Loyola’s Spiker Coach Won’t Buy Too Young and Inexperienced Line

On paper, the Loyola Marymount University women’s volleyball team is too small, too young and too inexperienced to be much of a factor this year.

The Lions are coming off a 9-22 season, lost their two best players to graduation and open at 7:30 tonight at home against No. 1-ranked UCLA, so they don’t figure to start an early winning streak.

But first-year Coach Mike Normand, who gave the Loyola men’s team a new look last spring, isn’t concerned with how the team looks on paper. “I hate stats. I’m not a stat person,” he said before practice this week. “There’s a lot more to the game that doesn’t show up in the stats.”

Normand not only coaches the physical and mechanical aspects of volleyball but the subtle parts of the game and the mental approach as well. He hopes that by stressing the positive and challenging the Loyola women to rise above expectations, he can produce a team that will surprise some opponents early in the season and challenge for a spot in the upper half of the West Coast Conference later.

And the Lions will get their early tests: UCLA and Cal State Fullerton this weekend, then UC Santa Barbara, San Diego State and Cal State Long Beach--all perennial top 10 teams--leading to conference play in late September.

“That’s the best way to do it,” said Normand. “You test yourself against the best, then you can see what you need to do. If you strive (to improve), you reach those things. I thought the (tough) schedule would be a good test to see who wanted to play.”

Normand takes over a program that won a conference title and reached the NCAA playoffs in 1986 but slid for two seasons since under George Yamashita. The new coach, an All-American and later assistant coach at UCLA, is used to winning and is trying to sell his philosophy of being mentally and physically tougher than the opponent.

“We’ve improved each day. I feel we will put ourselves in a situation to win some close games where, maybe, people (opponents) are better,” he said. “We’re gonna try to set ourselves up to be successful. We’ve got some good players.”

During training last spring, he told the women what he hoped to accomplish.

“I think they were despondent after last season,” Normand said. “I talked to them about my philosophy. It’s been very positive. They responded extremely well. They’ve come back stronger than they left. They’re giving their best effort.”

Normand’s basic philosophy is simple: “You need three things to be successful in life:

- “The ability to overcome fear. Courageous people have fear but overcome it. Fear holds you back from being successful.

- “The ability to overcome pain. Pain is different than injury. You have to be able to play with pain, including mental pain.

- “The ability to believe in yourself and never give up on yourself. That’s where most people fail. The athlete has to understand himself and have the discipline. Your top players keep going aggressively at it.”

Still, this is volleyball, not philosophy, and the team is basically new, so Normand is tailoring the attack to the talent and not setting unrealistic goals.

Eighteen players showed up for training--four will redshirt--and Normand expects to play nine or 10 regularly. Veterans include junior Stacy Trapp, a middle blocker and hitter; junior setters Anita Irwin and Loren Newman; sophomore middle blocker Laurie Jones, and outside hitters Tina Hammers, the captain, and Jennifer Kruse. Hammers and Kruse are the only seniors.

Kerry House, a 5-foot-8 outside hitter who transferred from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and junior setter Janiece Stimpfig, a transfer from Santa Monica City College, lead the newcomers. Others expected to contribute are outside hitters Katie Roberts and Raquel Glenn, both freshmen, and middle blocker Dana Bragado, another freshman and the team’s only six-footer.

Other returning players are junior middle blocker Dawn Moon, sophomore back-row specialist Shannon O’Kelly and sophomore setter Jenny Woods. Freshman Jill Sutton, an outside hitter, rounds out the varsity.

The West Coast Conference race is uncertain this year, with Pepperdine looking like the favorite, returning four starters from last year WCC champ. Normand knows little about the other teams in the conference but said he prefers an approach similar to John Wooden: Worry about perfecting your skills and execution.

One opponent, though, may prove an excellent gauge of Loyola this year: The Lions play highly ranked UC Santa Barbara at home Sept. 13, then in their last match of the season Nov. 21 at Santa Barbara. “That should show how much we’ve progressed,” Normand said. “We’re going to have an interesting year. We’ll be stronger than last year.”