Slow Starter Gathers Momentum : Tomkus Returns to Her Volleyball Roots in Valley as Emerging Force for UCLA

Around and around they go, jogging, sprinting, jumping, pushing up, sitting up and moving side to side.

The UCLA women’s volleyball team begins every workout with 15 to 20 minutes of a conditioning death march known, among other less colorful names, as The Circle Drill.

“It’s a dreadful thing,” Daiva Tomkus said. “When I was a freshman, my stomach turned before every practice.”

Tomkus, a 6-foot, 1-inch junior middle blocker, has since developed a tolerance for the drill and a tendency to make opponents feel ill whenever they meet her at the net. Tonight at 7:30, she will complete another circle of sorts when the Bruins, the top-ranked team in the NCAA’s Division I, visit defending Division II champion Cal State Northridge.

A former three-sport standout at Chaminade High, Tomkus is making her first competitive appearance in the Valley since going over the hill to Westwood. Those who have not seen her play in the past two years might be in for a surprise when Tomkus takes the floor against the Lady Matadors.

Her long, blond hair, green eyes and smile are familiar. Her strength, mobility and skill level, however, are new and improved. No longer is Tomkus simply just a tall player dominating smaller high school players with her size.

After a dreary freshman season at UCLA spent mostly on the bench, Tomkus emerged during spring workouts and overcame the lack of experience and technical skills that had held her back.

Last season, Tomkus became the first UCLA player to earn first-team All-American honors as a sophomore. She is one of the main reasons the Bruins are this year expected to contend for their first national championship since 1984.

“Most of our great players have been outside hitters, so Daiva is kind of unique,” said UCLA Coach Andy Banachowski, who has guided his teams to four national championships and tutored 14 All-Americans in 21 seasons with the Bruins. “I don’t think we’ve had a girl as big and strong, yet as agile and mobile as Daiva.”

Tomkus has helped the Bruins to a 6-0 start, including a win over previously top-ranked Hawaii, the defending national champion. She was named Pacific 10 Conference Player of the Week for her performances last week against Stanford (6 kills, 3 aces and 2 blocks) and California (18 kills, 4 errors, 1 ace and 21 digs.)

“She’s one of the most dominant players in college volleyball,” said Northridge Coach Walt Ker, who vividly recalls the first time he saw Tomkus during her junior year at Chaminade.

“My immediate thoughts were, ‘How am I going to hide this kid?’ ” Ker said. “At that time in her life, all she wanted to do was make Cal State Northridge’s team. I take that as a compliment now, but I also realize she was a little naive about her own ability.”

Tomkus, 20, also was unaware of the pace and demands of high-powered collegiate volleyball.

She got a quick lesson, however, when she reported for two-a-day workouts at UCLA after a summer spent visiting relatives in New York. During that vacation, Tomkus ignored the conditioning program that Banachowski gave her.

“She didn’t come in in very good shape her freshman year and she was just dying during double-days,” said Jenny Crocker, a redshirt junior hitter who is Tomkus’ roommate. “She’d be crying and she wanted to quit. She hated it.”

Said Tomkus: “It was a horror experience. I thought, ‘Here in the Valley, I’m pretty good. I can blend in and go in there and do pretty well.’

“But physically, I wasn’t ready for it. Mentally, I wasn’t there, either. It was a slap in the face.”

The situation worsened when three other incoming freshmen quit the team before the season began, leaving Tomkus as the only first-year player on the team. She thought briefly about quitting and enrolling at Northridge, but the application deadline had passed.

“She was going through a lot of frustration, self-doubt and anger with herself,” said Monika Tomkus, Daiva’s older sister who is an All-Ivy League blocker at Pennsylvania. “I remember my mom talking to me. Daiva was always upset and she (her mother) didn’t know if she should drive her back to campus on Sunday nights.”

The 1986 season began and ended with Tomkus playing only sparingly behind starters Lisa Ettesvold and Sharyl Bilas.

“She didn’t really come from a high-level program so it was a real eye-opening experience for her to be here and to see what we did every day--day after day,” Banachowski said. “The game is so much faster and she really wasn’t used to playing at that level continuosly.”

Tomkus improved gradually during her freshman season. In the spring, with the seniors gone and the intensity lowered, she began displaying a more complete game.

Last season, she continued to improve, leading the Pac-10 with 91 aces. She also set a UCLA single-season record with 176 block assists as the Bruins finished 28-10 overall, 13-5 in conference play.

“When she first came in she was real wild and not swinging with much control,” senior setter Ann Boyer said. “Now she’s controlling her talent.”

Linda Robertson and Olympian Liz Masakayan are UCLA’s only two-time All-Americans, but if Tomkus stays healthy she has a chance to become a three-time All-American and, possibly, a member of the national team.

For now, however, Tomkus is concentrating on Northridge and her return to the Valley. She said she is looking forward to playing against some of her former club teammates and in front of Ker, who was one of the first college coaches to indicate that volleyball offered her a future beyond her wildest expectations.

“I was so excited when he came to watch us play,” Tomkus said. “He told our coach, ‘She’ll be Division I,’ and I couldn’t believe it.

“It’s going to be good to go home and say, ‘Yeah, Walt, you were right.’ ”