UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Shot Down Last Season, Women’s Basketball Team Seeks to Regain Pride

Somewhere along the road to a 1-27 record last season, Kathy Lizarraga says, UC Irvine’s women’s basketball team lost its vision of what it was supposed to be.

The players and the coaches couldn’t see eye-to-eye. Squabbles and jealousies broke out. And if you want to talk about losing sight of goals, go straight to Lizarraga, who literally did.

Lizarraga is the Anteaters’ designated three-point shooter. She wears contact lenses, which were giving her trouble before one game and became unwearable.

The way things were going, Lizarraga didn’t want to cause trouble. Afraid to tell Coach Dean Andrea what had happened, she tried to play without them.

She shot the ball in the general direction of the goal, aiming roughly for the white box on the glass.

She was awful.

But shooters are supposed to keep shooting, and Lizarraga did. By halftime, she hadn’t made a basket, and when Andrea learned what was going on, he sat her on the bench for the rest of the game.

It was that kind of season.

The Anteaters are back for another go at it this year, and Lizarraga is back with extra lenses.

“I have three pairs now,” she said.

Andrea says the team is working together to avoid a repeat of last season as Irvine heads into its first exhibition game against the Bulgarian national team at 2 p.m. Sunday in Bren Center.

Lizarraga, a junior who made 37 three-pointers and averaged 8.8 points per game last season, is back, along with nine other letter-winners. Also returning are Jenny Lee, a senior point guard, and Yvonne Catala, a sophomore forward who led the team in scoring last year with an 11-point average.

Will this season unfold any better than last? They’ll have to wait and see.

They lost by a sliver, but it doesn’t matter a smidgen.

The Irvine women’s cross-country team lost the NCAA Region 8 meet to Oregon by a single point Saturday, but because the top two teams in each region qualified for the NCAA championships Monday at Knoxville, Tenn., the difference was meaningless.

“We’ll drop from fifth to sixth in the rankings,” said Coach Vince O’Boyle, whose team was ranked fourth for a time this season, the highest ever for an Irvine team. “If (the NCAA championships) were seeded like basketball, it might be a problem, but the way it is, it doesn’t mean a thing.”

The NCAA water polo championships begin a week from Friday at Belmont Plaza pool in Long Beach, with Irvine, the defending national champion, as host.

But don’t expect Irvine to be in the water. The Anteaters are about to conclude the first losing season in the program’s 26-year history and are not expected to get a bid. Hosting the tournament won’t be much fun.

“I’d like to go hide somewhere, in all reality,” Coach Ted Newland said.

Irvine will take a 13-15 record into its final game Saturday against UC Santa Barbara at Heritage Park.

“I think we’ll be much better next year,” said Newland, who says after 25 seasons that retirement is still not imminent. “I enjoyed this year,” he said. “I was embittered at times, but these are basically neat human beings. They worked hard at improving, and their attitude is good.”

Timber! Another former Anteater has fallen in with the Minnesota Timberwolves. This time it is Bob Thornton, acquired in a trade last week from the Philadelphia 76ers for a second-round draft pick in 1991. He joins former Anteaters Scott Brooks and Tod Murphy. Johnny Rogers had been with the team but was cut.

Anteater Notes

Elzie Love, a 6-6 swingman from Perris High School who earlier said he has committed to Irvine, is expected to sign a national letter of intent with the Anteaters during the signing period that begins today. Coach Bill Mulligan said there’s a possibility that one or two others will sign early. Two standout high school girls have said they plan to sign with Irvine--Brea-Olinda’s Jinelle Williams and Christina Adams of El Cajon Granite Hills. . . . After two meets, freshman swimmer Liz Koch has the fourth-best 200-yard backstroke time (2:17.66) in school history. The women’s swim team will compete against Pepperdine and Cal State Bernardino at Pepperdine Saturday, while the men’s team is off for two weeks. . . . The women’s volleyball team will finish its season Tuesday in Crawford Hall against Cal State Long Beach, a team the Anteaters have not beaten since 1983.