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UCSD Tabs Nebraska's Newman as Baseball Coach

Triton athletes in fall sports are gearing up for the 2011-12 school year.

UC San Diego introduced former Nebraska assistant Eric Newman as its new head baseball coach on Monday. The announcement was made by Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards.

Newman had been the pitching coach at Nebraska since 2007 and served as the head coach at Dallas Baptist from 2004 until 2007. A San Diego Padres draft pick, Newman played eight seasons of professional baseball.

"We're very excited to welcome Eric Newman to the Triton family," said Edwards. "His outstanding reputation and his experiences as both a head and assistant coach will enable the baseball program to continue to operate at the high standard that it has in the past."

He takes over the Triton program from Dan O'Brien, who resigned in June to take the head position at NCAA Division I Santa Clara. O'Brien, the winningest coach in school history, amassed a record of 454-283-1 (.616) over 14 seasons in La Jolla.

"I'm really honored to be coming in and taking over a program that has established itself as one of the best in Division II," said Newman. "I plan on continuing to build on the success that Coach (Dan) O'Brien developed while he was here. I want to thank Earl Edwards and the Athletics Department for this opportunity and I'm really looking forward to working with the Triton baseball family."

Prior to arriving in Lincoln, Newman spent five years (2002-07) at NCAA Division I independent Dallas Baptist. Named the program's head coach in 2004, Newman led the Patriots to a 95-72 (.569) record and guided the program through its transition to Division I.

Newman was named the 2006 Independent Coach of the Year.

From 2002-2004, Newman was the associate head coach and pitching coach at Dallas Baptist. The Patriots won their second consecutive NCCAA national championship in 2004, a season that saw five pitchers finish with ERAs under 3.00. Dallas Baptist also won an NCCAA title in 2003.

A fifth round draft pick of the San Diego Padres in 1994, Newman pitched professionally for eight seasons with four different organizations, seeing action all the way up to the AAA level.

Newman played in the minors for the Padres (1994-98), the Chicago Cubs (1999-2000), the Arizona Diamondbacks (2001) and the Los Angeles Dodgers (2002). He was a player/coach for the Vero Beach Dodgers in the Florida State League.

As a collegiate student-athlete, Newman played two seasons at Fresno State before transferring to Texas Tech. In 1993, he won a Western Athletic Conference (WAC) championship with the Bulldogs. The next season, he was tabbed All-Southwest Conference with Texas Tech.

Newman earned a master's degree in higher education from Dallas Baptist in 2004. He did his undergrad work at Texas Tech and received a bachelor's degree in family studies in 1997.

Newman, 39, resides in La Jolla with his wife, Melissa, and son EJ.

"I'm excited to be working with these accomplished young men that excel on the field and in the classroom," said Newman. "We're going to put together a great staff to lead this program into the future."

UC San Diego went 42-15 and advanced to its fifth straight NCAA tourney in 2011. The Tritons won their third consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) regular season and tournament titles. In 2009 and 2010, UCSD played in the College World Series, finishing as the national runner-up in 2010.

Current, Former UCSD Athletes Have Busy Summer

As many of the UC San Diego fall sports teams get ready to launch their regular seasons this week and over the Labor Day weekend, a number of former and current Triton athletes have had busy and productive summers in their respective sports.

Former UC San Diego standout Tim Shibuya is finishing his first season in professional baseball much like he finished his collegiate seasons: by winning awards. Recently the Minnesota Twins prospect was named the Appalachian League Pitcher of the Year and a league all-star as a member of the Elizabethton Twins.
 
Currently, Shibuya holds an 8-2 record with a 3.30 ERA over 13 starts for Elizabethton, a Single A affiliate located in the northeast corner of Tennessee.

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The three-time All-American leads the league in wins, innings pitched (73.2) and strikeouts (70). Shibuya has the third-lowest WHIP ratio (walks and hits per inning pitched) among all league players at 1.10.
 
A 23rd-round pick (718th overall) of Minnesota in the 2011 MLB First-Year Player Draft, Shibuya has won his last three starts and struck out a career-high 12 against the Bristol White Sox on August 16.
 
The right-hander from Jackson, WY, finished his Triton career as the school's all-time leader in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts.

Former Triton infielder Vance Albitz was picked up by the St. Louis Cardinals last week as the major league club purchased his contract from the independent Lincoln Saltdogs.

The shortstop reported to the Batavia Muckdogs, a Short-Season A affiliate that competes in the New York-Penn League.
With Lincoln, Albitz was hitting .314 with eight doubles, a home run, 22 RBI and eight stolen bases in 69 games.
  
The Torrance native was recently named the 2011 Saltdogs Rookie of the Year.
 
At UC San Diego, Albitz garnered national Defensive Player of the Year honors as well as All American status in leading the Tritons to the Division II World Series in 2010.

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UC San Diego can now boast 27 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship award winners among its alumni after three student-athletes won the prestigious honor in 2010-11.

Graduating seniors Jessica Ferguson (swimming), Vincent Nguyen (tennis) and Kelly Fogarty (track & field) were recognized during the past year.

Ferguson, a member of an NCAA champion relay team as a sophomore as well as part of this year's squad that finished third at the nationals, graduated with a molecular biology degree from Warren College.
 
Nguyen, captain of the Triton tennis team that went undefeated in the regular season and ranked 10th nationally, was a biochemistry/cell biology major at Marshall College.
 
Fogarty, an All-American and school record holder in the 100 and 200, graduated from Sixth College with a human biology degree.

Ferguson and Nguyen will start medical school this fall and Fogarty plans to do the same in 2012.

After claiming a bronze medal at the Asian Athletics Championships in Japan in July, former UC San Diego track star Christine (Sonali) Merrill is representing Sri Lanka at the IAAF World Championships this week in Daegu, Korea.

Currently ranked 66th in the world and 33rd among entrants at the Worlds, Merrill finished sixth in her heat earlier this week after clocking in at 57.05. Her preliminary time was just a few tenths shy of her personal best of 56.83, which is a Sri Lankan national record.

Merrill finished 27th out of a total of 38 competitors in the event, placing in front of several athletes who came in seeded in front of her.
 
An eight-time All-American during her career at UCSD, Merrill set school records in both the 400 hurdles (58.04) and 400-meter dash (54.76) as a senior in 2010. As a junior, she won the NCAA Division II title in the 400 hurdles after posting a first place time of 58.59.

Merrill is coming off a standout performance at the 19th Asian Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan, where she finished third in the 400 hurdles with a time of 57.30 on July 9. She posted a time of 56.83 in the prelims, which was a Sri Lankan national record.
 
While she just missed the World Championships qualification standard of 56.55 in Japan, Merrill was awarded a trip to Korea to take part in the meet as a wildcard by the Sri Lanka Athletic Association.
 
Swimmers Alexandra Henley and Emily Adamczyk became the second and third Tritons to gain entry to next year's Olympic Trials, bettering the meet standard at the recent Los Angeles Invitational, hosted by USC.
 
Henley, a senior and three-time NCAA Division II individual champion, went 2:17.47 while finishing 12th in the 200 backstroke and the next day, sophomore Adamczyk clocked 2:35.21 while claiming seventh in the 200 breaststroke.

The pair join sophomore Nick Korth who qualified earlier this summer in the 100 breaststroke.
 
SWIMMING & DIVING

Director of Athletics Earl Edwards has announced the promotion of assistant coaches Matt Macedo and Corrie Falcon to head coaches of the Triton swimming and diving program.

Macedo will lead the men, while Falcon will take the helm of the women’s team, marking the first time in school history that the program will boast two head coaches.

The duo takes over for Scott McGihon, who retired in mid-June after 13 years of shaping the Triton contingent into one of the premier programs at both the NCAA Division II and Division III levels.

“I am excited to have Corrie and Matt continue their dedication to UCSD as head coaches,” said Edwards. “The significant contributions they have made over the last couple of years as assistants in making us one of the top Division II programs in the country will be enhanced by their new roles.”

Macedo, a former U.S. National Team member and 20-time All-American at Cal, joined the Triton staff as an assistant in October 2008.

Already at UCSD, Macedo has designed and implemented swimming, dryland and weight training programs with an emphasis on the sprinters. He was the primary coach of Triton standout Daniel Perdew, who won three NCAA titles and holds eight school records.

Since Macedo came to UCSD, Triton swimmers have broken 32 school records, earned 51 conference and 11 national titles, and set two NCAA Division II records.

Macedo also was the head coach of Trinidad and Tobago’s 2008 Olympic squad. While an assistant with The Race Club, he helped prepare 13 athletes for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

From 2004-2007, Macedo was the head age group coach at North Coast Aquatics. He has also served as the head coach of the UC San Diego club program.

As a student-athlete at Cal, Macedo won NCAA championships in the 400 free relay in 2001 and 2002. He was an Olympic Trials finalist in 2000 and competed in the 2001 World University Games. In 1999, he was ranked top-20 in the 50 free and top-50 in the 100 free worldwide.

Macedo graduated from Cal in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in American studies.

A two-time U.S. national champion and a two-year team captain at USC, Falcon has been with the Tritons since August 2007.

At UCSD, Falcon coached eight-time school record holder Alex Henley to three NCAA titles (400 IM in 2010, 200 butterfly in 2010 and 2011). She also served as the recruiting coordinator for both the men and women’s teams and was the director of UCSD swim camps and clinics.

Prior to coming to La Jolla, Falcon was the head coach at San Diego Mesa College in 2006-07. In 2005-06, she founded Falcon Swim Clinics in Perth, Australia. Falcon has also coached with the Bristol Penguins Olympic Swimming Squad in England as well as at her alma mater

As a competitor on the national scene, Falcon won a pair of U.S. titles, one in the 400 IM (1996), the other in the 800 free relay (2000). She swam in two World University Games (1999, 2001) and was a multiple event finalist at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Trials

A 2002 graduate of USC, Falcon was named the Trojans’ Most Valuable Swimmer in 1999-2000 and was runner-up in the 400 IM at the 2000 NCAA Division I Championships.

Falcon earned a degree in communications while minoring in psychology at USC.

UCSD put together one of its finest seasons to date in 2010-11. The Tritons won their third consecutive PCSC title on both the men and women's sides and went on to post a tremendous showing at the NCAA Division II Championships. The men placed second, the team's highest finish at the Division II level, while the women took third for the ninth time in 11 seasons in D-II competition. This summer, four Tritons recorded qualifying times for the 2012 Olympic Trials.

The Tritons kick off their 2011-12 campaign Oct. 29 against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at Canyonview Pool.

MEN'S & WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

The 2012 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Men's and Women's Basketball Championships have been awarded to UC San Diego.

The 16-team event will be contested Feb. 28-March 3, with the semifinals and championship games slated to take place at RIMAC Arena on the UCSD campus.
 
The championship format calls for eight men's and eight women's teams to compete in first-round games at campus sites on Feb. 28, with the winners advancing to the semifinals on March 2 in La Jolla. The championship games will be played on Saturday, March 3.

UC San Diego will be the fourth different institution to host the tournament since 2008. With a seating capacity of 5,000, RIMAC Arena is the largest venue in the conference.
 
Since its return in 2008, the CCAA Tournament has been held at Cal State San Bernardino (2008 and 2009), Humboldt State (2010) and Cal State East Bay (2011). Cal State Dominguez Hills is the defending men's champion while Cal Poly Pomona captured the women's title in 2011.

WOMEN'S SOCCER

The UC San Diego women’s soccer team will debut at No. 2 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Preseason Poll.

The Tritons, who went 19-3-3 last season and finished as national runners-up, are second only to defending national champion No. 1 Grand Valley State. GVSU defeated UCSD 4-0 in the 2010 NCAA Division II National Championship on Dec. 4 in Louisville, KY.

Rounding out the top five are Saint Rose, West Chester and Florida Tech, respectively. UCSD beat four of the teams in the NSCAA's Preseason top 10 during last year's run to the national title match: St. Rose, Florida Tech, No. 6 St. Edward's and No. 10 Seattle Pacific.

The only other ranked team from UCSD's conference, the California Collegiate Athletic Association, is No. 23 Cal State Los Angeles. The Eagles finished first in the CCAA South Division a year ago, one point ahead of the Tritons.
 
Two of the Tritons' first three matches are slated against ranked opponents. UCSD's first stop on its seven-match road trip to start the season will be at Western Washington on Thursday at 7 p.m. The Tritons will stay in the Pacific Northwest to face Seattle Pacific on Saturday before traveling back to California to clash with CSULA on Sept. 9 in Los Angeles.

The Tritons' first home match of the year is against Cal State San Bernardino on Sept. 25 at noon on Triton Soccer Field.

UCSD recently returned from Costa Rica, where the Tritons trained with the Costa Rica National Team and did some touring of their own.

MEN'S SOCCER

The UC San Diego men’s soccer team has been picked to finish fourth in the CCAA South Division in a poll of league coaches.
 
Defending conference champion No. 21 Sonoma State and Cal State Dominguez Hills were picked to win their respective divisions and garnered 61 points apiece in the poll. SSU was also picked to win the 2011 CCAA Tournament with five votes, with No. 8 Chico State receiving three votes to win the postseason tournament.

The Tritons finished with 38 points in the poll, following CSUDH (61 points), Cal Poly Pomona (52 points) and Cal State San Bernardino (40 points). Cal State L.A. and San Francisco State rounded out the South Division in fifth and sixth place with 37 and 15 points, respectively.

In 2010, UCSD finished fourth in the CCAA South with an 8-5-3 conference mark and 27 points. The Tritons narrowly missed a shot at clinching a berth in the conference tournament a year ago, but fell short by a single point to Cal Poly Pomona for the final spot.

The Tritons will open the season on Thursday with a road contest at Cal Baptist at 4:30 p.m. in Riverside. They will play their first home match on Saturday, facing St. Martin’s at 6 p.m. on Triton Soccer Field.

MEN'S WATER POLO

The UC San Diego men’s water polo team will open the 2011 season as the 12th-ranked team in the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Men’s Varsity Preseason National Top 20.

Defending national champion USC (99 points) will open the season as the top-ranked team, followed by 2010 national runner-up California (95 points) and No. 3 UCLA (90 points). 

Stanford University (86 points), University of the Pacific (76 points), UC Irvine (70 points), UC Santa Barbara (69 points), Loyola Marymount (64 points), Pepperdine (63 points) and Long Beach State (60 points) conclude an All-California Top 10.

New York’s St. Francis University will debut at No. 11, followed closely by UCSD (44 points).

UCSD will open its season Labor Day weekend with the 2011 Triton Invitational at Canyonview Pool. The Tritons will open the Invite at 9 a.m. Saturday against Redlands. They will follow with a 3:30 p.m. clash with No. 18 Air Force. On Sunday, UCSD will face Cal Lutheran at 9 a.m. and Western Water Polo Association foe LMU at 3:30 p.m.

UCSD went 13-13 overall last season, finishing fourth at the 2010 WWPA Championships.

The men's water polo program recently returned from a team trip to Croatia.
 
WOMEN'S WATER POLO

UC San Diego women’s water polo head coach Brad Kreutzkamp was awarded Coach of the Year and senior Hanalei Crowell was honored as Co-Player of the Year for Division II by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches. In addition, Crowell earned All-American status along with teammates Kirsten Bates and Sarah Lizotte.

The Tritons wrapped up their most successful season in program history in May with their first Western Water Polo Association title since 2000 and their first trip to the NCAA Championships. Moreover, UCSD took home seventh place at the championships with a 15-9 win over No. 20 Iona.

“To have three of our players honored by coaches across the country just goes to show the impression that we made this season,” said Kreutzkamp. “When your team meets the goals it sets out to accomplish at the beginning of the season, the individual awards will follow.”

For Crowell, the award adds to her individual accolades this season. The senior from Kailua, Hawaii, has already been named WWPA Tournament Most Valuable Player, WWPA First Team and to the WWPA All-Academic squad. She led the Tritons with 56 assists and 78 steals in 2011, the second-most assists and third-most steals in UCSD single-season history.

She scored 58 goals in addition to recording seven hat tricks. Crowell finished her career with the second-most assists (120) and fifth-most steals (163) in program history.

Crowell shares the 2011 Player of the Year award with Nikki Smart of Cal State Monterey Bay. The individual accolade marks the ninth time in 10 seasons in which a Triton has taken home the Division II Player of the Year award.

Bates, a junior who was also named All-American in 2010, led the Tritons with 61 goals while tallying 60 steals and 34 assists. She scored seven goals at the NCAA Championships and scored four goals in four different contests during the season. Her .415 shooting percentage was a team-best and she currently sits tied for eighth place in UCSD history with 152 career scores.

Bates claimed NCAA All-Tournament Second Team, WWPA Second Team, WWPA All-Academic Team and WWPA All-Tournament First Team honors.

Lizotte earned All-American honors with 46 goals and 21 assists, despite playing only about half the season. She debuted with a goal and four assists in the first match of her career March 25 against San Diego State, then went on to lead the Tritons in scoring for 10 of the next 11 contests. She scored nine times during the WWPA Championships and earned All-Tournament First Team honors.

Lizotte capped the season with a team season-high five goals against Iona in the seventh-place match at the NCAA Championships in May, all in the first half.
 
UCSD went 9-1 in WWPA competition during the regular season, falling only to perennial WWPA powerhouse Loyola Marymount. However, the Tritons would avenge that loss with a 13-11 upset of the Lions in the WWPA Championship match, punching their tickets to the NCAA Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich. UCSD’s win over Iona marked the first win at the NCAA Championships for women’s water polo in UCSD history.

In addition, Crowell along with teammates Allie Taylor and Natalie Peng earned Association of College Water Polo Coaches 2011 Women's All-Academic Awards.

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL

With four starters returning from last season's NCAA Tournament squad, the UC San Diego women’s volleyball team was picked to finish second in the league in the 2011 CCAA preseason coaches poll.

Five-time defending conference champion and NCAA Division II Pacific Region champion Cal State San Bernardino received the maximum number of votes possible and was the conference coaches' unanimous pick to capture the 2011 CCAA title.
 
The Coyotes totaled 121 points and 11 first-place votes in the poll. UCSD collected 100 points and one first-place vote. Sonoma State was third with 95 points, Cal State L.A. was fourth after garnering 89 points and Cal State East Bay rounded out the top five with 84 points.
 
Chico State (68) was sixth, followed by Cal State Monterey Bay and San Francisco State, which tied for seventh with 54 points each. Cal Poly Pomona (45) was ninth, Cal State Stanislaus (34) 10th, Humboldt State (17) 11th and Cal State Dominguez Hills (15) 12th.
 
UC San Diego compiled a 19-9 overall record last season and tied for second in the CCAA with Cal State East Bay with a 15-7 mark. The Tritons earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season, sweeping Sonoma State in the West Region quarterfinals before bowing out to Cal State San Bernardino in the semis.
 
UCSD second-year head coach Ricci Luyties returns AVCA and Daktronics All-American outside hitter/setter Roxanne Brunsting, as well as outside Katie Condon and middle blocker Julia Freidenberg, who each earned AVCA and Daktronics All-West Region accolades in 2010.

Hillary Williamson is back on the outside while libero Janessa Werhane, the only Triton to play in all 109 sets last year, returns as well. Four of the five are entering their senior seasons, while Freidenberg will be a junior.
 
The Tritons were ranked as high as No. 8 by the AVCA in 2010 and finished the year at the tail end of the poll in 25th.
 
Cal State San Bernardino is coming off a 28-2 overall record, including a 21-1 mark, in CCAA play. The Coyotes defeated Seattle Pacific in the Pacific Region final before seeing their season come to an end at the hands of Concordia-St. Paul in the NCAA Championship quarterfinals. The Coyotes welcome back 2010 AVCA National Player of the Year Samantha Middleborn and All-American setter Camille Smith.
 
UC San Diego’s regular season gets underway Thursday as the Tritons compete at the three-day Hilton Waikiki Beach Invitational in Honolulu.

NEWS & NOTES

Bolstered by six sports scoring points during the spring season, UC San Diego jumped eight places in the final ranking period to finish fifth in the 2010-11 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings. The Directors' Cup annually rates all NCAA institutions in each division based on overall prowess in national championship competition. UCSD placed eighth in 2009-10 and has finished at least that high in 10 of the 11 years it has been at the D-II level.

The Tritons finished with 696.5 pts., the most of any school in the West Region, getting point-scoring performances from the NCAA champion softball team, baseball, women's water polo, men's tennis and men's & women's track & field in the spring season to vault from 12th to fifth over the final month of the competition. Grand Valley State (MI) was the repeat champion.

--Compiled from press releases issued by the UCSD sports information office.

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