College Roundup: UC Merced’s Quiroz, Lua both earn Cal PAC soccer Player of the Week award
UC Merced’s Trinida Quiroz and Andres Lua were both named the California Pacific Conference Player of the Week for soccer.
Quiroz scored two goals in a 9-1 win over La Sierra on Sunday, which helped the Bobcats win their seventh consecutive Cal Pac opener dating back to 2016.
Lua is the first men’s soccer player to win the Cal Pac Offensive Player of the Week back-to-back weeks since 2018.
Lua tallied three goals and two assists on the week to lead the Bobcats to a pair of victories, 4-1 at William Jessup and 3-0 against La Sierra in the conference opener.
Lua’s efforts put him over 100 career points, joining the elite company of Juan Flores, Cody Golbad, and Artemio Conteras as the four Bobcats with 100-plus career points.
Bobcats soccer coach honored
UC Merced head men’s soccer coach Albert Martins was named the NAIA Coach of Character, a national honor presented annually to a NAIA head coach who is dedicated to teaching character through sport.
Bobcats women’s volleyball
UC Merced women’s volleyball swept University of Antelope Valley on Thursday night 3-0 even their record at 2-2 in Cal Pac play and 4-6 overall.
Serena Choi led the Bobcats efforts with a season-high 24 assists to go along six digs, four kills, two blocks and two service aces.
Semiramis Tanasecu tallied a career-high ten kills. The freshman also had two blocks, one solo. Tanasecu has a block in all ten matches this season. Hannah Dillingham also finished with ten kills, her third double figure kill match in conference play already.
Soccer
UC Merced men’s and women’s soccer started a two-match road trip last night. Madera native and freshman Jesus Ponce scored in the 85th minute and Marco Sobrevilla earned his tenth career shutout to lead the men’s soccer team to a 1-0 win at Westcliff University.
Sobrevilla becomes just the third player in Cal Pac history with at least ten shutouts.
UC Merced women’s soccer fell 3-2 at Westcliff University. Jocelyne Garcia and Katy Flores each scored goals for the Bobcats. Garcia’s goal in the 29th minute was the 23rd of her career, putting her in a three-way tie with Daisy Bonilla and D Covarrubias for the fourth most in program history.
Merced College Water Polo
The Merced College women’s water polo team went 3-1 in the Cuesta Tournament last weekend. The Blue Devils defeated Cuesta, Golden West and Santa Monica, with their lone loss coming against state runner-up Santa Barbara.
Next up for the the Blue Devils (4-1) is the West Valley Tournament.
The men’s water polo team moved to 7-4 overall after a perfect 4-0 showing in the Nyquist Invitational Tournament at West Valley College. The Blue Devils defeated Modesto, San Joaquin Delta, Cypress and American River.
Volleyball
Merced College’s volleyball team is off to a 3-2 start to the season, with wins over Modesto, Diablo Valley and Cuesta College.
The Blue Devils are led by three sophomore stars: middle hitter Hannah Torres (Pacheco), with a team-high 53 kills; libero Kayla Battles (Pitman), with nine aces and 39 digs; and Kianna Becerra (Livingston), with 123 assists, 32 digs and six aces.
Men’s Soccer
Merced College blanked Yuba College 7-0 on Tuesday, and came in at No. 11 on the United Soccer Coaches D-III Community College national rankings.
Daniel Borges and Felipe Lopez each have 5 goals in their first four matches, and the Blue Devils lead the state in goals with 22.
This story was originally published September 17, 2022 at 3:03 PM.
