Regional Participants Face Trip to San Diego

The CIF raised a few eyebrows by announcing that Saturday’s Southern California Division I and IV regional girls’ and boys’ basketball championship games will be in San Diego for the first time. Historically, the finalists in those divisions have been from the Los Angeles and Southern sections.

CIF spokesman Jim Duel said state officials are gambling that spectators will make the trip to the 12,000-seat Cox Arena at San Diego State.

“We’re interested in having the regionals in different areas of the state [each year],” Duel said. “So, we thought this would be a good site to try this idea out.”

The Pond has a concert Saturday night and was not available. The Long Beach State Pyramid hosts boys’ and girls’ divisions II, III and V finals. Its capacity of about 4,000 is not large enough for Division I finals, Duel said, although he acknowledged that finalists could come from nearby.

The Division I boys’ final could be a rematch of the Southern Section Division I-A championship game that drew 11,473 to the Arrowhead Pond last Saturday to watch Mater Dei upset Glendora, 46-40. Another possibility is a Mater Dei-Lakewood Artesia regional final. Artesia, the Southern Section Division I-AA champion, hosts Glendora Thursday if both win tonight. Top contenders in girls’ Division I are San Clemente, Palos Verdes Peninsula, El Toro and Pacific Palisades Palisades.

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Saturday’s overall announced attendance of 18,884 at the Pond for the Southern Section boys’ basketball playoffs was the fourth largest in history. The morning session drew 7,372, third largest of all time, while the evening session attracted 11,473, also fourth largest on record.

The largest combined crowd came in 1994 at the Pond with 25,739 spectators.

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Servite’s championship at the University boys’ volleyball tournament last weekend is just the first step in what Coach Ed Cunningham believes will be a serious challenge for the Southern Section Division II title.

“We think we’ll be a contender,” Cunningham said.

The Friars, who play Thursday at Los Alamitos, defeated Aliso Niguel in the single-game tournament final, 15-10, after having defeated the Wolverines in pool play, 15-12, 15-10.

Setter Billy Hamilton and opposite Danny Taylor were named to the all-tournament team.

Cunningham has requested that the Friars be moved up into the Division I pool at the Orange County Championships March 19-20 and 22 at Marina. The Friars are defending tournament champions in Division II, but many of the best teams in the Southern Section compete in Division I.

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Foothill is ranked No. 1 in the state in softball by Cal-Hi Sports and swept the No. 2 team, Clovis, in a doubleheader Saturday despite the absence of last year’s offensive player of the year, Kristen Mann, and last year’s team most valuable player, Eryn Manahan.

Mann was playing for the Knights’ basketball team, which lost the Southern Section Division II-AA title game to Brea Olinda, 76-45. Manahan, scheduled for surgery today, is out for about four weeks with a knee injury.

“Our speed served us well,” Coach Joe Gonzalez said. “I thought we played really well.”

Foothill lost 1-0, to Fresno Buchanan despite Lauren Schwendimann pitching a two-hitter Friday.

Schwendimann came back with a 12-strikeout, two-hitter in a 3-0 victory over Clovis.

Sophomore Courtney Fossatti outdueled highly touted junior Jamie Southern in the first game of the doubleheader, winning 2-0.

Staff writer Martin Henderson contributed to this story.