You don’t go to Disneyland after winning anymore.
You go to Fresno.
Three local programs — Westmont men’s soccer, Santa Barbara High girls volleyball and Laguna Blanca cross country — picked up momentous wins this week, and they have all been rewarded with a trip to the city in the middle of the Central Valley.
But first, a stop at Harry’s Plaza Cafe for Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table luncheon was in order.
Westmont’s soccer team continued its inspirational march through the turmoil of the Tea Fire, beating Holy Names at Harder Stadium in double-overtime Saturday to advance to the second round of the NAIA Tournament. The Warriors play Baker College (Kan.) at Fresno Pacific University on Dec. 2.
“It was more than just a soccer game,” said Sports Information Director Ron Smith of Saturday’s victory. “We had about 2,000 people out there — not bad for a school of 1,200 — and it was a real Westmont community event as well as a larger-community event.”
Basketball coach John Moore even begged fans to skip the men’s hoops game in Pomona because he wanted them to go to Harder Stadium instead. Alumni flew in from all over the country and the college honored firefighters and law enforcement personnel at the game.
Westmont’s Anthony Niboli earned male Athlete of the Week honors for his two assists and a goal in the first-round match.
“We’re excited to go to Fresno,” said Smith.
That’s not exactly the case for the Santa Barbara girls spikers, who swept Dos Pueblos in front of a crowd of around 3,000 at Rob Gym Saturday to win the CIF Division I-A title. Female Athlete of the Week Katherine Keller, Santa Barbara’s junior libero, had 17 digs and passed with near perfection after a 33-dig performance against Marymount in the semifinals.
You’d think that winning a CIF title would merit a home game in the first round of the state tournament, but coach John Gannon went online Sunday and discovered that his team was going to start off by playing the nation’s No. 3 team, La Costa Canyon, on the road in San Diego.
“We were kind of confused as to why we were the only section champ on the road and why we had to go play this extremely highly ranked team. We felt like we had done our job, and that it was sort of strange,” said Gannon.
So he hit the phones to try and get some answers, but no one answered.
He finally got through to the CIF offices, and they “admitted some errors in their ranking system.”
It didn’t get the Dons a home match, but it got them a trip to Fresno to play Clovis West, a team which finished lower than Santa Barbara in their only common tournament and lost to every common opponent which Santa Barbara beat.
Hey, it’s better than playing the nation’s third-ranked team.
“Needless to say we’re up to the challenge. I don’t know if we’re excited to go to Fresno, but we’re goin’ to Fresno,” said Gannon.
And now DP gets to go play at La Costa Canyon Tuesday.
While Laguna Blanca’s cross country runners won’t be going to race as a team in Saturday’s state meet, three Owl runners will be in Fresno to race as individuals.
Sarah O’Connor became the first female in school history to make the state meet, improving on her time from last year by nearly three minutes, from 23:58 to to 21:04. The Laguna girls team was on pace to make the state meet until an injury got in the way. Considering four of the five girls running on the team were new to cross country, it was a pretty impressive season.
On the boys side, sophomore Parker Lilly and senior Kevin Lunn advanced. Lilly “is a guy you’re going to read a lot about over the next two-and-a-half years,” said coach Bob Lunn.
Lilly ran a 4:41 mile last year, and was sidelined for three whole weeks this season with the flu and bronchitis. The youngster bounced back strong, however, and took 18th at the CIF finals to move on. Kevin Lunn finished 12th at the finals, and the county champion has aspirations of breaking the top five in Fresno.
Speaking of state competitions, a team of already-crowned California champs were at Monday’s luncheon. Coach Chuck Melendez led the SBCC women’s golf program to its second title in three years. Dos Pueblos graduate Asaka Sim led a final-round surge and took the individual crown as well. The Vaqueros, who started the final day four shots off the lead in third place, recorded a season-best 311 at Olivas Links GC to finish 15 strokes ahead of Sacramento City. Sim and her older sister Sumika accompanied Melendez to the luncheon, as did sisters Sarah and Claire Borneman and Jackie Molstad.
“I don’t know when I’ve ever been prouder of a team, and I feel so fortunate to be associated with such a great group of young ladies,” said Melendez.
On the hoops side of the spectrum, Carpinteria boys basketball coach John Ward was making his first luncheon appearance of the year. It is his 31st year of attending the weekly functions.
“You don’t look that old, John,” remarked SBCC Athletic Director Mike Warren.
“I was two,” joked Ward.
Carpinteria graduated Jacob Ranger last season, who has moved on to UC Davis on a full scholarship.
“A lot of people thought we were going to be in some trouble, but we actually won more games this summer than we had the last couple summers before, so things are looking okay for us,” said Ward.
The coach brought along his two hardest workers and highest scorers from the offseason, 6-foot-3 junior forward Manuel Rodriguez and point guard Kevin Lusterio.
Ward’s 31 years were counterbalanced by a luncheon debut from UCSB women’s basketball assistant coach Kelly Barsky.
“All of the things this community does to support its young people is really special. I’m learning more and more every day,” she said.
The Gauchos started the season by beating San Diego at home, then went on the road and dropped games against Fresno State and Arizona.
Barsky introduced sophomore Margaret Johnson, whom Barsky described as “one of those players you want to and need to have on your team” due to her physical effort and mental sharpness.
Pete Kirkwood came to talk about his UCSB women’s tennis team, which is strong in terms of depth. The Gauchos also feature eight new players to the program, and have recently signed a whole new wave of talent for the 2010 class.
Kirkwood said his team has a lot of guts, and showed it recently by enduring trips back and forth from San Luis Obispo for a tournament at Cal Poly and finishing strong by beating the Mustangs on the final day. Kirkwood introduced graduate-student player Noelle Herneise (who has the job of driving the team’s other van behind Kirkwood), and returning starter Tova Hausman.
UCSB men’s tennis coach Marty Davis was also there to talk about his team, which is coming off of its third consecutive Big West title and NCAA Tournament appearance.
“We’re greedy. We’d like to make it four in a row,” he said.
The Gauchos graduated three players from last season, but return conference MVP Philip Therp and have some youngsters ready to step up, including Santa Barbara High graduate Taylor Chavez-Goggin. Scott Hohenstein is back from two years of injury which included a bicycle accident that resulted in reconstructive shoulder surgery using cadaver bones.
Dos Pueblos girls tennis coach Liz Frech stopped by the luncheon to wrap up what was an extremely successful season for the Chargers, who finished at 19-4. She recognized the “comeback kids” doubles team of Oriane Matthys and Nicoletta Bradley as well as senior singles player Erica Cano, who ended her career with a 56-9 season, and freshman phenom Lauren Stratman, who finished at 50-5.
SBCC Sports Information Director Dave Loveton spoke about the Vaquero men’s and women’s basketball squads as well as the men’s soccer team, which leads the state in scoring and hosts Santa Ana at 7 p.m. Tuesday at La Playa Stadium. The women’s hoops team is ranked 16th in California and hosts Rio Hondo at the Sports Pavilion at 6 p.m.
Finally, Loveton congratulated UCSB men’s soccer coach Tim Vom Steeg for being elected to the California Community College Coaches Hall of Fame. In seven years leading the Vaqueros, Vom Steeg tallied a 121-18-4 record and was named Western State Conference Coach of the Year four times.
