Weekend Observations

Some notes from the first weekend of Pacific action...

• Don't take the women's soccer team's 0-2-0 record as a sign of another dismal season. This team appears to be much improved over the squads of the recent past. Against Cal State East Bay, the Boxers showed some great job passing the ball through the midfield and made some strong defensive stops. Their pace, in particular, was noticably faster, and they were markedly more aggressively.

Joy Boswell's squad didn't exactly get an easy start. UC Santa Cruz opened the season ranked No. 25 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll. Cal State East Bay, meanwhile, is no pushover. they finished 11-7-1 in 2007 and returned eight starters from last season. Very experienced.

• The Pacific volleyball team still has some kinks to work out. They got a good first win in the Boxer Kickoff Invitational against Neumann (Pa.), who competed in the 2007 NCAA Division III playoffs, but struggled in their final three matches, falling to Cal State East Bay, UC Santa Cruz and Christopher Newport. It is obvious that the Boxers are still adjusting to head coach Lena Chan's new system...and an adjustment to a new coach and a new style of play always takes time.

In the meantime, the Boxers have to concentrate of tighter passing and keeping down the unforced errors. In four matches, Pacific committed 95 attack errors and 11 ball-handling errors.

• A common opponent for the Boxers over the last few years, this may be some of the last times we see Cal State East Bay in competition for a while. A long-time dual affiliate between NCAA Division III and the NAIA, the Pioneers are in the first year of a three-year transition period to NCAA Division II. They are slated to become full members and join the California Collegiate Athletic Association in 2011. Their teams will transition to playing primarily a Division II schedule beginning in 2009.

• Prayers and thoughts for those in Louisiana as Hurricane Gustav bears down. The storm, currently at a Category 3, is expected to make landfall Monday morning.

I wrote some stories on some sports information directors who survived Katrina back three years ago and their strggles with moving along with their athletic programs across the south, seeing jobs eliminated, seasons cancelled and homes destroyed. One SID, Jack Duggan at New Orleans, had to ride out the storm as his wife gave birth to twins as the storm ripped through the Bayou.

Hearing those kind of stories makes me very thankful and blessed to live here in the Northwest. I can handle the winter rain and snow just fine.