A GLOW AMID THE EMBERS CSUN'S WOMEN PERSEVERE DESPITE POOR STATE OF PROGRAM.

Byline: Ramona Shelburne  Staff Writer

You almost have to know where to look to find any trace of the women's basketball program's history in the Cal State Northridge gym. A lone banner commemorating the 1998-99 Big Sky Conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance hangs from the rafters.

Outside the women's locker room, a nondescript glass display case holds old schedule cards and posters from the past two years, featuring former All-American Edniesha Curry and All-Big West center Jenny Shetters, both of whom transferred.

There are no pictures of stars from years past, no athletic hall of fame, no trophies, banners or ribbons. Nothing that would suggest this was a program that had been to the NCAA Tournament just four years ago.

In the past 2 1/2 seasons, the Matadors have gone 13-60-1 and have had four different coaches. And even when the program was on the rise in the late-1990s, it was not without its blemishes. In 1997, then-coach Michael Abraham, who recruited most of the players on the 1999 team, was arrested at a practice on federal drug-trafficking charges.

This year, the team is 2-18 overall and 2-7 in the Big West, a conference rated 27th among 32 in Division I in the Ratings Percentage Index. As a team, the Matadors are 295th among 324 Division I programs.

Is there self-pity on campus? Hardly.

Listen to the players talk and you hear little negativity. No despair. No infighting that has characterized past Matadors teams. With this team, there is a sense of camaraderie, determination and passion for the game.

``We all just want to win so bad, it hurts,'' said junior forward Kristin Anderson after the Matadors lost to Cal State Fullerton by 10 points last week. ``We want to win for each other. It's like we know how to play hard, but we don't know how to win.''

Listen to the coaches talk and you'll hear professionalism and a genuine respect for the efforts of their players.

``This is a unique group of young ladies with incredible character,'' coach Tammy Holder said. ``They have never given up, they never hang their heads. If they do, it's just for a second. I just wish that we could have had more time to teach them and work with them. I wish we could have taken them all off to basketball camp and had all these kids in here for four years.''

Instead, Holder, in her first season, inherited a team with no returning players, composed of junior college transfers and freshmen who had few other Division I options. Most were recruited by Paul Turner and Paula Nirschl, the assistant coaches who became interim head coaches after Frozena Jerro was fired five games into last season.

Turner and Nirschl had no reason to believe they would keep their jobs permanently and did little recruiting as a result.

The 12 players and four coaches who would make up this year's team met for the first time at the start of training camp in August. They had about three months to prepare for their first Division I game Nov. 3.

``I didn't know anyone here,'' junior captain Brezya Rhodes said. ``I didn't know who left the team or who was coming in. I really didn't have any expectations. I just kept my mind open and focused on playing basketball. We all just jumped right in. It was kind of like the `Real World,' where nobody knows each other and you have to spend all your time together and work together on something.''

The experiment - new players, new coaches, starting from scratch - is still being played out.

When Holder, 43, accepted the head-coaching job in April 2002, she couldn't even place Northridge on a map. She was working for her family's grocery-supply company in Richmond, Va., and had been out of basketball for a year and a half.

Before that, she had been at the pinnacle of the coaching profession, serving as coach and general manager of two teams in the American Basketball League, which folded in midseason while she was the coach of the Seattle Reign.

But by January 2002, she no longer could bear to be away from a sport with which she had been associated for 30-plus years.

``I went online in January, and it was the only job available, so I thought, `I wonder where this is?' ... and sent a resume in,'' Holder said.

Though it happened to be the final day of the job posting, her professional experience and an excellent interview shot her to the top of CSUN's list. She was hired a short time later.

Her first decision was a test of character. Ten players already had committed to play the next season, eight of whom had been offered scholarships. Holder never had seen any of them play, but she decided to honor the commitments knowing she would be tied to those players for at least the next two years.

``As a new coach coming in, it was really important to me that we were true to what had been offered to these young ladies,'' said Holder, with a hint of a Southern drawl. ``My first priority was to set a good foundation for the program.''

Over the summer, she brought in a coaching staff with a similar vision and impressive pedigrees. Long-time UNLV assistant Staci Schultz was the first hire, followed by former WNBA star Niesa Johnson, for whom Holder had traded a draft pick during her time in Seattle. Former UCLA forward Carla Houser was hired in mid-September.

Still, Holder had no illusions of grandeur.

``Tammy knew what she was getting into,'' said her father, Brent Holder, who, along with wife Joyce, visited Tammy from Richmond in January. ``She's always liked a challenge. But losing takes a toll on you. She's handled it well, but I know it's hard on her.''

By the time Holder arrived, there were few top players who had yet to sign with Division I schools.

Ofa Tulikihihifo, the sixth of eight children in a close-knit Tongan family, twice had been named the Southern Section Division II Player of the Year at Redondo Union High after leading her team to the state tournament. But at 5-foot-9, she was too short to get more than a passing look as a post player from top Division I schools, and she was unproven as a guard.

She drew some interest after her junior year from several Pacific-10 Conference programs, which were intrigued by her athleticism and strength. But after she tore the anterior cruciate ligament of her right knee the summer before her senior year, schools shied away.

``The whole Pac-10 was after her, but after she hurt her knee, they stopped calling,'' Redondo Union coach Marcelo Enriquez said. ``I begged them to take her as a walk-on, but they said they didn't have room.''

Tulikihihifo landed at Northridge as a late recruit, signing in early May after receiving a phone call from Holder. Since then, she has become the most consistent player on the team, averaging 14.6 points and 7.9 rebounds and drawing compliments from the most successful coach in the conference, Mark French of No. 22 UC Santa Barbara.

``We couldn't do much to stop her,'' French said. ``I think she'll be a player they can build around for the next four years.''

At times, though, it seems her CSUN teammates rely too heavily on her, looking to her to create scoring opportunities almost every time down the court. So when she had to sit out Thursday's game against Fullerton with an injured knee, the Matadors looked aimless on offense and soft on defense.

With a 4-15 record, Fullerton was an opponent the Northridge players believed was beatable.

``With Ofa out, I just took it upon myself to step up and be aggressive,'' said Anderson, who tied her season high with 13 points and six rebounds in the loss. ``Probably the most frustrating thing is that we're working so hard and we're still losing. I only lost two games (at Central Arizona Community College) in the last two years, so this has been very hard.''

What also has been hard for Anderson is that her older sister and best friend, Chantelle Anderson, is an All-American forward at 17th-ranked Vanderbilt.

In the beginning of the season, Anderson struggled against bigger players who outweighed her by at least 20 pounds. But in recent games, she has begun to come on, scoring in double digits each of the past four games.

That, Anderson said, comes from conversations with Chantelle.

``We talk after every game,'' Kristin said. ``She gives me the best advice and has been helping me find ways to use my strengths, like my quickness, to my advantage.''

After the loss to Fullerton, Holder's face looked more worn than it had all year; she had wanted that game badly. It was the Matadors' fifth consecutive loss since a victory over Pacific on Jan. 10 had ended the team's losing streak at 19 games dating back to last season.

The next night, Holder and her parents went to watch the CSUN men's volleyball game against Stanford. She walked in, arm around her mother, and sat between them about 10 rows up in the stands.

``We haven't got to do much with her on this trip,'' Joyce Holder said. ``She's always coaching, and then when she comes home, she has to watch tapes.''

On Saturday, Northridge hosted UC Riverside, last year's second-place team in the conference, which was down to only seven players this season because of injuries.

From the start, the Matadors played confidently, jumping out to their first halftime lead of the year behind 12 first-half points from Anderson.

In the second half, the Highlanders made several runs, but the Matadors held. As the final minutes played out, there were high-fives and bright smiles all around, with no fear of jinxing the victory.

``It was meant to be tonight,'' Holder said. ``Most of us don't really know how we all ended up here together, and sometimes I think it was just meant to be. I wouldn't trade this team and this experience for anything.''

Most likely there won't be a banner commemorating this season in the Northridge gym next year even if the team wins all seven of its remaining games. There will be no trophies or big glossy color photos of Anderson, Tulikihihifo or Rhodes. And probably none of the players will play professionally.

But Johnson, the former pro, said none of that matters.

``All of these girls are good people,'' she said, ``and when basketball is over for them, that's what is going to be important.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) This year's CSUN women's basketball team has remained focused and positive despite playing in a program that is all but starting over from scratch.

(2) First-year CSUN head coach Tammy Holder took over a program that won only two games last season and had no returning players.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer