Cal Poly Pomona Athletics

Women's basketball has a storied history at Cal Poly Pomona and three-time All-American Lisa Ulmer is certainly an important part of the program's successful past.

Of the Broncos' 14 national team titles across all sports, five belong to women's basketball. Ulmer played a key role in Cal Poly Pomona capturing the 1982 NCAA Division II National Championship, the first women's basketball team to claim that honor.

The team's theme for the season was "Going For the Gold" and they did exactly that. In the national title game, CPP topped Tuskegee Institute 93-74 at the Springfield Civic Center in Springfield, Mass. In that championship game, Ulmer scored 21 points. Through that memorable season, she averaged 13.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest.

All of the championship game's details were recorded in the Springfield National Basketball Hall of Fame as an autographed Cal Poly Pomona game ball was placed there as a memento of the first NCAA D-II National Championship ever played.

After the game, legendary coach Darlene May said: "The girls did everything we asked them to and more. I told them after we finished third last year in the AIAW Division II tourney that we were going to win the first NCAA Division II tourney next year. And now we did. It's super. This means a lot to our basketball program and to our fine university."

The Green and Gold Machine finished with a 29-7 overall record and ended the season in high gear by winning its last 10 games and 20 of its final 22 games. On the road to the championship, Cal Poly Pomona defeated: San Francisco State, 81-60, in the NCAA West Regional held at Poly Pavillion; Fort Valley St. College, 95-80, in the West Quarterfinals at Pomona; and Mt. St. Mary's, 71-58, in the Semifinals at Springfield.

Ulmer attempted 99 free throws during the 1981-82 season and made 86 of them, helping the Broncos rank first nationally with a 77.8-percent mark at the line that also set a school record.

Through her decorated collegiate career from 1980 through 1984, Ulmer not only established a tradition of success for women's basketball at Cal Poly Pomona but she also left a longstanding mark on the program's record book. For career statistics, she ranks seventh in points scored with 1,607, sixth in rebounds with 851 and third in free-throw percentage at 80.4 percent.

In her four years as a Bronco, the women's basketball squad compiled an overall record of 110 wins and just 26 losses, while finishing 3rd nationally in 1981, capturing the national title in 1982 and taking second place nationally in 1983.

The California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) honored Ulmer in three-consecutive years with First Team honors in 1981 followed by Second Team recognition in 1982 and 1983. Ulmer also received All-American honors in those three seasons and she's one of just 20 student-athletes in program history to achieve that accolade.  Vicki Mitchell and Ulmer are the only two Broncos to collect All-American status for three different years.

While at CPP, Ulmer studied commercial management in recreation. She arrived to Pomona after graduating from Pacific High School in San Bernardino, where she was the Citrus Belt League Most Valuable Player in three-consecutive seasons.