MATTERN & MENDOZA SCORE CONFERENCE FIRST TEAM

The women's basketball playoffs will start this week and the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference will be well represented.  The coaches from the PCAC gathered together this past weekend to release the all-conference teams.

A total of 35 athletes were chosen from the two divisions, with Mt. San Jacinto's Alyssa Walton and Imperial Valley's Destiny Salgado earning Conference MVP for their respective divisions.  In addition, Mt. San Jacinto's Chris Mozga and Imperial Valley's Viridiana Salas have been named the coach-of-the-year for their respective divisions. 

Walton led Mt. San Jacinto to a 23-6 overall record and a 7-0 mark in PCAC North play.  She averaged 10.6 points and 7.1 rebounds-per-game throughout the season, scoring a season-high of 26 points against MiraCosta College on February 8.  As one of the lone returning sophomores from the state title team a season ago, Walton started all 29 games for MSJC and stepped up her game in conference play, averaging 15.3 points and 7.3 rebounds-per-game.

Walton was joined by three other Eagles on the All-PCAC North First Team as Sharonda Edwards, Haylei Janssens and Britney Neely all were recognized by the coaches.  Palomar had four players selected to the first team in Clarissa Taite, Julie Saelee, Taylor Williams and Imari Cooley.  MiraCosta had three players selected to the first team with Chynna Cochran, Julia Iman and Britney Jarvis.

Salgado led Imperial Valley to a 14-13 finish overall and a 5-3 record in PCAC play.  She started 25-of-26 games this season for the Arabs, averaging 18.9 points and 15.5 rebounds-per-game.  Her rebounding average was No. 1 in the state while her scoring average was 14^th.  Salgado scored a season-high of 38 against Southwestern on February 13 and had a season-high 22 rebounds against Grossmont on January 25.  

Salgado was joined on the All-PCAC South First Team by teammate Keren Hogue.  In addition, three Southwestern players (Maya Robinson, Satera Bates, Danielle Simmons), two San Diego Mesa athletes (Yusra Gharram, Lavinia Moa), two Grossmont players (Chiara Mattern, Drew Mendoza) and one San Diego City athlete (Elliott Nixon) were selected to the first team. 

The playoff seeds will be selected on Monday and at least three PCAC programs are expected to make the field, with the potential of as many as five.  The PCAC has two teams ranked in the top-15 in the state in the latest California Community College Sports Information Poll (Mt. San Jacintro 9, Palomar 14), with another receiving votes (MiraCosta).