Prosser Oversees Block Party at Resurgent Long Beach State

Matt Prosser, a graduate of Buena High, is a main reason for the resurgence of the Long Beach State men’s volleyball program.

Prosser, a 6-foot-7 sophomore middle blocker, is second in the nation with a .477 hitting percentage and sixth with 1.67 blocks per game.

Not coincidentally, Long Beach State (17-2, 14-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) is ranked No. 2.

“I think he’s going to be the next big-time middle blocker on the national team,” said Coach Ray Ratelle of Long Beach State, who recruited Prosser.

“We thought he’d be good, but there’s quite a few people that we think can be good,” Ratelle said. “He’s exceeded expectations.”

Prosser, who played under four coaches in his four years at Buena, has proved it’s not necessary to play for a top high school program to attract college recruiters.

“It really doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Prosser said.”There’s a guy on my team [Jim Polster] who grew up in Minnesota. You don’t have to be from Southern California.

“You don’t have to be from anywhere.”

Prosser was everywhere on the court in a match against Loyola Marymount last month, tallying 16 blocks, one short of the school record.

“I guess they just started hitting into my hands,” Prosser said.

He is 11th on the school’s all-time list for blocks and set the single-match record with an .867 hitting percentage against Loyola Marymount last year.

He has a floater serve that can confound an opponent, but he knows what he’s best at.

“Blocking balls,” he said, “Is my favorite thing to do.”

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Coach Mike Bird of Highland walked into practice last week and delivered the news, tough as it was.

Setter Jody Shadrick, the player in charge of the Bulldogs’ offensive flow, was injured in a snowboarding accident and would be gone for the season.

“Their jaws just dropped,” said Bird, who then told his players the truth--Shadrick was out with flu.

The players exhaled, relieved Shadrick would soon return, unlike last season, when he sprained an ankle on a trampoline and missed every Golden League match.

No surprise, the Bulldogs failed to make the playoffs.

“Jody was a big part of that,” Bird said. “He has really nice hands and puts the ball in a consistent spot.

“He’s our cog. He makes things go.”

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Most teams rely on blocks, kills or aces, but at Monroe, the telling statistic is hitting errors.

In the Vikings’ biggest victory of the season, a five-game thriller against Taft last month, they had only seven hitting errors.

On Tuesday, they made only one hitting error in a sweep of Sylmar.

Then there are the matches where the errors pile up.

The Vikings (7-0, 4-0 in Valley Pac-8 Conference play) had 18 errors in a four-game victory over Grant and had 20 in a five-game squeaker over Poly.

“It really comes down to hitting accurately for us,” Coach Bob Berrenson of Monroe said. “If you hit too many balls out, you put yourself in a big hole.

“I think the guys forget that every once in a while and have to be reminded. Fortunately, we haven’t had to lose to knock some sense into us.”