L.A. UNIVERSITY BEAT / WENDY WITHERSPOON : West’s Volleyball Reign in Toto Collapse

The Munchkins are smiling in State College, Pa.

Ever since Ramon Hernandez of the Penn State men’s volleyball team spiked 38 kills in the face of the Wicked Witch of the West, UCLA, on Saturday to win the NCAA men’s volleyball championship, the little people of the volleyball world haven’t stopped dancing.

Penn State won, 9-15, 15-13, 4-15, 15-12, 15-12, in the NCAA final at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Ft. Wayne, Ind., in a comeback that set the volleyball world on its ear.

A news release issued by Penn State (25-3) afterward said, “Expect to see signs erected on all roads leading to State College, Pa., saying, ‘Welcome To State College--Volleyball Capital of the United States.’ ”

Western schools have dominated the sport. And UCLA (27-2), the 1993 national champion, has been the most dominant of all. Al Scates, UCLA’s coach, has a record of 837-132 in his 32 years at the school.

Penn State’s national title is the first for a non-West Coast team in the 25-year history of volleyball’s final four.

When a reporter suggested to Tom Peterson, Penn State’s coach, that it was the biggest upset in volleyball history, Peterson said it seemed like a dream come true.

“It’s just a once-in-a-lifetime, fairy-tale story,” he said. “It’s history. Just to be part of that history is pretty special.”

At UCLA, however, they are suggesting Penn State not change any road signs.

“It gives everybody hope, I guess, now that the West has finally been beaten,” Scates said. “Of course, we hope to crush those hopes again next year and put things in their rightful perspective once again.”

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For junior Jeff Nygaard, UCLA’s star opposite hitter, knowing that he has another chance next year is no consolation for Saturday’s defeat.

“I pretty much haven’t slept since that night,” he said. “I can’t get my mind off it. I kind of feel like I have wasted seven months of my life. If we win next year, it will still be a thorn. . . . Then we’ll look back and say we should have won this year. It is always going to be there.”

Nygaard was voted the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. player of the year this season.

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Embers are still smoldering over the NCAA men’s volleyball committee’s unprecedented decision to award the at-large berth for the final four to a team from the Midwest, Indiana-Purdue Ft. Wayne, rather than to a team from the West, Stanford.

Ted Leland, Stanford athletic director, has sent a letter to the NCAA, expressing his concern over the selection process.

Although Stanford had lost at Ft. Wayne (20-7) in a regular-season match, Stanford (20-9) had a stronger schedule and better record against common opponents.

Said Ruben Nieves, Stanford coach: “They made the wrong decision. If you look at all the information . . . . I just don’t see how they could have come up with what they came up with.”

One possibility is that the selection committee chose Ft. Wayne hoping that having the host school in the tournament would boost attendance. Bob Hiegert, the Cal State Northridge athletic director and a member of the selection committee, denied that attendance was a consideration.

Whatever the committee’s reasoning, it is no comfort to Stanford senior Canyon Ceman.

“We started off in disbelief and it’s slowly progressing into anger and outrage,” Ceman said.

Ft. Wayne’s performance at the NCAA tournament--the Mastadons were beaten three consecutive games by UCLA in the semifinals and then again by Ball State in the consolation match--seemed strong evidence in support of Stanford.

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation volleyball coaches will have a conference call on Thursday to discuss the matter.

Notes

USC added women’s water polo as a varsity sport last week in an attempt to bring the athletic department closer to compliance with Title IX, a federal statute that mandates gender equity. USC now conducts 10 sports for men and 10 for women. Still, the addition raised sports opportunities for female athletes at USC only three percentage points to 36%, which falls far short of the athletic department’s goal, 45%. “We’ll take the painful steps that it requires in order to get there,” said Lisa Love, USC associate athletic director.

How does Allen Fox, Pepperdine men’s tennis coach, feel about having to play in a newly formed regional qualifying tournament this year instead of advancing directly to the NCAA championship tournament? “This regional thing has worked exactly the way the people that instituted it have planned,” Fox said. “The plan was to get in more of the weaker teams and get rid of as many better teams as possible.”

Ninth-ranked UCLA will play host to the NCAA Region VIII tennis qualifying tournament, which includes 10th-ranked Pepperdine, this weekend. Top-ranked USC has received an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament May 21-May 29 at Notre Dame. . . . The NCAA women’s tennis tournament will be held Friday through May 21 at Athens, Ga.