Over the past 25 years, Jon Roberts has coached volleyball from Newbury Park High to a professional club in Zagreb, Croatia.

He'll soon be able to California community college to that resume.

Roberts has been hired as the head coach of the Ventura College women's volleyball team, the school announced Thursday.

"I'm really excited about this opportunity," Roberts said. "There's a lot of great things happening at Ventura College... I'm already trying to get some players."

Roberts, a native of Portuguese Bend, which is adjacent Palos Verdes, replaces Mandy Rodriguez, whose resigned in May after seven seasons. The Pirates were 4-18 last fall, its lowest win total since 1989.

"From this day forward," Roberts said, "I'm going to do everything I can to get this (team) going in the right direction."

Robert played at UC Santa Barbara, served as an assistant coach at Rutgers, Texas A&M, UC Santa Barbara and, most recently, at Cal State Northridge, where he helped guide the men's team to the Final Four in 2010, and was the head coach at Menlo College from 1990-93. He's also coached locally at Westlake, Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park high, where he guided the Panther girls to back-to-back Marmonte League titles in 2004 and 2005.

"There was something about Newbury Park that clicked," Roberts said. "We had a good group of girls, an excellentgroup of parents and it worked out great. I had some girls that made me look really smart."

Lately, he's been working with the U.S. men's national team as an assistant coach and consultant, traveling with the team to the 2010 Pan-Am Cup in Ottawa, Canada.
Roberts says he coaches fundamentals that lead to "high energy plus ball control" volleyball."

"I'm an old-school guy," said Roberts. "We're going to work on mastering the skills... When you do that, usually winning takes care of itself."

Roberts mentioned Mikki McFadden, who coached VC to four WSC North titles from 1999 to 2004.

"Back in the day, she had it going on," Roberts said, "And there's no reason we can't do that. You've got the beach, you've got the weather and you've got a following... a lot of people in the community want to see volleyball succeed."

The undefeated state champion Ventura College women's tennis team dominated the ITA California Community College All-American team.

Four of the 15 All-Americans were Pirates. Freshmen Julianna Bacelar, Jessica Worring (Santa Clara High) and Sonia Landeros (Rio Mesa High) earned All-America honors in both singles and doubles while sophomore Layne Gallimore (St. Bonaventure High) earned All-American honors in doubles.

The Ventura College swimming teams finished with 14 swimmers on the two-year All-American team, seven men and seven women.

Freshman Henry Chung (100 backstroke, 50 and 100 freestyle) and sophomores Coleman Goode (400 individual medley), Tyler Kaslik (200 butterfly), Kevin Doria (100 butterfly) and Thomas Maires (1650 free) qualified as individuals, while sophomores Eric Donahoo and Spencer Lewis were also part of men's relays teams that made the lists.

Sophomore Shyla Motley (1650 free, 50 breaststroke, 100 breastroke) and freshmen Alicia Romero (50 breaststroke), Gaby Romero (50 fly, 100 fly), Christina Robledo (50 back, 100 back) and Abby Puczkowski (100 free, 200 free, 100 back) qualified as individuals, while freshmen Jessie Ball and Taylor Amstutz were also part of women's relay teams that made the lists.

The All-American teams consist of the Top 16 performances in the nation in each event. Chung finished with the second-best time in the country in the 100 backstroke (48.53 seconds) and the third-best time in the 50 freestyle (20.00) and 100 freestyle (44.44),
Of the 14, 11 of the student-athletes also carried a 3.2 GPA or better to earn Academic All-America honors.

The Ventura County Fusion's aspirations on and off the field don't always march in lockstep.

The latest example came Thursday, when the Orlando City Soccer Club announced it had signed the Fusion's midfield maestro, Rodrigo Lopez, to a professional contract.

Lopez left immediately to join the Lions for its next match in the United Soccer League's Professional Division, which came Friday against the Los Angeles Blues at Cal State Fullerton.

"It's a good opportunity for him and we're delighted for him," Fusion general manager Ranbir Shergill said. "It makes it tougher going into the playoffs, losing a quality player like Roro... but things should be OK."

Lopez, the former Santa Barbara High, Chivas USA and Portland Timbers midfielder, earned postseason MVP honors by guiding the Fusion to the 2009 Premier Development League continental title.

He returned for his third tenure with the club this season, picking up a goal and three assists in 11 matches playing a deep-lying playmaking role for the Southwest Division-leading Fusion (10-2-2).

The Fusion expected to lose Lopez at some point this season. Team president Graham Smith memorably proclaimed the midfielder belonged in Major League Soccer ahead of the Fusion's U.S. Open Cup match with Chivas USA. But it doesn't soften the blow of losing the team's fulcrum.

"We're very happy to see him move on and we expect him to be successful wherever he goes," said Fusion coach Ole Mikkelsen. "Hopefully, this is the move that ultimately lands him in the MLS, which is where we think he belongs.

"We've been extremely fortunate to have him up until now. While we promote a squad approach and we expect to lose players throughout the season, obviously losing someone of Roro's caliber is more difficult to take."

The Fusion, who also lost Calabasas High graduate Daniel Steres to the Seattle Sounders last month, don't expect many more defections. Although Danny Barrera, the Fusion's all-time leading goalscorer and playmaker, is expected to join his Cal FC coach, Eric Wynalda, with the Atlanta Silverbacks.

"I won't think there will be too much more movements," Shergill said. "Danny might be the only one."

Wynalda, Westlake High product like Barrera, took over as interim coach of the NASL club last week and is expected to bring in several of the stars of Cal FC's run to the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup.

Barrera did not immediately return a phone message. Wynalda said at least two of his Cal FC players would join him in Atlanta, but that figure could rise to "possibly" seven.

With the Fusion losing its creative core just two weeks before the Western Conference playoffs, Mikkelsen may turn to Jamiel Hardware as Lopez's potential replacement in midfield.

The Jamaican midfielder, who has played for Boys Town FC and Jefferson College, has a goal and two assists in nine matches, although he's only started a handful of matches.

"Jamiel is a very talented individual," Mikkelsen said. "He's played alongside Roro and watched him as an understudy. You would hope that he would step into that role and be able to emulate some of the things he was doing for us."

Despite the 1-0 loss to Fresno that snapped its 11-game unbeaten streak and 18-game home unbeaten streak, the Fusion clinched its fourth straight postseason berth late Wednesday when Ogden lost 3-1 at BYU.

Ventura County will clinch its second Southwest Division title with FC Tucson's next lost, which could come this weekend.

It looks like the Fusion could use a relaxed week entering the final week of regular season play. It will be monitoring injuries to winger Kennedy Chongo, striker Gyasi Zardes and striker Travis Bowen.

Chongo has not played since suffering a dead leg in the 4-0 win over Orange County June 27. Bowen hasn't played since suffering a groin strain in the first half of the 2-0 win at FC Tucson June 30.

Zardes suffered a dead leg in the second half of Wednesday's 1-0 loss to Fresno, which broke the Fusion's 11-game unbeaten streak and 19-game home unbeaten streak.

"I took a nasty hit," said Zardes. "Right now, I'm just rehabbing it. I'm going through a bit of pain."

All three are in doubt for the final two regular season matches, Wednesday at Pali Blues and Friday at home against BYU Cougars.