Jeff Shea

While most Cal State Northridge football players are probably going to have some difficulty adjusting to the 7,000-foot altitude in Flagstaff for their game today against Northern Arizona, at least two Matadors are looking forward to it. Kicker Manny Marquez and punter Joe LaFirenza should be able to kick some boomers in the thin air. "Me and Joe are looking to have a big game," Marquez said.

After months of searching for a football coach, officials at Cal Lutheran announced Thursday that Scott Squires is their man. He is the program's third coach in 35 years. "There were 90 applicants for this job and a good half of them were absolutely outstanding," said Bruce Bryde, Cal Lutheran athletic director. "We ended up with the best." Squires, who turns 31 this week, has served as an assistant at Cal Lutheran under former coaches Bob Shoup and Joe Harper.

Student actors, directors and playwrights display their work in the ninth annual Student Play Festival at Moorpark College. Include a dinner of barbecued chicken or tri-tip in the ticket price, and it's a relatively painless and often interesting way to spend an evening seeing what's on the students' minds. The answer is, pretty much what's been on students' minds forever: love, religion, sex, violence and The Meaning of Life.

First place will be at stake when Pepperdine plays 11th-ranked Loyola Marymount in a West Coast Conference women's volleyball match at 7 tonight at Loyola's Gersten Pavilion. Pepperdine (7-4) and Loyola (12-2) are 2-0 in conference play and in a three-way tie with Santa Clara, which played Gonzaga on Friday night. Loyola, two-time defending WCC champion, extended its conference winning streak to 19 matches by defeating Gonzaga and Portland last week.

Joe Harper had a lot of success as a football coach in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. He began his head coaching career with a 9-1-1 record at Riverside College in 1960. In 14 years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Harper compiled a 96-43-3 record. He led the Mustangs to the NCAA Division II championship in 1980 and was named coach of the year five times by the American Football Coaches' Assn. Harper knows football.

Seeking a Cinderella ending against a nationally ranked opponent, it was instead the same old story for Cal Lutheran on Saturday. For the second time in as many weeks, the Kingsmen were victimized by mistakes and lost, 45-23, to Pacific Lutheran of Tacoma, Wash. in a nonconference football game at Cal Lutheran. "I thought we gave the game away," Cal Lutheran Coach Scott Squires said. The Kingsmen committed six turnovers, after committing five in a season-opening loss at Menlo.

If the Cal Lutheran football players were the students, the University of La Verne was their teacher. The Kingsmen, seeking to grow, improve and learn in the early part of the season, believed they did all three Saturday, despite a 34-10 loss at the hands of the Leopards in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener at Cal Lutheran's Mt. Clef Stadium.

What's new with the California Lutheran University football team? With a new coach, new methods, and new goals and hopes, it is easier to say what's not. Their tailback, for instance, is the same one they had last year. Fredrik Nanhed of Malmo, Sweden, set a Cal Lutheran rushing record of 313 yards against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and his 1,380 yards set an NCAA Division III freshman record. "It's always tough to repeat," said the 6-1, 200-pound Nanhed.

Calabasas '93 RECORD OVERALL LEAGUE 15-6-1 8-4 * COACH YEAR Rick Nathanson 3rd * TOP RETURNEES YR POS Josh Morton Sr. 3B Billy Hoover Jr. P Bhret Haessig Sr. OF Tanner Troster So. OF Sam Rutherford Sr. OF Brandon Cohen Jr. C Josh Mogy Sr. 2B * TOP NEWCOMERS YR POS Mike Melucci Jr. 2B Anthony Kaufman Sr. P Gabe Feldman Jr. P Darin Reisman So. IF Zach Fields Jr. OF Mitch Tisher Jr.

Forget Gatorade showers. Mud puddles are much more fun for Cal Lutheran and its exuberant second-year football coach, Scott Squires, who joined several players for a belly-slide Saturday following Cal Lutheran's 33-10 victory over Claremont-Mudd that clinched a tie for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship.