UCI women collect two titles

Amber Steen grew up a few doors down from UC Irvine women’s cross country and track and field coach Vince O’Boyle. But, until this past school year, O’Boyle had to follow her collegiate career from afar.

The Newport Harbor High product, however, transferred from the University of Arizona to UCI for the 2005-06 campaign, then created some lasting memories for her coach and her teammates.

Steen won the Big West Conference individual cross country title in the fall, helping the Anteaters also capture the team crown to highlight a 2005-06 women’s athletic year that included several other noteworthy accomplishments.

The golf team won its second straight Big West Conference title in dominant fashion, but later said goodbye to Coach Kelly Crawford, who left in the spring to lead the women’s program at Iowa.

Sophomore golfer Selanee Henderson was named Big West Conference Player of the Year.

Sophomore swimmer Chelsea Nagata shared Big West Athlete of the Year in her sport, after winning three individual events and contributing to a winning relay at the conference championships on her way to All-American honors.

Other big news was made when April Heinrichs, one of the most decorated players and coaches in the history of American women’s soccer, was selected to guide the Anteaters’ program.

Cross country: Steen finished the 6,000-meter course at UC Riverside in 20 minutes, 55 seconds to win the conference title and lead the Anteaters to the team championship.

Laura Olvera finished second at the conference meet (21:00.3) and was named Big West Freshman of the Year.

Sophomore Marie Nguyen (21:26.1) and senior Kelli Vanderburg (21:34.2) finished sixth and ninth, respectively, at the conference meet to collect all-conference laurels.

Steen was 26th and Olvera 42nd in the NCAA West Regional at Stanford, helping UCI finish ninth as a team.

Another strong effort came at the Cal Poly San Lus Obispo Invitational, where the Anteaters took the team title.

Golf: The conference title, won by a colossal 43-shot margin, was the third in five years under Crawford, who had been the only coach in the program’s brief history.

Henderson topped the conference field with a 54-hole total of 219.

Senior Angela Won and sophomore Kim Lorenzana joined Henderson as first-team all-conference performers. Won became only the second player in conference history to be named to the first team four straight years.

UCI, which won three tournaments during the season, finished ninth at the NCAA West Regional in Auburn, Wash.

Crawford was named Big West Coach of the Year.

Tennis: Coach Mike Edles’ team reached the championship match of the Big West Conference Tournament for the third time in the last five seasons, but lost, 4-0, to Long Beach State.

Sophomores Becky Bernhard and Inna Agababian were first-team all-conference singles honorees and Agababian teamed with freshman Heidi Kaloi to earn second-team recognition in doubles.

The team finished 15-10, 5-2 in the Big West and ended the year ranked No. 53.

Swimming and diving: Nagata’s All-American recognition, earned with a seventh-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly (53,76 seconds) at the NCAA Championships in Athens, Ga., made her the first UCI women’s swimmer to be so honored.

Nagata was 34th in the 100 backstroke and 42nd in the 50 freestyle to help the Anteaters finish 32nd as a team at the NCAA finals.

At the Big West Conference finals, Nagata, UCI’s Female Athlete of the Year, topped the field in the 50 free (23.72), the 100 fly (53.91) and the 100 back (54.79) to help Coach Brian Pajer’s squad finish third.

In addition to Nagata, Lara Bjagardottir, Franny Brittle, Ashley DePaul, Katina Economides, Jackie Jones, Tanya Nielsen and Mai Tajima earned all-conference honors.

Basketball: Molly Tuter’s first full season at the helm began inauspiciously as the team lost its first seven, 10 of its first 11, and 13 of its first 15 games.

But a 7-3 run followed, propelling the Anteaters to an eventual tie for third in the final Big West regular-season standings.

And while three straight losses to end the season finalized their record at 9-19, Tutor landed several international recruits to help bolster a squad that returns first-team all-conference performer Angie Ned and second-team all-conference honoree Kelly Cochran.

Ned, a junior guard, was named Defensive Player of the Year in the conference and she led the team in scoring with 13 points per game.

Cochran, who energized the team with her emergence into the starting lineup, made the conference’s All-Freshman team after averaging 10.8 points and 6.6 rebounds.

Water polo: An 18-15 record produced the best season in program history as Coach Dan Klatt’s squad finished sixth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation with a 6-6 conference record.

UCI finished eighth in the MPSF Tournament.

Ranked as high as No. 7, the Anteaters finished No. 9 in the national poll.

Junior Robyn Kaake was named second-team All-MPSF and received honorable mention in All-American voting, as did sophomore goalie Lauren Machanis.

Kaake led the team in scoring for the third straight season (61 goals) and her 167 career goals rank No. 2 in school annals.

Machanis’ 291 saves for the season ranked No. 2 nationally and her 431 career saves rank second on UCI’s all-time list.

Soccer: The big news came after the season when Heinrichs, a two-time NCAA Player of the Year at North Carolina who coached Team USA to a gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, was named to replace Marine Cano.

Cano resigned after 12 seasons, the last of which produced a 5-12-1 record, 1-1-5 in conference.

Sophomore Kelly Little was a second-team all-conference pick while freshman Megan Ortiz led the team in scoring with six goals and three assists.

Volleyball: Seniors Amanda Vazquez and Whitney Pavlik were first-team All-Big West honorees, while freshman Laura Kellerman was named to the conference’s All-Freshman team.

The Anteaters were 10-20. Their 3-11 conference mark left them in seventh place.

Track and field: Steen won the conference title in the 1,500 meters (4:24.57), then finished eighth in the same event at the NCAA West Regional in Provo, Utah with a time of 4:29.30 to cap the outdoor season.

Also outdoors, Lauren Collins and teammate Danielle St. John tied for third in the high jump (5 feet, 5 inches) at conference finals, where Collins was fourth in the heptathlon.

UCI was seventh as a team outdoors and 10th in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation indoor championships, where Collins’ fifth-place showing in the high jump (5-5 1/4 ) was the top individual performance.

Crew: A third-place finish in the women’s pair grand final at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Assn. Championships was the season highlight.

Sailing: The Anteaters finished fourth as a team at the Pacific Coast Championships.