One day after defeating the No. 1 team in the country, Alaska Anchorage, the Point Loma women’s basketball team was knocked out of the NCAA West Regional in the semifinals by fellow PacWest Conference member California Baptist, 73-46, on Saturday, March 14.
This was the fourth meeting of the year between the teams, and the second in eight days. PLNU (21-12) won the first game of the year at CBU (26-6), but Cal Baptist took each of the next three.
The Lancers outscored the Sea Lions 42-30 in the semifinals of the PacWest Championships and they seemed to carry that momentum and swagger into the NCAA Regional semifinals. CBU shot 46 percent in the first half and 7-for-12 from 3-point range to build a commanding 43-15 lead at the half. Meanwhile, the Sea Lions could not buy a basket. They went just 7-of-34 from the field and 1-of-10 from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes of the game.
Darsha Burnside followed up her near triple-double performance in the PacWest semifinals with 12 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks. She had a double-double at the half with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Courtney Nelson and Kamile Diaz paced the CBU with 14 points apiece. Diaz had four of CBU’s 12 3-pointers as it went 12-of-26 from long range.
Burnside and the Lancers’ efforts on the boards was the difference in the game, especially early as the Sea Lions seemingly could not get a defensive board. CBU outrebounded PLNU 51 to 40 in the game, including 31-16 in the first half.
Roya Rustamzada, the hero of last night’s upset of No. 1 Alaska Anchorage, was the only Sea Lion in double-figures. She had 14 points and tied Jessica Escorza with a team-leading eight rebounds. The Sea Lions were just 4-of-22 from 3-point range and 6-of-12 at the line.
This completes a historic season for Point Loma women’s basketball (21-12, 15-5 PacWest), which earned an NCAA Regional bid in its first year as an active NCAA member. Sea Lions take third in Collegiate Challenge Emily Loogman’s time of 1:03.57 in the 400m hurdles highlighted the Point Loma track and field team’s performances at the San Diego Collegiate Challenge, hosted by UCSD, on Saturday, March 14.
Loogman registered a career-best time in the 400m hurdles to win the event by nearly 1.5 seconds. That mark moved her to the top of the 2015 PacWest performance list and was just .04 seconds off tying Maddie Liseblad for 10th place in the Sea Lions’ record books.  
The Sea Lions had a very quality meet and took home third place as a team with 90 points.
 “It was a good meet and the girls did well today,” said PLNU head coach Jerry Arvin. “Coming back off Spring Break the ladies did very well. I was very happy with the turnout we got.”
In addition to the 10 points Loogman picked up by winning the 400m hurdles, she earned five points by placing fourth in the javelin, right behind teammate Soliaana Faapouli, with a throw of 110-4 (33.64m).
She also helped the PLNU 4x400m relay team of her, Morgan Brandt, Demi White and Erin Beezhold run a time of 4:04.39 to earn six team points. Loogman also grabbed two more points with by taking 11th place in the 100m dash with a career-best time of 12.91.
Faapouli totaled 20 points for the Sea Lions as she scored in all four throwing events. Her top finish was in the javelin where she placed third with a throw of 114-4 (34.86m). She also added another five points in the shot put (37-11.5/11.57m) and the hammer throw (133-6/40.70m). She capped off her scoring with four points in the discus after recording a throw of 119-1 (36.31m). Baseball wins series over Holy Names
Ryan Garcia’s bases loaded two-run single capped off a six-run comeback in the ninth inning for the Point Loma baseball team to win the series finale against Holy Names, 11-10 (March 14).
The victory helped the Sea Lions take the series 3-1 and evened their PacWest record at 4-4 (16-7 overall). The loss dropped Holy Names to 11-13 and 3-9 in the PacWest.
The five-run deficit was just part of the comeback for PLNU, which trailed 10-2 after the fifth inning. The Sea Lions chipped away with single runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth before coming all the way back to take the lead in the ninth.
The inning began with back-to-back singles by Tyler Baker and AJ Derr, and then after an out Trey Hunt, who entered the game late, got the rally started with a single up the middle to cut the lead to 10-6. After a walk to Torres loaded the bases Sheppard singled in another run. HNU then fueled the Sea Lions’ rally with an error on a Preston Sands’ grounder to score two more runs and make it a one-run game (10-9).
The Hawks then chose to intentionally walk Tanner Handa to face Ryan Garcia with the bases loaded. That was not a good decision. The Sea Lions’ second-leading RBI-man made the Hawks pay for their decision to face him by lacing an opposite field single to left-center field to drive in the tying and eventual game-winning runs (11-10).
Coleman Huntley III made sure there would be no comeback by the Hawks with a scoreless ninth inning for his league-leading six save of the season. Noah Huggins (1-0) earned the victory with scoreless eighth inning, while striking out two. Luis Briseno (0-4) took the loss after being charged with the final two runs. He did not record an out while giving up two hits and a walk.
“We have guys with heart and belief after coming back a few times this season,” said PLNU head coach Joe Schaefer. “The key is we have the ingredients to make it happen. The bullpen did great late in the game and we kept chipping away until we hit our big inning. We preached getting to their bullpen all weekend and it finally happened in the final game of the series.”
The top of the order was the offensive spark plug for the Sea Lions. Baker and Deer each collected three hits out of the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the lineup. Baker also scored three runs and each had a stolen base. Joseph Keller, Kellen Sheppard and Ryan Garcia all drove in a pair of runs for PLNU. Both Garcia and Sheppard entered the game late.
“It was nice to see Garcia have his best at-bat of the weekend when we needed it most,” added Schaefer.
Trent Carrier and Dustin Zeisler paced Holy Names with three hits each.
 
Next games
PLNU will return to the Bay Area next week to face Academy of Art in a four-game series on Friday and Saturday (Mar. 20-21).
“We need to find some offensive consistency,” Schaefer explained. “We need to have better at-bats and make them work harder. If our starters and our bullpen keep it up and we find some offensive consistency I like what this team could become.”