California Riverside Team Report (Yahoo! Sports)

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:41:07 PDT

Expectations have risen to unseen levels since coach Jim Wooldridge arrived at UC Riverside in 2007. The Highlanders are coming off their first winning season at the Division I level and looking for more in the third season of the Wooldridge era.

The Highlanders are one of several teams expected to contend for the Big West Conference championship. They return three starters and 10 letter winners from a team that went 17-13 overall and 8-8 to tie for fourth

in the Big West last season. The eight Big West wins represented a program record.

The top returning player is junior Kyle Austin, a 6-7 forward who emerged as one of the Big West's best last season after transferring from USC.