Her Religion Is Opponents’ Biggest Ally

In her first year of collegiate tennis, Sheree Schwartz has been unbeatable. The only thing that has been able to slow her down is a religious practice.

A Seventh Day Adventist, the Pomona-Pitzer freshman’s religious beliefs prohibit her from taking part in any type of work or competition on Saturdays--including tennis matches.

“I don’t work, I don’t do homework and I don’t compete in tennis on Saturdays,” she said after her victory in the second round of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships last Friday.

The Sagehens won both of their matches Friday, advancing to Saturday’s final against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. But Schwartz, the No. 3 player, was on the sidelines in that one, and her team went down, 7-2, ending its season.

Of course, one player could not make up five points, but her absence, along with an injury to No. 2 player Heather Gorman, forced people to move up two spots and created new doubles pairings.

“I thought the team did very well, considering the No. 7 and 8 players had to come up,” said first-year Coach Ann Lebedeff. “We knew it was going to be tough.”

But it wasn’t the first time Pomona-Pitzer has had to deal with Schwartz’s absence.

Schwartz is 18-0 in singles’ matches, 10-1 in doubles, and is good enough to play in the No. 1 spot if it was needed, Lebedeff said.

Her team is 14-7, but only 1-3 without Schwartz in the lineup.

“The players have adapted to it somewhat,” Lebedeff said. “But we say we have a Sheree lineup and a non-Sheree lineup.”

The problem was one Lebedeff inherited when she took over the program last fall. But it has dogged Schwartz throughout her tennis career.

“It’s frustrating,” she said. “It’s something I got used to in juniors. Sometimes I’d even have to drop out of a match that meant going to nationals.

“But the team element now plays such a huge factor. It’s disheartening when I miss a match because the team counts on me.”

Her faith also played a role in her decision to attend a Division III school. With so many more matches being played on Saturdays in Division I, Schwartz figured the amount of matches lost would be too great to bother playing.

So she decided on Pomona-Pitzer, where then-coach Lisa Beckett began changing dates to accommodate Schwartz. The end result: She got all but three regular-season matches and the conference final changed.

“It’s something I’ll bring up in the [conference] fall meeting,” said Lebedeff of trying to get the days of the SCIAC tournament changed for next year.

But for now, it’s something Schwartz, only a freshman, will have to accept, and she’s willing to do so.

One thing she won’t do, however, is compromise her beliefs, no matter how important the match.

“Being on a team makes it tougher,” said Schwartz of keeping with her faith and staying out of matches on Saturdays. “But it’s an integrity issue. People respect me because of it.

“But never say never, I guess.”

*

In Division II women’s tennis, Cal State Bakersfield clinched the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. title with a perfect 9-0 conference record heading into the regular-season finale at the Ojai championships this weekend.

*

Biola, led by sophomore left-hander Jon Rouwenhorst’s Golden State Athletic Conference-leading 1.94 earned-run average, leads the GSAC baseball standings by 2 1/2 games over Azusa Pacific. Rouwenhorst is 7-1 and leads the GSAC in strikeouts with 94, 29 more than teammate Chad Vanden Berg. Biola’s Ben Orr is tied for third with 63. Rouwenhorst is also second in the conference in home runs, with 11, four behind Justin Duarte of Azusa.

UC Riverside and Michael Salazar play host to UC Davis for a four-game series this weekend with a spot in the conference baseball tournament on the line. Four teams go, and Riverside and Davis are tied for the final two spots at 17-14, with two teams within 2 1/2 games.

Last week, Salazar, a shortstop, led the Highlanders to three victories in four games with Cal Poly Pomona, their nearest trailer. He was 10 for 19 with seven runs and four runs batted in for the week. He also has a 19-game hitting streak.

Mark Cartwright threw a five-hit shutout in one of the games for the Highlanders.