College sports roundup: Cuyamaca College strikes; PLNU advances in NCAA Tournament

Saturday was a big day for Cuyamaca College, one of the smallest members of the California Community College Athletic Association.

The Coyotes won the men’s state cross country championship and advanced to the third round of the men’s state soccer tournament as defending champions.

Meanwhile, the Point Loma Nazarene men’s soccer team advanced to the third round of NCAA Division II Tournament with a penalty-kicks win at home over Cal State San Bernardino while the NCAA Tournament-bound University of San Diego women’s volleyball team scored a 16th straight win to clinch the West Coast Athletic Conference title.

Women’s basketball

San Diego State’s women’s basketball team improved to 4-2 with a 58-45 victory over Maryland Eastern Shore (4-3) in the opening game of the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. The Aztecs were led by forwards Bailey Barnhard (Del Norte High School) and Kennedy Lee. Barnhard had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Lee had 12 points and seven boards. Guard Naomi Panganiban (La Jolla Country Day) had 11 points for the Aztecs, who play Penn State on Monday.

• UC San Diego (2-3) defeated Air Force (3-3) 55-43 at LionTree Arena. Forward Erin Condron led the Tritons with 12 points and five rebounds in 38 minutes.

Women’s volleyball

BayLea Sparks had 12 kills and four blocks, Nemo Beach had nine kills and nine digs and Kylie Munday had 34 assists and 12 digs as the USD women won a 16th straight West Coast Conference volleyball match 3-1 at Santa Clara to clinch the WCC conference title outright. The NCAA-bound Toreros are 23-4 on the season.

Men’s soccer

PLNU reached the third round of the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time in history with a 3-2 win at home on penalty kicks over CSUSB. San Bernardino scored in the final minute of regulation to force the game into overtime, where neither team scored.

PLNU (15-3-2) scored goals on a penalty kick by Emmett Layman and a Cole Friesen rebound of a missed Inaki Santamarina shot. PLNU scored on three of their four penalty kicks while San Bernardino (9-3-8) went 2-for-5, with Sea Lions goalkeeper Gonzalo Gurrola making one save.

PLNU’s third-round game will be played Saturday.

• Cuyamaca College (19-1-2) defeated Fullerton 3-2 Saturday afternoon in El Cajon and will play a Southern California Regional Semifinal against Los Angeles City College Tuesday in the 3C2A men’s soccer championships.

Cross country

Cuyamaca College’s men finished eight points ahead of Mount San Antonio College to win its second state cross country title. Cuyamaca also won the men’s title in 1993.

Mesa College, which won both the men’s and women’s state championships in 2024, finished third in the women’s division this year and ninth among the men.

Sophomores Ivan Guzman and Steven Valdez Jr. paced Cuyamaca by finishing fourth and fifth in the four-mile men’s race. Guzman was timed in 20 minutes, 14.8 seconds. Valdez was clocked in 20:19.1.

Other Coyotes scoring were Dominic Rizzo (11th, 20:31.6), Daniel Vestemean (18th, 20:41) and Orlando Carillo (57th, 21:23). Mesa College’s Jordan Myers was eighth overall (20:25.1), and Rowan Hannaman was 31st (20:57.9).

Mesa College’s Jazzlyn Islas (17:51.5) and Natalie Allen (18:08.4) finished second and third, respectively, in the five-kilometer women’s race. Cuyamaca’s Marseel Bahnan (18:51.7) was 18th.