Loss Can’t Diminish Pepperdine Women’s Storied Run

The undefeated Long Beach State women’s volleyball team is again headed to the final four of the NCAA tournament at Madison, Wis., this weekend. But Pepperdine was the surprise of this year’s tournament.

Seeded 13th in the Pacific Region and 51st overall, the Waves were at Lincoln, Neb., last Friday, where they took the top-seeded and fourth-ranked Cornhuskers to five games, before losing, 16-14, 10-15, 14-16, 15-1, 15-12, in the regional semifinal.

That near upset was news in itself. But how the Waves got to Lincoln made them the tournament Cinderella.

Pepperdine (19-11) traveled to East Lansing, Mich., to play fourth-seeded Michigan State Dec. 3. The Waves and Spartans played to five games, the Waves winning the fifth, 15-8. The next night, Pepperdine swept sixth-seeded North Carolina and was on its way to Lincoln.

“I thought [Michigan State] was one of the best places we could go,” said Pepperdine Coach Nina Matthies, whose team wasn’t even sure it was going to the tournament until it heard its name called on the selection show in November.

“It was someone we never played, a big school and a big crowd, as opposed to playing UC Santa Barbara or UCLA, a team we already lost to.”

But Matthies thinks more about how the Waves lost to Nebraska than how they advanced out of East Lansing.

“All day long [Saturday and Sunday], I’ve thought about the couldas, wouldas and shouldas,” Matthies said. “The coach in you says, ‘Just two more points.’ ”

Though Pepperdine lost to Nebraska, the Waves had plenty to be proud of:

* The victories over Michigan State and North Carolina were the first tournament triumphs in the 24-year history of Pepperdine women’s volleyball. It was the Waves’ 11th appearance in the tournament.

“After we beat North Carolina, I turned around to [Athletic Director John Watson] and said, ‘I want a banner,’ ” Matthies said. “Now I get my banner. I knew that was huge for us.”

* Of the 16 teams that hosted subregionals, Michigan State was the only one that didn’t advance. And the lowest-seeded advancing teams, besides the 13th-seeded Waves, were three fourth-seeded teams.

* The two victories gave more credibility and respect to West Coast schools.

“Our first awakening was reading a paper [at East Lansing],” Matthies said. “[Michigan State Coach Chuck Erbe] said, ‘All Pepperdine brings is West Coast cockiness.’ [Michigan State was] actually quite cocky.”

* Pepperdine was led by a core of underclassmen, including West Coast Conference freshman of the year Lindsay Phillips and fellow freshman Melissa Plass, who had a triple-double--10 kills, 68 assists 14 digs--against Nebraska.

“The team is young and was like, ‘We’re going to get better next year; we’ve got some good recruits,’ ” Matthies said. “As a coach, I know how hard it is to get there. For me, it was an opportunity lost, but for them it was an opportunity gained.”

For the second consecutive year and sixth time overall, Long Beach State is in the final four.

Thursday, the top-ranked 49ers (34-0) will play No. 3 Florida (35-2), the winner to play the winner of Penn State-Nebraska on Saturday for the championship.

Long Beach State, led by 1997 player of the year Misty May, did not play any of the other final four teams this season. But the 49ers have had some success against two of the teams.

Long Beach is 4-3 against Florida, and split with the Gators last year at Gainesville, Fla. Against Nebraska, the 49ers are 4-2, with a victory last year at the regional final in Long Beach.

But against No. 2 Penn State, Long Beach is only 1-2. That one victory was a huge one, a four-game victory for the NCAA championship in 1993. It was the last time the teams played.

If they meet in the final Saturday, each team will be 35-0.

UCLA forward Seth George finished third in voting for the Missouri Athletic Club’s player of the year, awarded the top collegiate American-born or naturalized men’s soccer player. It was the highest finish by a Bruin since Paul Caligiuri finished second in 1986.

George, a senior, finished the year with 15 goals, eight assists and 38 points. Duke’s Jay Heaps won the award. UCLA junior midfielder Sasha Victorine finished eighth.

George, Victorine and UCLA sophomore goalkeeper Nick Rimando were named to the All-American team selected by the National Soccer Coaches Assn. of America. George was named to the first team, Rimando to the second and Victorine to the third. It was the second time George has been named All-American, and Rimando was one of only five sophomores named to the team.

USC women’s soccer Coach Jim Millinder was named Pac-10 coach of the year, and Trojan sophomore midfielder Isabelle Harvey was named co-player of the year, sharing the award with Stanford’s Tracye Lawyer. The Trojans went 14-7-1 and Harvey’s 12 assists led the conference.