Tedeschi Leads CSUN Despite Adding No Flash to the Plan

There was a feeling among some members of last season’s Cal State Northridge women’s volleyball team that they might have won the NCAA Division II championship if Chris Tedeschi had been able to count to 24.

Tedeschi, ineligible to play because she hadn’t completed 24 units of class work in the year before the season, as required by the NCAA, doesn’t know whether to take that as a compliment to her playing ability or a slap at her intelligence.

“I blew it,” she said, “but it’s not like I did it on purpose.”

Still, she said, “It made me feel bad because I knew I’d let them down, but it also made me feel good to have them think they needed me.”

This year, the 5-9 middle blocker regained her eligibility, her starting position and her peace of mind--and CSUN regained its position atop the Division II rankings.

She is expected to play a prominent role as CSUN meets Florida Southern in the first round of a NCAA regional tournament tonight at Lakeland, Fla.

CSUN’s coach, Walt Ker, calls Tedeschi his “most well-rounded and most advanced player.”

And yet, when the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. coaches got together to vote for the all-conference team last week, Tedeschi was overlooked.

Her problem, it seems, is that she is spectacularly unspectacular.

A former walk-on from Calabasas High who played her way into a scholarship, Tedeschi is so adept in all phases of the game--blocking, passing, serving, hitting--that none of her myriad skills stand out.

In other words, nobody really misses her until she’s gone.

“It’s a shame she was left off,” said UC Riverside Coach Sue Gozansky. “We think she’s one of their strongest players. She consistently gets the job done, but without any flash, so you don’t notice her. You remember the flashy players because you remember all the good things they did and you don’t remember all the bad.”

Said Ker: “People may not notice her as much, but I think she knows that the people who really matter--the other girls on the team and the coaches--recognize how valuable she really is.”

That’s why it was such a shock to CSUN and to Tedeschi when she was told two days before CSUN’s opening match last season that she was academically ineligible.

“I couldn’t believe I’d done it,” she said. “I thought something was wrong.”

What was wrong, she said, was that in the spring semester she dropped a three-unit class, believing it was a two-unit class. The loss of the three units left her one shy of the NCAA minimum.

It also left CSUN without an experienced middle blocker.

Tedeschi was so devastated that she considered leaving school, perhaps to work or to travel, or just to take a breather.

“It wasn’t like volleyball was my life,” she said, “but it was a big blow--especially to my college life. I just didn’t expect it at all.”

She stayed in school, though, practiced with the team and attended most of the matches. But she couldn’t bring herself to attend the national tournament in Portland, where CSUN was beaten in the final by Portland State for the second straight year.

Too painful?

“I didn’t want to find out if it would be too painful,” she said.

Would she have made a difference against Portland State?

“That’s a crummy question to ask me,” Ker said. “Possibly, but I try not to think about it. This year, she can make a difference. That’s the part I like to think about.”

Tedeschi came back more eager than ever this season.

Two years ago, her passing was so inconsistent that Ker stuck her in a corner when CSUN was receiving serve. “I would never touch a ball,” she said. This season, she is the team’s best passer.

The other parts of her game improved, too, although she had always been considered one of CSUN’s strongest blockers.

“In terms of overall court awareness and court control, she’s become a more aggressive player this year,” Ker said. “She can really have an impact on the opposing hitters.”

Tedeschi, 21, said she felt like she was starting all over this season. She believed she had something to prove--to herself and to her teammates.

“Last year,” she said, “I felt like all eyes were on me. The girls would playfully say, ‘What an idiot you are.’ I knew they didn’t mean it, but in a way they did mean it because how could I not see my mistake? I kicked myself all last year.”

Last week, she kicked again.

One week earlier, she had played a major role--”She was by far our most outstanding blocker,” Ker said--as the Lady Matadors rolled over UC Riverside to win their fourth straight CCAA championship.

CSUN ended the regular season with a 34-5 record, and Tedeschi led the team in blocks, was second in digs and attacking percentage and third in kills.

But there was Ker, pulling her aside before practice one day last week to tell her that, while four of her teammates had been named to the All-CCAA team, including two (Sue Darcey and Karen Lontka) who are substituted out of the back row, she had been left off.

“It upset me that day,” Tedeschi said, “but I’m not going to let it upset me forever. It was out of my hands. It’s not something I could decide. I can’t say I’m not still upset, but it’s not going to affect me on the court.”

But it may affect CSUN’s opposition in the NCAA tournament.

“There’s something in me that wants to go kill everybody at regionals,” she said.

And maybe show them what they missed--not only last week, but last year, too.