College notebook: UC Merced’s Coles, Trenado take home Cal Pac honors

Desiree Coles may need to start making a permanent spot on her dresser.

The UC Merced center back has had a stranglehold on the California Pacific Conference Defensive Player of the Week award for the last month, winning the honor three of the last four weeks.

The senior has done it with her two-way play. Coles remains very much a rock in the heart of the nation’s 14th-ranked defense (allowing just nine goals in 15 games), but she’s on an offensive run most strikers would envy. After no points through the first 11 games, Coles has three goals and an assist in the Bobcats’ last four. She sits one goal shy of her career high set in 2012. She has two regular-season games left to match or better it plus at least one game in the Cal Pac Tournament.

Coles isn’t the only soccer player on campus who has found a scoring touch. Cruz Trenado was named the Cal Pac’s Offensive POW after netting the winner in a road victory over Sierra Nevada last weekend.

Called “Cheetah” because of his blazing speed, Cruz has three goals in the last three games, two of which were game winners. He’s tied with Cody Golbad and Artemio Contreras for the team lead with seven, topping his previous best of five in 2015.

Madness strikes – UC Merced officially kicked off basketball season with its annual Midnight Madness last week.

The men’s and women’s teams participated in competitions and scrimmages before a capacity crowd at Hostetler Court to fire up the campus for this season. Both teams open the season on the road Friday. The men’s team will play Corban of Salem, Ore., in the California Maritime Academy Tournament in Vallejo, and the women will face Multnomah in the Multnomah University Classic in Portland, Ore.

The Bobcats women are the two-time defending Cal Pac champions and return nine players, including Cal Pac Player of the Year Courtney Danna. The men’s team will try to build upon last year’s return to the Cal Pac tourney after missing it the two previous seasons. It’s a very different team with nine freshmen, but the dynamic twin duo of sophomores Matt and Aaron Laflin will be back to lead the team after impressive debuts last season.

The Merced College men and women begin play next week. The men open at the Hartnell Tournament in Salinas on Nov. 4. The women open at the San Joaquin Delta Tournament in Stockton the same day.

Ready to run – The UC Merced cross country teams skipped the William Jessup Invitational in Rocklin last week to get a little extra time on the Woodward Park course in Fresno.

Woodward Park will host the Cal Pac Championship on Oct. 31, and coach Ryan Nunez wanted his teams as familiar with the course as possible. The men have yet to win a Cal Pac title but have come close several times, including a second-place showing last year. The women have never finished better than third.

Both teams have their sights set on the top prize, but that will be even tougher to win against the largest fields since UC Merced began competing six years ago. Eleven men’s and nine women’s squads will participate.

This story was originally published October 25, 2016 at 5:09 PM with the headline "College notebook: UC Merced’s Coles, Trenado take home Cal Pac honors."