THE COLLEGES / IRENE GARCIA : Cal Lutheran Enjoys a Fall That’s Fit for Kingsmen

The last couple of weeks have been big for Cal Lutheran. Huge, actually. Three teams--women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer--clinched Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles last week and the football team has a chance to be SCIAC co-champion.

The Kingsmen (4-3-1, 4-1 in the conference) must beat undefeated La Verne on the road Saturday to share the SCIAC title with the Leopards.

La Verne (8-0, 5-0) is the nation’s highest-scoring (47.4 points a game) team. The Leopards were ranked 16th nationally in the Sports Illustrated NCAA Division III preseason poll and are No. 5 in the West region.

“We just have to go over there and play our best,” Cal Lutheran Coach Joe Harper said. “That is the best team out there and nothing less will do against them.”

Lately, the Kingsmen have played well. Led by running back Fredrik Nanhed, Cal Lutheran has won four of its last five games.

A freshman from Sweden, Nanhed broke Terrence Thomas’ single-season rushing record of 1,236 yards last week.

Nanhed, an explosive 6-foot-1, 180-pound tailback, has gained 1,282 yards and scored nine touchdowns in 208 carries.

“Obviously he’s an impact player,” Harper said. “He’s made a big difference on this team. Because of him our emphasis has been on the running game.”

A victory over La Verne would mark the first time in school history that Cal Lutheran has won conference titles in four sports.

The women’s volleyball team, which will play Chapman in the first round of the NCAA Division III West Regional on Friday at UC San Diego, won its second consecutive SCIAC title with a 12-0 record.

“We were 11-1 last year and at the end of the season we set a goal to be 12-0 this year,” Cal Lutheran volleyball Coach James Park said. “It was a big task to be up for every match.”

The men’s soccer team clinched the title with a 9-0-1 record, but didn’t make the playoffs because the SCIAC doesn’t get an automatic berth and the team wasn’t ranked among the top four in the West region.

The women’s soccer team, which lost, 2-0, to UC San Diego in the first round of the playoffs last week, went 11-0-1 to win its fifth consecutive conference title.

Bruce Bryde, who was hired as Cal Lutheran athletic director in mid-July, is smiling these days. He’s already looking forward to spring sports because the word on campus is that many of those teams are loaded.

“It’s an absolute treat,” he said. “Everyone around here is pretty excited. It’s real fun to be a part of it.”

The women’s volleyball team could make his job even more thrilling since it appears to have a solid chance of winning a national championship.

It could be party time in Thousand Oaks come December. If Cal Lutheran survives this week, it will advance to the Division III quarterfinals on Nov. 18 and if the Regals get through that, they will play in the final four Dec. 1-2.

Cal Lutheran (23-2) is seeded No. 1 in the West and plays Chapman (13-12) on Friday.

The Regals haven’t lost since falling, 3-0, to UC San Diego on Oct. 17. The team’s other defeat came in the second match of the season on Sept. 15, a five-game setback to Hawaii-Hilo.

“All season it’s been a great team effort,” Park said. “Everyone has contributed a lot to the success.”

The Regals have set several school records. Junior outside hitter Tracy Little holds the single-season records for kills (277) and digs (317) marks, and the single-match kill record (26). She is also the school’s all-time leader in aces (69).

Senior outside hitter Darcy White is the Regals’ career kill leader with 791. Sophomore setter Liz Martinez broke the single-season assist record (687) she set in 1994 with 907 in this season. She is the school’s career assist leader with 1,594.

Senior Tara Thomas, a graduate of Moorpark High, is the school’s all-time leader in digs with 952. She also ranks among the team’s best in hitting, assists and aces.

“She is the unsung hero,” Park said. “She’s played three positions in three years and she does all the intangibles.”

The Regals are so well-rounded that Park said for the second consecutive season he is struggling to pick a most valuable player. Many coaches in the league would love to have that problem.

“The thing I remember most about them is that not a single person stood out,” Whittier Coach Kristi Vandenberg said. “They were all so good and so consistent!”

It appears that the women’s volleyball team has the tools to sweeten up Cal Lutheran’s great fall season by winning its regional bracket and advancing to the national championship tournament.

The football team may have a tougher task, but the folks at Cal Lutheran have high hopes. And why not? It’s been a great couple of weeks for the school’s athletic department.