The Litter Box

...takes a long time to get back to Chico, apparently.
If the fall season is any indication, Chico State and the men’s golf team has made a great coach selection in Travis Brown. The Wildcats finished up their worst tournament of the fall this weekend in Hawaii, which sounds negative, but really is a cute way of pointing out that it was still a top-five finish. That makes Brown and the men 5-for-5 in that category, which ties last year’s overall mark for top-fives.
The women, meanwhile, took third place in their second straight tournament.

The only real drawback to this was that, for some reason, the Aloha State was tardy to the party when it came to releasing info on both tournaments, which in turn means the Enterprise-Record couldn’t get in any kind of news unless we wanted to run day-late stuff.
Among the endless list of things that are great bargains when they’re a day old (bags of bagels at Brooklyn downtown, cookies at Subway, etc.), sports news is nowhere to be found. So I’ll merely redirect you to Chico State SID’s take on it. The department also got the info late, as in Wednesday.

Part of me wants to be upset, but the other part knows that the people responsible are by now probably just picking a ukulele by a bonfire on the beach with some frosty blue libation in hand, thoughts of Division II golf long gone, and I can’t argue with that frame of mind.

Posted by Travis Souders at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First of all, let me apologize for not updating in a while. I'm sure all zero of you regular readers were getting agitated, but never fear. I'm caught up on the homework front -- for the time being -- so Chico State shouldn't go unblogged-about for a while.

Self-serving intros aside, Wildcat fans are in for a weekend of postseason play, as the women's soccer team heads to the California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament as the No. 1 seed. Chico State will have a first-round matchup with host Cal State Dominguez Hills, a virtual rematch of Oct. 21's contest in Carson that left the Wildcats 3-2 winners. Cal State L.A. and UC San Diego have the other opening-round game; the winner of the CCAA tourney gets an automatic NCAA tournament berth, while the rest are subject to the evil process of Selection Sunday.

The Tritons are the only team ranked in Division II's top 25. Chico State received votes, but not enough to crack the list. Personally, I'm curious as to how you can be ranked higher than a team you're behind at the conference level, but my guess it has something to do with strength of schedule. It's OK; SoCal needs some love these days anyway.
(Speaking of the top 25, the No. 4 team in the country is Incarnate Word, which happens to top the "coolest school name" polls as well, just ahead of Slippery Rock.)

Also traveling for postseason glory will be the cross country teams, who jump back on a plane to Boise, Idaho to compete in the West Regionals. The men have won six in a row; the women have taken four of five. As most saw in the CCAA championships, the women's race should be viciously competitive, and you know they'd have it no other way.

I feel I should touch on another point briefly, although I apparently made it clear in another post that at no point in time do I ever have the foggiest idea what I'm talking about. I'd given the CCAA limited props for adequately selecting Carson as the site of the soccer championship, thinking that there was some kind of selection process involved. After Chico State SID pointed out that, "No, stupid," the CCAA selects playoff venues on a rotating basis and not a subjective process (they didn't actually call me stupid -- to my face, anyway-- I'm taking some poetic license there).
However, it turns out that the law of averages allowed me to be right for once, as this year the powers that be actually decided to skip a turn in the rotation and choose the site based on where the teams are. From the CCAA manual:

"5.1.4.5 The Championship Committee is to determine which postseason events should continue, in what sports, and what the CCAA schedule and alignments (divisional, non-divisional) should be. The Championship Committee will also investigate the potential of pre-selected neutral sites to maximize the full potential of CCAA Championship events."

The school they skipped in the rotation in favor of this system?
Here's a hint: it vaguely rhymes with "You know."

Posted by Travis Souders at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is the complete article from the Oct. 25 Chico Enterprise-Record.

When Scott Bauhs lined up at the San Jose Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon on Oct. 14, it was the first time the 21-year-old had ever run a half marathon.
His next will take place as a member of the United States relay team.
USA Track and Field selected the Chico State star to run a 10-kilometer leg in the six-man Ekiden relay in Chiba, Japan on Nov. 23. Bauhs finished the race in San Jose in 1 hour, 3 minutes, and 4 seconds — an unofficial U.S. half-marathon record for runners 21 or younger — drawing attention from USATF and changing Bauhs’ plans for Thanksgiving break. It’s the latest in an impressive redshirt fall season for the Danville native, who won the Stanford Invitational Sept. 30.
This is, so far, his pinnacle.
“I’m really excited about it. It’s really special to get the team USA uniform. It’s a prized possession, especially if you earn it,” Bauhs said. “I’m able to wear it in a race and formal competition. Not a lot of guys get to say that.”
But he does, and it signifies quite arguably the most impressive individual accomplishment ever for Chico State distance running.
“There’s nothing close to what Scotty’s been able to do,” cross country coach Gary Towne said. “We’ve never had an athlete that’s been at this level. It seems like every year we have someone reach higher and higher, but this is unprecedented. He’s doing some amazing things on a national level.”
Besides his own physical merits, Bauhs aided his selection process with an e-mail to USATF to express his interest in the race. Considering his offseason has happened in part because he’s training for an even bigger breakthrough in the spring, late fall training hadn’t been part of Bauhs’ original plans. It’s actually more uncommon for runners in his position to run the marathon trials, which last year included U.S. marathon record-holder Ryan Hall. In November, Bauhs will mix it up with a coed field with runners from Japan, Ethiopia, England, and Kenya, among others. Several Olympians will be in the pack, as well as a few runners that bested Bauhs in the 5k U.S. championship in Indianapolis earlier this year. Bauhs took 18th in that race.
“It’s a pretty respected team, all professional runners,” Bauhs said. “But I feel like what I’ve done so far to earn the spot on the team is as good as anyone else. I think the USATF guys saw I was running fast now, and that helped.”
When Bauhs returns from Chiba, he’ll get right back into training for the winter cross country nationals, a qualifier for the world championship in the spring. Initially, he and Towne had planned on the San Jose race being his last action until nationals.
Change of strategy.
“We weren’t planning on him doing what he did in San Jose,” Towne joked. “We were getting ready for the trial race in February, but since we found our about this, we shortened his break a little.”
Even the coach who’s spent most of his life around elite distance runners had to admire the bounds taken by the Wildcat protege.
“It’s all happened so fast. He had such a big breakthrough in the track season that put him at a different level,” Towne said. “As in, good Divison I-level to closer and closer to being a top U.S. runner, period.”

Posted by Travis Souders at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Scrimmages are fun.
For those ready to see what Molly Goodenbour's first squad of Chico State recruits will look like, Saturday will bring that opportunity.
The White vs. Cardinal intersquad scrimmage starts at 10 a.m. in Acker Gym. Admission to the game is free, and there's a barbecue over by the Bear at noon. Five bucks gets you into that, but if you have little versions of you (kids), they can pre-order as a youth group and get in free. Sweet deal.
They'll also get to meet the Wildcats, which you have to admit is a lot safer than introducing your young ones to, say, the rugby team. Or real, actual wildcats. Those won't teach you about being a student athlete, sportsmanship or teamwork.

Posted by Travis Souders at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's not exciting or edgy, but I think I agree with the California Collegiate Athletic Association's decision to host the CCAA soccer championship tournament in Carson at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
Originally, I'd been all primed to rant that the Chico State women (whom we'll touch more on in a second) should at least help garner some consideration for University Soccer Stadium, given they've already clinched the North Division. UC San Diego has grabbed the top spot in the South, but the fires down there obviously make La Jolla a non-option.
But, you have to consider that a tournament host should cater to both men's and women's fans. For that, you might consider Sonoma State -- 13-0 in CCAA play -- but remember that the women played half their season with an ineligible player. The South men's winner, by a long shot, was Cal State Dominguez Hills, and if you want to look at the host city as hopefully having both its teams represented, Chico is obviously not it. The men dropped five of their last six, including their last four straight, to fall out of the race for second in what was an up-for-grabs CCAA North.
So, the home of the Toros looks like the right choice. The men will be there and the women are poised to do the same.
Nicely done, CCAA.
Now, it's time to complain a little bit.
How are the Wildcat women ranked just sixth in the Far West Region? Consider who Chico State has beaten in regional play: No. 2 UC San Diego (11-1-1), No. 3 Seattle (13-2) and No. 4 Cal State Dominguez Hills (8-2-2). The Wildcats lost to top-seeded Seattle Pacific 1-0.
Until Tuesday, when the previously-ranked No. 24 Toros were among Division II's best, Chico State was 3-1 against top-25 competition.
Here's where I think the Wildcats get tripped up, though: One of their wins was a loss (the forfeit W gained from Sonoma), and that came in the middle of a three-game skid. Another loss came against unranked San Francisco State, and yet another came to the Humboldt State Lumberjacks -- the same team that has amassed all of two conference wins. Toss in another loss to Sonoma State (one that actually counted), and it's a little easier to understand.
What it means right now is that, to advance out of the Regionals, the No. 6 Wildcats would need to defeat No. 3 Seattle again, no easy task. As hot as the Wildcats are, Seattle has won its last five; excluding a double-overtime loss to the mighty Falcons of SPU, the last time the Redhawks dropped a game was Aug. 28.
To Chico State.

Posted by Travis Souders at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alluding to my ever-clever headline, if you're the Chico State men's golf team, then Brown can do quite a bit. If, that is, his first name is Travis (goofy first name, if you ask me).
The Wildcats overcame a one-stroke deficit at the beginning of the final round to win the Sonoma State Invitational in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, topping the No. 1 Division II team in the nation, the Seawolves, in the process.
It's Brown's first victory at the helm of the Wildcats through just four tourneys; all have seen Chico State finish in the top four. Last year, the Wildcat men broke the top five in five tournaments.
So, if you're into pacing, you'd be interested in this team.
What's really interesting, though, is the difference between Chico State's win this week and last week's third-place finish at the InterWest Wildcat Classic. The Wildcats' leader Tuesday was Clayton Pickersgill, who shot a 207 for fourth place. Last week, Pickersgill didn't dent the top 20, a 24th-place 231.
Looks like someone found his stroke (although, lest you forget, last week's invite was quite torrential and undoubtedly affected some scores). Time will tell how Pickersgill could figure into Chico State's scoring fray.
Meanwhile, Ryan Trask was Chico State's best golfer last week with a fifth-place 221; Tuesday that same score got him 21st. By comparison, the InterWest winner, Wayland Baptist's Michael Loppnow, shot a 218. That would have been good for sole possession of 16th place at the Sonoma swing-a-thon.
So, the field was battling the weather at Butte Creek a week ago, as opposed to this week, when the field was battling...uh, the rest of the field. Seven top-30 Division II programs (the Wildcats are No. 8) shuffled into Santa Rosa to play some golf, and it definitely looks like Chico State elevated its play to meet the challenge.

Posted by Travis Souders at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ironically enough, the Chico State women's soccer team clinched the California Collegiate Athletic Association North Division with a win over a team from the South, Cal State Dominguez Hills. With Cal State Stanislaus falling five points behind the Wildcats in the CCAA standings with just one left to play, Chico State's weekend sweep was the clincher.
Now, the conversation turns to playoffs (Yes, Jim Mora, playoffs), which get underway with the CCAA Championships the weekend of Nov. 2. Having knocked off the Toros, seeded No. 24 in Division II, and being winners of seven of their last nine, Chico State really could be a scary team if it can keep the momentum up. The top team in the South, No. 16 UC San Diego, just suffered a home loss to the Wildcats, and Cal State Stanislaus and Cal State Dominguez Hills, the second-place teams in their respective divisions, have done the same this season.
By the way, not that anyone who plays at University Soccer Stadium would care, but the women aren't in the NSCAA/adidas Division II Top 25, despite their deeds over the last week, not to mention defeating No. 11 Seattle earlier this season, then falling to No. 2 Seattle Pacific 1-0.
Time to update those rankings, dudes.
Yeah, I'm a homer. Get over it.

Posted by Travis Souders at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Chico State cross country teams head to Turlock tomorrow in hopes of locking up California Collegiate Athletic Association titles. Should the men win (which, in all reasonable probability, should happen), it will be their sixth straight championship; the women are aiming at their fifth title in six years.
I guess I was wrong. Good things can happen in Turlock.
There will be more at the Enterprise-Record online tomorrow, including some words from Tim Tollefson, Sarah Montez and Gary Towne. I don't say this to act like interviewing them over the phone is a big deal; rather, I'm happy for them because they had just checked into their hotel, which means they weren't around to experience the perpetually nightmarish driving conditions of Chico on Fridays.
What is it about this day that brings out the moron in anybody operating heavy machinery on a public road? It's not even reckless or dangerous, it's just dumb stuff. People stopping to turn right, despite the lack of a stop sign. Complete avoidance of turn lanes. Random slowing and/or stopping. Today, it happened to be all of the above, with the added twist of two equally braindead motorists pacing each other at 45 on Highway 99.
It's the skinny pedal on the right, people. Step on it.

Posted by Travis Souders at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm wondering why Sept. 24th's issue of the NCAA News highlighted Cal State Stanislaus' new Web site and not Chico State's. Normally I wouldn't care about something as trivial as a college's athletics home page, but a snapshot of the Warriors' new set-up in the aforementioned publication looked eerily similar.
Maybe that's because it was, in fact, redone by the same company that reconstructed Chico State's home page. Internet Consulting Services (who is also responsible for the Internet conquests of Cal State L.A., Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Monterey Bay, Humboldt State and Sonoma State...and, yes, the entire California Collegiate Athletic Association site, as well) has done a nice job with the general (if not generic) layout of both sites, so I come back to the question: Why not Chico State? The NCAA News reported that new features include "a calendar of upcoming events, scoreboard ticker, photo galleries and top news teasers."
Hasn't Chico State's SID been putting stuff like this up, even before signing on with ICS? Far be it from me to whine about it, but I guess I'd just like to see my hometown get some love, that's all.
Alphabetically, it makes sense. Also, I've never been to Turlock, but I'm sure nothing good has ever happened there.

Another interesting tidbit gleaned from the Division II section of the NCAA News: Cal State San Bernardino hosts UC San Diego on Oct. 27 for volleyball. The top team in the Pacific Region and No. 2 team in the nation (Chico State moved up a spot to No. 19) will get a chance to be seen on CSTV, which really will be a treat for volleyball fans who wouldn't otherwise get to see it. By then, it could also have pretty large implications for the Wildcats, so (I can't believe I'm about to write this) stay tuned.

Posted by Travis Souders at 06:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Some thoughts from the week (almost) that was:
Hadn't noticed it before it caught my eye at the Chico State volleyball team's 3-0 win Saturday, but the Wildcats, upon introduction at Acker Gym, bare their hands at the crowd as if they're Wildcat claws. Some are more spirited than others; Lacy Stringfellow almost reluctantly holds up a single claw, while Lindsay Macias presents a full-on double-clawed attack.
I remember disgustedly thinking, "This is...cute." Then, of course, the Wildcats pummeled the Lumberjacks.
Moving on to golf. Today, the Wildcats' third-place finish was spent in what at times could have been called a torrential downpour, though talking about the weather is usually emblematic of having the most boring conversation possible. Still, unlike the Chico City Championship, which I was able to cover from the, uh...cover...of a golf cart, I got to walk around in the rain for a while.
(Side note: Does anybody else inexplicably think of the B.J. Thomas song when they're walking in the rain, or am I just a freak? Or could it be both?)
Regardless, pad and pen were in peril for the predominance of the precipitation-prone puttfest, which forced me to do a lot of shuffling for cover. Part of the contract you sign as a professional journalist, by the way, is the sacrifice of all instances of looking cool, forever.
Also, if you weren't quite aware at how awesome Wildcat cross country star Scott Bauhs has become, look no further than the performances he and Chico State alum Charlie Serrano put on in San Jose.

There's also a San Jose Mercury News story on this, which happened to be Bauhs' half marathon debut.

Posted by Travis Souders at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Both Chico State soccer teams play at home against Humboldt State tonight; the women will try to hold on to first in the California Collegiate Athletic Association North Division, while the men have a shot to take sole possession of second place this weekend.
As far as I know, the Enterprise-Record will be sending a stringer reporter out there, as I've been assigned to provide the second half of double-coverage for the Almond Bowl, arguably this county's biggest football game and certainly the largest draw. You can also get radio analysis and coverage of this game; prep writer Leland Gordon and I will be offering our services to Mike Baca on Sportsfan 101.7 FM, ESPN Radio 1340 AM.
Let's say for now that I have a voice made for newspaper writing, but I suppose it's better than having a face made for radio. Nonetheless, it should be a good little listen.
Chico State SID has also announced that the men's basketball team will begin its season with a Nov. 5 exhibition at UCLA -- against the Bruins. Now, I'm all for seeing a tough preseason schedule before conference play starts, because it helps the Wildcats see what a great basketball team looks like.
But really, it's only theoretical. I'm guessing that the starpower like Darren Collison and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute is going to have limited minutes, if any, against lil' ol' Division II Chico State, which, if you'll remember, was 7-20 last season without the benefit of playing what some polls are calling the No. 1 D-I team in the country. I'm pretty sure there's a graph somewhere that would explain the idea of diminishing marginal utility in terms of seeing high-end talent like this; to some extent, yes, the idea of playing tough competition is to improve your own team, but when the gap is that great, it will at some point on the curve become a lesson in how to get your butt kicked.
Then again, what do I know about math (other than that the test answer below is awesome)?

Posted by Travis Souders at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Between the soccer doubleheader Friday and Saturday's volleyball match, Chico State will get its fill of Lumberjack competition this weekend as Humboldt State makes its way into town.

On the pitch, this is a splendid chance for the Wildcats to gain or maintain in the California Collegiate Athletic League standings, as the Lumberjack men and women are both dead last in the North Division; of course, if they played in the South, they'd be last there, too. The two squads have two wins between them.
Not quite sure why specifically these teams aren't winning, but one suggestion, Arcata: when you see grass, try kicking a ball around on it instead of smoking it (ba-dum-CHA).

Ahem.

The volleyball team, meanwhile, will host a team tied for seventh in the conference with the opportunity to break out of a three-way tie for second and claim sole possession of the spot if Cal State L.A. and suddenly-hot Cal Poly Pomona lose.
None of these games are necessarily gimmes, but in all reality, they're contests that Chico State should win, if for no other reason than that Humboldt State insists on calling itself the Jacks (no apostrophe, even. Maybe, for some reason, they forgot it, though I haven't the faintest on what would cause that...).

Listen, if you're awesome if enough to have a sweet nickname in the first place, stick with it. "Lumber" is the best part of that mascot; it's bad enough that the logo is nowhere near the coolness level that it could be — no flannel or beardage is involved anywhere — and instead is a big green "J" that resembles an ax.

Seriously, which is better:

Posted by Travis Souders at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I like to hear good news first, so we'll start off with the Wildcats' A.J. Carboneau and his selection as California Collegiate Athletic Assocation men's soccer player of the week. He scored twice in Chico State's 3-1 win over San Francisco State, which by my count makes him the difference-maker.
I'm not necessarily a genius at math, but that seems pretty good. It also makes the women's golf team's seventh-place finish at the Western Washington Invitational seem not so good; the disappointment is probably compounded when you take into consideration that the Wildcats won the Lady Otter invite just a week ago. Not quite a fall from grace, given how early it is in the season, but a brutal first round was likely not on Chico State's to-do list.
On the topic of golf, the men's team will host its first and only tournament of the season next week at Butte Creek Country Club in the InterWest Wildcat Classic. Somebody please tell me that there will be someone from the Chico State athletics department's staff to follow around Wildcat golfers with a boombox and a recording of everyone's favorite feline growl: Grarrr-rarrarr-rrawwwwlll!! It doesn't have to be incessant; birdie growls will suffice.

Posted by Travis Souders at 07:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More success for the Chico State cross country teams this weekend. Saturday saw the men win the San Francisco State Invitational, while the women took third. Both squads ran their B teams, resting their top eight runners. The high finishes were nice, coach Gary Towne said, but most of the teams there were doing the same thing.
It was essentially a tryout for the final spots on teams' rosters before the conference championship in Turlock. The California Collegiate Athletic Association final is in two weeks, and the showings at Golden Gate Park helped Towne figure out the rest of his roster — the CCAA race allows each team 10 runners — though he couldn't officially announce much in the way of names.
"This really helps us with our final selections, but it kind of confirms what we had thought already," Towne said. "It played out a lot like I'd thought it would, but we saw some things that will clear up our decisions."
While that doesn't really give it away, you have to figure that the runners that finished sixth, seventh and eighth — Jordan Fairley, Ruben Alvidrez and Jeff Wilson, respectively — improved their standing.

Posted by Travis Souders at 06:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Taking on Division II’s No. 2 nationally-ranked Cal State San Bernardino on the road, the No. 19 Chico State volleyball team needed a strong showing if it was to beat the Coyotes.

The Wildcats didn’t get it.

Chico State committed 34 total errors, including seven on service, and fell to the California Collegiate Athletic Association-leading Coyotes in three games Friday night in San Bernardino, 30-18, 30-16, 30-13.
The Wildcats (13-5, 6-2 CCAA) were led by Lindsay Macias’ 13 kills and 25 assists from Erica Brick, but the Coyotes (16-1, 8-0) hit .465 to extend their conference lead to two games over second-place Chico State."

That's the bit that could fit into the Enterprise-Record's Local Roundup in Saturday's paper (for that segment, I was "E-R Staff"). What can probably be gleaned from a loss like this isn't so much that it was a disappointing setback — remember the level of competition, here — as much as it is a situtation in which the Wildcats probably would tell you they could have done better.

Much like in the loss to Cal State L.A. a few weeks ago, Chico State was uncharacteristically errant, including 13 receiving errors. For a team that is right at the top of the leaderboard for digs in the CCAA, 22 is a pretty telling number; but the biggest discrepancy is the 49-29 total kills figure.

So, while the upset talk was forcefully put to rest, I'd be surprised to hear that the L was the hardest thing for coach Cody Hein to stomach. More likely, it's all those E's.

Posted by Travis Souders at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah, I know it's old hat in this blog space this week, but once again I'm compelled by the chance the Chico State volleyball team has tonight against Cal State San Bernardino.
Maybe it's a little much to be looking into rankings, but even if the Wildcats don't win — remember, the Coyotes are 15-1 and the No. 2 Division II team in the nation — do they still have a chance to move up? Going in, they're at No. 19, but what if they lose in five games? Or would the action taken be a drop for the Coyotes?
Of course, it all depends on what exactly happens tonight. Shockers have happened already in the California Collegiate Athletic Association this week; just yesterday, Cal State Monterey Bay knocked off No. 16 Cal State L.A.
Surely, the Golden Eagles will drop in the NCAA D-II poll (they missed out on a chance to have sole possession of second in the CCAA), but what of the Otters? I would say an 8-12 overall record isn't worthy of a ranking, but they're 5-3 in the CCAA — and, don't forget, it was those same Otters that extended the Wildcats to five games in their last match.

Posted by Travis Souders at 06:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most Chicoans won't get to see it, but there is going to be some pretty darn good volleyball going on in San Bernardino on Friday when Chico State takes on the Coyotes of Cal State San Bernardino.
Yeah, people still use the word "darn." I know, weird.
Without any risk of hyperbole here, the Coyotes are the best Division II team in the Pacific Region, and No. 2 in the nation. The Wildcats sit at No. 19 and have a chance to move into a first-place tie in the California Collegiate Athletic Assocation with a win.
Keep in mind, Chico State is 2-23 all-time head-to-head against Cal State San Bernardino and hasn't beaten the Coyotes in this millennium. Now that's a bit dramatic, I'll admit; we've only seen it for seven years, but still: that's seven years.
Factors:
The Coyotes lead the CCAA in hitting percentage at .290, and no one else is close. Three of the conference's top five individuals in that category are getting their educations at Cal State San Bernardino. The Wildcats expect to counter, of course, with their defense, but it's not a blocking kind — they've dug more balls than anybody else in the CCAA.
That's where the teams have stark differences.
But, as you might expect from teams No. 1 and 2, the rest of their offensive attacks, at least numbers-wise, is similar. The Wildcats trail only the Coyotes in assists and kills per game — Sara Hoffman, Cal State San Bernardino's setter, is slightly ahead of Chico State's Erica Brick for the assists lead, while the Wildcats' Lindsay Macias' CCAA-leading 281 ballicides is followed up closely by Jessica Granados of the Coyotes.
Statistical mumbo-jumbo and made-up words aside, it's unquestionably a game of gargantuan implications. Upsets in sports rarely surprise me anymore; this one would.

Posted by Travis Souders at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Wildcats are batting 1.000 when it comes to getting men selected as California Collegiate Athletic Association runners of the week. Weeks 1 and 2 saw Tim Tollefson grab the honor; this week it was Angel Marquez for his feats at the Stanford Invitational.
Congrats to him.

Also, the Chico State women's golf team won the Otter Invitational. Sara Ansolabehere and Katie Leong — sixth and ninth place, respectively — did, as the kids say, work. If this first tournament is any indication, the Wildcat group looks like it will be pretty strong throughout the season. I don't pretend to be a golf expert, but I do know the low numbers are the good ones, and the "1" that's sitting next to Chico State's name on the scoreboard (Board? Card? Bah) is the lowest.
Unless you were No. 0, I guess. But that would mean you didn't play.

Posted by Travis Souders at 06:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With a scoreless tie on Sunday, the Chico State women's soccer team moved into first-place tie in the California Collegiate Athletic Association North Division; a last-second loss for the men dropped them to 3-5 in conference play and they now sit in the middle of the pack.

Certainly, the women's race looks open for the Wildcats' taking, and they're playing well right now. I think any one of them would tell you they could very well be the sole proprietors of that No. 1 conference spot, given some spotty play early in the CCAA schedule, but it's tough to argue with where they are.

The men, as evinced by their tie-less record, have either been hot or cold. From having seen them play, this is a team that, if it could consistently play at its talent level, could be in the same boat as the women. Yes, the CCAA is competitive, but second place in the North Division isn't a far fetched idea. The Wildcats can help themselves over their next four games; three of them are against foes from the North.

While we're on the topic of standings, the volleyball team has quietly moved into second place behind Division II's second-ranked team, Cal State San Bernardino. Wouldn't you know it -- Chico State has a chance to move into a tie Friday in the Coyotes' house. Make no mistake, a win would be the upset of the season, even with the Wildcats' recent level of play, but that No. 19 ranking Chico State is sporting now would have to receive a considerable boost.

On a club sports note, Sunday's men's lacrosse Red-White scrimmage had to go uncovered. Living on Ivy St. has its perks, but partying neighbors who leave broken glass in the driveway -- you know, that place people park their cars -- isn't one of them.
It's the second time in two months I've had neighbors leave my poor Escort with a flat tire, but at least this time it was different neighbors. Granted, my car would probably be better served as combat practice for a giant Russian than an actual means of transportation, but still, it's a Point A-Point B vehicle that would have been nice to utilize instead of fix.

Posted by Travis Souders at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)