PREP NOTES : Fullerton’s Fancuberta Picks Rutgers

Angie Fancuberta, who pitched Fullerton High to a Southern Section softball title as a sophomore, said Thursday she has orally committed to play next year at Rutgers.

Fancuberta, a Times Orange County second-team selection last year as a junior, went 17-8 with a 0.55 earned-run average. She had 200 strikeouts--the second-best total in the county--in 178 2/3 innings.

She chose Rutgers, which is in New Brunswick, N.J., over Indiana.

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Laguna Beach tennis player Amanda Hastings-Phillips, a second team Times’ all-county selection last year, said she has orally committed to play next year at Princeton.

Phillips, a top-30 junior player in Southern California, did not play high school tennis this season. Phillips, who chose Princeton over Dartmouth, said she is awaiting word of her admittance to Princeton.

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Villa Park pitcher Tammy Kincaid has orally committed to play softball next year at Arkansas, Spartan Coach Dave Shelton said.

Kincaid went 9-5 last year with 118 strikeouts in 106 innings; she had a 0.66 earned-run average.

She is the second player from Orange County to commit to Arkansas; the other was El Toro outfielder Dana Gulick.

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Infielder/pitcher Mike Hessman of Mater Dei has orally committed to play at Arizona, Monarch baseball Coach Bob Ickes said.

Hessman, an all-Orange County selection, batted .405 for Mater Dei last season.

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Tara Brown has been named the girls’ basketball coach at El Dorado, Athletic Director Sally Reclusado said.

Brown played at South Florida and graduated in 1985; she has coached girls’ basketball in Zephyrhills, Fla.

She will be assisted by former USC player Tracy Atwater.

Brown replaces Gary Raya, who died Sept. 7.

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Huntington Beach has named Bill Thomson as its girls’ basketball coach, Athletic Director Dave Van Hoorebeke said. Thomson had been named girls’ coach at Santa Ana Valley in April. He was an assistant at Murrieta Valley, and coached lower levels at Mission Viejo and Troy--all in the boys’ program.

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Calvary Chapel’s football team improved its overall record to 4-3 by virtue of a forfeit. The Eagles’ 27-6 loss to Lakewood Mayfair Oct. 6 was reversed because the Monsoons used a couple of junior varsity players--who had played earlier in the day--in the fourth quarter of the varsity game. Players are not allowed to play two games on one day.

“You call off your dogs . . .” Mayfair Coach Mike Fitch said. “We were up 27-0 and trying to reward the kids. There was a rule and I didn’t see it. I blew it.”

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As expected, Edison scored an easy (15-45) boys’ cross-country victory over top-ranked Huntington Beach--which ran only one true varsity runner--in their dual meet last week.

The Oilers had reached their meet limit (11) for six of their runners and were forced to use junior varsity runners in the varsity meet.

Although Edison (5-0) took the top five spots in the race and won the dual meet championship, Huntington Beach (4-1) can win the overall league title Saturday by winning the Sunset League finals at Central Park.

And the Oilers will be running the varsity.

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It took awhile, but the Esperanza girls’ volleyball team played a match in its gym for the first time this season when it defeated Los Alamitos, 15-5, 15-4, 15-9, in a Sunset League match Oct. 24.

The gym floor buckled this fall after a plumbing problem caused flooding. For the first seven weeks of the season, the 10th-ranked Aztecs (8-4, 5-3 in league) played their home matches at Valencia High.

Staff writers Martin Henderson, Dave McKibben, Paul McLeod and Wendy Witherspoon, and correspondent Don Turnbull contributed to this story.