UCLA’s Porter Reduces Her Workload

The UCLA women’s athletic department ran into a problem last week: There’s not enough of Kristee Porter to go around.

After turning in one of the best seasons in UCLA women’s volleyball history as a freshman, Porter joined the Bruin basketball team.

But after playing four games, and needing to get ready for her third sport, track and field, Porter quit the basketball team.

“My body’s been through a lot in two years,” said Porter, who didn’t compete in track and field her senior year in high school because of a back injury. “My back started hurting again and I wanted to give it some rest.”

But not much of a rest. She is already practicing with the track team, as a long- and triple-jumper. She is uncertain about when she will begin competing.

At UCLA on a volleyball scholarship, Porter knew she would play volleyball and compete in track and field. Basketball was not originally in the plan, although she had played in high school at Tyler, Texas.

“She came in to see me one day and said she wanted to play basketball,” Coach Kathy Olivier said. “She brought a lot of enthusiasm and a little spark with her.”

She also brought her athleticism. In those four games, she had more points, 11, than minutes, 10.

In only her third game as a Bruin, against Pepperdine Dec. 30, Porter scored seven points, grabbed seven rebounds and had a block in only four minutes.

“That was the kind of game where her athletic ability just took over,” Olivier said. “If she focused only on basketball, she’d be scary.”

Even scarier for Bruin opponents is what Porter is capable of on the volleyball court.

Unsure how much she would play in 1998, Porter finished the year as the team’s key player and one of the best freshmen in the nation.

Her 609 kills and 5.54 kills-per-game average ranked second in the nation for freshmen, and earned her Pacific 10 Conference freshman-of-the-year honors.

She finished sixth on UCLA’s single-season kills list, best by any freshman. Against UC Santa Barbara, she had perhaps the best match in UCLA history, with 38 kills and 24 digs, the most combined digs and kills by a Bruin.

“She has the potential to develop into one of the best players we’ve ever had in our program,” volleyball Coach Andy Banachowski said. “She’s as athletic as any athlete we’ve ever had here.”

But as athletic as Porter is, she is still a freshman, and Olivier said three sports might have been too many for a freshman.

“Your first year at UCLA can be overwhelming,” Olivier said. “She needs to take care of her first two sports and her academics.”

But Porter won’t be an awe-struck freshman next year, and three sports are still in her plans.

“I want to sit down with Kathy [Olivier] and talk about it,” Porter said. “But I want to play [basketball] next year.”

It was a clean sweep of awards for the USC men’s water polo team. After leading the Trojans to their first national championship early in December, Marco Pintaric was named player of the year and coaches John Williams and Jovan Vavic were named co-coaches of the year.

Pintaric scored the game-winning two-point goal in double overtime of the championship match against Stanford, which USC won, 9-8. He finished second on USC with 56 points.

The Trojans had seven All-Americans, the most of any team. Pepperdine and UCLA had three All-Americans, Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara one each.

USC was the second area school to have such a sweep.

The Long Beach State women’s volleyball team did the same at Madison, Wis., in mid-December. The 49ers won the national championship, setter Misty May was named player of the year for the second consecutive season, and Brian Gimmillaro won his first coach-of-the-year award.

May was also named recipient of the 1998-99 Honda Sports Award for volleyball, and is now eligible for Honda-Broderick Cup, which is presented in June to the collegiate woman athlete of the year.

It was reported in this space a few weeks ago that Pepperdine’s two victories in this year’s NCAA women’s volleyball tournament were the first tournament victories in school history. They were the first victories in the NCAA tournament.

The Waves also made the Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women tournament four times, from 1976-79, winning 19 matches.

The AIAW was the governing body for women’s collegiate athletics until the NCAA took over in 1982.

Former UCLA track and field star John Godina was named U.S. male athlete of the year for 1998 by Track & Field News. His 71-foot 5 1/2-inch shot put and 229-4 discus throw were tops in the world in 1998.