Chapman Adjusting to Division III Volleyball

Four seasons ago, the Chapman women’s volleyball team was battling the best teams in NCAA Division II--and winning.

The Panthers, then flush with scholarship athletes, won 27 matches in 1989, including an upset of UC Riverside, the top-ranked team in the nation.

Times have changed. Tuesday night, No. 9 UC Riverside beat the Panthers, 15-1, 15-6, 15-0, in Riverside.

Coach Mary Cahill, whose first season was ‘89, no longer has athletic scholarships to offer--the university stopped granting new athletic-based aid before the 1992 season as part of a move to NCAA Division III. So Cahill has had to adjust her expectations.

The team has just seven players on the roster, only three of whom have recent volleyball experience. Junior Christi Park is the only player returning from last year’s team that went 18-17. She was a defensive specialist last year and played mostly on the back row. But this season she has moved to setter.

Two freshmen, outside hitters Shawna Parkinson of Reedley, Calif., and Cathy Thielen of Temple City, are the Panthers’ strongest players on offense.

Cahill’s thin roster grew thinner when freshman middle blocker Mandy Combe returned home to West Valley City, Utah, Saturday for surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee. She was replaced on the roster by a softball player, Dena Hartman, who played volleyball at Katella High.

The Panthers dropped to 1-8 with the loss to Riverside, but Cahill is still encouraged about how the team is developing.

“We out-hustled Riverside,” she said. “We were digging balls and running all over the place. That’s what I like about this group, they don’t give up. They just keep on plugging away.”

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Add Chapman volleyball: Because of Chapman’s transition to Division III, Cahill had trouble scheduling home matches, and the Panthers’ home opener is Tuesday against La Verne. La Verne is considered the top team in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which Chapman hopes to join.

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The local Golden State Athletic Conference teams had a rough weekend series last week. Concordia lost to Fresno Pacific, 15-11, 15-1, 11-15, 15-8, Friday and to Azusa Pacific, 15-11, 15-5, 4-15, 15-11, Saturday. Southern California College lost to Azusa Pacific, 15-3, 13-15, 15-6, 15-6, and Fresno Pacific, 15-11, 15-3, 15-11.

This week won’t be any easier. Westmont, ranked fourth in the NAIA national poll, it at SCC Friday night and Concordia Saturday night.

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Chris Chaparro, a sophomore forward on the Southern California College men’s soccer team, was named the NAIA District 3 player of the week after scoring four goals in the Vanguards’ 6-0 victory over Concordia Saturday.

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Before the season, Chapman soccer Coach Gregg Murphy was worried that his men’s team would lack offensive firepower. Not since Eddie Soto, who had 41 points (16 goals, nine assists) in 1991 before transferring to Cal State Fullerton, have the Panthers had a high-scoring forward.

Enter Armando Orizaba, a junior forward from Katella High. After 10 games, Orizaba has 21 points (eight goals, five assists). He had three goals in a 9-0 victory over Christian Heritage Tuesday.

Orizaba played midfielder before this season because Murphy didn’t think he had enough talent at that position to move him up front.

This year has been different and Chapman is 6-2-2.

“He’s doing well,” Murphy said. “He’s got some chances and he’s put them in for us.”

Notes

Coralin Glerum, an assistant at Mills College last year, has been hired by Chapman to be an assistant to women’s basketball Coach Mary Hegarty. . . . The Chapman water polo team open its season by winning one of four games at the Whittier Tournament, Saturday and Sunday. The Panthers beat Cal Maritime, 27-11, lost to Loyola Marymount, 16-11, the Aztec Club, 19-11, and Occidental, 17-12.