UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Improved Volleyball Team Welcomes the Pressures of Success

It used to be that UC Irvine’s volleyball players had nothing to lose . . . except a lot of matches.

But the team is getting better and suddenly, what’s this? Pressure?

Bring it on, says Bill Ashen, who begins his fifth season as men’s coach on Friday when the Anteaters open their season at the UC Santa Barbara Invitational in Goleta.

Irvine had an 8-14 record last season, and was only 3-14 in the rigorous Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. But that record, which included upsets of highly ranked Cal State Long Beach, Cal State Northridge and Penn State, was enough to earn Irvine a national ranking as high as 14th.

“Once we won, we had the pressure to prove it wasn’t a fluke,” Ashen said. “Now I want to move into the top 10. I’d like to see us win 10 to 15 matches. I tell you, a winning record in this league would be a statement.”

Ashen says he has the players to make one, with four starters back, including three seniors--middle blocker Steve Florentine, outside hitter David Pettker and setter James Davis. The other returning starter is junior outside hitter James Felton.

Florentine, a former basketball player, was named third-team all-conference last season after setting a school record with 379 kills. Davis holds all Irvine’s setting records and had 1,090 set assists last season.

To that nucleus, which also includes such returning players as middle blocker Chad Milling and outside hitters Shawn Salkeld and Jeff Uhrig, Ashen adds a recruiting class he calls his best.

Steve Lucas, a middle blocker from Huntington Beach High, will see a lot of playing time, Ashen says. Greg Amaya, an outside hitter from Mission Viejo High, underwent shoulder surgery in August and might be redshirted. The final player in a trio of outstanding freshmen is Jason Hinchman, a setter from Dana Hills High who is the heir apparent to Davis.

“He’ll have to get his time in,” Ashen said. “He’s doing really good. Jason’s a great setter. Jason is going to have to learn to be a quarterback. He has all the tools and techniques of an All-American setter, now he’ll have to learn the inner game, how people tick. He’ll have to learn to be a salesman. He needs to be able to sell a used car to a used-car dealer, learn the head tricks.”

To all this, Ashen might add one other player, former Ocean View standout Leelan Quinn, who left Hawaii after one semester and is in the process of transferring to Irvine. Ashen said Quinn has applied for admission and is awaiting word. Because he was released from Hawaii, he would become eligible immediately.

“A couple of years ago he would have been the best player on our team,” Ashen said. “But we’ve progressed so far that I’ve got a 6-7, 6-8 guy coming in and he’ll have to prove himself.” Ashen paused, and broke into a grin. “I love saying that.

“A guy like Quinn calling the program to say he’s interested in playing at UCI wouldn’t have happened before.”

Ashen has been able to add a paid assistant for the first time, hiring Lance Stewart, who was most valuable player on the 1981 Laguna Beach High School team coached by Ashen, and who has been coaching at Laguna Beach.

Tough Ticket: There were fewer than 300 general admission tickets remaining Tuesday for the Irvine men’s basketball game Jan. 17 against NCAA champion Nevada Las Vegas in the Bren Center.

At one point, there were no general admission tickets left, but a new block has become available.

An unspecified number of student tickets remain, but those are expected to sell out.

Coach Bill Mulligan gives Irvine no chance of upsetting UNLV, despite his striking success against Coach Jerry Tarkanian, whose Rebel teams Mulligan has beaten six times.

“I don’t think Vegas can be beaten,” Mulligan said. “I think they play (second-ranked) Arkansas (Feb. 10). I don’t think Arkansas will come close. I think if you get beaten by 20 points, you’ve done really well.

“They come in here and you can say, ‘Well, you’ve beaten them six times, maybe you have a chance.’ You’re smoking dope if you think that.”

Stat of the Week: 98.4. That is the scoring average of Irvine’s opponents after 15 games. Irvine is averaging 90.3 points.

The spring tennis season begins this month and, as of now, Irvine’s No. 1 player is Brett Hansen-Dent, a freshman from Newport Harbor High.

“Brett Hansen-Dent, Mike Roberts and Carsten Hoffman,” Coach Greg Patton said, naming his top three if the season started today. “That’s pretty fluid, pretty tentative. That’s like after a first date going home and telling mom that might be the girl I’ll marry. It’s too early to tell.”

The strength of the team--and its weakness--is its youth.

Among the other freshmen are Marco Zuniga, who has been bothered by tendinitis in his right wrist, Charles Wheeler, the top junior player from South Africa, and Brett Stern, a freshman from Florida who was among the top 40 junior players in the nation.

“In terms of playing experience, maturity, intellect and emotionally, they’re very mature. But physically, they’re very immature. I don’t think there’s a movie theater in town that would let my guys in an R-rated movie.

“But we’ve got talent,” Patton said. “This team, there’s no doubt in my mind, one day will be contending for the national championship.”

Irvine’s baseball team plays an exhibition game next Tuesday at Anteater Field, facing the Spanish pre-Olympic team at 2:30.