Improving With Age : SDSU Volleyball Team Matures Into 18-0 Power

As a freshman in 1983, Kim Harsch was just another bit player at San Diego State. She came off the bench every once in a while and played back row for the women’s volleyball team. However, that was a veteran team, and freshmen played only minor roles as SDSU went 36-12 and reached the NCAA Western Regional final.

Harsch is now a senior and she’s anything but a bit player. Recently, she was honored as Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. player of the week.

Harsch is a product of the SDSU system which turns good players into better ones with time. It has obviously paid off for the Aztecs, 18-0 and ranked first in one national poll and second in another. San Jose State shares the No. 1 ranking with SDSU. The teams will play Monday night in San Diego.

Harsch may have saved her best match for one of the Aztecs’ key games this season.

Playing against fourth-ranked BYU in the the final of the SDSU tournament, she had a career-high 28 kills as the Aztecs won in five games. What made her performance so remarkable was that her previous high was 13 kills.

“She’s really grown up a lot,” Coach Rudy Suwara said. “In fact, our whole team has grown up a lot this season.”

The Aztecs trailed BYU, 14-11, in the final game when BYU served for match point. Setter Liane Sato, a 5-foot 3-inch senior, dug a spike that was headed for the floor, averting defeat.

Sato’s primary job, of course, is to be the “quarterback” of the attack, taking passes from the back row and setting up the attackers. This is a more difficult job this year, because Suwara has switched to what he considers to be a very complicated offense. The hitters call the attack, and Sato has to react while the ball is in flight.

This time, however, her quick save got the side out and turned the ball over to SDSU. Renee Pankopf, who came up with a heavy topspin serve last season and led the PCAA in aces, served three straight points to tie the match, 14-14. Jackie Mendez, a sophomore outside hitter from Westminster who generally makes headlines by spiking rather than rejecting spikes, had three big blocks in the series to help the Aztecs tie.

“I really think one of our main strengths is that we have so many players who can do so many things well,” Suwara said.

BYU finally got the side out, but Mendez blocked another BYU spike to give the Aztecs the ball back. Pankopf got one kill and BYU, now obviously rattled, misplayed another ball to give the Aztecs the match.

Sue Hegerle, one of Suwara’s top players in the early 1980s and now an assistant coach, called the BYU victory a turning point.

“I think 90% of volleyball is having confidence in yourself,” Hegerle said. “You have to believe you can do it. Since that match, our team has believed.”

Hegerle has been a big reason why. Last year, the Aztecs went 25-20 with the same starting lineup as this year. What was missing, however, was a fighting spirit, a spirit that Hegerle had used to help SDSU reach the Final Four in 1981 and 1982.

“She keeps us up,” Harsch said. “When we’re winning a lot, Rudy sometimes will go easier on us. But Sue reminds us that we have to go hard all the time.”