Cal Poly Pomona Women Courting Another Outstanding Tennis Season

The Cal Poly Pomona women’s tennis program reached unprecedented heights last season with its first NCAA Division II championship.

But the Broncos, who have ranked among the top teams in Division II since joining the division in 1982, seem to have taken their game a notch higher this season.

Not only is Pomona (9-0) ranked No. 1 in Division II again, but the Broncos maintained their perfect record with a 9-0 victory over fourth-ranked Air Force last week.

“I think the team just has a real good mix,” Coach Ann Lebedeff said. “We have (experienced) kids who are leaders and the younger kids have a lot of enthusiasm.”

Lebedeff also thinks the team has more depth than last season.

“Last year, we only had five or six players who we could turn to, and I always wondered what would happen if we got an injury,” she said. “But we have nine kids on this team.”

Pomona is led by seniors Julie Slattery, Diane Ewing and Cindi Laird. Slattery, who was Division II runner-up in singles two years ago, sat out last season. She had one of her most impressive outings of the season, defeating defending Division II singles champion Laura Simmons of Air Force, 6-3, 6-0.

Helping make the team doubly difficult to beat are sophomore transfers Rebecca Huereque from the University of Utah and Robin Rowan from Texas El Paso, and freshmen Tracy Ngyyen and Renee Urricariet.

Although Pomona has been virtually unchallenged so far, Lebedeff expects to be tested before the Division II championships start May 1 at West Texas State in Canyon, Tex.

She said the team will receive its most difficult test when it plays host to the Xenia Anastasiadou tournament April 10-12 in Pomona. The tournament will include most of the division’s best teams, including No. 2 Abilene Christian of Texas and No. 5 UC Davis, which lost to Pomona in the division championship match last year.

“It should be a pretty good test,” Lebedeff said. “It’s probably a stronger draw than even the NCAAs because the NCAAs rank teams regionally and that makes a big difference.”

But so far, so good.

“I think we really came through our first set of matches well and we’ll see how we do in the next bunch of matches,” she said.

Despite the team’s early success, Lebedeff does not want the players to look too far ahead.

“I think last year’s team really wanted it a lot,” she said. “We have a lot of talent on this team, but we have a lot of younger players who don’t really know what it’s like in tournament play yet. Each team is so different that it’s really going to be a test of nerves to see how they react once they get to the tournament.”

Lebedeff said she expects a strong challenge for the Division II title from Abilene Christian and Davis.

Cal State Bakersfield made a big impression in men’s basketball before losing in the NCAA Division II semifinals last week. The Roadrunners lost to eventual champion Virginia Union, 69-66.

Bakersfield’s play was impressive when considering that Virginia Union defeated Bridgeport of Connecticut, 100-75, in the championship.

The Roadrunners (26-7) also played well defensively in an 89-59 victory over Jacksonville State of Alabama in the quarterfinals.

Jacksonville had entered the game with a 100.8-point scoring average but made 29% of its field goals against a Bakersfield team that was ranked among the division’s best defensive squads.

The year marked the third consecutive season in which Bakersfield reached the Division II final four. The Roadrunners advanced to the Division II title game in 1990.

It also capped an outstanding four-year career for Bakersfield center Beau Redstone, who finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,301 points and rebounder with 928.

Redstone scored a game high of 22 points and had 12 rebounds in the loss to Virginia Union. He also scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds in the victory over Jacksonville.

It may have caught a lot of people by surprise when Gene Krieger announced his resignation at Cal Poly Pomona women’s volleyball coach last week.

Krieger had guided the Broncos to a 56-22 record and two consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division II playoffs. The Broncos finished at 25-8 and reached the NCAA Southwest Regional final last season.

But Krieger said his reason for leaving had nothing to do with the team’s record.

“I am leaving Cal Poly due to the increased time demand that coaching a NCAA Division II team requires,” Krieger said. “This will afford me more time to invest in my business and other interests.”

He will not be leaving the Southland coaching ranks, however. Krieger said he will return to Cal Baptist, where he had a successful coaching stint the previous two seasons.

Krieger has a career record of 243-97 in nine years of coaching, including stops at Warner Pacific of Oregon, Western Oregon State, Westmont, Cal Baptist and Pomona.

Maybe the Cal Lutheran baseball team is capable of making a few mistakes, after all.

The Kingsmen displayed few signs of weakness in winning a school-record 21 consecutive games to start the season.

Cal Lutheran finally saw its streak end in a 5-3 loss to UC San Diego in the Sunshine Classic in La Jolla last week.

But the Kingsmen (22-1), who are ranked No. 2 in the NCAA Division III, rebounded to defeat No. 6 San Diego, 9-4, for the tournament championship.

Despite three victories in four games, the Kingsmen’s batting and earned-run averages slipped. Still, the numbers are impressive. Cal Lutheran has a .337 average, including eight regulars who are batting .300 or higher, and a staff ERA of 1.58.

The offensive leaders have been outfielders Eric Johnson and Darrell McMillin. Johnson is batting .405 with six home runs and 22 runs batted in, and McMillin is hitting .388 with 13 homers and 29 RBIs.

College Division Notes

Senior forward Caryn Cranston of Pomona-Pitzer has been named to the 1992 Kodak Women’s NCAA Division III All-America team by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assn. Cranston, the first Pomona player to earn All-America honors since 1985, averaged 23.5 points to lead the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in scoring. Cranston set a school single-season scoring record with 611 points and finished second on the all-time list with 1,829.