This Week’s Events:

Wed., Oct. 25---Women’s Volleyball---UCSD at Cal State Dominguez Hills---7:00 PM

Fri., Oct. 27---Men’s Water Polo---UCSD at UC Davis---6:00 PM

Fri., Oct. 27---Women’s Soccer---UCSD vs. Humboldt State---7:00 PM

Sat., Oct. 28---Women’s Tennis---UCSD at UCI Invitational---All Day

Sat., Oct. 28---Men’s Water Polo---UCSD vs. Air Force---10:15 AM

Sat., Oct. 28---Swimming & Diving---UCSD vs. Utah---Noon

Sat., Oct. 28---Women’s Volleyball---UCSD vs. Cal State Monterey Bay---2:00 PM

Sat., Oct. 28---Men’s Water Polo---UCSD vs. Santa Clara---2:00 PM

Sun., Oct. 29---Women’s Tennis---UCSD at UCI Invitational---All Day

Sun., Oct. 29---Women’s Soccer---CCAA Soccer Championships---2:00 PM

WOMEN’S SOCCER FACES HUMBOLDT STATE IN CCAA CHAMPIONSHIP OPENER

The preliminaries are over and now it’s time to get down to post-season business for the third-ranked Women’s Soccer team, as UCSD hosts the 2006 CCAA Championships, Friday and Sunday...Men’s & Women’s semi-finals are set for Friday with UCSD taking on Humboldt State at 7:00 PM...Chico State and Sonoma State will clash in the 4:30 PM contest...The women’s championship match is slated for Sunday at 2:00 PM...Coach Brian McManus’s side comes in as the CCAA South Division champion, sporting an  16-1-2 record after sweeping its final two regular season games on the road last weekend...The Tritons have won the conference title five times in their six years as a CCAA member and have won the last two crowns...They come into the CCAA tournament unbeaten in their last 11 outings

Last Friday, UCSD outshot San Francisco State, 28-7, and had nine corners to just two for the Gators but needed Megan Dickey’s sixth goal of the year, a header off a Caitlin Ryan corner kick at 66:11, to secure a 1-0 victory...Sunday, the Tritons closed out the regular season with a 2-1 victory over Cal State Monterey Bay as Dickey assisted on second half goals by Kelly Cochran and Kathy Sepulveda, three minutes apart...The Otters scored a late goal to cut the margin in half.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL ROCKS CAL POLY POMONA, FIRST PLACE SAN BERNARDINO

The 12th-ranked Women’s Volleyball team has a home and road week, heading to Cal State Dominguez Hills Wednesday before coming back to La Jolla to host a Senior Day afternoon tilt with Cal State Monterey Bay Saturday...After dropping Cal Poly Pomona and first place Cal State San Bernardino over the weekend, UCSD brings a 19-2 mark into the Dominguez Hills clash and is now 14-2 in CCAA play, second and one game behind San Bernardino in the conference standings.

Solid team passing and nine aces from senior Nicole Courtney propelled Coach Tom Black's club past Cal Poly Pomona, 3-1 (30-20, 30-28, 28-30, 30-21) Friday night at RIMAC Arena...Courtney also piled up 12 kills and 14 digs in the victory...It was a night of momentum shifts as the energized Tritons ripped off 12 of the first 13 points to put game one away early but then allowed the Broncos a big early lead (they were still down nine at 23-14) before coming back to steal game two...UCSD had the lead and was two points from a three-game sweep before allowed Pomona to capture game three...But finally, the Tritons put together several runs that led to an easy game four clincher...Sophomore Rebecca Bailey added 14 kills and Amber Ries 11 as UCSD outhit the Broncos (.119-.025) and served 14 aces...Junior Natalie Facchini had a game high 29 digs.

Saturday was a typical UCSD-CSU San Bernardino barnburner with the Tritons coming off the carpet to dust the Coyotes, 3-2 (30-19, 23-30, 29-31, 30-35, 15-12) before more than 1,000 fans...UCSD ran up a 13-point lead while taking game one handily but San Bernardino returned the favor with a mid-game run to put away game two...The Tritons were in good shape in game three, up 29-28, but the Coyotes scored three straight to close it out...Game four was nip-and-tuck all the way but UCSD used a three-point run at 23-23 to take an advantage it never relinquished...The Tritons went four down at 9-5 in the decisive fifth game but a service ace by Michelle Torres and three straight blocks (with Bailey in on all three) knotted the score...It was still deadlocked at 11 when a kill by Bailey and a pair of service points by setter Kristin Halvorsen gave the Tritons a three-point edge and a hitting error by CSUSB ended it shortly thereafter...Courtney finished with 14 kills, Bailey and Koche notched 13 each nad Halvorsen had 48 assists...Courtney was also a defensive stalwart, digging 29 balls, and Facchini had 16...UCSD had a 16.5-12 differential in the blocking column and hammered the Coyotes with 11 aces, four by Facchini and three by Bailey...It was the team's 11th straight win since a 3-0 mid-September loss to this same team in San Bernardino.

TRITONS GET THIRD POLO WIN OVER LMU; NOW 19-4

Sporting a 19-4 record, the fifth-ranked Men's Water Polo team travels north to UC Davis for a three-game road trip that opens Friday night against the 13th-ranked Aggies...Coach Denny Harper's Tritons will tangle with No. 16 Air Force and Santa Clara on Saturday before closing out their regular season schedule at home, Nov. 8, against UC Irvine...A perfect slate in Davis will virtually assure Harper's club of gaining the No. 1 seed in the Western Water Polo Assn. Championship Tournament in mid-November.

UCSD won a pair of games last week, the first coming Thursday in Los Angeles where the Tritons made No. 7 Loyola Marymount a one-goal victim for the third time this season...UCSD broke open a tight contest late in the second half, constructing a three-goal advantage with three minutes to go before staving off a late run by the Lions...Junior Nestor Dordoni was a standout, scoring one goal while racking up five steals and drawing a key ejection that led to a goal...Fellow junior A.J. Kotanjian paced UCSD with three scores while Jesse Casellini and Steven Donohoe chipped in with two each.

Saturday, the Tritons scored early and often, prevailing, 14-3, in a mid-day exercise against Pomona Pitzer...With senior Ty Lackey leading the onslaught, UCSD raced out to 10-0 lead and was up 11-1 at the break...Lackey finished with a season high six goals, junior Adi Jerkovic added three and freshman Daniel Garcia knocked down a pair...Goalie Jeremy Randall had several high quality saves among his total of eight, one coming on a Pomona penalty shot.

THIRD FOR MEN & WOMEN IN CCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Third place finishes were the order of the day at Saturday’s 2006 CCAA Cross Country Championships, hosted by UCSD on the North Campus Course...Both the men’s and women’s teams were third in the team standings, the men matching their finish of a year ago while the women failed to defend the title they earned in 2005...Coach Ted Van Arsdale’s crew now turns its attention to the NCAA West Regionals to be run at Chico in two weeks.

The men’s 8K race opened Saturday’s festivities and reigning champion Chico State had no trouble re-asserting its dominance, scoring 23 points while putting five runners in the top eight...Cal Poly Pomona placed second with 52 while the Triton men’s third place total was 84...The brightest light for UCSD was freshman Max Mullender who had his best performance of the season at the right time, claiming sixth (26:28.40) which meant All-CCAA and CCAA Freshman of the Year honors as well...Junior Greg Geldman (15th/26:46.90) passed freshman Jesse Morrill (17th/26:50.10) in the late stages to snag the final All-CCAA slot...Rounding out the top six for UCSD were Dan Holligan (22nd/27:11.80), Jake LeVieux (25th/27:24.30) and Tim Crone (26th/27:29.50).

On the women’s side, UCSD garnered four of the top 16 positions in the 6K event, scoring 63 points, but it was not enough to stop Chico State (34 pts.) and Cal State L.A. (46) from going 1-2...Junior Diane Dunn’s fourth place finish (23:15.30) was best for the Tritons and next in was senior Nina Miller, whose spectacular performance garnered sixth place (23:25.40)...Although Dunn and Miller moved up steadily during the race and picked up three places in the last mile and three-quarters, strong early moves by the top Chico State and CSULA runners were simply too much to make up...Along with those two, Ashleigh Montgomery collected All-CCAA accolades (14th/23:50.80) while Amanda Burkhardt just missed (16th/24:01.70)...Jordana Henderson (32rd/24:43.70) was the second freshman across the line and Catherine Strouse was sixth for UCSD (28th/25:00.50) in the 90-woman field.

TOUGH SEASON ENDS FOR MEN'S SOCCER

A pair of frustrating losses in Northern California brought the curtain down on a disappointing 2006 season for Coach Derek Armstrong's Men's Soccer team last week...The Tritons wound up with a 7-10-2 ledger and won just one time in their last 11 games. 

The recent offensive struggles continued for the Tritons Friday as they outshot San Francisco State by 15 and had a 6-2 edge in corner kicks but wound up on the losing end of a 1-0 result when the Gators converted off a throw-in with 1:33 left in regulation...It was UCSD’s seventh one-goal loss of the year...Two days later, the UCSD was shut out again, this time, 2-0, at Cal State Monterey Bay...Again, the Tritons had the edge in shots (14-11) but failed to find the back of the net....The defeat delivered the Tritons' first 10-loss season since 1981.

SWIMMING & DIVING OPENS AT HOME VS. UTAH

It starts for real this Saturday for the Men’s & Women’s Swimming & Diving teams which host Division I Utah at Canyonview Pool...Susan Bell, Emily Harlan, Shannon Simonds, Andrea Lippin, Kendall Bohn are among the familiar names for the Triton women who finished third in the nation at last year’s NCAA Division II Championships...The Triton men, who were fifth at those same NCAAs, are led by returnees Evan Hsiao and Tim Fuller. 

TRITON NEWS & NOTES

The Women’s Tennis team goes to the UC Irvine Invitational this weekend where is will face Division I UC Irvine and Northern Arizona in splits singles and doubles competition Saturday and Sunday...Key vets for the Tritons include Marsha Malinow, Ina Dan and Justine Fonte.

The Women’s Crew team hosts its annual Row for the Cure breast cancer fund-raiser starting at 8:00 AM Sunday on Mission Bay...Last year, the event raised over $23,000 and this year’s edition is expected to do even better...For more information or to make donations, call (858) 534-4211

Coach Pattie Pinkerton’s varsity squad spent last weekend in Boston at the Head of the Charles Regatta...The Tritons finished 24th out of 58 boats in the Collegiate Eight, an excellent performance given their comparatively short period of training...New coxswain Leslie Sjobom guided the crew that included Monica Switick, Jen Meyers, Anna Simeon, Alissa Kispersky, Kali Webb, Megan Hatlen, Kelsey Thomas and Megan Hagquist...Pinkerson also competed at the regatta, finishing sixth in hte SEnior Masters Singles competition.

For more information on Triton sports, check our website at http://ucsdtritons.com.