Rigamat Learning Painful Lessons
Stephanie Rigamat, a freshman striker for UC Irvine, thought adjusting to college soccer was going to be difficult. But she had no idea how rough it would be.
Two weeks ago, a San Diego State defender went after the ball but clobbered Rigamat instead. She left the game, then returned for the second half.
A week ago, Cal State Fullerton’s Kerry Murray would have made any World Wrestling Federation fanatic proud with her clothesline job on Rigamat late in the second half. Rigamat spent the rest of the game with an ice bag on her head.
Sunday, a Fresno State player knocked her down, but Rigamat played on, with what turned out to be bruised ribs.
“It’s been tough, physically,” Rigamat said. “The players are a lot more aggressive. It’s a lot more than the usual push. I’m not used to the headlocks I’ve gotten lately.”
This certainly isn’t Thousand Oaks High, where Rigamat scored 109 goals in three seasons. Adjusting to the college game has been a rough-and-tumble experience, with Rigamat doing most of the tumbling.
Still, with Irvine heading into the Big West Conference tournament, Rigamat seems to have found her legs, even if they get knocked from under her from time to time.
She has seven goals, none more important than the one on Oct. 26. She split two Cal State Fullerton defenders and her goal tied the score, 1-1. Irvine won, 3-1, to clinch a spot in the conference tournament.
“I think she’s developing into a top Division I forward,” Coach Marine Cano said. “She had to experience that it’s a very physical game. She has adapted to it.”
Rigamat can give as well as receive. She did, after all, flatten San Diego State’s goalkeeper two weeks ago.
“We both had a shot at the ball,” Rigamat said. “I was trying to score and we collided. They got pretty angry.”
It wasn’t long after that an Aztec defender sent Rigamat sprawling. A coincidence? Rigamat takes the high road.
“We were both going for the ball,” she said. “She just got my head.”
But Rigamat took her medicine and returned.
“She’s very durable,” Cano said.
She has had to be. No one warned Rigamat about Camp Cano, the Anteaters’ grueling preseason survival program.
“I thought I was in shape to play,” Rigamat said. “I certainly wasn’t, not by his standards. It paid off. I can run a lot longer now.’
Rigamat has been more important to Irvine in the last month. The Anteaters lost forward Tracie Manz, their second-leading scorer, to a knee injury in mid-October. As a result, leading scorer Nicole Bucciarelli was being surrounded by more defenders.
Rigamat needed some prodding to help fill the void.
“She is very unselfish,” Cano said. “There were times when all I wanted her to do was shoot and she would lay off a pass. She can create prime-time chances every game, but we need her to shoot.”
Cano drove that point home by benching Rigamat to start the Utah State game but still managed a goal and an assist.
“She actually lulls defenders to sleep, then pounces,” Cano said. “It’s crunch time right now and she is coming through.”
That is, when she’s not getting crunched.
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The predicted demise of Cano’s team was again premature. After an early October tailspin, Irvine has won four of five games heading into the conference tournament, including a 2-1 victory over Fresno State Sunday. It tied the school record for victories with 13.
It was a rapid turnaround from a 1-3 run, during which the Anteaters scored only two goals, that seemed to put to rest any thoughts of an NCAA tournament berth.
“We’re in a situation where we don’t look back too much,” Cano said. “We probably have two too many losses [for a tournament bid], but these last two weeks were very important. A lot of teams are on the bubble right now.”
The Anteaters’ bubble hasn’t popped yet because of play from their non-headliners.
--Laura Lamb, who didn’t start, scored both goals against Fresno State.
--Reserve Kristie Nakamura brought the offense to life against Fullerton. Twice in the first half she hit the crossbar with long shots, loosening up the defense.
Irvine plays Pacific in the first round Friday at Irvine. The championship game is 1 p.m. Sunday. Two victories might be enough, at least in Cano’s scenario.
“We’re not dead yet,” he said.
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The men’s soccer team has surged the last two weeks, mainly because of freshman Walter Camargo. He has scored five goals in three games. Irvine is 2-1 in those games and 4-2-1 since Oct. 12.
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How different is Irvine from Cal State Bakersfield? Let basketball Coach Pat Douglas count the ways--or at least the speaking engagements.
“There are so many little communities here, it’s hard to become centralized,” Douglass said. “In Bakersfield, I could go speak at the Rotary Club and I might see five to seven prominent boosters. Here, every community has its own Rotary Club and I’ll be lucky to see one person. You have to make an effort to call the people you meet. You can’t expect just to bump into them.”
Anteater Notes
Erick Joshua, a 6-3 junior guard from Otero Junior College in Colorado, is no longer with the men’s basketball team. . . . Tom Davis, goalkeeper for the water polo team, will make his 90th consecutive start when the Anteaters play Saturday at UC Santa Barbara. . . Fiona McLean finished eighth in the women’s single-handed national sailing championships last weekend in Redwood City. . . For the second consecutive year, Jamie Blair earned All-Big West Conference honors. She finished sixth at the conference’s cross-country championships Saturday.
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Coming Attractions
Key games for UC Irvine this week:
* Women’s soccer faces Pacific in the first round of the Big West Conference tournament at 7 p.m. Friday. The title game is 1 p.m. Sunday.
* Women’s volleyball, which picked up its second conference victory Saturday against Cal State Fullerton, plays at UC Santa Barbara Friday and at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Saturday. Both matches start at 7:30 p.m.
* Golf concludes its fall schedule by playing in the 49er Classic, beginning Friday at the Virginia Country Club in Long Beach.
* Men’s soccer plays at the University of San Diego tonight and hosts Cal State Sacramento Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.
