Ulfuebrand Battles His Way to a Title

Southern California College’s Joaquim Ulfuebrand won his flight at the Cal Poly Pomona tournament last weekend, outlasting Cal Poly Pomona’s Chris Seid in the final, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7-3).

Nothing about Ulfuebrand’s title run was easy.

He beat the top-seeded player, Azusa Pacific’s Ben Medina, in the first round, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. In the quarterfinals, he defeated Cal Poly Pomona’s Tom Yim, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, in a 3 1/2-hour match. After resting only 30 minutes, he defeated SCC teammate Stefan Johansson, 6-1, 6-2, in the semifinals.

“[After that semifinal match], he could hardly walk to the van,” Coach Mattias Johansson said.

The next morning, Ulfuebrand hung on to win the three-hour final in a tiebreaker after squandering a 5-2 lead.

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Women’s basketball: Although defending conference champion Concordia lost, 66-55, to SCC, the bigger concern is the health of center Heather Carll, who has missed the last three games because of a pulled anterior cruciate ligament.

Carll, a 6-foot-3 senior who leads the team in scoring and rebounding, hasn’t practiced since injuring her right knee Jan. 17 against Azusa Pacific. Concordia Coach Greg Dinneen said Carll is out indefinitely.

Concordia (16-5, 3-1) struggled without Carll Tuesday, shooting 32% from the field and making only five of 13 free throws against SCC (18-4, 5-0).

“We still forced 31 turnovers and got 20 more field-goal attempts than SCC,” Dinneen said. “The effort was there.”

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Men’s basketball: Concordia Coach Greg Marshall also took Tuesday’s loss hard. His team fell to SCC, 83-79. Both teams entered the game with 2-2 records in conference.

“This was huge for us,” Marshall said. “But I think we raised more questions than we answered. Tonight we’re down 14 with six minutes left and it looked like we quit mentally.”

The Eagles (11-11, 2-3), who start two sophomores and a freshman, have played some top teams tough. Concordia took Azusa Pacific, ranked sixth in the NAIA, to the wire before losing, 77-74.

“But I don’t know what it will take for us to get over that hump,” Marshall said. “You’d like to think that some of that is inexperience and that the skill is there for improvement. But I don’t know.”

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Honors: SCC point guard Amee Pina was named Golden State Athletic Conference player of the week after averaging 18 points and eight assists in two conference victories. Pina made six of 11 three-pointers in the games and leads the team with 41 three-pointers.

Pina leads the conference in assists, averaging more than seven.

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Chapman hoops: The women’s basketball team moved up to sixth in the NCAA West Regional rankings after victories over then seventh-ranked Pomona Pitzer and Pacific Christian last week. Six teams from the region qualify for the NCAA tournament, including three automatic bids for conference champions.