Tritons Shut Out Messiah
Mark Melnik’s goal in the 11th minute of the second half broke a scoreless tie and helped UC San Diego get a 3-0 nonconference men’s soccer victory Saturday over visiting Messiah College of Pennsylvania.
Melnik’s score was a header off a pass from Mike Gerhardt.
Both teams are ranked in the top 20 among Division III teams. UCSD is 18th and improved to 7-3-0, while seventh-ranked Messiah fell to 8-1-1. It was the teams’ first meeting since the 1988 NCAA semifinals, when 28 penalty kicks were needed in a shootout for UCSD to advance to the championship match, which it won.
Marc Schnapper assisted on a pair of goals that were nearly identical to Melnik’s. The goals were scored by Chris Romey and Chris Hanssen.
Visiting Fresno Pacific opened Golden State Athletic Conference play with a 3-1 victory over Point Loma Nazarene.
PLNC fell behind, 2-0, before getting a goal from Steve Beck, who was assisted by his brother Dave in the 67th minute.
PLNC is 0-1, 1-8. Fresno State improved to 1-0, 9-1.
Sixth-ranked St. Louis University and 17th-ranked San Diego State played to a scoreless tie in the St. Louis Master-Umbro Classic. St. Louis outshot the Aztecs, 13-5.
CROSS-COUNTRY
PLNC easily won the men’s open race at the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto. PLNC scored 44 points, well ahead of second-place Occidental’s 108. UCSD was sixth (180) and SDSU 10th (278).
PLNC had five runners finish in the top 20 in the five-mile race: Robert Keter (second, 25:05), Scott Lardner (fifth, 25:27), Bryan Wallbank (10th, 25:53), Kenneth Jansson (12th, 25:48) and Gus Arce (19th, 25:59). Keter’s mark was eight seconds behind winner Jose Garcia of Occidental.
The PLNC men are ranked 12th nationally in the NAIA.
Sam Gwynn was 20th for UC San Diego and Rob Ladner 22nd for SDSU.
Cal State Fullerton won the women’s race with 105 points and PLNC took second with 145 in the women’s 3.1-mile race. Vanessa Couch took fourth (18:21), Annette Ronnerman 11th (18:39) and Guadalupe Ambriz 15th (18:47) for PLNC. SDSU’s Chrystee Perkins finished 10th in 18:32.
GOLF
SDSU finished fourth and USD 15th at the New Mexico State Classic.
The 54-hole tournament at the University Course in Las Cruces was won by the host school, which posted an 855. SDSU’s four-man score was 866, a stroke behind Pepperdine. USD scored 920.
SDSU’s Kevin Riley tied for eighth overall after a third-round 74, finishing 71-70-74--215. Tim Todd had a 69-74-73--216 and David Schnider a 74-71-71--216 and they tied for 12th. John Lovett’s 221 tied for 31st.
USD’s top finisher was junior Lance Seymour, whose three-round 222 tied him for 34th.
WOMEN’S SOCCER
SDSU got a second-half penalty kick from Nicole Roche and a header from Lynn Murray to score a 2-0 nonconference victory over Azusa Pacific. Roche’s goal came almost nine minutes into the half, and Murray’s, off an assist from Reese Cicchinelli, came 13 minutes later.
SDSU is 5-4-1. Azusa Pacific is 3-2-1.
WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
SDSU defeated host University of San Francisco, 15-6, 14-16, 15-8, 13-15, 15-7 in a nonconference match.
Gracie Schutt led the Aztecs with 23 kills, five service aces and 17 digs. Shannon Mathew had 16 kills and Jennifer Miller added 13 for SDSU (7-9). USF fell to 5-8.
Gonzaga got 23 kills from Kelley Cunningham and upset USD, 15-11, 15-11, 15-9, in a West Coast Athletic Conference match at the USD Sports Center. USD didn’t have anyone reach double figures in kills. Andrea Bruns led with eight and Jennifer Lofftus had six.
Junior setter Shannon Mutch had 24 assists for USD giving her a school record 1,812 in her career.
The loss dropped USD to 1-3, 9-9, while Gonzaga improved to 3-2, 6-10.
UCSD, the top-ranked team in Division III, lost to Division II Chapman College, 13-15, 15-3, 15-6, 15-10.
