From Perfection to Rejection : Volleyball: Mira Costa High was the national champion last season, but with only one starter returning, it is not getting any respect in a national preseason poll.

These things go in cycles. Dae Lea Aldrich, girls’ volleyball coach at Mira Costa High, knows it better than most.

Only a year removed from a 27-0 season that left Mira Costa at the top of the prep volleyball world--with No. 1 national rankings in both Volleyball Monthly and USA Today--Aldrich finds herself back at the beginning of the spiral.

Only one starter returns from last year’s unbeaten squad. Only three of Aldrich’s starters are seniors.

Mira Costa is nowhere to be found in USA Today’s Top 25 poll this month. And the Mustangs are ranked only sixth in the Southern Section by Volleyball Monthly.

But in the preseason Southern Section coaches’ poll, Mira Costa was ranked first in the 5-A Division.

Apparently the Southland’s coaches still believe in Mira Costa, even if Aldrich is hedging her bets a little.

“I don’t think we’re going to fall apart or anything,” Aldrich said. “But if we’re lucky, we’ll make the (CIF) quarterfinals. If we’re luckier still, we’ll make the semis. And if we’ve really got it all going for us, maybe we’ll make it into the finals.”

At the center of Mira Costa’s rebuilding effort is setter Robin Ortgiesen. She was the only junior on the team that steamrollered every opponent all the way through last year’s State Division I championships.

Ortgiesen, the team’s captain, is counted on to provide stability and leadership.

“Robin is big and she can lead, and she’s got to get everything going for us,” Aldrich said. “She’s directing the traffic for us. She’s our quarterback.”

Two other seniors--middle blocker Jen Smith and outside hitter Cindy DeGarceau--are also veterans of Mira Costa’s flawless 1989 squad. Smith was Aldrich’s first reserve off the bench last year, and DeGarceau is finally getting her chance to start after waiting in the wings.

But after that trio of seniors, Aldrich is leading some inexperienced reinforcements. Outside hitter Shannon Park is a junior, and middle blocker Ann Windes and outside hitter Shawnee Hayes are sophomores.

“They are young, green kids, but they’re talented,” Aldrich said. “They need time to grow, and this is going to be their growing year. But they’re young and fiery, and they’re not afraid to make mistakes.”

Last year, Aldrich had the luxury of bringing in Smith or defensive specialist Jen Streatfield off the bench. This season, Aldrich said, her reserves are a little thin.

“They’re just not there yet,” she said. “Volleyball is a real reaction game, and almost everything depends on second nature. It takes a while to develop the kind of athleticism necessary to react like that.”

They will have to learn in a hurry. Starting this weekend, Mira Costa plays in three consecutive weekend tournaments where it will face the cream of Southern California’s volleyball crop.

In this weekend’s Edison tournament, the Mustangs will go up against three talented Orange County teams: Corona del Mar, Laguna Beach and Newport Harbor--any of which Aldrich feels is capable of winning the Southern Section championship.

The following weekend, Mira Costa tangles with Corona del Mar again, as well as powerhouse Santa Barbara, in the Redondo Power Classic. And on the weekend of Oct. 6, the Mustangs will be among 25 teams in the San Marcos Tournament, the state’s most competitive event.

Traditionally, the eventual CIF champion comes from the San Marcos field of 25.

“We might get beat up a little bit, but it will be good for us,” Aldrich said.

It was a victory over Corona del Mar in the finals of last year’s Edison tournament that launched Mira Costa on its unbeaten journey.

But the 1989 team had the marks of greatness long before that crucial match. Six players from that team are now playing Division I college volleyball on full-ride scholarships.

Piper Hahn, the team’s setter and last year’s CIF player of the year, is at Stanford with Heidi Eick, a former Mira Costa middle blocker.

Middle blocker Krystal Attwood went on to the University of Hawaii, and outside hitters Rainy Chrisman and Erika Lawson are at Pepperdine. Streatfield took her tremendous jump serve to the University of Washington.

“It was an amazing group,” Aldrich said. “But even that unit took a couple of years to develop. They grew through the program together and they really excelled. It takes years of practice as a team to learn to play at the speed and level that those girls did.”

Aldrich started coaching at Mira Costa in 1982 and has won seven Southern Section and four state championships.

She spent the summer working as a private coach to beach professionals Elaine Roque and Nina Matthies and watched that pair win the tour’s most prestigious event, the $50,000 World Championships in Laughlin, Nev.

This fall, however, Aldrich is concerned with more traditional pursuits.

So far, Mira Costa’s youth movement has rung up a 2-0 record with non-league victories over Bishop Montgomery and West Torrance.

“I don’t want these kids to want recognition just because they play for Mira Costa,” Aldrich said. “Usually, just the name ‘Mira Costa’ is worth a couple of points a match.

“But these girls have to set their own standards, and make their own mark. They have to earn their own right to that name.”