Ring, Gulla Ride With Sooners to NCAA Title

Orange County is OK in Oklahoma.

Sophomore Christy Ring (Calvary Chapel High) and freshman Leah Gulla (Ocean View) were starters for the Oklahoma Sooners, who defeated defending champion UCLA, 3-1, last week to win the NCAA Division I softball title.

It was the first national championship won by a Sooner women’s team, and the 20th in the history of the school. Oklahoma (66-8) set a school record for victories in a season.

Ring, a left fielder, started 72 games and batted .338 with 12 doubles. Gulla, who played third base, started 71 games and batted .263 with 12 doubles. Neither got a hit in the championship game.

Former Pacifica three-sport standout Amanda Freed (28-8), a sophomore pitcher for UCLA, took the loss in the final. Woodbridge’s Natasha Watley, a freshman leadoff hitter, scored the Bruins’ only run. UCLA finished 46-12-1.

NATIONAL HONORS

Former Ocean View High basketball and baseball standout Jason Martini, a left-handed first baseman at Cal State Los Angeles, was named to the NCAA Division III baseball All-West Region second team.

Martini, a member of Ocean View’s 1998 Southern Section basketball and baseball championship teams, was a first-team All-California Collegiate Athletic Conference performer. He led the Golden Eagles with 44 runs batted in and batted .357. He scored 30 runs and had 15 doubles.

* Senior Stephanie Stephens, formerly of Capistrano Valley High, was honored recently with her fourth consecutive selection to the NCAA Division III All-American women’s water polo team by the American Water Polo Coaches Assn. Stephens played an integral role in leading Occidental to its first national title. She led the Tigers in steals with 93 and was among the nation’s leading defenders.

“No player scored more than once in any game while defended by Stephanie--if she scored at all,” Occidental Coach Dennis Fosdick said.

* Junior Amy McManus, one of two former county softball players at Houston Baptist, has been named an NAIA Scholar-Athlete.

The former Westminster High pitcher, who had a record of 11-4 and an earned-run average of 1.57 for the Huskies, is a two-time All-Red River Athletic Conference selection. She batted .374 and had 16 RBIs.

McManus is majoring in elementary education and psychology and has a grade-point average of 3.69.

Teammate Jean Anne Harley, a sophomore infielder from Troy High, played in 32 games and batted .240 with nine runs and nine RBIs.

Houston Baptist (41-13) tied a school record for victories in a season and was the Red River champion, as well runner-up at the Region VI playoffs. Oklahoma City defeated McManus and Houston Baptist, 5-1, in the final.

NOTABLE

Former University distance runner/soccer player Allyson Marquand has been in France playing for the U.S. under-21 women’s soccer team. Marquand, who attends Stanford, was the Orange County Athletic Directors Assn.’s female athlete of the year in 1999. She intends to return to the United States soon to compete for her under-19 club team in the annual California Youth Soccer Assn. State Cup tournament.

* Former Tustin middle blocker Jessica Cooper, one of six county players at Brown, has received a $2,000 scholarship from the California Teachers Assn., according to her mother, Barbara Cooper.

Other local volleyball players expected to return to the Ivy League school in the fall are Audrey Anhood (Corona del Mar), Ceneca Calvert (Irvine), Corre Myer (Corona del Mar), Kathryn Rice (Corona del Mar) and Laura Wells (Newport Harbor).

Rice is the returning team captain and Myer is the returning assistant team captain.