COMMUNITY COLLEGES / STEVE KRESAL : Rustlers Searching for Volleyball Title

A busy two weeks of postseason activity starts today when the women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer playoffs begin.

Here’s a quick sport-by-sport rundown.

Women’s volleyball: Golden West, which has won five of the last seven State titles including the last two, is the top-seeded team in the Southern California playoffs.

The Rustlers play host to Rio Hondo (13-3) at 7 tonight in the first round. Golden West (19-2) rolled through the Orange Empire Conference with a 12-0 mark and has won 72 of 90 games overall.

Golden West, coached by Albert Gasparian, has won its last 114 conference matches.

The Golden West-Rio Hondo winner advances to the second round next Tuesday against the winner of No. 8 Santa Monica (12-7) and No. 9 Grossmont (11-6). The second-round winners move on to the State tournament Dec. 1-3 at Cerritos College.

Fullerton (12-5), the second-place team in the conference, also made the playoffs along with third-place Orange Coast (11-6). Fullerton, the sixth-seeded team, plays host to No. 11 Palomar (12-7).

The winner meets the winner of No. 3 Cerritos and No. 14 San Diego Mesa (9-9).

Orange Coast is at No. 7 Cuesta (15-5) and the winner plays the winner of No. 2 Long Beach (15-1) and No. 15 San Bernardino Valley (12-4).

*

Women’s soccer: Orange Coast and Cypress, which have already played two heated games this season, could meet a third time if both win first-round playoff games today.

Orange Coast (14-1-2), is seeded second, and plays host to No. 7 Moorpark (10-2) at 1 p.m. Cypress (16-2-2), the sixth-seeded team, is at No. 3 Grossmont (14-3-1) at 1:30 p.m.

With victories, the teams would play Saturday at OCC for a berth in the Dec. 2-3 State tournament at East Los Angeles College.

Orange Coast beat Cypress, 2-1, and 1-0, to win the Orange Empire Conference title. Cypress had won the previous three conference titles.

Orange Coast will be without leading scorer Renee Armstrong for the playoffs. She injured her knee against Cypress Friday and had surgery Monday.

El Camino (16-2) is the top-seeded team and plays host to No. 8 San Diego Mesa (8-3) and No. 5 Mt. San Antonio (15-1-1) is at No. 4 Bakersfield (10-6).

*

Men’s soccer: Rancho Santiago (15-1-1), the Orange Empire Conference champion, was seeded third in the playoffs. The Dons play host to No. 6 Los Angeles Mission today at 1:30 p.m.

Orange Coast (7-7-5) was seeded eighth and travels to No. 1 East Los Angeles (18-2) for a 6 p.m. game.

In the other first-round matches: No. 5 El Camino (13-5) is at No. 4 Palomar (15-2-3) and No. 7 San Diego Mesa (10-5-5) is at No. 2 Santa Barbara (16-1-1).

If Rancho Santiago wins, the Dons would play the San Diego Mesa-Santa Barbara winner Saturday for a berth in the State tournament, which is Dec. 2-3 at East L.A.

*

Football poll and bowls: Long Beach (10-0) is No. 1 and Los Angeles Valley (10-0) is No. 2 in the final regular-season Southland poll. The teams will meet in the Pontiac GMC Strawberry Bowl at 7 p.m. Dec. 2 at Cerritos College.

In the rest of the poll: Bakersfield (9-1) is third, San Bernardino Valley (9-1) fourth, Citrus (9-1) fifth, Mt. San Antonio (8-2) sixth, Hancock (8-2) seventh, Saddleback (7-3) eighth, Santa Monica (7-2-1) ninth and Moorpark (7-3) 10th.

In other Dec. 2 bowl games: Saddleback and Mt. San Antonio will play at Orange Coast in the Simple Green Orange County Bowl; Citrus is at Bakersfield in Potato Shrine Bowl; El Camino (7-3) is at Moorpark in the K-Swiss Bowl and Santa Monica is at San Bernardino Valley in the Southern California Bowl.

*

Forfeits: The Orange Coast men’s basketball team has forfeited its first three victories for using an ineligible player, the college announced Monday.

The Pirates record falls from 4-1 to 1-4. Don Barner, a forward from Oceanside High, was discovered to have played at Citrus College in 1988 and failed pass the required 12 units to transfer and play at another college under State rules.

Notes

Jamie Simpson of Fullerton led all Orange County women’s soccer players with 21 goals. Colby Morgan of Cypress had 11 and Rancho Santiago’s Robyn Camarillo had 10. Wendy Polnaszek of Cypress had a county-best eight assists.