They took completely different paths, but arrived at the same location.

Audrey Green was a basketball player at San Marcos High and San Diego State before arriving at Palomar College and joining the volleyball team.

Aimee Bird, who was a multisport athlete at Tri-City Christian, spent two months at the Naval Academy before returning home.

Now Green, a 6-foot-4 middle blocker, and Bird, a setter, are the backbone of a Comets team that is ranked No. 4 in the state and is undefeated in Pacific Coast Conference play.

"We don't really have a superstar," said Comets coach Karl Seiler. "What we have is a lot of girls who play well together.

"No question, though, we wouldn't be in this position, have a chance to win our first conference championship in five years without Audrey and Aimee."

Volleyball was Green's secondary sport in high school. Basketball was her ticket to a free college education.

"There came a point where I just wasn't a fit at San Diego State," said Green, recruited to San Diego State by Jim Tomey, who was fired and replaced with Beth Burns before Green arrived on campus. "So I came back to Palomar and played basketball.

"Then I made the switch to volleyball.

"I found that volleyball fits my personality and body type much better than basketball. Volleyball isn't as aggressive as basketball. And the players seem to be more enthusiastic.

"Honestly, I liked both sports equally in high school, but there was more opportunity in basketball. And my coach (Roger DiCarlo) was like an uncle to me."

Green decided to switch sports after bumping into a high school volleyball teammate at Palomar.

Bird was a three-sport star at Tri-City Christian, playing volleyball, basketball and softball. She was the North County Times' Girls Scholar Athlete of the Year this past school year.

"Going through Plebe Summer Boot Camp at Navy, I realized the military wasn't for me," Bird said. "Ultimately, I want to teach high school math and coach, so Navy isn't a means to that end.

"The people at Navy are amazingly driven. The kids there are great, so committed.

"My leaving wasn't just one thing. I wasn't tired. I wasn't homesick. It wasn't a waste of time.

"I'm glad I stuck it out and finished the summer.

"The routine was tough -- up at 5:30 a.m. and lights out at 11 p.m. We ran, we climbed ropes, we did the obstacle course, and we ran some more.

"Basically, we learned military life.

"But I realized the kids there are truly committed, and it wasn't a place to be if you were halfway committed. And I wasn't fully committed."

Bird said she got great advice from her platoon commander and squad leader, who convinced her to stay for the summer.

At the end of the summer, she asked for her release. Three weeks later, she was on a plane home.

Bird's father contacted Seiler and told the coach his daughter was looking for a place to play.

"We had one setter, but she was injured and eventually quit," Seiler said. "Our other setter (Laikin Miller) was undersized.

"When Aimee came in, it allowed us to move Miller to libero and really helped the team."

Bird leads the conference in assists and digs per game.

Green leads the Comets in kills and the conference in blocks.

"Audrey worked hard over the summer and is amazingly better," Seiler said. "It took her a while to figure it out, but volleyball is her sport. She is much more passionate about volleyball."

The Comets (16-3, 7-0) have a pair of tough second-round conference matches with Imperial Valley and San Diego Mesa remaining, but Seiler is confident Palomar will be one of the 16 teams in the Southern California playoffs.

"We lost to the best two teams in the state -- El Camino and Pierce -- but we took a game off both," Green said. "And those matches were early, before Aimee and the team got in sync.

"I don't know how those teams are now, but we're definitely better."

The playoffs will be Green's last hurrah at Palomar. Because she will have been out of high school for four years when this school year concludes, she can't transfer to an NCAA Division I school.

"But she has NAIA schools drooling," Seiler said. "There are some great NAIA schools, and they offer full scholarships."

Bird can transfer at the end of the school year.

"Before I got here, I looked down on community colleges," Bird said. "But playing here has been amazing, a great experience.

"Because I can leave, I'm going to start looking at colleges again. But coming back to Palomar for a second year is definitely an option.

"And I wouldn't have said that before I got here."

More Palomar volleyball

Seiler stressed that while Green and Bird are the backbone of the team, the Comets are more than just those two.

Nine of the team's 16 players are from North County. Four others are from the Temecula area.

A key in the playoffs is the health of outside hitter Shelley Morton (Fallbrook), who is just back from injury.

Felicia Penney (Valley Center), Alex Barsotti, Cashel White (Fallbrook), Courtney Tanner (Carlsbad) and Maria Cabrera are other key players.

Soccer

< The MiraCosta College men's team beat Highway 78 rival Palomar 1-0 on Wednesday, a win the Spartans are calling the biggest win in the brief, two-year history of the program. Center defender Sean Moran scored the game-winning goal for MiraCosta with an assist from Rey Lugo.

MiraCosta goalkeeper Hector Prado recorded nine saves in the match. MiraCosta is 1-4-3 in the Pacific Coast Conference, 5-9-4 overall.

< The Cal State San Marcos women's team is headed to San Antonio for the first Association of Independent Institutions playoffs. The seedings include No. 1 Simon Fraser, No. 2 Cal State San Marcos, No. 3 Embry-Riddle and No. 4 Our Lady of the Lakes. CSUSM will take on Embry-Riddle on Nov. 14.

< The Cal State San Marcos men played to a scoreless tie with Chapman in their season finale, completing the season with an 8-7-3 record and falling short of postseason play. CSUSM improved from 6-10 in 2007. CSUSM is losing three seniors -- Tashi Nakanishi, Chris Dunckel, and co-captain Greg Reese.

< The Point Loma Nazarene women's team played its way into the Golden State Athletic Conference playoffs Saturday, defeating The Master's 2-0 at home in the year's final regular season match. The Sea Lions (10-5-3, 3-4-3) had not scored a goal in a home match since Sept. 19 and had produced just one goal in their previous seven games.

PLNU is the eighth seed and will play at No. 1 Azusa Pacific. The Cougars defeated PLNU 3-0 earlier in the year.

< Senior striker Jen Mello scored a pair of goals to lead the 14th-ranked University of San Diego women's team to a 3-2 West Coast Conference win over Gonzaga on Friday afternoon. The Toreros (14-3-2, 6-0) have won seven straight matches. The win sets up a battle for the conference championship Saturday when No. 3 Portland comes to Torero Stadium for an 8 p.m. showdown.

Both teams are undefeated in WCC action, and the Toreros will be vying for their first conference championship in program history.

< Amber Johnson scored the game's only goal off Stephanie Gonzalez's assist in the first half Friday as the Palomar College women's team pinned a 1-0 loss on Southwestern, which was ranked No. 2 in the state earlier in the season. Kylie Garcilaso made four saves for the Comets (7-6-4, 6-4-2). Palomar, which hasn't lost since Oct. 3, knocked Southwestern one point out of first place as Cuyamaca took over the conference lead.

Cross country

< In the final race before Saturday's GSAC championships in Fresno, the Point Loma Nazarene women took fourth place out of 10 teams at the Biola Invitational at Irvine Regional Park, while the men placed fifth out of seven teams. Elise Manley led the way for the women's team, finishing 13th overall with a time of 18:52.1 on the 5-kilometer course. She was followed by Katie Kunz (16th, 19:07.6) and Kristen McGregor (19th, 19:22.4). On the men's side, Landon Bright earned a second-place finish with a time of 25:08.8 over the 8K course.

< Palomar College's women placed third and the men's team fourth in the Pacific Coast Conference championships at Southwestern College. Both teams qualified for Friday's Southern California meet at Bakersfield. Alex Avilez (Valley Center) was the top Comet in the men's race, placing ninth in 21:38 for four miles. For the women, Allison Patterson placed 15th in 21:27 for 5K.

Baseball

< USD head coach Rich Hill is one of 11 college coaches chosen to participate in a meeting with Major League Baseball.

Hill joins Augie Garrido of Texas, Pete Casey of Oregon State and Ray Tanner of South Carolina in a meeting to discuss ways to improve relations between the college and professional games. The Dec. 10 meeting will be held in Las Vegas.

Swimming

San Diego State, led by three first-place finishes from Brooke Vessey, defeated Fresno State, 153-126, Saturday afternoon at the Aztec Aquaplex. SDSU recorded the top times in 10 of 14 swimming events as well as the top point totals in both diving competitions. Vessey's first-place finishes began with a 25.12 in the 50-yard freestyle. She came back to capture the 100 freestyle in 54.52. Her third win came in the 200 IM with a 2:11.72. San Diego State's other double first-place finisher was Jessica Morrill, who won the 200 butterfly (2:15.68) and 500 freestyle (5:17.27).

+++ Women's volleyball < The 15th-ranked UC San Diego team handed No. 20 Cal Poly Pomona its first loss on its home court, defeating the Broncos 24-26, 25-19, 26-24, 20-25, 15-8 on Friday night. Rebecca Bailey (Orange Glen) led the way with 23 kills. With the win, UCSD moves into second place in the California Collegiate Athletic Association with an 18-4, 12-3 CCAA mark. The Broncos drop to 15-6, 12-4 CCAA.

< Three University of San Diego players recorded double-digit kills, paced by Ali Troost's 12, to help lead the 14th-ranked Toreros to a 3-0 (25-10, 25-13, 25-20) West Coast Conference win over Gonzaga on Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Toreros improve to 18-3 overall, move to 8-1 in the WCC and increase their winning streak to six.

< San Diego State posted a come-from-behind four-set victory over UNLV in Peterson Gym on Friday, winning 15-25, 25-23, 25-12, 25-22. SDSU, which has won four of its last seven matches, improved to 8-13 overall and 5-6 in the Mountain West Conference.

Men's water polo

< UC San Diego, ranked No. 8 nationally, has several players ranked high in the latest national stats. Steven Donohoe and A.J. Kotanjian are both ranked in the nation's top 20 in goals scored. David Morton is eighth in saves after recording a school single-game record 19 against UC Santa Barbara last week.

Golf

< San Diego State freshman Malin Enarsson closed out the women's fall campaign with a final round 69 to place fourth overall at the 54-hole Kent Youel Invitational in Kapolei, Hawaii. Sophomore Stephanie Arcala (Vista), who logged a career-best 67 in the second round, placed 27th overall at 9-over 225. The Aztecs' other three golfers finished within two strokes of one another, as sophomore Samantha Roberts (La Costa Canyon) carded a 236 for 58th place. Freshman Casey McIntosh ended up 61st with a 237 and junior Petra Cole finished in 62nd with a 238.

< Playing its final tournament of the fall, the Cal State San Marcos men's team had its best finish, placing 11th at the Bill Cullum Invitational at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley. Shezad Lakdawala led the way, tying for 45th.

Basketball

< Clint Allard, UC San Diego's all-time leading scorer at the Division II level, will join the men's staff for the 2008-09 as an assistant coach. Allard assumes a role on the bench after helping the Tritons to an overall record of 18-12 and an NCAA tournament appearance as a senior last season.

< The NAIA No. 13-ranked Point Loma Nazarene women lost an exhibition game Friday night 65-59 to USD at Jenny Craig Pavilion. Point Loma Nazarene had a 26-23 lead at halftime and was up by two with six minutes left in the game before the Toreros went on a late run. Junior guard Liah Ector led the Sea Lions with 14 points and eight rebounds. Junior forward Colleen Planeta scored 11 and added five rebounds and four blocks. Sophomore guard Amanda Franz and freshman forward Kaitlyn Trotter each contributed 10 points in the loss. Amber Sprague scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to pace the Toreros. Sprague was 8-for-10 from the floor and also knocked down 7-of-8 free throws. Kiva Herman added 10 points, and Sam Child contributed eight for USD.

Around campus

Point Loma Nazarene announced its 10-person 2008 Sports Hall of Fame class. Joining the Sea Lions' Hall of Fame are: Kerry Morris, Kerry Everett, Jackie (Volkert) Auchard, Lesa (Kubishta) Matrai, Josh Colace, Leslie Ludlow, Jessica Rapoza, Cheryl (Bolding) Schaefer, Anna (Sieczka) Leitzke and Bill Hanes. Leitzke (Rancho Bernardo) put together the finest tennis career in school history, setting a school record for most singles wins in a season (30) and career (100), and most doubles wins (97). She was named senior NAIA player of the year in 2003.

The Local Colleges Report appears every other Monday through the college season. Readers are urged to submit information or story ideas to John Maffei. He can be reached at (760) 740-3547, by fax at (760) 740-5045 or at jmaffei@nctimes.com.