Lisa Stark Recovers From Series of Wipe Outs

While Lisa Stark can remember her tumultuous early days as a walk-on volleyball player at Pepperdine, she can recall trying family experiences that gave her the strength to endure.

A fifth-year senior who is a key reserve for the 14th-ranked Waves, Stark’s college volleyball adventures seem trivial when compared to her family life.

Like the day in eighth grade when her life changed with the birth of her brother, Michael, who was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome and needed open-heart surgery to have any chance to survive childhood.

“He’s taught me a lot,” Stark said. “He’s friendly, loving. And he’s a fighter, too.”

Without the heart surgery, doctors told the Starks Michael probably wouldn’t live to be 8. He will be 9 on Tuesday.

Michael is a fixture at Pepperdine home matches, where his attention span is limited, but his popularity is not.

“Everybody knows him,” Stark said. “He’s the funniest kid. He doesn’t ever pay attention [to the matches], he just throws his Red Ranger [action figure] around.”

Stark’s father, Bill, sees many reasons to be thankful.

“At first, like any other family who hears news like that, we were shattered,” he said. “Thankfully, he was born into a big family. He’s really brought us all together.”

Whenever Stark stops by her parents’ home in Sylmar, she might end up wrestling with Michael--”Sometimes he gets me because I’m laughing so hard,” she said--or she’ll take her two other younger brothers and Michael out for lunch or a movie.

Time with her parents and six siblings is important to Stark. So is sharing adventures.

Last year in August, she hiked Mt. Whitney in one day with her older brother, Paul, and her father, who is in his 15th year as principal at First Lutheran, where Stark went to high school.

The trio didn’t plan on a few things, like encountering snow halfway up the 14,000-foot mountain while wearing summer gear.

Or getting caught in the dark on the way down with little more than a penlight to guide them.

Or the terrible headache Lisa got from elevation sickness while Paul, who is afraid of heights, was feeling wobbly himself.

When they finally made it back to the bottom near midnight, they had just reached the warmth and safety of their car when they crossed paths with a bear and her two cubs.

“We almost died, I think,” Stark said.

She might have felt a similar emotion when she showed up as a walk-on at Pepperdine from tiny First Lutheran in Sylmar, where she was a two-time All-Southern Section selection, most valuable player in the Heritage League and class valedictorian.

Stark was one of the few players without an athletic scholarship.

“That was really intimidating,” she said. “All the freshmen are on full rides, everybody’s [getting scholarship] money except for me. You almost feel like nothing.”

Stark redshirted her first season with the Waves and had more hitting errors, seven, than kills, five, in her second year.

After the season, Stark was offered a partial athletic grant. Coupled with a partial academic award, she finally had a full scholarship.

She bounced around the lower rungs of the depth chart for the next two seasons and had 48 kills in her career entering this season, her fifth.

Her statistics and her playing time have taken off.

Heading into a match today against 19th-ranked Loyola Marymount (15-4, 5-1 in the West Coast Conference), Stark has 81 kills and has played in 36 of 73 games for the Waves (16-2, 5-1).

Stark has started five matches, including last weekend against Gonzaga and Portland. She had a career-high 12 kills against Gonzaga.

“She’s one of my hardest workers from day one to five years later,” Pepperdine Coach Nina Matthies said.

“If I feel like we need a real physical player and physical quickness, I’ll put Lisa in. She could be, I believe, physically the best player on this team, which is a pretty big statement based on what we have. She just doesn’t have that experience behind her.”

The 5-foot-11 Stark was not offered athletic money this year, which left her with a difficult decision. She pondered a transfer to Concordia, an NAIA school with a strong teaching program, but, after encouraging words from setter Becci Roehl, Stark remained at Pepperdine as a reserve and part-time starter.

“It’s not exactly the role I would have chosen,” Stark said. “You want to see [starters] do good, but at the same time, you want to play. It’s hard warming up for a game and not knowing if you’re going to play. I’d definitely rather be starting.”

When Stark’s not practicing with the team from 7 to 9 a.m., she hangs out with her younger sister, Krista, a junior who plays basketball at Pepperdine. Or she’s with her boyfriend, Randy Wolf, former Pepperdine pitching ace, who returned this week from the Florida Instructional League.

Stark also spends time at Westlake Hills elementary school, collecting observation hours in a second grade classroom, a necessity for her teaching career.

“It’s like you see them struggling to do something and you help them and the next day they pick it up,” Stark said.

She might as well have been describing her life.