The document summarizes the accomplishments of Sam Fischer, the assistant softball coach at California Lutheran University. It details her experience playing softball at Loyola Marymount University, where she was an All-American, and on the USA National Softball Team, helping them win gold at the 2012 Softball World Cup. It discusses her battle with injury and regaining her spot on the national team through hard work. It quotes Fischer emphasizing the importance of sacrifice and doing what others won't to achieve success. The article establishes Fischer as a role model for the CLU softball team based on her experience and work ethic.

1. February 11, 2015SPORTSPage 10
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For most athletes, the days of
early morning training sessions,
the hours-on-end spent on the
practice and playing fields and
the countless amount of ice and
tape used all must end at some
point. For some however, the
dream continues.
Such has been the case with
California Lutheran Univer-
sity’s assistant softball coach
Sam Fischer who has played on
the USA National Softball Team
since the summer of 2012.
Fischer, who is in her second
year coaching the Regals, was
born and raised in Simi Valley.
After attending Simi Valley High
School, Fischer took her talents
to Loyola Marymount Universi-
ty where she received numerous
accolades for her play over the
course of her career there.
While playing at LMU, Fisch-
er received All-Conference hon-
ors in each of her four years
and ended her career with nine
records to her name. She is also
the only All-American in the
program’s history, according to
her LMU softball bio.
Upon the end of her career
and graduation from LMU in
2012, Fischer got the chance to
prove her worth for a spot on
the women’s national team that
summer.
“It’s very stressful,” Fischer
said. “You’re invited to camp
and there’s about 30 to 35 girls
there and you have about three
or four days of scrimmages and
skill work. Then they email you
a list at the end of the week just
with names on it and that’s that.”
After her tryout earned her a
spot on the roster, Fischer and
the national team went on to
win 2012 Softball World Cup as
well as earn a silver medal at the
2012 World Championships.
The following 2013 season,
according to the USA Softball
website, Fischer missed the cut
for the final roster after battling
a shoulder injury in the months
leading up to the tryout.
She was not done, however,
as she came back stronger than
ever from her injury and re-
gained her spot on the national
team in the July tryouts last
summer.
In order to gain this success
coming off an injury, it simply
came down to what she was
willing to sacrifice to obtain her
dream.
“From my experience you
have to do what no one else is
willing to do,” Fischer said. “I
think putting hard work in and
sacrificing ultimately comes
down to whether you’re going to
be as successful as you want to
be or not.”
Through her time on the na-
tional team, Fischer has been
able to accumulate the quality
experience needed to be a good
coach.
Joe Dalecio
Staff Writer
Staying loose: Sam Fischer keeps a relaxed vibe during practices
while maintaining high expectations.
Photo by Jenny Kotlyar- Staff Photographer
Sam Fischer: Keeping the dream alive
[See Fischer, Page 12]
Regals softball assis-
tant coach and USA
softball team member
Sam Fischer has used
her experience and hard
work to set an example
to the team.
From my expierience you
have to do what no one
else is willing to do...I
think putting hard work in
and sacrificing ultimately
comes down to whether
you’re going to be as suc-
cessful as you want to be
or not.”
Sam Fischer
Regals Assistant Coach
“

2. February 11, 2015 Page 11
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SPORTS
Ramsey Abushahla
Sports Editor
Perez sets new 3,000m record
Junior Ryan Perez fought
through the rain and set a
school record in the 3,000m
during the Sunshine Open at
Westmont College on Feb. 7.
According to clusports.
com, he ran a time of 8:54.38,
shattering the previous record
of 9:02.71 set in 2010.
Along with Perez, senior
Garrett Baker broke the previ-
ous record as well, running a
time of 8:57.34, according to
clusports.com.
Junior David Avila ran
a career best 9:22.86 in the
event, good enough for the
eighth best time in California
Lutheran University history,
according to clusports.com
For the Regals, senior Me-
lissa Skiba won the mile with
a time of 5:03.55 and was the
lone victor for Cal Lutheran .
Senior Mary Case placed
second in the pole vault with
a distance of 2.88 m.
Softball sweeps No. 23 Redlands
After losing its first five
games, the Regals softball team
put together two wins against
conference opponent Redlands
on Feb. 8.
According to clusports.com,
this was the first time Cal Lu-
theran has swept Redlands in a
doubleheader since 2006.
Sophomore Courtney Sooy
threw a complete game in game
one, giving up seven earned
runs and striking out five.
The Regals exploded on
offense scoring 11 runs on
14 hits. Leading the offense
were freshmen Olivia Leyva,
Makenna Pellerin and Antonia
Rapisardi.
In game two the Regals
dominated the entire way,
winning by a score of 12-4.
Freshman Emily Manwell
started her career on a high
note hitting a game ending
RBI fielder’s choice to enable
the mercy rule. Box scores of
the game are below.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
UR 1 0 1 2 1 0 5 10 10 4
CLU 0 1 1 1 5 3 X 11 14 2
Stats from CLUsports.com
Regals sweep in the rainSPORTS BRIEFS
Campus Sports Updates
California Lutheran University’s
women’s tennis team won their first
Southern California Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference match of the
2015 season on Feb. 7 in a 6-0 vic-
tory over Occidental College at the
Poulson Tennis Center.
Although the match was short-
ened due to rain conditions, the
Regals did not let the drizzling
weather dampen their doubles play
earning a quick 3-0 lead against the
Tigers.
“We had to be a little bit more
cautious when moving because if
you move too far or too fast there
is a chance to slip. You just have to
use that against your opponent and
move them around while keeping
your feet on the ground and not
your butt on the ground,” sopho-
more Rebecca Gold said.
Cal Lutheran’s No. 1 team of
Mallory Kenny and Shelby Kubota
defeated Occidental’s Sara Charney
and Keilani Bonis-Ericks 8-4.
“We communicated well. We
were playing really aggressive and
we were able to read the ball well
and know where to hit it,” Kenny
said.
The Regals’ No. 2 team Emily
Werman and Annette Sousa went
on to win 8-5 over Amber Gadsden
and Lauren Hutkin. Cal Lutheran’s
Gold and Sarah Baker finished
8-4 against Samantha Farrell and
Lucy Malloch.
“We do strategies very well. We
just get each other,” Gold said.
Head Coach Vanessa McPad-
den said she was was proud of the
doubles sweep. McPadden said the
young team is made up of hard
workers who are willing to step it
up right away.
“I think the girls just stuck with
it and figured out how to play and
make them miss,” McPadden said.
The singles success started when
Cal Lutheran’s No. 6 Sousa domi-
natedIsabellaKorfmannwitha6-0,
6-1 victory earning the Violet and
Gold their fourth point of the day.
Before the match was shortened
due to rain, Cal Lutheran’s Baker at
No. 4 took down Gadsden with a
6-3, 6-0 victory for the Regals mak-
ing it 5-0.
“Sarah is our only senior. She
stays calm and she executes her
shots very well,” Gold said.
Cal Lutheran’s No. 5 Kubota was
able to finish her singles match with
a 6-0, 6-0 domination over Occi-
dental’s Hutkin resulting in the final
score of the day 6-0 Regals.
Before the tennis courts were
cleared due to weather conditions,
Kenny was in the midst of an ag-
gressive comeback 7-5, 2-1 against
Bonis-Ericks at No. 1.
“I am really proud of her be-
cause it is hard to play someone
who is hitting a lot of good shots.
Her opponent’s forearm was really
good and Mallory figured that out
and was patient and calm,” McPad-
den said.
Kenny, a freshman, is playing in
the No. 1 spot for both doubles and
singles, was down 5-1 until her en-
ergy surged and she stayed strong
to take the lead.
“I think in the beginning I was
really hesitant in the rain and I was
scared to move, but then I finally
just realized that I am going to be
out here. I started moving my feet
and I just became more positive,”
Kenny said.
Both Cal Lutheran’s No. 2 and
No. 3 were in the lead before the
match was called. Gold was up
6-3, 3-0 against Farrell at No. 2 and
Werman was ahead of Charney 6-4
at No. 3.
The Regals now have an overall
record of 2-0 and are 1-0 in SCIAC.
The Tigers are 0-1 overall and 0-1
in SCIAC.
Before facing Pomona-Pitzer
on Feb. 20 at 2 p.m. at the Poulson
Tennis Center, McPadden said she
wants to encourage the Regals to
stay confident and strong through-
out the match.
“We will be preparing by getting
faster on the court. Whether that’s
a better warm-up or that’s figuring
out some sort of strategy to get a
little bit quicker and faster right off
the back,” McPadden said.
Brooke Straeter
Staff Writer
Judd named new head coach
On Jan. 15th, California Lu-
theran University Athletic Direc-
tor Dan Kuntz announced the
head coach of the new men’s vol-
leyball team would be Cal Luther-
an’s own Kevin Judd.
Judd has been an assistant for
the women’s team at Cal Lutheran
since 2006 and has been coach-
ing the sport long before that. Not
only does Judd have many years
of coaching experience, he also
has experience in starting vol-
leyball programs. In 2002 Judd
founded the program at Moor-
park College.
“Starting a program and build-
ing it from the ground up is an ex-
citing challenge that I have taken
on before,” Judd said in an inter-
view with clusports.com. “I am so
very excited and grateful for the
opportunity that CLU has given
me.”
Not only does Judd have expe-
rience with founding programs,
he has shown the ability to make
new teams an instant success.
His men’s team at Moorpark was
competitive in their first year with
Judd at the helm and in his third
year he lead them to a state title.
Although starting a program
from scratch will be a challenge,
Judd will not be taking it on alone.
Current women’s head volley-
ball coach, Kellee Roesel, will be
serving as Judd’s assistant for the
men’s program.
Although this will be a role
reversal for both coaches, former
Cal Lutheran volleyball standout
Lauren Rohach is confident that
Judd and Roesel will work well
together coaching the men’s team.
“I think the dynamics will be
great. They have been coaching
together for years and know each
other’s coaching styles,” Rohach
said. “So I see no reason why they
won’t be successful in men’s vol-
leyball as well.”
Roesel, who has led a success-
ful women’s program in her time
at Cal Lutheran, with an overall
record of 205-51 according to
clusports.com, is ready to take
on the challenge of assisting the
men’s team and has a plan to start
building the team into a success-
ful program.
“Right now we are trying to
get guys in [the program], I don’t
think we will have a problem with
quantity, it will just be a matter of
us figuring out the quality,” Roesel
said. “Right now our goal is to get
as many guys into school and ver-
bally committed as possible.”
Roesel also attributed great as-
sistant coaching, kids and sched-
uling to the success of the women’s
program and said doing the same
for the men’s team will be key in
becoming a successful team.
Because next year will be the
team’s first year of competition,
its goals and success are not going
to be measured solely by wins and
losses.
“Its a very interesting and
unique situation. We’ve talked
about our goal being to get be-
tween 14 to 18 guys here that have
obviously played high school or
club level,” Roesel said.
She also said they hope to have
a mix of both transfers and fresh-
man on the team next year.
Both coaches believe the repu-
tation of the women’s team will
help attract recruits and help
boost the men’s program.
“The foundation of what Kel-
lee and I have constructed with
the women’s program will be a
great platform in which to build
upon and twist for the creation of
a successful men’s program,” Judd
told clusports.com. “I believe that
the interest is already out there.”
The team will hold an open
tryout in the fall and then begin
competition in Jan. 2016.
Cody McElligott
Staff Writer
Regals Tennis
Kingsmen Volleyball
Game 1
Game 2
Notables
CLU
M. Pellerin 3-5, 2 RBI
O. Leyva 3-4, 3 R
A. Rapisardi 2-4, 2 R
UR
M. Romero 3-5, 2 R
V. King 2-4, 2 RBI
D. Santos 1-4, 3 RBI
1 2 3 4 5 R H E
UR 0 0 0 3 1 4 7 4
CLU 4 3 2 0 3 12 14 1
CLU
M. Pellerin 3-4, 2 R
O. Leyva 2-3, 3 RBI
B. Lewis 3-3, 2 RBI
UR
L. Garza 1-3, RBI
V. King 2-3
D. Santos 1-3, RBI
Notables

3. Page 12SPORTSFebruary 11, 2015
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Kingsmen slam Pacific Northwest
Kingsmen Baseball
Starting strong: (Top) Senior captain Scott Peters started his 2015
campaign by giving up only two runs in seven innings on Feb. 6.
(Bottom) Sophomore outfielder Gabe Gunter was 5-12 with 4 RBIs
in the Kingsmen’s three victories on opening weekend.
Photos by Mary Case- Staff Photographer
The No. 8 ranked California
Lutheran University Kingsmen
opened up their 2015 season with
three wins over non-conference
opponents. They opened the
weekend with a win over Whit-
worth University with a final score
of 11-5 at Ullman Stadium on Feb.
6.
“It’s always good to win the
first one. That’s what you hope for,
to win the first one because now
you’re undefeated. When you can
win your first one it’s very im-
portant, especially when it’s your
home field, and this is our home
field and we did a good job,” said
head coach Marty Slimak.
Senior captain Scott Peters was
the starting pitcher and got the
win for the Kingsmen, pitching a
solid outing going seven innings
with seven strikeouts. The left-
hander only allowed four hits, two
walks and one earned run.
“Efficiency was a big part.
I got a lot of early strikes and
they helped me out with a lot of
first pitch swings but really just
pounding the zone and pounding
strikes,” Peters said. “ My main fo-
cus on the mound was just man-
aging my emotions. This is my
senior year. This is my chance to
lead this team and I just really was
focused on my emotions manag-
ing them and letting my fire get us
a win.”
The Cal Lutheran bats also
caught fire from the very first
pitch when both junior center
fielder Justin Caña and senior sec-
ond baseman Max Price hit back-
to-back singles in the bottom of
the first inning. After advancing
into scoring position off a wild
pitch, sophomore left fielder Gabe
Gunter drove Caña in with a sin-
gle of his own putting the Kings-
men on top 1-0.
Junior right fielder Ramsey
Abushahla then drove in Price
with a single of his own and Gunt-
er scored off a sacrifice fly from
junior third baseman Davey Cas-
ciola. After senior first baseman
Collin Crowl was walked, sopho-
more shortstop Austin Kay drove
home Abushahla with an RBI sin-
gle putting the Kingsmen up 4-0.
“I think we were ready. We
stayed in a very good plan. We
were just trying to stay short at
the dish and hit line drives and we
just said ‘let’s just score early, get a
lead, and put them on their heels a
little bit’ and I think we did that. I
think our guys were ready to play,”
Slimak said.
In the second inning the
Kingsmen kept the scoring go-
ing as Caña led off and was hit by
a pitch. After Price drew a walk,
junior designated hitter Kyle San-
chez laid down a sacrifice bunt ad-
vancing both runners into scoring
position. Gunter then drove home
Caña for his second run of the
game with an RBI single.
Casciola continued the offen-
sive surge with a triple to left cen-
ter field to score Gunter and Price
to give the Kingsmen a seven run
lead heading into the third inning.
Along with their solid offen-
sive performance, the Kingsmen
also put out a great effort on de-
fense, emphasized by a great div-
ing catch from Caña at the center
field wall in the top of the fourth
inning.
“I saw it off the bat and with
the help of Ramsey [Abushahla]
and Gabe [Gunter] counting me
down to the fence and I was just
tracking it all the way. I felt the
warning track but I was just focus-
ing on the ball and I just dove and
caught it,” Caña said.
In the top of the sixth Whit-
worth finally got on the board
with a run but the Kingsmen an-
swered back in the bottom half of
the inning with another scoring
outburst.
According to clusports.com,
Price led the inning off with a
walk followed by a single by San-
chez and another walk by Gunter
which loaded the bases. Abushah-
la then hit a double to left center
field to score Price and Sanchez.
Casciola grounded out to
bring in Gunter in the very next
at bat. Crowl then stepped up to
the plate and tripled to left field
to bring in Abushahla giving the
Kingsmen an 11-1 lead.
“In every inning we try to get
the lead off guy and trust the peo-
ple behind you,” Caña said.
The Pirates were able to put
together four consecutive runs in
the eighth and ninth innings, but
junior closer Landry Kiyabu came
in and shut the door to give the
Kingsmen an 11-5 victory.
Abushahla led the Kingsmen
offense going 3-for-4 with three
RBIs and two runs while Casciola
had four RBIs while going 2-for-
3 at the plate. Caña and Gunter
also had two hits and Price joined
Gunter with three runs scored in
his debut in a Kingsmen uniform.
The Kingsmen continued their
opening weekend under rainy
conditions against Puget Sound
on Feb. 7. The Kingsmen took the
only game of a scheduled double-
header by a final score of 7-3. Ac-
cording to clusports.com, due to
heavy rain coming down there
was a two hour weather delay
which caused officials to cancel
the second game.
Just like opening day the Kings-
men got off to a hot start produc-
ing a run off a pair of Puget Sound
errors and a single from Price and
a sacrifice bunt from Sanchez.
After Puget Sound took a 2-1
lead the Kingsmen opened the
score up on the Loggers with a to-
tal of five runs off seven hits in the
fourth through sixth innings to
take a 7-2 lead. Gunter hit two sin-
gles and scored twice to go 3-for-5
with three runs and an RBI. Af-
ter a one out triple by Sanchez,
Puget Sound pulled sophomore
starting pitcher Collin Maier off
the mound. Sanchez eventually
scored off one of Gunter’s singles.
According to clusports.com,
Casciola also collected hits in
each inning with a single in the
fifth and double that was almost a
home run in the sixth. Crowl also
had a productive game stroking
a two run single for the final two
runs for the Kingsmen.
Sophomore starting pitcher
Trey Saito (1-0) got the win for
the Kingsmen going seven in-
nings with three strikeouts. Ki-
yabu finished the game off again
and pitched the final two innings
in scoreless fashion.
The Kingsmen rolled on and
defeated Whitworth again 14-5 on
Feb. 8. Sophomore pitcher Mar-
shall Pautsch got his first career
start and went five innings giving
up two unearned runs and strik-
ing out two.
The Kingsmen offense contin-
ued to thrive gathering 17 hits and
scoring nine of their 14 runs in
the fourth through sixth innings.
Leading the offensive attack was
Sanchez who went 4-for-4 with
seven RBIs.
The Kingsmen open up con-
ference play on the road against
Chapman on Feb. 20.
Randall Shumpert
Staff Writer
The Kingsmen
baseball team used
effective starting pitch-
ing and offensive surges
to open its 2015 season
with three wins over
Northwest Conference
opponents.
However, in the eyes of her
players and fellow coaches her
national team experience isn’t
all that matters.
“The personality, experience,
and character that Sam brings to
our program is even better than
saying you have someone from
the national team,” said head
coach Debby Day.
“She’s everything we want out
players to be,” Day said. “Great
athletes, great people, hard-
working, disciplined but still
enthusiastic in having a good
time.”
The enthusiastic attitude
Fischer brings to the game has
allowed for her to connect with
the players on a very personal
level.
“Sam’s a goofball,” said Day.
“She is fun and funny and good
at helping us relax while still
keeping expectations really
high.”
Helping the team maintain a
level head and relaxed demean-
or has much to do with Fischer
[Fischer, from Page 10]
being a young coach, as she is
better able to relate to the ex-
periences her players are going
through.
“She has a lot of experience
so it’s easy for her to coach us,”
said freshman infielder Anto-
nia Rapisardi. “She’s helped me
more with the mental part of the
game like keeping up my confi-
dence and just staying positive.”
Fischer and the national team
will continue their play this July
where they will compete in the
World Cup X in Southern Cali-
fornia. Following the World Cup
the team will compete in the Pan
American Games from July 15-
26.