COLLEGE DIVISION NOTEBOOK / MARTIN BECK : Lean Chapman Team Is Strong, Coach Says

Here’s a status report for the Chapman College women’s basketball team as it prepares to open its season: not too tall and at least a couple of players short.

In its season opener Friday at Southern California College, Chapman will suit up only seven players, only one of whom is taller than 6 feet.

“We’re thin in numbers but we we’ve got good skills,” Chapman Coach Lindsay Strothers said. “It’s just a matter of staying out of foul trouble and we’ll see what kind of condition we’re in.”

After losing five starters from a team that finished third in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn., Strothers had trouble refilling his roster in his first recruiting season. Strothers said he was unfamiliar with the process for filing financial aid requests, a serious handicap for a coach with only five scholarships at a school where tuition and room and board cost $17,000 per year.

Strothers said he now knows the system and that the situation is much better since Dave Currey took over as athletic director in July, half a year after Bob Boyd resigned the position to concentrate on his men’s basketball team.

Strothers has added three transfers to the Panthers. All three will start Friday. They are:

--Jennifer Ballenger, a guard who averaged 5.8 points and 2.6 assists a game at the University of Idaho last season;

--Linda Kirby, a point guard who averaged 21 points and six assists a game in 1988-89 at Ohlone College, a community college in the Bay Area;

--Marvette Williams, a 5-10 post player who was a first-team, all-South Coast Conference selection for Compton College in 1988-89, scoring 12.3 points a game and a team-high 9.5 rebounds a game.

They join Missy Abraham, a junior guard, and Jackie Saunders, a senior forward.

Last season, the Southern California College women lost to Chapman, 83-59, and went on to an 11-16 record in David Smith’s first season as coach.

This year Smith is expecting a better performance from his team after the addition of a point guard and three strong front-line players to go with El Toro graduate Kristen Bevis, who averaged 15 points a game and led the NAIA District 3 in three-point shooting percentage as a freshman last season.

Darnell Good, a sophomore transfer from Riverside College, will take over at point guard, replacing Lori Halliday, who will move to off-guard or small forward.

Three freshmen will make up the Vanguards’ front line:

--Coral Ogren, a 6-1 center from Camino;

--Dana deVaney, a 5-11 forward from Carson City, Nev.;

--Jennifer Tucker, a 5-9 forward who helped Hart High School to consecutive Southern Section Division 5-A girls’ championships.

Christ College Irvine opens the women’s basketball season when it plays host to Cal Lutheran at 5:45 p.m. Saturday.

A men’s game between UC San Diego, which was ranked 10th in the NCAA Division III in one preseason poll, and Christ College Irvine follows at about 7:30 p.m.

Southern California College’s men’s team opens its season Saturday with a game at Pomona Pitzer.

Just when it seemed Chapman’s women’s volleyball team was fading out for the year, the Panthers pulled another surprise Tuesday by defeating second-ranked Cal State Bakersfield, the defending Division II champions.

The Panthers, who were ranked as high as 10th, have slipped to 17th in the latest Division II poll, but they are the only CCAA team to defeat Bakersfield this season and they did it twice.

Southern California College cross-country runner Sherri Hall will be running for another All-American honor Saturday at the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics championships in Kenosha, Wis., Saturday.

Hall, 39, finished 50th on the course in Kenosha last year and 42nd the year before, but SCC Coach Bryan Wilkins says he believes this year she has a good shot at finishing among the top 25 and earning All-American status.

College Division Notes

Despite finishing 2-15-1 and 0-8 in the CCAA, Chapman’s men’s soccer team was well represented on the all-conference team. Midfielder Scott Montroy, a junior from El Toro, was a first team selection; midfielder Scott Gallegos, a junior from Mater Dei, and fullback Dean Laird were second-team selections.