Even Injured, Kipps Made the Grades for USC

In her junior season in 1997, Alaina Kipps set a USC women’s volleyball season record with 151 block assists, and her 1.61 blocking average was second in school history. But the number she cared about most was 4.0--her grade-point average.

So when Kipps tore a knee ligament five matches into her senior season last fall, her blocking statistics no longer mattered. But the 4.0 did, and her ability to maintain it earned her valedictorian honors for the 1999 graduating class, the first USC athlete to be named valedictorian since water polo player Craig Furniss in 1981.

A psychobiology major, Kipps will begin medical school at Harvard in August, which is why Kipps won’t return to USC to repeat her senior season on a medical redshirt.

“It weighed on my mind a long time,” Kipps said of her decision. “But it would have been too much work to do for nothing that would really benefit me in my career.”

And Kipps has had enough hard work this past year.

She had to wait nearly a month after her injury in September to have surgery, while the swelling decreased and she regained some range of motion.

She was back in school 11 days after the surgery.

“When I was told I’d be out of school for a week, I panicked,” said Kipps, who spent nearly as much time in the trainer’s room after the injury as she did on the court before it and didn’t have more time to devote to studies. “But it made scheduling interviews easier, and telling my story of personal adversity could have helped me in those interviews.”

Kipps was a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship, won a fellowship to conduct research at a child HIV research and management center and was a member of four honor societies at USC.

But the really hard work for Kipps came after she finished her final exams.

“It was really exhausting when finals were over and I still had work to do with that speech,” she said. “I practiced it enough and felt that I knew it [the day of graduation]. It was just a matter of going through it slow enough.”

During the ceremony, she shared the stage with former Secretary of State Warren Christopher and civil rights figure Rosa Parks.

Kipps has another four years of school at Harvard before beginning an internship, which could take anywhere from two to six years. She wants to go into pediatrics or surgery.

Regardless of what specialty she chooses, Kipps jokes that she’s already an expert in one field:

“I know all about the anatomy of a knee now.”

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Less than a month after leading his team to the NCAA championship game, Long Beach State men’s volleyball Coach Ray Ratelle announced that next season will be his last.

In his 18 years at Long Beach, Ratelle’s teams have a 362-185 record with five NCAA tournament appearances and a national championship in 1991. He will remain with the school in an administrative role for two years after stepping down as coach.

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Marv Dunphy is leaving the Pepperdine men’s volleyball team to become an assistant for the U.S. national team through the 2000 Olympics. Jeff Stork, a three-time All-American at Pepperdine, will serve as the team’s interim coach. Last season was his first with the Waves as an assistant.

Dunphy was the head coach for the national team from 1985 through ‘88, leading it to gold at the 1988 Olympics at Seoul, South Korea.

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One of Dunphy’s players, George Roumain, was named the American Volleyball Coaches Assn. national player of the year for the second year in a row. The senior outside hitter led the nation with 8.55 kills per game, more than 1 1/2 kills per game ahead of second place. He also was in the top 12 in hitting percentage, aces per game and digs per game. An ankle injury kept him out of the Waves’ loss to USC in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation playoffs.

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The USC women’s varsity eight, ranked ninth nationally, was selected to take part in the NCAA rowing championships beginning Friday at Sacramento. The Trojans’ varsity four boat won the NCAA championship last year.

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UCLA and Pepperdine finished tied for 10th at the NCAA men’s golf west regional at Tucson last weekend and missed the NCAA championships by two strokes.

The Bruins and Waves shot a 29-over-par 893, while Arizona, the ninth and final championship qualifier from the regional, shot an 891. USC finished 16th and UC Santa Barbara was 18th.

But USC’s Jorge Corral, who shot a two-over 218, will go to the championships at Chaska, Minn., beginning June 2. He and Nevada’s Justin Peters tied as the top individuals from a school not qualifying.