With eight former Ventura College and Moorpark College women's basketball players on the roster and the coaching staff, the Cal State Monterey Bay women's basketball team had roared out to a 16-0 start this season, topping the California Collegiate Athletic Association at 12-0.

This week, the Otters were ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Division II West Regional rankings.

But they also took a hit when former Royal High and Ventura College star Erika Ward was diagnosed with a torn ACL last month.

"With what she brought defensively and with her big shots, it's obviously a big loss," said Monterey head coach Renee Jimenez, the former Ventura High and Ventura College player. "I think everybody knows that they need to step up more.

Ward, who had started the first 15 games, was the team's third-leading scorer at 8.3 points per game. She may be unable to play the rest of the season, but Jimenez said Ward's season isn't over.

"We gave her a coaching notebook today," said Jimenez. "She's one of our smartest players. We need her now more than ever. We need her brain."

Cal State University Channel Islands will begin intercollegiate athletic competition in the fall of 2011 with a women's soccer team, Carl Reed, the school's athletic director, announced Thursday.

"We're building that last cornerstone of our university," said Reed. "Athletics is one of those last pieces."

Women's soccer was chosen from a shortlist of four sports, which also included men's soccer, men's golf and women's volleyball.

"Having women's soccer as our first sport made sense for CI," said Reed. "Looking at the soccer landscape here in Ventura County, from high schools, AYSO, soccer clubs and the programs at the community colleges, it was clear there was talent and interest in the sport."

Reed said that the school's enrollment, which is more than 60 percent female, played into the decision.

"It's the right thing to do," said Reed. "We're sending a message to our students that we recognize their needs. That was a no-brainer for us."

The process of putting the Dolphins on the field of play began in 2005, three years after the school was established in Camarillo, when CSUCI hired former NCAA executive director Cedric Dempsey as a consultant.

Reed arrived on campus in May 2008 to plot the course for NCAA Division II competition in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA), which includes 11 of CSUCI's Cal State brethren.