Browning’s Success Attracts Defenders

Dolores Browning was third in the nation in goals scored last season for the Cal State Fullerton women’s soccer team.

Not a bad way to start a college career, by anyone’s standards.

But her 24 goals as a freshman in 1995 also made her a familiar target for Titan opponents this season.

“There have been several times this year when she’s had two or three players defending against her when she goes for the ball,” said Titan assistant coach Rick Garcia, who helps Al Mistri with the women’s team.

“In women’s soccer, most coaches prepare according to the stat sheet, and when they see someone with as many goals as Dolores had last year, they set out to try to stop her. She almost always gets the other team’s toughest defender, and the teams usually double-team her.”

Browning says she’s definitely noticing the difference, compared to this time a year ago.

“They’re marking me a lot closer, so I have to be that much more aggressive,” she said.

Halfway through the regular season, however, Browning has 12 goals, behind her pace of last year. She’s also optimistic she can do better in the second half of the season.

“I don’t think I’ve played as well as I can yet,” Browning said. “My teammates are doing a good job of getting me the ball, but I’ve missed some opportunities I probably shouldn’t have.”

While the close attention probably made scoring more difficult for Browning, it has opened doors for her teammates. Amber Escobedo has five goals in 18 shots and Kelly Bogan four in 12.

Browning, who played at Lakewood Mayfair High, says she’s more in tune to team success anyway.

The Titans haven’t reached the NCAA playoffs since the women’s soccer program began in 1993. Browning hopes this team can do it, but the Titans can’t afford many more losses if they want to keep those hopes alive. Fullerton is 8-3 after routing Azusa Pacific, 9-0, Wednesday.

“We got off to a real shaky start,” Browning said, recalling that the team lost two of its first four games. “We seemed to play tense at the beginning of the season, but we’ve been improving a lot since then.”

The Titans’ only loss in the last six games was to UCLA, 1-0, a week ago. Fullerton came back to win, 1-0, against Pepperdine Sunday.

“That was a very important game against Pepperdine, because it showed that we could come back from a disappointing loss,” Browning said. “We gave it a good effort against UCLA, and I think we could have beaten them.”

The Titans play Tuesday at San Diego and at UC Irvine Oct. 27. Both opponents traditionally have been among the best teams in the region.

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The men’s soccer team continues to struggle with injuries and red cards.

The Titans played without top defender Alfred Partida in their victory over UC Irvine Friday and in their upset loss to Loyola Marymount Sunday.

Partida continues to be sidelined because of an ankle injury. Midfielder Tom Hellmer, who also is strong on defense, had ankle problems against Loyola and played only 18 minutes.

Defender Brian Dunseth sat out the Loyola game because of a one-game suspension from thered card he received against Irvine.

“We played well enough to win against Loyola,” Mistri said, “we just didn’t get the goals we needed to do it.”

The weekend split dropped Fullerton out of the Soccer America top 20 rankings this week. Soccer News has the Titans 12th.

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The Titan baseball team began three weeks of fall practice Monday and they are focused on rebuilding the pitching staff.

“Pitching is always a concern, even if you have the bulk of your staff back,” Coach George Horton said.

This time, however, junior Scott Hild is the only returning starter. The other returning pitchers are seniors Mike Greenlee, Todd Singelyn, Dustin Spencer and Matt Wise.

Freshman Michael Garner, The Times Orange County high school player of the year last season at Fullerton High, is the only left-hander among the 14 pitchers. Garner is expected to contend for a starting spot.

John Alkire, a transfer from Tennessee, also is regarded as a potential starter, as is Brandon Duckworth, a transfer from the College of Southern Idaho.

“It’s a lot like where we were when we started out the 1995 club,” Horton said. “Our success will depend a lot on how we develop, how we come together as a team. That ’95 team developed a great chemistry.”

And went on to win the College World Series.

Horton is optimistic about this team’s potential, despite the uncertain pitching staff.

“I feel good about the players we have to work with,” he said.

Titan Notes

The women’s cross-country team finished eighth among 19 teams in the Stanford Invitational Saturday. The Titan men’s team finished 20th in a field of 21. Sarah MacDougall was 18th among the women runners and second among those from the Big West Conference. “She had some problems with heat exhaustion in the last mile, so it was a good effort considering she still wasn’t at her best,” Coach John Elders said. Teresa Santana was 33rd and Sonia Perez was 40th. . . . Melissa Blackler had a season-high 69 assists and Heather Bassett a season-high 26 kills, but the Titan women’s volleyball team lost a five-game match to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last weekend. The Titans dropped to 8-7, 0-4 in the Big West.

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Coming Attractions

Here’s a look at key games this week for Cal State Fullerton:

* Women’s soccer against North Texas at 1 p.m. Sunday at Titan Stadium. Fullerton is 8-3.

* Men’s soccer against UC Santa Barbara at 3 p.m. Sunday at Titan Stadium. The Titans are 7-3-1, and have lost three of their last six games.

* Women’s volleyball against Utah State at 7 p.m. Thursday at Titan Gym. Fullerton is 9-7 and 1-4 in the Big West Conference.