UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Volleyball Team Aches for Postseason Berth

The traveling medical clinic that is the Irvine women’s volleyball team continues to hobble toward a possible berth in the NCAA tournament, barring another broken bone or wrenched back.

How many times this season have all 12 players been able to practice together? You can count them on one finger.

“It happened on the last Thursday in September,” Coach Mike Puritz recalled fondly. “It was the only day we didn’t need coaches to step in to scrimmage. And it will never happen again this season because Jennifer Dunn is out for at least six weeks with a broken foot.”

Dunn is a freshman middle blocker who, at almost 6 feet 4, is Irvine’s tallest player since 1988. She led the team in blocks before breaking a bone near her right little toe.

“She might not even touch a ball, but opponents tend to stay away from hitting the ball at a 6-4 player in the middle,” Puritz said. “And now blocking is the weakest part of our game.

“I told Jennifer that we could paint her cast a skin color, mount a spring on the bottom and we’d be all set.”

Even without the innovations in medical science, the Anteaters limp and grimace on. Sophomore outside hitter Popi Edwards, the team’s kill leader as a freshman, is playing with a sore back. Sophomore setter Kristina Osterloh’s wrists ache with every set. Senior middle blocker Jessica Perkins, who has undergone two knee surgeries, misses about half the team’s practices with a strained quadriceps.

And somehow, they manage to climb in the rankings. Irvine (11-7) moved to seventh in the Northwest Region of this week’s coaches’ poll, but they always seem to be teetering on the precipice of disaster.

Friday night, for example, they lost the first two games to lightly regarded Texas Arlington, before snapping out of a sleepwalk and recovering for an 11-15, 13-15, 15-9, 15-12, 15-12 victory.

“It’s really tough when we play nonconference opponents,” Puritz said. “We know we have to be up when we’re playing Big West opponents, regardless of whether it’s the first-place team or the team in 10th, but we clearly weren’t mentally prepared to play Texas Arlington.

“The one good thing about this team is we may not always be ready for these nonconference games, but we seem to somehow find a way to win. We have three players, Popi Edwards, Stacy Mitchell and Alison Bantel, who take turns waking us up. One or two of those three seem to find the inner strength to take it up a level and then the team sort of follows.”

Irvine is fifth in the Big West standings, a spot Puritz figures will be worth a berth in the NCAA playoffs at season’s end. The four teams ahead of the Anteaters in conference--Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, University of the Pacific and Hawaii--are all ranked nationally and are 1-2-3-4 in the region.

“Traditionally, if you’re in the top half of Big West, you can count on a spot in the playoffs,” Puritz said. “So I think we’re right where we want to be. We don’t have to hope somebody else beats a certain team, we just have to continue to play in conference like we have. I’ve been very happy with the level of play in conference, during the wins and the losses.”

Irvine’s chances for postseason play might hinge on three road games in a 10-day span beginning Oct. 20. They travel to Cal State Fullerton, San Jose State and New Mexico State.

“We don’t necessarily need to beat Long Beach or Santa Barbara,” Puritz said, “but those are the teams, the teams we’re currently ahead of, that we have to beat if we want a chance at the NCAAs.”

If the Anteaters do have a postseason, Dunn might be ready to play, which is good news for assistant coach Jill Daniels. She might get a chance to coach during practice instead of participating.

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One shot short: The water polo team, ranked No. 7 in the country, was trailing top-ranked Stanford, 8-4, with less than five minutes to play during the NorCal tournament Sunday. But the Anteaters rallied to cut the deficit to 8-7 on goals by Mark Hunt, Kurt Elder and Greg Hakim and had a man advantage with six seconds remaining.

“We didn’t really get off a decent shot in the last six seconds,” Coach Ted Newland said, “and we didn’t do very well in extra-man opportunities all weekend. But overall, I thought we played real well. Having to play six games in three days, I thought the players did a good job in keeping their heads in every game.”

Irvine (9-6) finished third in the tournament with victories over No. 2 USC, No. 5 UC Santa Barbara, No. 8 Pepperdine and UC San Diego. They lost to Stanford and No. 3 Cal.

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Goes/comes around: In Portugal, anyway, folks hold UC Irvine in high regard as a basketball power.

Former Anteater standout Wayne Englestad, who averaged 24 points during the 1987-88 season, injured his knee recently while playing pro ball in Portugal.

His replacement?

Former Anteater standout Ben McDonald, who holds the school record with most consecutive starts, 114 between 1980 and 1984.

Anteater Notes

Goalkeeper Amee Chapman has four shutouts and is ranked second in the Western Region with a 0.71 goals-against average, but Coach Ray Smith stops short of giving her rave reviews. “When the defense is doing the job, the keeper doesn’t get much action and that’s been the case for the most part this season,” he said. “But Amee has taken her game up a level. Last year, we weren’t nearly as confident in her as we are this year.” . . . Senior Mark Hunt was named to the first-team all-tournament team at the NorCal water polo tournament. Hunt, who scored 14 goals during the tournament, leads the Anteaters with 42. . . . Ted Newland, in his 28th year as water polo coach, picked up his 550th victory during the tournament when the Anteaters beat UC San Diego, 12-9.

Cross-country Coach Vince O’Boyle hopes to get a handle on the competitiveness of the women’s team Friday at the Arizona State Invitational. It will be the last meet before the Big West meet Oct. 30 at Carbon Canyon Regional Park. The Irvine women have won the last four Big West titles and nine of the previous 10. “We’ve run against such good competition on such a wide variety of courses, it’s hard to judge where we’re at,” O’Boyle said. “Considering the way the team has worked out for two weeks, though, this will be a good meet to see if they can perform up to their talent level.”