UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Move From Blocker to Hitter Helps Bring Out Chalais’ Best

Dana Chalais’ demeanor is easy and calm. She’s nice--”almost too nice,” UC Irvine volleyball Coach Mike Puritz said, laughing.

Chalais was part of a team that endured a 9-21 season last year, and she and her teammates are determined this season will be different.

“I didn’t want to go through another year like last year,” said Chalais, the team’s only senior starter. This season, she has become a more aggressive player and vocal leader after moving from middle blocker to right outside hitter.

“There’s been a big improvement in her aggressiveness,” Puritz said.

Chalais, who was an all-tournament selection in both tournaments the team has played, agrees.

“The move to the outside has made me more aggressive. That shows up,” said Chalais, who leads the Anteaters in kills and attacks, as well as aces.

“It seems like in the middle, everything needs to run real smooth, but on the outside, even if it’s a broken play, I can still do something good with it, still bring a blocker with me or whatever.”

Puritz decided to move Chalais about a month ago, two weeks into preseason drills. Moving her gave the team a stronger outside attack and allowed Anastasia Arnold to move back in at middle blocker after sitting out because of shoulder surgery.

“It’s always tough to change someone in her senior year,” Puritz said. “Middle blocker is a more demanding position than right side, although she does have a few new responsibilities, such as being the backup setter. I think she’s handled it real well. That’s one of the reasons I feel the team has played well.”

Part of the problem last season was that six of 12 players were freshmen. Even Chalais, a junior, was new to the program, after transferring from Citrus College. Chalais, who went to Covina High School, started her career at Texas A & M, but realized quickly she didn’t like the school much. Her goal at Irvine is mainly to help the team improve. She and her teammates are shooting for a fifth- or sixth-place finish in the Big West Conference. They finished seventh last year and were picked eighth this season after losing Kim Collins, Irvine’s career kills leader.

“We’re playing at a much higher level than we ever did last year,” Chalais said. “I think everybody gets along a lot better, and the team’s more mature.”

Puritz says the intensity and quality of play he sees reminds him of 1988, when the team finished sixth in the conference and went to the NCAA championships.

Finishing in the top four would almost certainly mean a return to the NCAAs, a fifth-place finish might do it, and sixth would make a team a longshot. But even if Irvine can’t make it back to the NCAAs, it could make it back to a more respectable finish, and perhaps to the Women’s Intercollegiate Volleyball Championships, a three-year-old postseason tournament that Puritz called “the NIT of women’s volleyball.”

And that , he says, would be nice.

Stat of the Week: Kevin Smith’s two goals in a 7-0 soccer victory over Southern California College Saturday made him Irvine’s all-time leading scorer. He passed former player Ken Gunn, who held the record with 41 points.

Smith, a junior, stands to improve on the record considerably before his career is over. With three goals and three assists in the first six games this season, he has reached 45 career points, with 15 goals and 15 assists.

Smith, chosen second-team All-Big West in each of his first two seasons, also was Irvine’s leading scorer both years.

Defending NCAA water polo champion California was unbeaten in UC Irvine’s season-opening tournament, but the Anteaters were one of the teams that didn’t get a shot at the Golden Bears.

That will change this weekend, when Irvine meets Cal at 1:50 p.m. Saturday at Berkeley. Irvine, ranked fourth in the most recent poll, also will play Stanford and UC Davis on its trip to the Bay area.

The Anteaters are 5-1, their only loss to UCLA, which finished second to Cal in the Irvine tournament. Pablo Yrizar, a junior, and sophomore Marc Hunt are Irvine’s leading scorers, each with 17 goals.

Brett Hansen-Dent, an Irvine sophomore, is ranked 23rd in the preseason Volvo Tennis collegiate rankings. Hansen-Dent was ranked 47th in the final poll last season after going 30-13.

The Irvine team is ranked 18th in the poll after finishing 16th last season, with an 18-9 record.