The Litter Box

Boy, those pollsters sure do like perfect records.

Don’t believe me? Check out the most recent NSCAA/Adidas Division II rankings, which have the Chico State men’s soccer team up three spots to No. 17 after a 4-0 start under spankin’ new coach Felipe Restrepo.

Part of this ascent — actually, a pretty large part — is senior Zac Crim, who has been involved in every game-deciding goal the Wildcats have scored in their so-far-perfect season. He’s already got 11 points, including four goals. He’s been the headliner of Chico State’s offense, no doubt. I remember him really seeming to like the Restrepo hire earlier in the year because there was that promise of opportunity for success. Well, it’s manifesting itself now, and Crim is responding by playing a prominent part in just about every offensive sequence the Wildcats string together.

In other Wildcat-related news today, the CCAA announced that it will add another team to the conference next year, Cal State East Bay. Meh, I say. I have mixed feelings on the East Bay in general, and none of them are particularly good. CSUEB is the Pioneers, which is just stupid geographically. Don’t pioneers discover things? East Bay folks all have navigation systems, everybody knows that. Let’s change the mascot to a white college guy in an Abercrombie polo, Bluetooth headset and a BMW driving home to his parents' house from Whole Foods instead.

I’ve been meaning to give the volleyball team a little bit of love and haven’t really gotten the chance to. Lindsay Macias and Erica Brick obviously have been getting theirs, but it’s nice to see that Chico State is going other places with its attacks now a little more. Gillian Heydorff, Megan Cape and Crystal Trifeletti, namely, have stood out as some surprise sources of kills (although Heydorff showed last year that she’s a legitimate threat, so maybe “surprise” isn’t the best word for her). But I’ll bet you can’t name the team’s leader in the stat so far ... unless you’re Luke Reid. Then you probably can.

If you’re not, though, it’s freshman Makenzie Snyder, with a nice, round 100. Yes, it’s early. But this kind of balance is the kind of thing that makes it both interesting and nerve-wracking for a team that’s been so dependent on Macias to be the hammer. She and Trifeletti both have 92 kills and Cape has 85. Maybe it’s Macias’ growing defensive responsibility (we saw a career-high in digs against Sonoma State last week).

To give an idea of just how rare it is for anyone else to play as significant of a role as she has, just look back at her three-year figures: She’s accounted for right around a quarter of the Wildcats’ attack scoring. In 2005, she put down 27.5 percent of the team’s kills and in 2006, it was 23. Last year she jumped right back up to 26.5 percent.

This year it seems to be all about Balance, with a capital B (in case you missed how I capitalized “Balance” just then).