COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL / SOUTHLAND PREVIEW : After ’90 NCAA Title, UCLA Women Better

When Natalie Williams steps onto the volleyball court today for the season-opening tournament at the University of Hawaii, she will no longer be a mild-mannered sophomore hoping to make her mark.

Williams, instead, will be a mild-mannered junior having not only made her mark, but stamped it on wooden floors across the country with a left-handed wallop that helped earn her Volleyball Monthly magazine’s player-of-the-year honors, as she led the Bruins to the national championship.

And the 6-foot-1 hitter will play a key role in the Bruins’ quest to repeat the feat when they play host to this season’s Final Four Dec. 19-21.

“Last year, I had a pretty big role doing what (Coach Andy Banachowski) expected me to do,” Williams said. “I know that I have that same role--to play my best every game.”

Williams played well enough last season, earning All-American honors by leading the Bruins in kills and service aces.

Since the Bruins have lost only one player and have three--Williams, Elaine Youngs and Julie Bremner--who spent the summer gaining international experience with the U.S. national team in the Pan American Games and the World University Games, they figure to be stronger than last season.

“UCLA has very, very good talent; one of the more talented teams . . . ever,” said Brian Gimmillaro, coach of No. 6-ranked Cal State Long Beach. “They’re strong at each position and well coached. It will be very, very difficult to beat them.”

This view reflects the consensus of coaches around the country, who have unanimously picked UCLA as the No. 1 team.

Setter Holly McPeak, instrumental in the Bruins’ attack last season, has graduated, but Banachowski bolstered the position with the acquisition of Bremner, a former Notre Dame star who is re-entering college as a sophomore after two years--and this summer--with the national team.

Jennifer Gratteau, a senior who was last season’s backup to McPeak, and freshman Amy Boyer, a redshirt last season and sister of former Bruin standout Ann Boyer, will also compete for the starting position.

None of the Bruin setters has the quickness of McPeak, who will help out as a graduate assistant coach.

“We’ll be a bigger blocking team, which will make up for the fact that we may not be as quick behind the block,” Banachowski said. “Opponents will have to tip the ball a little bit higher or take some different shots. We’ll still be a good digging team, but we won’t have the foot speed or quickness we did with Holly.”

The Bruins, 36-1 last season, will be strengthened by the return of Youngs, a strong hitter who sat out 1990 after an operation on her left knee, and they have kept their front line intact.

Marissa Hatchett, a 6-1 junior blocker who set school and conference records in blocks last season, and 6-footers Lisa Hudak, a junior, and Irene Renteria, a sophomore, will get most of the playing time.

Hitting mainstays will be Williams, who looks stronger than she did last season; Youngs, who if she remains injury-free will be a factor, and Jenny Evans, who if she regains her form after shoulder surgery in the off-season will probably repeat as an All-American.

As for the December NCAA championships at Westwood, Banachowski said: “We’ve got it on our schedule, and we plan to be here.”

The Bruins have opened each season ranked No. 1 since 1988, when they were No. 2 for two weeks before defeating No. 1 Hawaii and finishing that season atop the polls. So, again the question is who has the best chance of beating them?

The Pacific 10 Conference, which has only two teams in the preseason top 20, has lost all 55 matches against UCLA in the past three years.

USC is ranked No. 18. However, the Trojans have some question marks.

Coach Lisa Love’s squad, 12-16 last season, has six returning players and six “rookies,” five of whom are freshmen.

“So the unknown factors about this season are pretty paramount,” Love said.

The loss of Megan McAllister and Lonise Norfleet left seniors Stefanie Bodison, a 6-foot middle blocker, and Kiersten Finch, an outside hitter, with leadership roles.

“Freshmen, freshmen, freshmen, freshmen--I find myself saying that a lot,” Love said.

The Trojans opened their season Wednesday night with a victory against Loyola Marymount at Golden West College.

Stanford, ranked No. 2, is given the best shot of taking the championship from UCLA and comes close to matching the Bruins in talent.

Coach Don Shaw’s team, which finished 27-4 and ranked No. 3 in the country last season, has 12 players back, including all six starters. Bev Oden, a 6-2 junior who was the NCAA’s player of the year, and Amy Cooper, a senior hitter, also spent the summer with the national team.

Ranked Nos. 3 through 10 by the coaches are, in order, Nebraska (which got one first-place vote to UCLA’s 47), Hawaii, University of the Pacific, Cal State Long Beach, Texas, Louisiana State, Brigham Young and New Mexico.

Gimmillaro’s Long Beach squad, which begins play at home Friday against Loyola Marymount, can’t be counted out, though the 49ers’ schedule is one of the toughest, particularly given the strength of the Big West Conference. The Big West has four of the country’s top 10 teams.

The 49ers, who won the national championship in 1989, were 29-9 last season and finished fifth in the NCAA tournament. They lost only one player, Vicki Pullins, and have five starters returning.

“We’re strong, more experienced and a better team than last year,” Gimmillaro said.

Senior hitters Antoinette White and Sherri Thormahlen, and juniors Christine Romero, Alicia Mills and Krissee Sether will get most of the playing time, working an offense run by Sabrina Hernandez, a 5-7 setter who improved steadily last season.

Middle blockers Danielle Scott, 6-2, and Lauri Jones, 6-3, will give the 49ers plenty of height at the net.

“I don’t know if any college team has ever been asked to do what we do and and have a chance to win,” Gimmillaro said. “If we’re lucky enough and we play well enough, we’ll get to the first round of the NCAA playoffs at home, and then we’re going on the road for the regionals, and on the road we’ll have to play two of the top 10 teams.

“We’re (probably) going to have to play either in Hawaii or we’re going to have to play UOP at home. And then if we’re fortunate enough to get by that, all we’re going to have to do is figure out a way to beat UCLA at UCLA. That’s an easy road, right?”