Chapman Volleyball Has Its Eye on the Playoffs

It has been a long road back, but Chapman has a good chance to make the NCAA women’s volleyball playoffs for the first time since 1990.

With four regular-season matches remaining, Chapman (20-7) is ranked No. 4 in the West Region of the NCAA Division III. Four teams from the West will qualify for the Division III playoffs.

Chapman, a Division III independent, plays its next three matches against teams from the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference--Pomona-Pitzer, Whittier and La Verne.

Each team is ranked below the Panthers, so Chapman Coach Mary Cahill said she believes winning the three matches will keep her team on track for a playoff spot, regardless of the result of the season finale Nov. 4 against UC San Diego, which is ranked third nationally and first in the West.

“It’s in our own hands,” Cahill said. “We don’t have to upset San Diego or anything like that. We just have to make sure we play our game and I think it will all fall into place.”

Although the Panthers lost two of their three matches last week, Cahill believes they are coming around.

Sophomore outside hitter Shawna Parkinson, ranked in the top 20 nationally with a 4.3 kill average, and senior setter Christi Park, ranked in the top 20 with 10.3 assists per game, are Chapman’s top players, but others need to contribute.

“They’re all capable of doing it,” Cahill said. “They just have to be ready to go. It’s nothing like last year. Our attack is pretty balanced.”

Last season, the Panthers depended on Parkinson for offense--with predictable results. Chapman finished 4-20 in its final season as a NCAA Division II program.

Before the university announced its intention to switch to Division III, Chapman’s program was a regular in the national rankings. When Cahill took over the program in 1989, she led the Panthers to Division II playoff appearances in her first two seasons, extending the Chapman streak to three.

The Panthers missed the playoffs in 1991, and the slide picked up when the school stopped offering athletic scholarships.

Cahill is one of only three Chapman head coaches to stay through the transition and now the volleyball program appears on solid footing with a strong recruiting class and three returning players--Parkinson, Park and sophomore Cathy Thielen.

“I kept telling them it would pay off this year,” Cahill said. “I only got three back to accept the payoff but that’s OK.”

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Soccer playoffs: The Panther men’s and women’s soccer teams are still in the running for Division III playoff spots, Coach Gregg Murphy said.

Playoff bids will be announced Sunday, and Murphy, who coaches both teams, hopes the strength of his teams’ schedules will help gain a berth.

The men’s team, 9-4-3, apparently is fighting for two spots, with UC San Diego and Claremont. The Panthers tied each team.

The women’s team, 11-5 , plays host on Sunday to UC San Diego, which at 10-0-3 has a good chance of getting a berth. SCIAC champion Cal Lutheran also is a strong candidate.

“What we have going against us is San Diego’s record is better than ours,” Murphy said. “But we have a good record, too, and I can’t imagine them not taking us if we beat San Diego.”

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Home stretch: The Southern California College women’s volleyball team has two crucial road matches Friday and Saturday. The Vanguards (16-8, 5-6 in the Golden State Athletic Conference) play at Westmont (17-13, 5-6) Friday and at Biola (13-10, 6-5) Saturday.

The top six teams from the conference qualify for the NAIA Far West regional playoffs. With three conference matches remaining, SCC is tied for fifth with Westmont, two matches ahead of seventh-place Pt. Loma Nazarene.

Notes

Chapman’s football team faces its toughest home game of the season Saturday when the Panthers play La Verne at 7 p.m. La Verne (6-0) is ranked No. 2 in the Division III West Region. Quarterback Curtis Robinson, who missed last week’s 62-0 victory over Menlo because of an injured shoulder, probably will start, Chapman Coach Ken Visser said Wednesday. . . . The Concordia men’s basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Golden State Athletic Conference by the conference’s coaches.