CSUN WOMEN CLOSE IN ON NCAAS.Byline: LEE BARNATHAN UNIVERSITY BEAT Frozena Jerro probably never thought she would have a chance to tell the Cal State Northridge women's basketballteam an NCAA Tournament NCAA Tournament can mean: Men's Sports
Then again, who thought Northridge would be in this situation? If the Matadors win three of their final four games, a stretch which started with Thursday's 80-58 victory against Eastern Washington
``It's a new era,'' junior guard Jamilah Jones said after a recent practice. ``We're all excited. It's probably never been done before in the history of (Northridge) women's basketball Women's basketball is one of the few games which developed in tandem with men's. It became popular, spreading from the east coast of the United States to the west coast, in large part via women's colleges. .'' It hasn't. Since joining Division I for the 1990-91 season, the Matadors never have finished with a winning record. Last year was closest: 14-14, 9-7 in the Big Sky. This year, heading into tonight's game with Portland State, Northridge is 16-7, 10-3 and in a three-way tie for first. The 16 wins are the most since the 16 the 1986-87 team won. ``My freshman year, we won four games,'' Jones said, ``so we've come a long way.'' Jerro wants them to go even further, so after last week's crucial victory at Montana State, she reminded them how fleeting dreams can be. Jerro was a junior at Arizona State in 1992 when the Sun Devils
Only it never got past DePaul. ``We've still got to take one at a time,'' Jerro said. ``We've still got to be prepared. We have (three) tough games, each with meaning.'' Indeed. Tonight's game with Portland State is for first place. The next opponent, Weber State on Thursday, is a game behind the Matadors, but it's also important because Weber State beat the Matadors earlier this season. The finale, Feb. 27 against last-place Sacramento State, is, well, the last hurdle standing between CSUN CSUN California State University Northridge and a conference title. The Hornets will have spoiler spoiler: see airplane. 1. spoiler - A remark which reveals important plot elements from books or movies, thus denying the reader (of the article) the proper suspense when reading the book or watching the movie. 2. on their minds. But if Northridge wins its next two games, it wins its first conference since the program began in 1974. So practices have been steady and Jerro has provided the stability by reminding everyone to stay focused on the next game only. ``We can't concentrate on the tournament championship,'' junior post player Viveca Lof said. ``Everyone's looking to come here and mess us up.'' It won't happen unless Northridge messes up first. Troy's good news: USC's women's basketball team has been decimated by injuries, forcing the Women of Troy to suit up just eight players in recent games. However, in this past weekend's games with Cal and Stanford, center Adrain Williams returned to action, and volleyball player Antoinette Polk joined the team. Williams, a 6-foot-4 senior center, had been out since Jan. 23 with an ankle sprain ankle sprain Orthopedics A stretching of the ankle ligaments and/or muscles with swelling , but the injury also reaggravated a previous foot injury. She will play hurt for the rest of the season and will undergo surgery after. She scored 14 points against Cal and had 13 points and seven rebounds against Stanford. Polk, a 5-foot-10 forward, originally wasn't in the team's plans because she would've exceeded the team's scholarship limit. But USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. received a waiver from the NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association for extraordinary personnel loss. She began practicing a week ago but did not play last weekend. On the beam: Eleven All-Americans and two defending individual gymnastics champions will compete in today's UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX Invitational in·vi·ta·tion·al adj. Restricted to invited participants: an invitational golf tournament. n. An event, especially a sports tournament, restricted to invited participants. Adj. 1. at Pauley Pavilion Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion, informally and commonly known as Pauley Pavilion, is an indoor arena located on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles, California. It is home to the UCLA Bruins men's and women's basketball teams. The men's and women's volleyball teams also play here. . Arizona, national runner-up Florida and Cal State Fullerton join UCLA for the 7 p.m. start. The individual champions, UCLA's Heidi Moneymaker (bars) and Florida's Betsy Hamm (beam), return to the site where they won their individual titles last year. They are two of the 11 All-Americans participating. THIS WEEK AT HOME Today Women's basketball: Portland State at CSUN, 7 p.m.; UCLA at USC, 7 p.m. Men's volleyball: Long Beach State at USC, 4 pm.; Stanford at Pepperdine, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday Men's volleyball: UC Irvine at UCLA, 7 p.m. Thursday Women's basketball: Weber State at CSUN, 7 p.m. Friday Men's volleyball: Loyola Marymount at CSUN, 7 p.m. CAPTION(S): Photo, Box Photo: Leah Rice, left, and Cal State Northridge's women's team will take on Portland State tonight. Pete Scanlon/Daily News Box: THIS WEEK AT HOME (See text) |
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