SCC Gets Taste of NAIAs and Seeks a Bigger Bite
Southern California College made its first trip to a national postseason women’s basketball tournament last week and discovered first-hand what March Madness and the NAIA Championships are all about.
The Vanguards enjoyed the trip, although it was a quick one. SCC, which was 29-5 entering the tournament, was bounced in the first round, losing to ninth-seeded Rockhurst of Kansas City, Mo., 75-61, in Jackson, Tenn.
“It’s a whole different ball game,” SCC Coach Russ Davis said. “The arena held 6,000-7,000 and it was packed every night. The whole city of Jackson just stopped for this. Back there, the NAIA is huge, it’s just as big as the NCAAs.”
“Now we know as a team and a coaching staff what we have to accomplish to go back there. And I don’t want to just go back there, I want to go there and win.”
Davis wants to improve his players’ strength, so the Vanguards will be hitting the weights. And Davis will hit the recruiting trail.
“We saw teams with players from Africa, Sweden, Brazil, Bolivia, different countries,” Davis said. “I figured why can’t we recruit overseas too? If schools from the middle of Oklahoma can get these kids to come to their school, why wouldn’t they be willing to come to SCC and be a few minutes from the beach, right?”
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More SCC: Senior center Elaine Whittemore was named third-team All-American and junior point guard Amee Pina was an honorable-mention selection.
Pina and starters Kristi Wright and Alana Kempton, both juniors, should return to anchor the Vanguards’ defense of their Golden State Athletic Conference championship next season.
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Baseball: Chapman (15-6) continues to build toward an NCAA tournament bid, although the Panthers have been without one of their top hitters, Luis Garcia.
With Garcia out, others have picked up the slack. Robert O’Brien leads the team in hitting (.434) and also has a team-leading seven home runs and 30 runs batted in. Aaron Rifkin is hitting .425 with six home runs and 24 RBIs.
Garcia, who is hitting .400, has missed nine of the Panthers’ last 10 games because of a hamstring injury. Coach Rex Peters said Garcia could return as early as this week.
Chapman has two key games scheduled this week, against 16th-ranked Eastern Connecticut and No. 22 Massachusetts Dartmouth, today and Friday at Hart Park. Chapman is ranked 13th.
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More baseball: Concordia’s Ben Kindreich led the Golden State Athletic Conference in hitting heading into this week with a .434 average. Kindreich leads the conference in hits (46) and is second in stolen bases (12) behind teammate Jeff Stodgel (13).
Fourth-place Concordia (12-15, 7-6) plays a key doubleheader Saturday at Azusa Pacific (16-6-1, 10-4), which is tied for the conference lead with Biola (22-9, 10-4). SCC (17-13, 10-8) is in third place.
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Softball: Chapman’s romp through the Sun West tournament was put on hold Wednesday, when the rain forced rescheduling. It was the first day the 19-day tournament had any rain postponements.
Stephanie Carew is leading the Panthers’ offensive barrage, hitting .534 with nine home runs and 31 RBIs, all team highs. The Panthers (22-2) have won 18 of 20 in the tournament.
SCC (24-6) is also playing well and finished second at the Hawaii Hilo tournament last week, losing to the host school in the championship game, 1-0.