dominguez Hills soccer player Mark Lincir, who suffered a lacerated kidney in a game at San Luis Obispo last week, was released from the hospital and is resting at home. The senior midfielder will be prohibited from athletic activities for several months. . . . Toros freshman Dan Donnayre scored his first collegiate goal in the soccer team’s 2-1 loss to Bakersfield over the weekend. . . . Dominguez Hills freshman Gale Derricott recorded 16 kills in the Toros’ volleyball match at Cal State Los Angeles to break the school season mark. She has five matches to add to the record, including a 7 p.m. match Saturday at Northern Arizona. . . . Julie Jamile was named West Coast Conference volleyball player of the week. The Santa Clara setter out of Torrance helped lead the Broncos to three victories and tied a conference record for assists in a four-game match with 62 against St. Mary’s. . . . Loyola’s 21-19 loss to Gonzaga tied a WCC record for longest game ever in the WCC.