Nic Takes Playoff Opener

Crissy Walsh and Jana Franchini scored first-half goals to propel the North Idaho Cardinals to a 2-0 soccer victory over Southwestern Oregon Saturday in a Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges playoff opener in Coeur d’Alene.

Walsh scored her goal 12 minutes into the contest on an assist from Coby Meikle. Franchini found the net at the 32-minute mark with an assist from Bryn Devlin.

Swimming

The Whitworth Pirates men’s and women’s swim teams turned in a dominating performance against visiting Lewis & Clark.

Ryan Freeman, Kevin Wang and Brent Rice each won a pair of individual races to lead the Whits men to a 138-29 victory.

Marta Holsinger and Kristen Satterfield swam away with two individual victories each as the Pirates women routed Lewis & Clark 156-31.

Sarah McFarland piled up 22 kills and the 22nd-ranked Loyola Marymount Lions (19-7, 9-3) routed the Gonzaga Bulldogs 15-1, 15-1, 15-10 in West Coast Conference play in Los Angeles.

Gonzaga (4-23, 0-13) has lost 18 straight matches. Heather Osberg topped the Bulldogs with 10 kills.

Volleyball

Janelle Ruen and Angie Hall combined for 21 kills and 23 digs to guide the Eastern Washington Eagles to a 15-7, 15-5, 15-4 Big Sky Conference sweep over the visiting Montana Grizzlies.

Eastern (16-9, 11-5) had a commanding .347-.032 attack average advantage over Montana (16-13, 8-8).

Jessie Wright and Courtney Bush combined for 39 assists for EWU.

Joy Pierce’s eight kills topped the Grizzlies.

LaToya Harris totaled a game-high 18 kills and Chelsie Schafer added 12 kills and a game-high 20 digs to help the Washington State Cougars rally to a 13-15, 15-9, 15-12, 15-4 Pacific-10 Conference victory over the Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis on Saturday.

Holly Harris finished with 12 kills and a .524 attack percentage for the Cougars (17-8, 8-8).

Gina Schmidt paced the Beavers (15-13, 5-11) with 17 kills and 14 digs.

Cross country

The Washington State women placed seventh and the Cougars men finished 11th at the NCAA West Region cross country championship at Woodward Park in Fresno, Calif.

Stanford won both divisions.

The Cardinal women easily outdistanced runner-up Arizona State 56-88. WSU finished with 188 points, one point behind sixth-place finisher Cal Poly. The Washington Huskies were fifth at 170, one point behind fourth-place Oregon. Gonzaga placed 19th in the 26-team event with 520 points.

The Cardinal men edged second-place Arizona 58-62. The Cougars were well off the pace at 321. Washington was eighth with 207 points.

Lisa Aguilera won the women’s individual title with a time of 20 minutes, 25 seconds over the 6,000-meter distance. Ryan Gilmore was the top Cougars finisher, placing 14th with a time of 20:56. Washington’s Kate Bradshaw was fifth in 20:37. Tana Caskey (22:36) placed 71st to pace Gonzaga.

Jonathon Riley of Stanford won the men’s 10,000-meter race. He clocked 30:40 and finished 2 seconds ahead of Oregon’s Jason Hartmann. WSU was led by Oscar Franco-Parra’s 22nd place showing in 31:25. John Russell of Mica paced the Huskies with a 25th-place finish in 31:34.

Community Colleges of Spokane’s women tied Clackamas for the title, while the men’s team was runner-up to Clackamas in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges championships at Spokane Falls Community Colleges.

The Clackamas men outpointed CCS 33-49, while the Clackamas women tied CCS at 57.

Chemeketa’s Debbie McClanahan won the women’s individual title with a time of 20:05 over 5,000 meters. CCS was led by Celina Ingalls eighth-place time of 20:59. Jessika Sill (21:13), Alice Loebsck (21:14) and Karen Chavez (21:15) finished 10-11-12 for the Sasquatch.

Trevor Dodge of Clackamas won the men’s 8,000-meter race in 26:37. Jim Marlow (26:49), Sean McLachlan (26:53) and Todd Fayant (26:55) finished 5-6-7 for CCS.

This sidebar appeared with the story: BASKETBALL Bulldogs romp

Dan Dickau hit 4 of 6 3-point attempts and finished with 16 points Saturday to spark the Gonzaga University Bulldogs to a 121-80 exhibition win over the AAU Old Dogs in Martin Centre.

Dickau’s freshman backcourt mate, Blake Stepp, also buried 4 of 6 3-pointers and added 14 points. Mark Spink grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with his 12 points.

The Zags got 14 points off the bench from freshman Cory Violette.

The Old Dogs were led by Jason Rubright’s game-high 19 points and eight rebounds. Felix McGowan chipped in with 18 points and Jeremy Eaton scored nine.

Gonzaga opens the regular season against Eastern Washington in Cheney on Friday. The Bulldogs’ home opener is Sunday against Wisconsin-Green Bay.