The Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball team on Saturday honored their assistant coach Monica Quan -- an alleged victim of an ex-LAPD officer's revenge-motivated shooting rampage -- during the team's first home game since Quan was killed last weekend.
"I can't begin to tell you what it feels like to function without a part of your family here," said Titans coach Marcia Foster.
The Titans donned t-shirts emblazoned with "MOtivation," for Quan's nickname, "Coach Mo," in a warm-up before the 3 p.m. game against UC Riverside. Players on both teams wore orange ribbons in Quan's honor during a moment of silence at the start of the game.
"We try to use it as fuel, we try to use it as motivation, but it's hard being out there at practice every day and not seeing her ... knowing she is not going to be there," said team captian Alex Thomas.
During the game, the Titans sported black patches with Quan's initials and pins with the school's colors.
"She had announced her engagement the Wednesday before, and to have her ripped away like that, it has been very, very difficult for them," said CSU Fullerton's athletic director Jim Donovan.
Comprised of student-athletes between the ages of 19 and 21, the team said it used the past week to bond, hosting sleepovers and cookouts to remember Quan, who was in her second season as assistant coach when she was killed.
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Quan, 28, was found shot to death in her car along with her fiancé, Keith Lawrence, 27, on Feb. 3. Authorities said the pair was allegedly targeted by ex-LAPD Officer Christopher Dorner.
Quan's father was the first Asian-American to become an LAPD captain, and he also worked on the Asian Gang Task Force. In an online manifesto, Dorner repeatedly refers to a Randy Quan as being involved in his 2008 firing.
"The attacks will stop when the department states the truth about my innocence," Dorner writes in the manifesto.
Dorner is suspected of a revenge-motivated shooting spree that also allegedly claimed the life of a Riverside police officer.
Extra security was on hand during the game as a precaution. The Titans lost to UC Riverside 64-45.
