Ncaa Championships

The biggest day in the history of UC Irvine athletics not only stretched the boundaries of reason, it also posed a substantial logistical challenge for those compelled to keep tabs. On June 18 in Washington, D.C., the men's volleyball team was recognized on the South Lawn of the White House for claiming the program's first NCAA championship six weeks prior. Just a few hours later in Omaha. Neb., the baseball team was on its way to winning the longest game in College World Series history, capturing the hearts of many fans in attendance at Rosenblatt Stadium, as well as those of a national television audience that took in the five-hour, 40 minute diamond drama.

Newport Harbor High product Esther Lofgren was one of three Radcliffe Crew (Harvard) rowers named recently to the Pocock All-America Lightweight Team. A first-team selection, Lofgren has been instrumental as a junior six seat in the varsity eight for Radcliffe. She helped the Crimson place 11th at the NCAA Championships after missing the championships the previous year for the first time since 1997. Lofgren, who began as a member of the Newport Aquatic Center junior team, attends Harvard, whose women's rowing team competes as Radcliffe Crew.

UC Irvine, with the benefit of an NCAA championship in men's volleyball and a third-place showing by the baseball team at the College World Series, earned its best finish ever in the U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup standings at 56th. The Directors' Cup is compiled annually by the Collegiate Directors of Athletics, United States Sports Academy and USA Today to rank the best overall collegiate athletics programs among the country's 285 Division I schools. That means the Anteaters were among the top 20% nationally, in terms of success program wide.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. — Auburn University senior Hayley Peirsol, a Newport Harbor High product, successfully defended her NCAA title in the 1,650-yard freestyle on Saturday at the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the University of Minnesota. Peirsol's time of 15 minutes, 45.92 seconds was over 10 seconds faster than her seed time, and easily beat out second-place Auburn teammate Adrienne Binder (15:53.44). Her time was nearly four seconds faster than her 2006 NCAA championship time of 15:49.

The 2006 NCAA Final Four trophy is nowhere to be found and UC Irvine men's volleyball coach John Speraw has lobbied against the display of a Final Four banner to be hung in the Bren Events Center. But the traces of last season's five-game NCAA semifinal loss to host Penn State still linger ominously for Speraw, his staff and his players. The remnants of an unprecedented 2006 campaign, however, are not all negative. Six starters, including four All-Americans, return from an Anteater squad that went 27-5 and won the program's first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation regular-season title.

UCI'S ERICKSON HONORED UC Irvine senior pitcher Blair Erickson has been named to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assn. Preseason All-American team for the third consecutive year. Erickson had 13 saves, tops in the Big West Conference and 13th in the nation as a junior, when he was 5-0 with a 2.06 ERA with 57 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings and limited foes to a .229 batting average. He was selected in the 10th round of the Major League Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals, but elected to return for his senior season.

TUCSON, Ariz. ? The UC Irvine men's golf team concluded its season on the third day of the NCAA West Regional at the Tucson National Golf Club on Saturday. The Anteaters were in eighth place overall going into Saturday's action, but fell to 16th place by shooting a six-over-par 294 to finish with a three-day score of 861. Arizona and Florida tied for the first place with 54-hole totals of 827. Other teams advancing to the NCAA Championships include Arizona State (840), Washington (840)

locals in NCAA volleyball tourneyFour players and two assistant coaches bring Back Bay flavor to 64-team volleyball tournament, which began Thursday.Four players and two assistant coaches with ties to Back Bay high schools are among those chasing a national championship in the NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament that began Thursday. The University of Texas, which shared the No. 7 spot in the latest American Volleyball Coaches' Assn. poll, features former Newport Harbor High standouts Alyson Jennings and Kiley Hall.

Barry Faulkner UC Irvine women's athletics ended what had been a two-year Big West Conference title drought by producing a veritable championship cascade in 2004-05. The Anteaters added to the swimming and diving team's first conference crown by topping the field in golf, which had been the last program to win a Big West title (in 2002). Coach Brian Pajer's swimmers and divers also finished the year ranked No. 1 in the CollegeSwimming.com's mid-major poll.

The UC Irvine women's golf team will be making its first trip to the NCAA championships in the program's four-year history when play begins Tuesday at the Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore. UCI, which finished in a tie for sixth at the NCAA West regional to qualify for the finals, is currently ranked 26th in the nation by Golfstat.com. The Anteaters join Ohio State, Duke, Furman, Pepperdine, Virginia, Tulane, Florida, Washington, Auburn, Texas A & M, Missouri, Arizona State, Tulsa, Purdue, Michigan State, Arkansas, UCLA, Tennessee, California, USC, Oklahoma State, Brigham Young and Stanford in the tournament field.