It Has Been Long Journey for Dominguez Hills Star

Heather Rolland tried to put on her “What’s the big deal?” face for Sunday’s NCAA Division II West Regional women’s soccer final.

After all, she had been to the playoffs as a freshman with Cal State Dominguez Hills in 1989 and knew what it was all about.

“It didn’t hit me then, the idea that we had lost. I just figured we would be back the next three years,” Rolland said.

Dominguez Hills did get back, and won the national title in 1991, but Rolland wasn’t there. Although she was the team’s second-leading scorer as a freshman, she left the school after the ’89 season because of differences with former coach Marine Cano.

After a year out of school, she enrolled at Moorpark College in 1991, where she earned all-state honors and led the school to the state title that year.

She left school again, this time for almost four years, at the end of that academic year because her brother David was found to have inoperable brain cancer. For two years, she spent six hours a day with her brother at care facilities in Hollywood and worked evenings as a parks and recreation coordinator in Thousand Oaks to help offset the costs. As her brother’s cancer went into remission, Rolland started playing soccer again in a women’s club league.

“I happened to run into Marine Cano [in ‘95] and he was asking what I was going to do with the rest of my eligibility,” Rolland said. “I said ‘What are you talking about? I don’t have any eligibility left.’ He told me that in Division II you have 10 semesters [to resume playing]. I called Dominguez Hills, they checked and found I still had two years left. So I came back.”

Back as a 25-year-old junior in 1996, she led the NCAA West Region with 47 points (20 goals and seven assists). The team was 13-5 last season and surprisingly missed the playoffs.

Making the playoffs this year is somewhat surprising in that Dominguez Hills, which has won three consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles, has five freshman starters. Rolland, goalkeeper Brandy Kaake and midfielder Christine Tyler are the only seniors.

After all Rolland had been through, how big could the Division II playoffs be?

“I wasn’t nervous and I thought our younger players wouldn’t be too nervous because the night before [the Regional] we had a ‘mental night’ to get focused for the game,” she said. “But a lot of our people were up early and getting sick. . . . Then I started to worry a little.”

Turns out there was plenty of reason to be nervous. The Toros beat rival Sonoma State, 2-1, in three overtimes on Christina Barragan’s score off a rebound of Rolland’s free kick. Sixth-ranked Dominguez Hills (15-3-2) will host Mesa State of Colorado (No. 12, 17-3) at 1 p.m. Sunday in the quarterfinals.

This year Rolland has 19 goals and six assists to lead the West Region with 44 points.

Kaake was named the conference’s player of the year. Kaake has seven shutouts and an 0.75 goals-against average. Her 15 victories this season give her 31 for her career.

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The Cal Lutheran, Redlands and Whittier football teams, all 4-1, finished in a three-way tie for first in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

For Whittier (5-4), this has been a breakthrough season. The Poets had not won a conference title since 1981 and had struggled to 1-8 records in each of the three previous seasons.

College Division Notes

Senior linebacker Dennis Forleo and junior wide receiver Danny Ragsdale of Redlands were selected to the District VIII Academic All-American team. . . . In men’s cross-country, UC San Diego won the NCAA Division III West Regional by sweeping the top three spots and finishing with six of the top nine runners. Neal Harder finished first followed by Gavin Klinger and Steve Varnell. UC San Diego will go to the national meet Saturday at Boston. Eli Klovee-Smith of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Ken Reed of Redlands and Matt Tompkins of Occidental qualified for the national meet as individuals. Colorado College won the women’s division and Yarrow Moench and Paula Dusek of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Talia Starkey of Occidental and Amy Kitchen qualified for the national meet. . . . In Division II, top-ranked Cal Poly Pomona will run in the national championship meet Saturday in Wisconsin.