Cal Poly Pomona Standout Not Caught Up in Numbers

Carlos Juarez doesn’t want the day to come, much less think about it.

“Every game we play this year, I just think it’s one less game with her,” the Cal Poly Pomona women’s soccer coach said with a sad tone in his voice. “It’s going to be very, very difficult without her.”

She is Ruth Van’t Land-Parkes, the premier women’s soccer player in NCAA Division II and one of the nation’s best collegiate players regardless of division.

She is also the reason Cal Poly Pomona is a soccer power, only five years after going 3-14. In their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance last year, the Broncos reached the title match.

Now a senior, Van’t Land-Parkes is closing the books on a remarkable career at Pomona. She only hopes the final chapter will include a national championship.

“I think we have the talent to do it,” she said. “It’s about getting together as a team.”

From the moment she arrived at Pomona, Van’t Land-Parkes has been a dominating force. In 71 matches, she has scored 66 goals and recorded 27 assists. She has destroyed all previous scoring marks at the school.

Many of those goals have come in prime moments. Last year, she scored the only goals in two four-overtime battles against Cal State Dominguez Hills that gave the Broncos the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. and NCAA Far West Region championships.

In all, she had seven game-winning goals. She beat Texas A&M-Commerce; in double overtime to get the Broncos to the national semifinals.

The honors came pouring in soon after. NCAA Division II Player of the Year. CCAA Player of the Year. First-team all-conference, Far West Region and All-American. CCAA Female Athlete of the Year for the second consecutive year.

And yet, it all seems lost on the standout striker.

“I can’t honestly tell you how many goals or how many assists I have,” she said. “Every so often someone comes up to me and tells me how many I have. I guess it’s kind of cool.”

Sonoma State Coach Luke Oberkirch remembers how Van’t Land-Parkes dealt the Cossacks their first loss of the 1998 season after 20 consecutive victories.

“I wouldn’t say I enjoy that she’s going to finally graduate,” Oberkirch said. “On a professional level, maybe, but personally, I just enjoy watching her play. You want to face her. Not only her but you also want to beat Pomona.

“I remember in ‘97, we didn’t know anything about her. She scored two or three goals against us.”

Now everyone knows about her. For the 5-foot-8 Van’t Land-Parkes, the constant attention results in bumps and bruises after every match. Ice packs are her postgame companions.

What amazes Juarez is that Van’t Land-Parkes has never complained about the rough play on the field.

“She has never retaliated or never complained to the refs,” Juarez said. “She’s never said to me, ‘Carlos, I’m hurt. I can’t go in.’ ”

Once a Southern Section Player of the Year at Ontario Christian High, Van’t Land-Parkes had many major Division I programs hot on her trail during her senior year.

But she made a commitment to then-coach Todd Saldana to attend Pomona, and told other schools not to waste time trying to recruit her.

“Getting her was a coup,” said Saldana, now the men’s coach at UCLA. “For me, she was my first big recruit. I would always see her name in the newspaper [during high school] and I thought, ‘Well I’ve got to at least see her play.’

“When we started recruiting her, I know UCLA and a lot of other good programs were calling her. She was the one player I thought could lift our whole program.

“I think she’s a very loyal person. She’s loyal to her family and I think she felt comfortable being close to them.”

The family is always present. Tom and Marcia Van’t Land are always at the home matches even though Marcia has been wheelchair-bound since Ruth’s childhood, the result of porphyria, a rare blood disease.

It doesn’t keep her from yelling out encouragement through a megaphone from a spot on the sidelines.

“She’s a huge inspiration,” Van’t Land-Parkes said. “If I’m down about something, I just think about her. She’s gone through a lot.”

Those who have watched her play over the last four years firmly believe she could have performed as well at such Division I powers as Santa Clara or North Carolina. Oberkirch said Van’t Land-Parkes could play “for any team, anywhere. She’s not just the perfect player for Division II. She could play at any school in the country.”

That doesn’t faze the 21-year-old, who once was a member of the United States’ under-20 national team.

“I have no regrets,” she said. “I’m having a blast at Cal Poly. I don’t sit and think about if I could’ve played at Division I.”

UNIVERSITY DIVISION

UCLA forward McKinley Tennyson Jr. became the first Bruin men’s soccer player to record hat tricks in consecutive matches when he scored all three goals in a 3-0 victory Sunday over San Francisco.

Tennyson also had three goals Sept. 6 in a 5-0 victory against San Diego State.

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USC won the prestigious Southern California men’s water polo tournament Sunday with a 9-5 victory over Stanford at Corona del Mar High’s Bergeson Aquatic Center.

Freshman Pedrag Damjanov had three goals, including two in a decisive third period.

The Trojans moved from No. 4 to No. 1 this week in the Collegiate Water Polo Assn. poll.