Well of Compliments About a U.S. Setter Refuses to Dry Up : Volleyball: Stork puts team goals, accomplishments ahead of those of his own.

Jeff Stork fidgets and says he’s going to dodge the question.

He is not definite on whether he is the world’s greatest setter. Then he launches into a sermon on an athlete’s responsibility to the team.

The most conceited thing you can get out of him?

“I will admit that I’m kind of humble.”

His teammates call him uncomplicated, nice, unpretentious.

He is more comfortable with this idea--the greatest sweater in the world.

“Ask him about the time in the Dominican Republic,” said Bob Ctvrtlik, his teammate on the U.S. national men’s volleyball team. “That’s where the legend was born.”

Stork dropped 12 pounds in 2 1/2 games. After being taken out of the match, he was administered three pints of fluids in an IV. But he says the 1985 incident was more dehydration than perspiration: “They didn’t provide us with much water.”

What about the time in Cuba?

“Every time I would hit the floor, (sweat) would splash out of the top of my shoes,” he said. “I couldn’t run. Marv (then-Coach Marv Dunphy) subbed me out of the game so I could go change. It was kind of disgusting in a sense; it’s not too often you get subbed out of a game to change your clothes.”

And it doesn’t help to play a sport whose international rules prohibit stopping play to dry the floor.

“It’s unbelievable,” Ctvrtlik said. “It actually can create a problem on the court if the humidity gets up. One time he was squishing through his shoes and leaving tracks on the court like Sasquatch.”

Maybe it’s because Stork works so hard or because he has one of those body types, U.S. Coach Fred Sturm suggested.

One thing is certain. Stork sets as well as he sweats.

He took Pepperdine to two NCAA finals, and Maxicono to the Italian Grand Slam two years ago, winning all five tournaments it entered. Since rejoining the national team in late April, Stork has set four matches, and only once has the team been taken beyond three games.

Last weekend in Japan, with Stork back in San Diego while his wife, Sabine, had their second child, the U.S. won in five games and four games against a team it had swept in its previous meetings.

The greatest? It began in 1988 when he entered an Olympic match against Argentina at 4-4 in the third game, the U.S. trailing two games to none. Stork sparked the team to victory, started the rest of the matches and the U.S. won its second consecutive gold medal.

That brought about the consensus that he was the best setter. Many still believe that, including Sturm, who welcomed Stork back from the Italian professional leagues with open arms.

“There isn’t another setter I would rather have than Jeff Stork,” he said flatly. “For one, he’s left-handed and able to hit balls over on the second hit; two, he has a very good presence on the court, he’s in command and players look to him for leadership, for direction.”

But the thing that really stands out, said Sturm, is that other players like to be on the court with him.

So the question is asked of the three-time All-American--are you the best setter in the world?

He fidgets.

“It’s best for a person in my position--who has to relate to all five players throughout the game--to keep the team cohesive and going in a direction that’s going to win,” he said. “I think that’s important for everyone, especially a person who plays in my position. I’m not sure I do it all the time, but I strive to do it all the time.

“I think as a setter, per se, I’m probably not the best, but I think I add other things to the position which keep me right up there with the best.”

Stork thinks his strengths are his athleticism and speed and an ability to bring out the best in other players, “a bunch of nonstatistical things other than being a good volleyball player.”

“I think I teach the other players pretty well, especially the younger players,” he said. “I think I work with hitters pretty well--making them work harder.”

One of the younger players who had to get used to Stork being the team’s new setter is Bryan Ivie, who had been teamed alongside setter Dan Greenbaum since their Junior Olympic days. After a match two weeks ago, Ivie described the transition.

“He’s real deceptive,” he said. “You have to be aware all the time because he’ll set from anywhere.”

Which is the whole idea, said Ctvrtlik, who has played with Stork for five years.

“You still never really know exactly what he’s going to do,” he said. “What could be a better compliment to a setter, to always keep the block guessing?”

Now, getting back to that question of the world’s greatest setter.

“It’s important for athletes not to live in the past,” Stork said. “Yeah, I was on the team that won in ‘88, but that’s not going to help me in ’92.

“The great players prove themselves over and over again.”