Watered-Down Pepperdine Needs to Find Spark Soon

Everything seemingly was catching fire near Pepperdine last week.

Terry Schroeder, the Waves’ water polo coach, hopes his team can do the same.

Figuratively, that is.

The Waves, traditionally a national force, have struggled this season. They are 5-10 overall and 1-4 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation heading into conference home games against Stanford (12-4, 3-1) on Friday and Pacific (8-8, 1-3) on Saturday.

“It’s basically inexperience,” said Schroeder, a four-time Olympian with the U.S. water polo team. “We have a lot of guys who hadn’t played Division I polo.”

Schroeder contributed to the fallout when he decided his top two returning players, driver Jack Kocur and two-meter man Alan Herrmann, would use a redshirt year. Kocur was a standout at Royal High.

It was a calculated move, done to save Kocur’s and Herrmann’s senior season until next year when the more-experienced Waves could contend for the NCAA title.

The maneuver, known as stacking, is common in college water polo. Schroeder, in his 11th season at Pepperdine, has successfully used it before. The Waves reached the NCAA championships in 1989 and 1994 with so-called stacked teams.

But the sacrifice is great. Kocur, for instance, scored 30 goals last season.

“It’s a rebuilding year,” Schroeder said. “But we are not throwing this year away yet.”

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Pop quiz: Which former Valley football coach is now director of player personnel for the St. Louis Rams?

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Has Cal Lutheran’s athletic department made a more significant move than hiring women’s volleyball Coach James Park three years ago?

On Tuesday, Park and the Regals concluded their second consecutive undefeated Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season by dumping Pomona-Pitzer in three games.

The Regals (17-3, 12-0) are 35-1 in SCIAC play the past three seasons and have won 25 conference matches in a row. They didn’t lose a game in the second half of SCIAC action this season.

Park, who has a 78-28 record at Cal Lutheran, said the team’s chief goal was to finish unbeaten in the conference.

“Depth-wise, I thought we were pretty good,” Park said. “But I didn’t know how we were going to execute. . . . Whenever we needed to play together, we did. Playing as a team has been the main reason for being where we are.”

The Regals play host to The Master’s tonight in a nonconference match and then will focus on winning the NCAA Division III title that eluded them last year when they lost to Washington University of St. Louis in the championship match.

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Moorpark’s forfeit victory over Compton in football last Saturday is not a frequent occurrence in the Western State Conference.

Compton didn’t have enough players.

Since 1980, only one other WSC game has been forfeited for something other than use of an ineligible player.

On Oct. 2, 1993, Harbor forfeited to West L.A. after temporarily suspending its football program in the aftermath of a brawl following a game with Pierce the week before.

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Give me a V, give me an A, give me an L, give me another L, give me an E, give me a Y.

What does that spell?

The guy asking you that question at the next Valley football game could be Carlos Nunez, the former Pierce first baseman.

Nunez, an All-WSC second-team pick in 1995 and an honorable mention in 1996, has traded his baseball uniform for a Valley cheerleading outfit.

How’s that for U-N-U-S-U-A-L?

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Quiz Answer: John Becker, who was 17-10-1 with the Monarchs from 1974-76.

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Ventura is hosting the seven-team WSC water polo tournament Friday and Saturday. The Pirates (16-9-3) are ranked seventh in the state. . . .

Running back Marcus Harvey needs 36 yards to overtake Dondre Bausley as Valley’s leader in all-purpose yardage. Bausley had 2,760 yards in 1986-87. . . .

Pierce volleyball player Malena Zapata leads the WSC with 23 aces and 333 assists and ranks second in kill percentage at 36.2%. . . .

Moorpark’s football team will seek its third consecutive shutout Saturday when it travels to Harbor. The Raiders blanked five opponents in 1989 but have not recorded three shutouts in a row.