COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL PREVIEW : Expectations at Pierce Run High

Not many, including Coach Ken Stanley, expected the Pierce College men’s volleyball team to go as far as it did last season.

“We really didn’t anticipate it,” said Stanley, who has coached the Brahmas since 1976. “We knew we had some holes, but we just kept getting better and better and ended up being a pretty good volleyball team.”

The Brahmas, who will open Western State Conference play at home against El Camino at 7 tonight, were only good enough to win the state title for the third time in six years. And they seem sound enough this year to challenge for another.

Led by returning starters Paul Severns, a 6-foot-8 middle blocker from Glendale High, and Rob Beard, a 6-5 outside hitter from Clovis West High in Fresno, the Brahmas again should be in the thick of things.

“We are definitely top three (in the state),” Beard said.

Others who will figure prominently in Stanley’s plans are Rick Phillips, a 6-4 opposite hitter from Canyon High; Doug Tuttle, a 6-4 outside hitter from Notre Dame High; and Branden Higa, a 6-3 freshman middle blocker from Quartz Hill High. Phillips redshirted last season and Tuttle was a reserve.

Stanley said that Yan Huang, a 5-10 sophomore from Cleveland High, and Heath Kilgore, a 6-2 freshman from Raytown South High in Raytown, Mo., will battle for the setter position.

“We are not physically as good as we were last year,” said Stanley, an assistant on the U.S. men’s team in the 1991 Pan American Games in Cuba. “But we might be better defensively. We are a quicker team.”

Last season’s team averaged 6-foot-5 and, for the most part, controlled games at the net. The Brahmas relied heavily on three players now in Division I programs--opposite hitter Matt Knepper and setter Dave Smith, who are at San Diego State, and middle blocker Lee Bradford, who is at Pepperdine but is academically ineligible.

But despite the loss of those key starters, Stanley is undeterred.

And the Brahmas (1-0) already are proving him right.

Pierce was 8-0 in pool play during scrimmages in its own North-South Classic earlier this month and 5-1 in pool play in the Long Beach City College Invitational last weekend before losing to the host Vikings, 15-5, in a playoff game. The two probably will battle for the conference title.

The results from the scrimmages and the tournament do not count toward Pierce’s record. One that does, however, is the Brahmas’ 15-10, 15-6, 15-4 nonconference victory over Golden West on Tuesday. It is the kind of start that excites Beard.

“We are further ahead than we were last year at this time,” outside hitter Beard said. “With this team, we have a lot more finesse.”

And, Beard hopes, the same kind of success that carried the Brahmas to the state title last May.

After eliminating defending champion Orange Coast in the semifinals, Pierce defeated top-seeded Long Beach City in a grueling final, 15-8, 12-15, 15-4, 12-15, 15-11. It was the only loss of the season for the Vikings, who had disposed of the Brahmas twice in WSC play. They were Pierce’s only losses.

But when the teams met again with the state title on the line, Pierce was ready.

“Beating Long Beach at the end of the season was no fluke,” Stanley said. “We were really the better team.”

Said opposite hitter Tuttle: “In sports, teams peak at different times. We peaked perfectly. I don’t think Long Beach was ready for us. We executed everything great.”

Severns, however, said the memories of the championship season are nice but that he prefers to focus on the job ahead.

“Last year is over,” middle blocker Severns said. “I’m not looking back; I’m looking forward. Coach told us that being state champs is more of a burden because everyone will be trying to get us.”