Storm and Calm : Leslie Wohlford is assertive, aggressive, loud and emotional. Seham Khalaf is quieter, even-tempered. Together, they keep an undermanned squad competitive in most matches. : Stars of Loyola Women’s Volleyball Lead in Contrasting Ways

In some ways, they’re like fire and water, yet comfortably compatible.

One is fair, the other dark. One is assertive, aggressive, loud and emotional. The other is quieter, even-tempered.

On the volleyball court, Leslie Wohlford is the almost stereotypical fiery redhead who wears her feelings on her sleeve, the take-charge player who may subject herself and teammates to verbal encouragement--or derision--dictated by the heat of the moment. Seham Khalaf is the calm in the storm, filling whatever role is needed in the lineup, a big sister beseeching her teammates to greater heights with her dark, deep-set eyes and unceasingly upbeat comments.

Together, on and off the court, they offset each other as well as they team up to keep an undermanned Loyola Marymount squad in most matches when it sometimes resembles the Gang That Couldn’t Spike Straight.

And together, the two senior co-captains are a bridge between eras at Loyola, where the direction of the program seems uncertain. The progress of the two is easier to chart.

As the leaders of a very inexperienced team, Wohlford and Khalaf knew the load would fall on them. And as the top returners from a team that had some unpleasant personality and power conflicts a year ago, they were determined that this season would be a positive experience, whether the team did well or not.

So far it has gone that way, despite the team’s 8-16 record. Wohlford, who returned as the only experienced hitter after sharing those duties with several all-league teammates in past seasons, entered the week ranked eighth in the country in kill average at more than five per game. At 5-foot-8--on the small side for a big-time college hitter--Wohlford can be a devastating spiker when her left-handed smashes are on target, despite the fact that defenses gear up for her on nearly every set.

Khalaf, who was recruited as a hitter but became a setting specialist the last two years, assists on many of Wohlford’s kills, and at 5-foot-9 also has doubled as Loyola’s second most reliable spiker this fall, standing fifth in kill average in the West Coast Athletic Conference after last week.

Their personalities also tend to have both a calming and an energizing effect on teammates and each other.

Coach George Yamashita said the two “really complement each other,” as players and companions. “Leslie is intense. Seham is a little more kicked back. It’s good for Leslie to have a friend like that, and I’m sure her intensity fires up Seham. They both have a great deal of competitive desire.”

“Seham and I are two different personalities,” Wohlford said. “She’s a quiet leader. I’m very verbal. I’m aggressive. I get mad and I show it. Seham’s great because I’m the yeller. I can yell at her and it doesn’t bother her. They (younger teammates) watch Seham work. She’s really positive. Seham’s a real release for me.”

Khalaf said of her 3-year roommate: “Leslie is very competitive. I think she’s a great player. She does a lot for our team. We can rely on her. She gives 100%. She knew what she was facing coming into this season. People were relying on her. I think it even made her a better player.”

And despite the team’s struggle this year, Khalaf is pleased because the team blends well. “One of our personal goals was to have fun, no matter what kind of year we had,” Khalaf said. “Me and Leslie have had a hard time--we’re trying to play and keep everybody up, and keep everybody relaxed. When the game is over we’re exhausted mentally. When I look back on the season I’ll see it as a tough year, but also a fun year, everyone getting along with everyone else.”

Leslie Wohlford was recruited out of Monrovia High, where she was a standout in soccer and volleyball, a fine but unpolished athlete who turned out to be a diamond in the rough.

She looked at some colleges back East, and some bigger schools, but remembered with a grin when she fell for Loyola. “I played in a high school tournament here as a junior and really loved the campus. I visited it as a senior. I was driving--it was in the winter, but a real California day; I had the top down. I said, ‘Yeah, this is it.’ It really has a nice, homey, inviting feeling. It’s not so overwhelming you get lost like some schools. It’s near the beach. I just thought it had a lot of advantages, socially and educationally.”

Wohlford will graduate next spring with a degree in English, but she’s looking at a job in sales, with an eye on law school or graduate school after a few years off.

“It’s hard to say what I’ll be doing next year,” she said, “but I think whatever I decide I’ll be successful.”

Yamashita is equally positive. “If Leslie wants something, she’s going to go out and get it,” he said. “She was like that even in junior ball. She knows nothing is handed to her.”

Wohlford’s competitive zeal is what has made her an all-conference player, and something she has had to learn to tame as well. It took her a while to realize not everyone took as intense an approach.

“When I was younger I had a really bad temper,” she recalled. “Sometimes it comes out negative because I expect a lot of myself. My personality is a lot different than anyone else on the team.”

This year, a more mature Wohlford has consciously tried to encourage her young teammates: “I’ve really tried hard to keep it positive this year. They’re so tender. Every once in a while I catch myself (chastising them). People take some of that stuff too personally.”

Yamashita has seen Wohlford play since her junior club days and said: “It’s been a lot of fun watching her develop. She’s the great player she is because of who she is--everything she’s (accomplished) out there is because she’s worked at it. A lot of times she rubbed people wrong, but that’s part of growing up. I think she’s learned that. It was hard for her to understand why everyone else isn’t like her. It’s been really fun to watch Leslie mature. She yells but she knows she has to be sensitive to the other players.”

“I’m very competitive in every aspect of my life and personality,” Wohlford said. “Sometimes I play too hard.”

Officially, Seham Khalaf pronounces her Arabic name See-hom, but everyone calls her a more comfortable “Sam.” She smiles regularly during matches. She said that whatever the team’s record, she’ll look back fondly at her college career. She got a scholarship to play a game she loves at a school she enjoys.

Khalaf said she will probably continue to play volleyball informally, at the beach or in clubs, just for the fun of it. “I’ve been playing since seventh grade year-round,” she said. “I guess I knew if I was dedicated enough I’d get a scholarship. But I played ‘cause I liked it.”

Last year Khalaf was virtually the team’s sole setter, ranking among the conference leaders. This year, with Yamashita employing a double-setter attack, she has had some big assist totals but on other nights her kills and assists are nearly equal.

“This year is really fun, as far as my role,” she said. “I do a little bit of everything. I really enjoy hitting. I was a hitter in high school. I didn’t really set until last year.”

Yamashita said Khalaf has had well-rounded skills since she began playing on youth clubs. She may not be as athletically gifted as Wohlford, but her volleyball skills were well honed from an early age, and she has a grasp of the game’s nuances. Her spirit is often visible, but without Wohlford’s hard edge.

“Seham is more of a finesse player” than Wohlford, Yamashita said. “She’s a highly skilled player. She knows how to react to shots.”

Khalaf will graduate with a degree in political science but hopes to work in public relations or international business. Like Wohlford, Loyola was her first choice. When she was being recruited out of St. Joseph’s High in Bellflower she looked at a few other Southland schools and even considered Rhode Island.

“But I was raised around Southern California. I don’t think I could move,” she said. “I really wanted to come here. It’s the kind of school I wanted to come to--volleyball is important but not your whole life. It’s relaxed.”

Both players were influenced by former teammates such as Andrea Fort, the West Coast Athletic Conference player of the year in 1986. Khalaf became her understudy as setter. Wohlford liked the all-out approach of Fort, another intense redhead. They both enjoyed playing for their first coach, Nancy Fortner, who recruited them.

In 1986 when Wohlford and Khalaf were sophomores, the Lions won the WCAC title, beating arch-rival Pepperdine to clinch it. Then they not only appeared in their first NCAA Tournament, but went to Westwood and upset UCLA, the high-water mark in the program’s history.

With most of the players except Fort returning in 1987, expectations were unusually high. But nothing seemed to go as planned. Fortner, who had brought the program to fruition, got tired of her part-time status and quit. Yamashita, her assistant, was hired too late to do much recruiting and found the team resisting his more structured approach. The Lions got off to a slow start and bickered on the court.

“When Nancy left I was sad. George and Nancy together made a great team,” Khalaf said. “I thought it would be a smooth transition. It was surprising to me it wasn’t.”

Wohlford said: “My first two years here, what we lacked in the physical aspect we made up in heart. Andrea Fort and Maryann Dunn probably had more heart than anyone I ever played with. I really felt privileged to have known these girls. You know, it’s not the big stars who always run the team.

“(Last year) we missed Nancy (Fortner). With Nancy we had formed a family. At the right moment she’d make you laugh. I liked her and George together a lot. It was like the right combination of nice and sweet and tough and sweaty. We were used to the way Nancy ran things, (so) there was this constant resistance. That was the hardest part of the transition.”

The team managed to finish at .500, with Wohlford earning first team all-WCAC honors, but Wohlford and Khalaf--and Yamashita--learned a lesson. Expectations had been too high. Entering this season, the two seniors knew a frustrating time might be on tap, and they accepted lowered expectations: playing their best and living with the results.

Given the program’s resources, compared to WCAC opponents like Pepperdine and Santa Clara, Khalaf noted: “On paper, we should not beat anyone.”

So they decided this year’s task was to enjoy their senior year and promote domestic tranquility. Before practice began in August, they contacted team members and gave them pep talks. They determined early that the team would avoid the squabbles of a year ago. On the court there have been times when their younger teammates have seemingly stepped aside and let the two try to do virtually everything.

“They pretty much knew they had to be the glue,” Yamashita said. “It’s been tough on them at times. They’ve accepted the responsibility. They’ve determined almost everything off the court. They fulfill every responsibility of team captains. They’ve made my job a lot easier.”

Wohlford began practice wondering if Loyola could even put a decent team on the floor, then found herself pleasantly surprised by some of the young talent. After a slow start, the team drew even at 6-6, but has lost 10 out of 12 matches since, some of them frustrating 5-game marathons in which Loyola often led.

“We just can’t afford the five mistakes we seem to make every game,” Khalaf said.

“I don’t know what happened,” Wohlford said. “We’re not clicking. Sometimes it’s easier for (younger players) to let us do it. It’s immaturity. I think it’s become easy for them to lose. I think some (players) are less dissatisfied with losing than Seham and I.”

Yamashita has a similar fear: “I hope their competitive desire rubs off on the other players. We’re going to miss that competitive nature. My biggest fear out of this season is the other girls having accepted losing. (Wohlford and Khalaf) were here when the program was successful. They hate losing.”

If they hate it, they’ve learned not to carry the baggage. “Most of the time I don’t take it home. Game’s over, time to get on to something else,” Khalaf said. Wohlford echoed her, “I’d be very distraught when we’d lose. But it reached the point where we realized when the game’s over there’s nothing more we can do. We’ve learned to leave it in the gym. It doesn’t mean I care any less about volleyball.”