College Volleyball : UCLA Women May Be Even Better This Season

After taking a perfect record into the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. final four last season, UCLA’s women’s volleyball team was somewhat humbled when it lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Texas.

But, says Coach Andy Banachowski, that may prove helpful this season.

“They know they had such a tremendous year (34-0 before losing to Texas) and came away with a totally disappointing feeling at the end of the year,” he said. “So I don’t think we’re going to get too keyed up, maybe like we did last year.”

Besides, added Banachowski, this season figures to start out differently.

“A lot of people asked me, ‘Don’t you wish you’d have lost (a game) early on?’ ” he said, alluding to possible overconfidence. “Well, we may do that. . . . It’s part of the game plan this year.”

Banachowski, in his 23rd year as coach of the Bruins, was joking and went so far as to call this team his deepest and most powerful yet. But, he noted, with the absence of setter Ann Boyer, who graduated after last season, “It’s going to be tough at first.”

Still, the Bruins, who will begin play Wednesday at the All Cal Tournament at UCLA’s Wooden Center, are the overwhelming choice as the nation’s top team, according to a poll of Division I coaches. Stanford was second, followed by Hawaii and Illinois.

Boyer is the only one of last season’s starters missing from the lineup, which features 10 veterans, including All-American middle blockers Daiva Tomkus and Elaine Youngs. But Boyer’s absence is expected to have a negative impact on the team.

Her replacement--either Traci Broadway or Jennifer Gratteau--had limited playing time last season.

“They don’t have the game experience,” Banachowski said. “That’s what’s lacking and I think because of that we’re going to be a little ragged at first.”

Tomkus, a two-time All-American and last year’s Pacific 10 Conference player of the year, played this summer with the United States national B team, and, along with Youngs, will anchor the Bruins’ middle. Other returning players include outside hitters Samantha Shaver and Jenny Crocker, and Jenny Evans and Laurie Jones, who split playing time last year. Freshman recruits Natalie Williams and Mia Lambert figure to make Banachowski’s choice at finding the right combination a difficult one.

Also figuring to be competitive nationally is Cal State Long Beach, ranked fifth in the poll. The 49ers, coached by Brian Gimmillaro and led by Tara Cross, player of the year in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., were 26-7 last season, losing to Pacific in the Northwest Regional.

Cross, 5-11, a left-side hitter who also played with the national B team, is considered by Gimmillaro “the best all-around player in the country,” and with 1,988 kills in her career, best in the Big West Conference, she could break the NCAA record 2,188.

Cross and setter Sheri Sanders, who led the nation in assists with an average of 14.02 a game, will team largely with Cheryl Stephens, Trisonya Thompson--a transfer from USC--Vicki Pullins, Merrilee Conway and Sherri Thormahlen.

USC, meanwhile, is ranked 16th, but the Trojans have a new coach in Lisa Love, from Texas Arlington, a school that in seven years never lost a Southland Conference match.

“We have a nice nucleus of leadership and talent,” she said of the Trojans, who have four returning starters, two seniors and two juniors. “We’re starting in the top 20 and hopefully we can climb somewhat.”