USC Men’s Volleyball Starts Fresh With an Assist From Female Coach

After compiling a winning record only once in the last four seasons and missing the conference playoffs by a game last year, the USC men’s volleyball team hopes a woman’s touch returns the Trojans to national prominence.

Laura Ames, who led the women’s volleyball program at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill., for two years, moved to California in April to serve as a volunteer assistant for the USC women’s team and take an administrative position in the exercise science department.

In October, she was hired by men’s Coach Pat Powers as one of his two new assistants. It was a move that took some getting used to by Trojan players.

“It was different,” junior setter Donald Suxho said. “There’s nothing wrong with a female being a coach. But we had to change the way we behave on the court.

“In practice, sometimes you do things like scream and cuss. Now, we don’t want to cuss.”

Said sophomore Eli Fairfield: “When she first showed up to practice, everybody was a little timid and uncertain. We’re not used to having girls watch us practice, but that’s what it was like.”

But now, Ames is fitting in on a team that has no seniors and only three juniors.

“Its like having another ear out there,” Powers said. “She handles the scouting chores for me. She also does a lot of the defensive work.

“She’s been doing a great job.”

Ames has already grown comfortable with the idea of coaching 18-, 19- and 20-year-old men.

“I feel like I have 15 sons out there,” Ames, 28, said.

She already sounds like a veteran coach.

“I feel like we’re in a great position to not only compete with [top-ranked teams] but maybe even dominate within a year or two,” she said. “We have the personnel in place.

“The only thing that’s holding us back is [that] those personnel are freshmen and sophomores.”

Even though it is a young team, USC looks as though it has already begun its turnaround.

The Trojans are 2-1, 2-0 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. To see improvement, the Trojans need only to look to Friday, when they swept San Diego State, a team USC lost to twice last season.

“I think we’ve leapfrogged a couple teams this year, and I want to continue to do that,” Powers said.

The Trojans have perhaps the nation’s top recruit in freshman Brook Billings from San Marcos High. Billings led USC in kills in both MPSF matches.

Fairfield was second on the Trojans in kills as a freshman last season. And Suxho, from Albania, is one of the top setters in the nation and the only foreign player in a program that was once famous for its international talent.

“I think the perception of this program has changed,” Powers said. “We’re a young team, and now we’re starting to play well.”

Before USC can think about where it stands at the national level, it has to compete with the teams in its own neighborhood.

And that will be asking a lot, since Long Beach State, Pepperdine and defending national champion UCLA are all in the top 10.

The Bruins, who have won a record 17 NCAA titles, are 3-1 and the preseason favorite to win it all.

Along with probably the nation’s best-known player in Danny Farmer, the All-Pacific 10 receiver, they have two returning first-team All-Americans.

Brandon Taliaferro is considered the nation’s best setter and Adam Naeve, one of the nation’s best servers, was the NCAA tournament most outstanding player last season.

Last weekend, the Bruins rebounded from a loss to No. 2 Lewis to defeat Hawaii in the finals of the Outrigger Hotels Invitational in Honolulu.

Pepperdine has the nation’s top player returning from last season.

Outside hitter George Roumain was the America Volleyball Coaches Assn. and MPSF player of the year in 1998, leading the Waves to the NCAA title game against UCLA.

But the Waves, who began the season ranked No. 5 and have defeated Penn State three times in Pennsylvania, have more to replace than any team in the nation, losing the No. 2 and 4 hitters in the nation from last season’s team.

That, combined with the talent returning from other teams, has Wave Coach Marv Dunphy unsure as to where his team will be at the end of the season.

“Right now, according to the numbers we value, we’re not a good volleyball team,” he said.

“We’re not siding out at the level we need to compete at the top of men’s college volleyball.”

The Waves (5-0, 2-0) play at UCLA tonight at 7.

Long Beach State won the women’s NCAA crown, and the men opened the season ranked seventh.

The 49ers, who won their first two matches, are led by Matt Prosser, MVP of the UC Santa Barbara Collegiate Classic, which the 49ers won by defeating USC earlier this month.

Like USC, Long Beach is very young, with only one senior.

Loyola Marymount (1-1, 0-1) and Santa Barbara (0-2) finished with 8-11 MPSF records a year ago and advanced to the MPSF playoffs.

This year, the road to the playoffs could get a bit rocky.

Last weekend, Santa Barbara lost to 1998 Mountain Division doormat UC Irvine in four, scoring less than 10 points in three games.

The Lions, who have all their starters returning, were swept by Pepperdine last week.

But that didn’t keep Coach Rick McLaughlin down. He expects his team to not only make the MPSF playoffs, but to improve on its first-round exit of a year ago.