Westmont men’s basketball (18-12, 11-9) captured an elusive eighteenth win of the season on Saturday night with a dramatic 80-78 win over #24 Point Loma Nazarene (17-9, 12-7) at Murchison Gymnasium. The match up was the final regular season Golden State Athletic Conference game for Westmont and gave the Warriors an important win going into the conference tournament.

The Warriors will be seeded either fifth or sixth in the tournament, depending on the outcome of three conference games which will be played this evening. In order for the Warriors to gain a number five seed, Biola must lose to visiting California Baptist, Vanguard must lose at home to Azusa Pacific, and Point Loma must win over Concordia in San Diego. If those three events occur, Westmont will be the fifth seed and play at fourth seeded Vanguard on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in the first round of the GSAC Tournament.

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Westmont women’s basketball (14-15, 9-11) finished up the regular Golden State Athletic Conference season on Saturday night with a 64-55 loss to #16 Point Loma Nazarene. The Warriors were within one point and had a chance to take the lead after freshman Ali Mooty rebounded a missed basket by the Sea Lions’ Erica Dotson (8 points, 4 rebounds). But the Warriors went 0-5 from the field the rest of the game while Point Loma added a jumper and went six for six from the free throw line.

Mooty, recording her eleventh double-double of the year, had 12 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Warriors in both categories. Jenn Tolle recorded 10 points on four-of-six shooting from the field while Megan Fate added nine points, four assists and three rebounds.

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Written by Guillaume Doane
First appeared in the Montecito Journal
Feb. 23-Mar 8, 2006
Reprinted by permission

If they raise enough money and if they receive their parents’ approvals, the Westmont College women’s soccer team this summer could become the first women’s team to make a missionary trip to Africa through the Sports Outreach Institute. If or when they amass $100,000, the 24 players and three coaches will be off for 17 days to Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya playing soccer, doing volunteer work in hospitals, schools and churches and evangelizing through the Sports Outreach Institute, a Virginia-based Christian missionary organization.

“It’s going to be a unique experience for everyone involved- being part of the bigger picture,” said Anna Gropp, a Westmont junior who plays on the soccer team. “When you’re in college you rarely get to be part of that.”

Athletic director Dave Wolf, head men’s basketball coach John Moore and head women’s tennis coach Kathy LeSage will be the guests on KZSB 1290 AM’s new Radio Round Table program next Tuesday morning from 9-10 o’clock. The program, which will center on Westmont Athletics, will feature interviews of the three guests as well as a roundtable discussion.

The program is hosted each week by KZSB radio personality “Baron” Ron Herron and a rotating co-host. Westmont sports information director Ron Smith will serve as the co-host for Tuesday’s broadcast. KZSB, together with the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table, began airing the show in January as a way to highlight local sports and focus on issues related to sports in the greater Santa Barbara community.

Westmont’s senior guards were red hot tonight as women’s basketball (14-14, 9-10) defeated #14 The Masters (20-7, 12-6) by a score of 94-79 in Santa Clarita this evening. Megan Fate scored 33 points by making 10 of 15 from the field, including five of seven from three-point range, and eight of eight from the charity stripe. Meghan O’Donogue added 27 more with a seven-for-ten performance from the field, including three of five from beyond the arc. O’Donogue also made 10 of 13 from the free throw line. Fate’s 33 points moved her into second on the list of Westmont’s career scoring leaders with 1361 points.

The win, combined with a 48-47 loss by Biola to Point Loma Nazarene, assures the Warriors a place in the upcoming Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament. However, they could be seated anywhere from fifth to eighth depending on how the rest of the regular season plays out. The Warriors will conclude regular season play on Saturday when they host #12 Point Loma Nazarene at Murchison Gymnasium at 5:30 p.m. The other ten teams in the conference will conclude GSAC play on Monday, February 27.

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Without senior forward Nick Debban in the line up, Westmont men’s basketball (17-12, 10-9) suffered their fifth consecutive loss on Tuesday night, this one coming at the hands of The Master’s (12-15, 7-11) by a score of 84-66. Westmont was further weakened under the basket by early foul trouble for junior forward Santiago Aguirre (11 points, 6 rebounds). Aguirre sat out much of the first half and fouled out of the game with 6:52 to play.

Despite starting four guards, the Warriors struggled from the outside, connecting on only three of 24 three-point field goal attempts. Freshman Tyler Dutton led the Warriors with 15 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore Josh Ware made six of nine from the floor to score 12 points.

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Westmont women’s tennis (3-3, 3-2) came close to upsetting the third ranked team in the NAIA but lost to conference foe Vanguard (4-1, 4-1) by a score of 5-4.

The Warriors notched a 2-1 lead in the contest by winning two of three doubles matches. Jennie Dunn and Gillian Ayres picked up a point at number two by defeating Vanguard’s Amy Brown and Tiffany Teerawat. At number three, Westmont’s Lorelei Belindean and Christian Klein defeated Natalie Kelley and Kirsten Eichenmuller 8-3. Vanguard’s sole win in doubles came at number one where Hana Jurcovicova and Damia Donkervoort defeated Jenny Renfer and Kristen Lee 8-2.

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Westmont Baseball (4-9) returned to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium on the campus of UC Santa Barbara this afternoon for the second game with the Gauchos (3-3) in as many weeks. The Warriors scored two runs in the first and another in the third, but it wasn’t enough as UCSB came away with a 5-3 victory.

Sophomore center fielder Vinny Lopez led off the game with an infield single to short and later scored on a double to right field by senior catcher Dominick Paluso. Designated hitter Ryan McGill followed Paluso by striking out, but advanced to first when the ball snuck past the Gaucho catcher Matt McColgan. Paluso advanced to third on the pass ball. Warrior third baseman Jordan Ballard was hit by a pitch from Gaucho starter Anthony Martin which loaded the bases with two away. Martin then walked right fielder Darren Fouret to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead.

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