Hoff Does Killer Job for No. 2 Long Beach State

If Tom Hoff played basketball and had the same success he has had as a volleyball player at Long Beach State, he would be a household name in the Southland.

Instead, he is the best player on the No. 2 team in the nation, has several NCAA individual records to his credit and his accomplishments are rarely reported.

“The thing that makes him so great is his commitment,” said Long Beach State Coach Ray Ratelle, whose 49ers are 11-3. “He does such a great job on and off the court, especially in the classroom.”

Hoff, a 6-foot-7 senior, is on the dean’s and president’s lists with a 3.5 grade-point average in mechanical engineering. On the court, he leads the 49ers in kills, kills per game, hitting percentage and solo blocks.

Last season, he was a first team All-American after setting an NCAA record of 25 matches with at least 20 kills. He also tied an NCAA record of 10 matches with at least 10 blocks.

Not bad for a former middle blocker at Ohio State who was playing his first season at Long Beach as an opposite hitter.

Hoff has had to play both positions this season and his numbers are down. Long Beach State, however, is a better team with him at middle blocker.

“I move back and forth from both positions, it just depends on how the match is going and how well we’re playing as a team,” Hoff said. “The key for me is to keep my confidence when I am a blocker, [to realize] that I don’t get a chance to be real dominating offensively because I don’t get as many sets.”

The 49ers began the season by winning their first seven matches before losing two at No. 1 Hawaii. Since then, they have struggled with consistency and are coming off a split at the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass., last week.

Long Beach State lost to Ball State before defeating Springfield in the consolation.

“Hopefully, we will use our loss as a big wake-up call,” Hoff said. “Even when we were winning, we really weren’t playing that well. We would get up on teams and they would then just roll over for us. That led us to get too complacent. I think we have our fire back and we’re hungry to win again.”

The 49ers, who have a 7-2 record in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, will play Stanford and Pacific this weekend.

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Both USC men’s and women’s teams swept UC Irvine, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Bakersfield in dual track and field Sunday.

Kenny Alade’fa led the way for the Trojan men by winning the 110-meter hurdles in 13.98 seconds and the 400-meter hurdles in 52.84. Other winners included Jerome Davis in the 400 meters (47.08), Isaac Turner in the 800 (1:50.40), Brandon Pacheco in the 1,500 (3:53.37), Balzs Kiss in the hammer throw (241-6), Taiwo Madison in the triple jump (46-2) and Troy Strickland in the discus (152-4).

Leslie Coons’ NCAA record-breaking throw in the hammer highlighted the USC’s women’s effort. Other winners were Tai-Ne Gibson in the 100 (11.99), Torri Edwards in the 200 (24.03), Grazyna Penc in the 800 (2:08.7), Emebet Shiferaw in the 3,000 (9:56.3), Nicole Haynes in the long jump (19-1), Reischea Canidate in the high jump (5-2) and the Trojans’ 400- and 1,600-meter relay teams.

Saturday, the Trojans will play host to Long Beach State and San Diego State at Cromwell Field.

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UCLA won the national indoor tennis championship with a 5-1 upset of No. 1 Stanford at Louisville Feb. 24. The Bruins ended Stanford’s NCAA record 37-match winning streak and two-year reign as national indoor champion.

UCLA’s title was its fourth overall and its first since 1993 as the Bruins stopped an eight-match losing streak to the Cardinal. Leading the way for the Bruins were Justin Gimelstob, Srdjan Muskatirovic, Matt Breen and Eric Taino, who each won singles and doubles matches.

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USC sophomore Seth Etherton pitched his first complete game, shutting out Arizona last week, 4-0. Etherton struck out 12 and gave up three hits, yielding only two walks, and retired 11 of the Wildcats’ first 12 batters.

USC, the Pacific 10 Conference defending champion, is 12-4 and ranked fifth nationally after winning two of three games against Arizona.

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Nicole Gaines of Loyola Marymount was named newcomer of the year in women’s basketball in the West Coast Conference. Gaines, a junior forward, averaged 17 points and eight rebounds. Jenny Frank of Pepperdine was named WCC freshman of the year.