SRJC men's basketball tips off today

The Santa Rosa Junior College men's basketball team will open its season at 4 p.m. today against L.A. Pierce at the three-day Tip Off Tourney at City College of San Francisco.

The Bear Cubs, who went 17-16 and 8-6 in the Big 8 Conference last year, return their leading scorer in 6-foot-7, 230-pound center Gerrell Knightshead, who averaged 15.1 points a game. SRJC also returns sophomore guards Xavier Cannefax (9.5 points a game) and Jordan Freelander. Sophomore guard Donald Weddington (Cardinal Newman), who sat out last year, will also return to the team.

Freshman guard Tony Baldocchi (Cardinal Newman), freshman forward Jesse Williams (Ukiah) and freshman guard Matt Raivio, the brother of former Gonzaga star Derek Raivio, are among SRJC's newcomers.

SRJC FOOTBALL

On the heels of a 37-26 loss to Foothill College, the Santa Rosa Junior College football team will visit Diablo Valley College at 7 p.m. today in Pleasant Hill.

The Bear Cubs (5-3, 1-2 in NorCal Conference), who have lost three of their past five games, are ranked 15th in the state. Diablo Valley (2-6, 0-3) enters on a five-game losing streak and has allowed 137 points in its last two games. The Vikings lost to SRJC, 77-34, last year.

SSU MEN'S SOCCER

Sonoma State University men's soccer team faces a difficult challenge to repeat as conference champions, needing to first beat top seed Cal State Los Angeles in today's second semifinal of the California Collegiate Athletic Association's tournament.

Ranked No. 16 nationally and second in the West Region, SSU won the conference's North Division title at 13-3-4 overall and 10-3-3 in conference.

But the Seawolves received the fourth seed in the four-team event hosted by Cal State Stanislaus in Turlock. Cal State L.A. led the league in points on its way to a No. 6 national ranking. Sonoma State finished with one less point in league play compared with the other semifinalists, Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State Dominguez Hills.

Still, the Seawolves have ample experience in the conference tournament with today's game marking a seventh consecutive appearance. SSU also defeated Cal State L.A. in the teams' only meeting this season. While the Seawolves beat Cal State San Bernardino, they lost to Cal State Dominguez Hills, the defending NCAA Division II champion.

Today's winners face off for the championship at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Should SSU win its third conference title and finish atop the West Region rankings, the team would host its first regional since 2002, when the Seawolves went on to win the national championship.

Leading this year's squad are six players named Thursday to the All-CCAA teams.

Senior goalkeeper Brook Johnson of Davis and sophomore midfielder Cory Taufer of Clovis received first-team honors.

Selected to the second team were sophomore midfielders Trevor Hurst of Santa Rosa and Cam Vickers of Lake Tapps, Wash. Honorable mentions went to senior defender Stuart Gallant of Coronado and sophomore defender Ryan Hall of Trabuco Canyon.

SSU WOMEN'S SOCCER

The Seawolves placed senior defender Lindsay Catton of Rohnert Park on the All-CCAA first team.

Receiving honorable mention honors were senior forward Tracy Webster of Sebastopol and sophomore midfielder Katie Parucha of Manhattan Beach.

The Seawolves ended their season Sunday with a 2-1 victory over visiting Humboldt State. Their record was 8-9-3 overall and 6-7-3 in the CCAA. SSU tied for second place in the North Division, but was sixth in points during CCAA league play.

UCLA'S SATHER HONORED

Hitting another high point in a memorable senior season, Kaitlin Sather was named Pac-10 volleyball player of the week after leading UCLA to road wins over Cal and Stanford, boosting the Bruins to seventh in the national rankings.

Sather, from Santa Rosa, also earned recognition Thursday for her classroom work when ESPN The Magazine named her to its Academic All-District Third Team.

The conference player of the week honor was Sather's first after posting a pair of double-doubles — giving her a dozen on the season.

Sather tied for the team lead with 11 kills and recorded 12 digs against Cal in a 3-1 match win. Helping the Bruins snap an 18-match losing streak to Stanford in a 3-2 win, Sather again tied for the team lead, with 14 kills, and her team-high 20 digs was just one short of her career best.

An outside hitter, Sather is second on the Bruins with 2.72 kills per set and 3.05 digs per set.

Recently Sather became just the 12th player in UCLA history to surpass 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs.

The Maria Carrillo graduate and former Empire Volleyball Club standout is a history major with an education minor at UCLA. She is set to graduate this semester.

In her years at UCLA, Sather has earned a 3.72 cumulative grade point average, twice being chosen to Pac-10 All-Academic Teams. To qualify, student athletes must carry a 3.30 GPA, play in at least 50 percent of a team's matches, and be at least a sophomore academically.

ESPN The Magazine has now selected Sather twice to one of its academic teams. She also was recognized in 2007.