It’s End of the Road for 49ers’ Ratelle

He had thoughts about going out on top. Ray Ratelle could afford to have those thoughts.

The Long Beach State men’s volleyball team, the one he guided for 19 years and the one he was about to leave, had been ranked No. 1 in the nation during the regular season and was the top-seeded team entering the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation postseason tournament.

Going out on top meant winning the NCAA championship. It would have been a fitting finish to a stellar 30-year coaching career and a nice bookend with the 49ers’ 1991 title.

And yet, Ratelle has 30 years of experience to know that you come to expect the unexpected. Which is precisely what happened Saturday night when the 49ers were beaten by eighth-seeded Loyola Marymount, 15-12, 16-14, 11-15, 7-15, 23-21, on their home floor.

Except for a longshot hope of an at-large berth to the NCAA playoffs, Long Beach State’s season is over. It also means Ratelle’s distinguished coaching career has reached its completion.

“Well, it’s not the way I wanted it to end,” said Ratelle, who plans to teach at Long Beach for three more years before retiring. “I’m a little disappointed.”

Ratelle’s final numbers, 389 wins, three divisional titles, even the one national title, don’t fully detail the impact he had on college volleyball. He helped develop seven U.S. national team players, including 1991 national player of the year Brent Hilliard and 1996 Olympic team member Brett Winslow.

UCLA Coach Al Scates has known Ratelle for more than 20 years. He said Ratelle was serious about coaching when he hired him to work a camp at UC San Diego in 1978.

“That was when we had about 360 kids on the grass and about 40 coaches,” Scates said. “He’d be the only coach who would work through lunchtimes and dinnertime with the kids.

“He’s such a professional. There’s nothing devious or back-handed about him. He’s a straight shooter.”

Before the season, Ratelle decided he needed to be more involved with his family. He wanted to watch his son Ryan, 13, and daughter Ashley, 11, go through their adolescence.

With volleyball also a part of his kids’ lives, Ratelle could stay involved in the sport on a personal level.

Coaching, however, won’t be an option. He has had his fill.

“John Madden once said that when the losses hurt you more than the wins make you happy, it’s time to get out,” Ratelle said. “Thirty years of this is enough.”

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Loyola Marymount has fielded a solid softball program for the last few seasons. But without conference affiliation and perennially strong local programs at UCLA, Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State, the Lions have often felt overlooked.

Ending Fresno State’s 35-game Western Athletic Conference win streak may help change that. The Lions went to Fresno and beat the fourth-ranked Bulldogs in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday that set off a celebration of national championship proportions.

“When I got back, I sat in my office for an hour thinking about that win,” Loyola’s sixth-year coach, Gary Ferrin, said.

The win earned a split of the doubleheader and capped an emotional weeklong stretch that included beating Long Beach State twice and getting swept at home by UC Santa Barbara.

Emotions are one of the things the Lions are riding on. Several major injuries have depleted the roster.

Pitcher Jennifer Heliotes, a 28-game winner last season, is out for the season because of a separated shoulder, injured while filling in at catcher after two others were hurt. Last year’s leading hitter, senior first baseman Heather Hollis, broke her finger during a tournament in Hawaii and is done.

Senior outfielder Heather Gelhorn is playing with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. “The doctor said that if she can play through the pain, go ahead and play,” Ferrin said. “It’s her last year.”

Yet the Lions are 29-21 and second in the WAC with a 7-7 mark.

“You could easily just quit,” Ferrin said of his team’s rash of injuries.

Has Loyola done enough to earn its first NCAA tournament berth? Ferrin estimates that the Lions must win out, including beating Fresno State again May 7.

He knows that a NCAA regional berth can never be expected. Last season, the Lions learned that going 43-28 as an independent wasn’t enough, bringing on the need to join a conference.

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Tracy O’Hara continues to have an amazing sophomore season. UCLA’s talented pole vaulter set a new NCAA outdoor record with a vault of 14 feet 7 1/4 inches at the U.S. Track Coaches Assn. National Invitational Team Championships last weekend at Austin, Texas.

O’Hara surpassed the previous mark of 14-3 1/2 set by Fresno State’s Melissa Price in 1998. She also has the second-highest U.S. outdoor mark of all-time. In March, O’Hara set the collegiate indoor record with a vault of 14-6.

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Long Beach State senior Johann Appell was named to the GTE Academic All-America second team by the Sports Information Directors of America. Appell, who majors in kinesiology and physical education, had a 4.0 grade-point average while also being the 49ers’ top cross-country performer last fall. . . .

USC sprinter Kinshasa Davis recently posted the nation’s best 200-meter time this season by running a 22.69 at the Mt. San Antonio College Invitational. Davis’ time is the second-fastest in school and Pacific 10 Conference history. . . .

The NCAA men’s tennis championship match could find UCLA and Stanford playing each other for the fourth time. In the year’s third meeting Saturday at the L.A. Tennis Center, the second-ranked Bruins dealt the top-ranked Cardinal their first loss, 5-2, as Jong-Min Lee and Jean-Noel Grinda defeated two top-15 players, Alex Kim and K.J. Hippensteel, respectively, in singles.

COLLEGE DIVISION

After surviving a 2-11 start, Cal Poly Pomona has played its way into fourth place and a possible berth in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. postseason baseball tournament by going 22-11 in its last 33 games.

Led by two sophomores, shortstop Jeffrey Ellena and outfielder Justin Davis, the Broncos swept a four-game series with Cal State Stanislaus to improve to 18-13 in conference. Ellena is batting .379 with three home runs and 34 runs batted in, and Davis is batting .374 with three homers and 38 RBIs.

David Juliano of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Anastasia Brewster of Pomona-Pitzer were named track athletes of the year in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.