Brown Blocks All Avenues to Defeat : Volleyball: Junior who is loath to lose helps Royal girls’ team win 4-A Division championship.

Royal High might have claimed its first girls’ Southern Section volleyball championship when it clinched the 4-A Division title Saturday, but junior middle blocker Wende Brown expected nothing less.

Royal won six Marmonte League titles this decade and flirted with a Southern Section championship three times, reaching the playoff semifinals in 1984, 1985, and 1987, before Brown joined the program last season as a sophomore.

Perhaps, then, it was no coincidence that the Highlanders finally ended their frustration, beating Esperanza, 15-13, 15-14, 15-3, at Marina High on Saturday.

“She’s a very competitive player who doesn’t tolerate second place,” Royal Coach Bob Ferguson said.

On Thursday, Brown almost single-handedly dismantled Louisville, one of the better hitting 4-A teams, with 10 blocks as the Highlanders broke their semifinal playoff jinx. She twice had three blocks in a row in a three-game sweep of the top-seeded Royals.

“She took Louisville out of the game,” Ferguson said. “Some of her blocks were the result of pure determination.” Brown, who had 28 kills and 22 blocks in three playoffs games last week, wouldn’t disagree.

“When I go up for a block, I say, ‘I want the ball.’ I don’t like to mess up and make mistakes. I like to do my best on every play,” she said.

OK, but how does she react when she spikes a ball out of bounds or serves a ball into the net?

“I can’t brush mistakes off like other players and laugh them off,” she said. “When I make a mistake, I get ticked.”

Naturally, Brown doesn’t take the subject of losing lightly. Fearing that she might lose her concentration during matches, she writes the word “concentration” on the palm of her hand and periodically glances down for reminders.

“I hate to lose,” she said. “I mean, I really hate to lose. I take it badly.”

Because Royal’s victory in the 4-A final extended the team’s winning streak to 15 matches, Brown and defeat have been strangers of late. Practice sessions have been her only source of frustration.

Brown even plays pick-up basketball games with grim determination, and she expects nothing but perfection in her schoolwork--she maintains a 4.0 grade-point average. She also was on all-league soccer player and the league runner-up in the long jump and triple jump last spring.

“On tests, I don’t like anything but an ‘A,’ ” Brown said.

About the only area in which Brown lacks competitive zeal is taking credit for Royal’s success.

“She is modest and a team-oriented player,” teammate Stephanie Champ said. “When she makes a great kill, she says, ‘I couldn’t have done it without the pass.’ She’s always encouraging everybody.”