USC Volleyball Coach Gets Most Out of Temp Job

Having led the USC women’s volleyball team to a 15-5 record and a No. 16 ranking in his first year in charge, Coach Jerritt Elliott shouldn’t have to worry about job security. But regardless of how well the Trojans do, Elliott knows his job is a temporary one.

Elliott began the season in an unusual position--a lame-duck coach before overseeing a single practice.

In the wake of coach Lisa Love’s decision to step down after last season to pursue administrative duties, Elliott, a four-year assistant, applied for the job.

But USC decided to go with longtime Texas Coach Mick Haley, a winner of two national championships with the Longhorns. There was a problem, however. Haley is coaching the U.S. national team through next year’s Olympics and won’t be available to coach the Trojans until the 2001 season.

So USC hired Elliott, but only for this season and next. He has made the most of his opportunity.

The Trojans are 10-3 in the Pacific 10 and riding a six-match winning streak. And this weekend, USC and UCLA travel to the Bay Area to play Cal and second-ranked Stanford in the conference’s most important matches of the season.

“We have Cal first, and we can’t look past them,” said Elliott, already sounding standard coaching themes. “But whenever you play Stanford you’re extremely excited.”

That the Trojans can still be excited about big matches in November is a testament to Elliott’s efforts.

Success has come to the team having no seniors and a number of injuries--middle blocker Amber Oliver returned two weeks ago from an ankle injury suffered in September, only to be sidelined again last week in practice by a similar injury. And even before the season, not much was expected from the Trojans.

But Elliott was able to use that as a motivator.

“We were picked by the coaches in the preseason poll to finish fifth in the Pac-10,” he said. “The girls took that personally. We wanted to be in the top three and that’s where we are.”

The Trojans have no individual conference leaders but as a team, they ranked first in digs last week, third in hitting percentage, third in assists and fourth in kills.

“We have no superstars. We have six solid players on the floor,” Elliott said. “Every night it’s somebody new stepping up.”

Case in point: In a sweep over Washington State on Saturday, Janae Henry led the Trojans with 18 kills. The night before against Washington, junior outside hitter Kashi Cormier, averaging barely three kills a game, had a career-high 23 in three games, followed by Antoinette Polk’s 17 and Jennifer Pahl’s 13.

What makes Elliott’s accomplishments more impressive is that he is only 31.

But in his case, young doesn’t mean inexperienced. Besides working as Love’s assistant, Elliott was an assistant for the 1999 U.S. junior national team that qualified for the World Championships, was a club coach for four years and an assistant for the 1993 Cal State Northridge men’s team that advanced to the NCAA championship match.

“The question of whether I can coach at this level is not an issue,” said Elliott, who is guaranteed an assistant’s job with the Trojans when Haley arrives.

And the confident Elliott knows that this opportunity can lead to other things.

“I look forward to working with Mick, because as a coach, you should never be satisfied with how much you know,” said Elliott, who already has lined up arguably the nation’s best recruiting class for next season. “And at the big programs around the nation, a lot of coaches are getting up in years. So there will be one or two surprise openings every year.”

But before he becomes a coaching legend, Elliott knows there’s a lot to be done this season.

“If we could get to the Final Four, that would be tremendous,” he said. “That’s our goal right now.”

At Westwood, last week was a big one for the seventh-ranked UCLA women’s volleyball team, winner of 19 in a row. A night after junior Elizabeth Bachman set a school record with a .938 hitting percentage against Washington on Thursday, sophomore outside hitter Kristee Porter became the second fastest in Division I to reach 1,000 kills, against Washington State. She reached 1,000 in her 50th match and 183rd game.

Ninth-ranked Pepperdine remained undefeated in West Coast Conference play at 8-0 with a victory over San Diego on Friday, despite 43 kills by San Diego All-American Petia Yanchulova. . . . Long Beach State stayed hot, defeating Cal State Fullerton on Saturday for its 11th consecutive victory.

For the third time in four games this season, defending national champion USC fell to Stanford in men’s water polo. The Cardinal got a two-point goal with little more than a minute left to defeat the Trojans, 7-5. . . . USC freshman Erik Vendt broke a 13-year-old McDonald’s Swim Stadium record by swimming the 1,650-yard freestyle in 14:54.30, 16.44 seconds better than the previous mark, to highlight the season-opening USC Invitational. . . . UCLA’s men finished seventh, the UCLA women were fourth and the USC women eighth in the Pacific 10 cross-country meet Saturday. . . . The Long Beach State men finished sixth and the women ninth at the Big West cross-country meet. UC Santa Barbara’s men were third, the women seventh.

Second-ranked UCLA defeated Virginia, 2-0, on Sunday for the Pacific Soccer Classic title. Tournament offensive MVP Sasha Victorine assisted on one goal after having scored the only goal against Air Force. . . . The Long Beach State women ended their season with a 1-0 upset of Mountain West co-champion Utah on Saturday. . . . UC Santa Barbara didn’t get a chance to play its regular-season finale because its game Sunday with Fresno State was declared no contest when referees failed to show.

USC’s Isabelle Harvey became the school’s all-time goal leader when she scored her 40th in the 11th-ranked Trojan women’s soccer team’s 3-0 victory over Oregon State on Sunday. . . . Loyola Marymount broke a school record with 26 shots in a 2-0 victory over UC Santa Barbara Friday.

COLLEGE DIVISION

With the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. men’s soccer tournament set to begin Friday and the women’s Thursday at Sonoma State, Cal State Dominguez Hills’ women’s team extended its winning streak to 11 last week to clinch the No. 2 seeding in the South Division. The Toros will play Sonoma State, and Cal Poly Pomona will play UC Davis. On the men’s side, Alex Bengard scored five minutes into overtime for Dominguez, giving the Toros a 2-1 victory over Cal Poly Pomona and sending them into the tournament with the South’s No. 2 seeding. They will play UC Davis, undefeated in conference play.

In the Golden State Athletic Conference, Westmont will host Vanguard and Azusa Pacific will face Cal Baptist at Westmont on Thursday in the NAIA Region II women’s playoffs. The winners play Friday, with that winner going to the NAIA tournament.

Pomona-Pitzer’s Anastasia Finnegan and Adam Boardman were named the SCIAC women’s and men’s runners of the year after Saturday’s conference meet. Boardman finished second to Whittier’s Matthew Stuart and won the award based on his combined showing at that meet and the conference duals in October. Finnegan also finished second, to Claremont’s Andrea Haver. Claremont won both men’s and women’s races.

Redlands quarterback Danny Ragsdale had another phenomenal performance Saturday, throwing for 548 yards and six touchdowns in the Bulldogs’ 63-10 victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

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Best of the Week

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

* UCLA at Stanford, Friday, 7 p.m.; USC at Stanford, Saturday, 7 p.m.: Three games separate these three Pacific 10 front-runners. The Bruins are in first at 13-0 in the conference, the Cardinal is 11-1, and the Trojans are 10-3.

* Cal Baptist at Westmont, Saturday, 7:30 p.m.: Cal Baptist leads Westmont by a game in the Golden State Athletic Conference, and the two meet in the season finale.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

* USC at UCLA, Sunday, 10:30 a.m.: Not only is this one for bragging rights, but both teams are ranked and a victory will give the Trojans at least a share of the Pac-10 crown.

* Chapman at Cal Lutheran, today, 11 a.m.: These two Southland teams hook up in the opening round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.

MEN’S WATER POLO

* Stanford at UCLA, Saturday, 3 p.m.: UCLA is the only team undefeated in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play, but is tied atop the rankings with the Cardinal.

MEN’S SOCCER

* Cal State Fullerton at UCLA, Sunday, 1 p.m.: In the second game of the men’s and women’s soccer doubleheader, the No. 2 Bruins try to defeat the No. 13 Titans for the first time in four meetings, a streak that dates to October 1996. The MPSF title is on the line.

CROSS-COUNTRY

* GSAC meet at Fresno Pacific, Saturday, 9 a.m.

FOOTBALL

* Azusa Pacific at La Verne, Saturday, 1 p.m.: The defending NAIA champion Cougars look to rebound against one of the most high-powered teams in the Division III Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.