Trojans Have a Familiar Look

The USC men’s volleyball team has the same players, but a new attitude. And that has made all the difference.

USC (2-0) won the UC Santa Barbara tournament last month and is ready to regain its traditional spot among the nation’s elite.

With five starters back from last year’s team, that doesn’t seem like such a big deal. After all, USC went 18-12 last season, missing the NCAA final four for the second consecutive year.

But Coach Jim McLaughlin has been rebuilding since U.S. national team member Bryan Ivie finished at USC in 1991. This season, McLaughlin has everything in place to contend for a national title.

The reason? The attitude.

“If you believe you’re good and you believe you can win the match and just stay united and together, you’re going to be all right,” McLaughlin said.

The centerpieces of the team are 6-foot-6 senior middle blocker Pat Ivie, Bryan’s younger brother; 6-5 senior opposite hitter Chris Underwood and 6-7 swing hitter Jason Mulholland.

The supporting roles are played by returning sophomore starters Russell Brock, a 6-3 swing hitter; and Steve Loeswick, a 6-5 setter, and freshman Eric Seiffert, a 6-6 middle blocker from Capistrano Valley High.

“You have your feelings going into every year, and this year, I feel really good,” McLaughlin said. “The better you are, the bigger the challenge, and we’ve got a big challenge ahead of us.”

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Unfortunately for USC, it can never count out its cross-town rival.

So sure is he that UCLA, which has won 14 NCAA titles, will repeat as national champion, Ted Green of Volleyball magazine wrote:

“(It) is kind of like saying Norm Peterson is expected to order a beer when he walks into Cheers, except with lesser odds.”

But after hearing everyone sing their praises, the Bruins promptly lost to BYU in the semifinals of the Santa Barbara tournament.

The defeat, however, hardly worried Al Scates, who is in his 32nd year as coach.

“There are a few little things that we are still trying to work on,” Scates said.

First, Jeff Nygaard, considered the premier middle blocker in college volleyball, will move to opposite hitter.

“We need to get the ball to him more often--he’s our best hitter--and it’s easier to get it to him there,” Scates said.

Without the 6-8 Nygaard in the middle, the Bruins will lean on returning starter Tim Kelly, a 6-10 senior, and John Speraw, a 6-5 junior who played in only six matches last season.

Another change for the Bruins will be at setter, where sophomore Stein Metzger will replace All-American Mike Sealy, who finished his eligibility last season.

Despite those changes, UCLA (4-1) is the hands-down favorite to win the national title.

Even Scates had this prediction last week before UCLA played BYU on Friday and Saturday:

“If we get by (BYU) this weekend, I don’t see anybody stopping us because we’re going to be a hell of a lot better later on.”

UCLA won, 3-0, both nights.

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The Pepperdine men’s volleyball team is not what it used to be. Consider:

--At outside hitter, Tom Sorensen, the Waves’ top player, has finished his eligibility.

--At middle blocker, two transfers with minimal volleyball experience will be asked to start, hardly the norm on a team that went 55-19 the past three years and won the 1992 national championship.

Many players will try to replace Sorensen, the Waves’ all-time leader in kills. Most will fail.

The Waves also are unsettled at middle blocker, where Coach Marv Dunphy will call upon John Bowling, a sophomore transfer from Tennessee, and Lee Bradford, a junior transfer from Pierce, to replace three-year starter Duane Cameron, who finished his eligibility last season.

Both will have to take big strides to make an impact at the NCAA Division I level.

“What kind of teacher am I?” Dunphy recently wondered aloud. “We’ll see.”

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“Monumental” is the only way to describe the personnel losses absorbed by the Long Beach State men’s volleyball team.

The biggest hole was left by Brent Hilliard, a two-time NCAA player of the year and member of the 1992 bronze-medal U.S. Olympic team.

Hilliard finished his eligibility last season, as did setter Jason Stimpfig and outside hitter Zachary Small.

What’s more, 6-7 middle blocker Matthew Suttie, the 49ers’ top recruit last season, recently quit the team.

According to Coach Ray Ratelle, Suttie never met the expectations that had been set for him as a player.

“He just told us that he was getting tired of practicing, and he didn’t have the desire to continue to work this hard in volleyball,” Ratelle said.

The season so far has been more than a little aggravating for Ratelle, who led the 49ers to a national championship in 1991.

“It’s tough,” Ratelle said. “I really have to remind myself to be patient, because I’ve been getting frustrated.”

Notes

Four current and two former UCLA gymnasts will compete at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs on Friday and Saturday to try to qualify for the U.S. Winter Cup Challenge. Sophomores Steve McCain and Jim Foody, junior Mike DeNucci and former Bruins Scott Keswick and Chainey Umphrey will try for places on the U.S. senior elite national team, while freshman Spencer Slaton will try to finish among the top seven juniors and earn a spot on the U.S junior elite national team.