COLLEGE BASKETBALL PREVIEW CAL STATE NORTHRIDGE WOMEN : Coach Confident Team Can Make Its Mark (.500)

A little more than a year ago, Janet Martin became the Cal State Northridge women’s basketball coach and inherited a solid NCAA Division II program.

The problem was Northridge was less than two months away from beginning its first season of competition at the Division I level.

“It wasn’t a disaster,” Martin said of the Matadors’ 10-17 campaign in 1990-91. “(But) it’s a lot more fun to come to work these days.”

The Northridge women will open their second season as a Division I independent Monday night at 7 against visiting Cal State Los Angeles and for Martin, the opening tip-off won’t arrive soon enough. “We’re excited for Monday,” Martin said. “I wish it were already here.”

With a demanding schedule that includes UCLA, USC, Nebraska, Arizona and Arizona State, few at Northridge are prepared to bank on a trip to the NCAA tournament in March.

But progress is not always measured in playoff appearances.

Martin is confident that Northridge can play .500 ball because the Matadors have displayed a sense of unity that was lacking at times a year ago. “It has to be a team effort (and) I felt we could have been more unified last year,” Martin said. “I’m finally seeing (team unity) develop.”

Northridge has nine players back, including three starters--Bridgette Ealy, Sandi Olson and Dawn Broline.

Ealy, a 5-foot-8 senior, can play guard or forward and is a proven scorer who figures to attract the top defensive players that opponents can offer when Northridge runs its motion offense. Ealy averaged 11.1 points a game last season and led Northridge in rebounding (7.2 a game average), assists (4.6), steals (2.5) and field-goal percentage (.502).

Olson, a 6-2 junior center, averaged 6.8 points and 5.7 rebounds. Martin says Olson has the potential to double her scoring average.

Broline, who started more than half of the games last season, moves from off-guard to point guard. “She’s our quarterback,” Martin said of the 5-9 senior.

Christine Rumfola, a reserve last season, is expected to pick up some of the scoring slack left by the departure of last season’s top scorer, Julie Arlotto, whose eligibility expired.

Used sparingly last season, the 5-9 Rumfola earned a starting job in the preseason and led Northridge with 18 points in a 77-56 loss to the Latvian national team earlier this month.

Roz Linton, a junior transfer from Valley College, will provide rebounding help at forward and returning forwards Haily Griffith and Shagarro Lattin also are expected to make significant contributions.

When Martin was hired as Northridge coach, she initiated a four-year plan designed to put CSUN on the map in Division I basketball. The 10 victories last season exceeded the predictions of many, but the transition has not gone according to plan.

Martin lost two of her top recruits this season after signing them to letters of intent. Jill Stephens, from Bakersfield College, injured her back in a car accident during the off-season and will miss the season.

Rachel Ward, CSUN’s top high school recruit from Costa Mesa, left school less than a week into the fall semester.

In addition, senior guard Lisa Senette, one of Northridge’s top reserves from last year’s team, injured her right knee during warm-ups for the Latvian exhibition and is out indefinitely.

But with a large group of walk-on players available, Martin has found some capable performers whom she hopes can fill the voids. Among that group is junior point guard Cynthia Llerenas, a skilled ballhandler who transferred from Pierce, and off-guard Janine Caldwell, a junior transfer from Clayton, N.M.

“The people we’re left with, they’re the heart and soul of the team,” Martin said. “Last year I said we were going to go over the .500 mark (in ‘91-92). I’m still going to stick to that.”