Marina’s Mojica Now in Spotlight at Orange Coast

Forward Nadia Mojica was often an after-thought when she played on the girls’ basketball team at Marina High.

A 5-foot-9 forward, she was a senior reserve on the Vikings’ 1998 CIF Southern Section Division I-A championship team, where her contributions were sometimes overshadowed by several high-profile teammates.

But Mojica, a redshirt sophomore at Orange Coast College, stuck with it. Last weekend she was named most valuable player at the Orange Coast Tournament, in part because she had 18 points and 14 rebounds to help the Pirates to the championship with a 57-53 upset of Cerritos, the second-ranked team in the state.

“This is still kind of new to me,” Mojica said. “I just feel like I’m getting back into it. I’m trying to do what I did at Marina, the little things that sparked them, like my rebounding and defense. The offense is just coming around.”

Mojica is Orange Coast’s tallest starter on a thin front line that received a setback when freshman forward Amy Wheeler, also of Marina, re-injured the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee. That injury kept Wheeler off the floor during her senior year of high school.

Two guards who also did not receive the attention they deserved when they were with Mojica at Marina are making their marks at Orange Coast, as well.

Pirate sophomore starter Karyn Fierst was the 1999 Orange Coast Tournament MVP and back-up guard Janette Redmond is one of the first off the bench this season.

Megan Masuda of Huntington Beach High is another starting guard at Orange Coast.

The Pirates (9-5) play Cerritos (12-2) again tonight at 5:30 at Cerritos.

WOMEN’S PRO SOCCER

At least two former county standouts were taken last week in the initial draft of the Women’s United Soccer Assn., which is set to begin play with eight teams in the spring.

Former Marina High midfielder Jenny Benson, who played at Nebraska, was taken in the third round as the 18th pick overall by the Philadelphia Charge.

Former Ocean View High striker Kim Engesser, who played at Portland in 1995 and 1996 and at Nebraska in 1997 and 1998, was taken as the 112th pick in the 14th round by the Atlanta Beat.

The Beat made Sun Wen of China the league’s No. 1 pick. National team defender Thori Bryan of North Carolina State, taken eighth by the Bay Area Cyber Rays, was the first American-born player selected.

NOTABLE

Forward Alie Nunez of Cypress College was named to the Junior College women’s soccer All-American first team for a second consecutive year. Nunez, from Valencia High, had 32 goals and 15 assists last season and finished her career at Cypress with 71 goals, 39 assists and a school-record 181 points.

Chase Exon, formerly of Woodbridge High, is one of four juniors returning to the men’s tennis team at Pepperdine. The Waves are ranked 12th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. preseason poll. Stanford topped the men’s and women’s rankings.

Long Beach State guard Tamara Inouye, formerly of Laguna Hills High, was named all-tournament at the Maryland Classic women’s basketball tournament Nov. 25-26.