House Afire : Loyola Junior Sparks the Volleyball Team to a Commanding League Start

Pardon the pun, but it’s fair to say that Loyola Marymount’s Kerry House is a House on fire these days.

After a trying preconference schedule, the volleyball team’s outside hitter has led the Lions to a 5-1 start in the West Coast Conference and has been named WCC Player of the Week two straight times.

Last week, the 5-foot-8 junior had 31 kills and six digs in a five-game victory over St. Mary’s, and came back with 13 kills and 13 digs plus five service aces the next night in a three-game sweep of Santa Clara.

Entering the week, House was rated eighth in the country in dig average at 4.3 per game. In conference matches she’s averaging 4.25 kills per game, a close third behind Melanie Kaiser of USS at 4.40 and leader Ann Pinkowski of Portland at 4.57.

It’s not quite accurate to say House has carried the Lions on their recent upswing, which started when Coach Mike Normand retooled the lineup, inserting freshman hitter Raquel Glenn and making junior Anita Irwin the main setter. But it’s fair to say that if Irwin is the ignition, House has been the engine.

Teammates agreed that she deserved the weekly awards, which are given by the WCC. “She’s really doing well, she’s leading our team,” said team captain Tina Hammers. “She’s dominating out there.”

Irwin noted, “I know if I’m in trouble I can always put it up to her and she’ll at least keep it in play.”

Normand said the improvement has been a teamwide effort, adding that House “is a tremendous player. (She) and Raquel and Anita are the three who’ve hung in there. Kerry is definitely our floor leader. She’s definitely a positive asset for the team, an inspirational leader.”

Normand has also had a positive effect on House, who has learned two valuable lessons this fall: She is capable of playing a dominant role in the WCC, and you can go home again--but it’s difficult.

House grew up within, well, a few houses of the Loyola campus in Westchester. Although she was a high school star at Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks, she grew up riding her bike around Loyola. Her mother, Donna, works on campus, and her brother, Brian, goes there as well.

So when it was time to pick a college, staying in her own back yard was the last thing on House’s mind. She packed her bags and headed to San Luis Obispo to play for Mike Wilton at Cal Poly.

After two frustrating seasons, she has returned to Westchester and reignited her enthusiasm for the sport.

House said: “At SLO, I didn’t agree with the coach’s philosophy, and I couldn’t get into the major I wanted (education). When I was having problems, my mom kept saying, ‘You can go to Loyola.’ Originally I wasn’t going to play, I was kind of burned out. But I figured I don’t have much longer to play.”

Normand changed several aspects of House’s technical approach, and has worked on the mental aspect as well, something that is beginning to carry over to the whole team. “Before the match I’m always kind of nervous,” House said. “After winning the (Player of the Week) award last week, I felt like if I didn’t live up to expectations. . . . Coach said, ‘Just have confidence in yourself.’ As long as he has confidence in us, we’ll do well. There are times we start doubting ourselves. He reminds us we can do the job. That’s what he did to me.”

House transferred from a winning program and was a bit shellshocked when the Lions, playing a schedule that looked like a Who’s Who of women’s volleyball, opened at 0-8 and didn’t win a game. But Normand knew that he was getting the team ready for a run at the conference title. The Lions’ five WCC victories after one-third of the schedule are already more than they had last season.

“We were all on each other’s backs” during the losing streak, House said. Now, “we’re more of a team. We’re definitely progressing. When we play well, I think we can beat any team. When we’re off, we’re really awful. We have to concentrate on perfecting our skills. I still don’t think we’re playing (at the level) we can play.”

Along with Glenn and Irwin, House said the middle blockers have been solid, especially Stacy Trapp, who was asked to move from hitter, and freshman Jill Sutton, who came off the bench to spark the team in Santa Clara after Dawn Moon was hurt.

She said Normand’s coaching approach has been a surprise after her two years at Cal Poly. “SLO was more physically demanding,” she said. “(Normand) concentrates on perfecting skills, a lot of repetition and doing it over and over. It’s helped a lot. But it’s been hard. I was used to doing things one way for a long time. He’s changed so much of my technique. My blocking’s improved since I got here. I’m a lot more confident in my hitting.”

House said the return home has also been more of an adjustment than she expected. She’s living at home and devoting most of her time to volleyball and studies. “It’s tough getting into the social scene,” she said. “It’s tough meeting people again. I feel old. Everybody knows everybody at a small school, but everybody already has their own little groups.”

House is also used to having volleyball get a little more attention. “I wish we had more fans,” she said. “We used to pack the house at SLO. I’m used to volleyball standing out. Here, it’s like people don’t respect us.”

If the team continues to win and stays in contention for a WCC title, that may change.