UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK / JOHN WEYLER : Volleyball Coach’s Excitement Is Short-Lived

Not long ago, Mike Puritz was a happy man, brimming with optimism, effervescent as warm ginger ale. The UC Irvine women’s volleyball coach was so excited to get the season started.

But after a season-opening victory over Southwest Missouri State, the Anteaters have lost their fizz. And they went completely flat Saturday night in the consolation rounds of the UC Santa Barbara Invitational, losing to Rhode Island after winning the first two games of the match.

Irvine is 1-6 entering its Big West Conference opener Friday in Hawaii and Puritz’s favorite brand of bubbly these days is Alka-Seltzer.

Three weeks ago, he began practice with just six returning players and six newcomers. Both setters were freshmen. Cause for concern?

“I was a little nervous, but after the first week of practice I feel very confident,” Puritz said two weeks ago. “This could be the best team ever. The Anteaters are going to surprise some people.”

Well, Irvine is off to its worst start and the Anteaters are surprising only Puritz.

“In retrospect, maybe my expectations weren’t that realistic,” Puritz said Monday, “but really, I still feel good about this team. I was making those judgments from the talent I saw in the gym. We have the talent, but we’ve lacked consistency, which I guess is a characteristic of a young team, and the teams we’ve played have been good enough to take advantage of that inconsistency.”

Puritz insists there have been positives. After juggling the lineup, he has settled on a starting team of one senior (outside hitter Stacy Mitchell), one junior (all-conference outside hitter Popi Edwards), one sophomore (opposite hitter Brandy Smerko) and three freshmen (setter Meredith Fletcher and middle blockers Amy Pimentel and Diana Juth).

“I was sorting it through my mind (Sunday), trying to understand what’s happened and I realized that the last few years, we’ve had a veteran team,” he said. “Well, the youth of this team is showing. We’re not able to keep other teams’ rolls to a minimum like we have in the past and we can’t seem to maintain a high level of play.”

The Anteaters had 41 receiving errors in the 16 games they played in Santa Barbara, and giving opponents almost three free points a game isn’t the way to win.

“We have periods when we can’t dig and we can’t pass and that hurts,” Puritz said. “But the chemistry seems to be there with the six I’ve decided on, so I actually feel fairly good right now.

“Let’s just say the warning flags are ready, but I haven’t raised them yet.”

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How ‘bout a luau? The Anteaters may have had a few bad days recently and they’ll be working hard in Crawford Hall today. Thursday, they’ll be gone to Maui.

Every year, the University of Hawaii takes a team to Maui for a conference game and the Anteaters were lucky enough to be invited this year. They’ll play in Honolulu on Friday and in Maui on Saturday. They don’t fly home until Sunday night.

“I’d rather be playing at home and not have to miss the practice time,” Puritz said. “My gut feeling is that we don’t need any distractions right now, but who knows? Maybe we’ll relax a little and stop fighting ourselves.”

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A running start: They don’t get to run on any pristine island beaches, but the Irvine men’s and women’s cross-country teams have started down the path to a successful season.

The men finished second behind Fresno State in the season-opening Cal State Fullerton Invitational on Saturday, with junior transfer Bryan Contreras taking eighth overall. He covered the hot and dusty 8,000-meter course at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in 25 minutes 9 seconds.

The women, who finished third behind Fresno and the Asics Track West club team, were led by sophomore Laura Monson (18:29 on the 5,000-meter course), who also was eighth overall.

Irvine will play host to the UCI Invitational Saturday at Fairview Park in Costa Mesa. The Arkansas women’s team, the NCAA runner-up last season, will be participating.

Notes

Freshman Tracie Manz, who scored the game-winner during Sunday’s 1-0 overtime women’s soccer victory at University of the Pacific, and senior Kim Frazen are tied for 11th in the NCAA Western Region rankings with two goals and two assists for six points. Sophomore goalkeeper Stephanie Boes is fifth in goals-against average (0.6). Boes had to make only one save against Pacific to record her sixth career shutout. . . . Marine Cano, director of soccer/women’s coach, will see a lot of familiar faces Saturday when the Anteaters play host to Cal State Dominguez Hills. Cano coached the Toros for 10 years--including 1991 when they won the NCAA Division II championship--before coming to Irvine last winter.