Stork Taking Next Step With Waves
Jeff Stork should feel as if he has the weight of Malibu on his shoulders.
A volleyball star at Pepperdine in the 1980s, Stork is not only serving as interim coach at his alma mater, he’s replacing a coaching legend. Expectations are high with the Waves ranked in the top five. And for the first time in five years, Pepperdine will be without two-time national player of the year George Roumain.
But Stork has everything in perspective early in his first season and knows he can’t worry about the expectations of others.
“On the win-lose side, I don’t perceive it as pressure,” Stork said. “The pressure for me is to just do the best job I can. The pressure I feel is to make sure the team is prepared.”
Stork is taking over for Marv Dunphy, the coach for 17 years who is taking this season off to serve as an assistant with the U.S. Olympic men’s team. Stork served as an assistant under Dunphy last season, Stork’s first back at Pepperdine since earning All-American honors as a player from 1982-84.
It’s an opportunity that Stork appreciates and hopes leads to his own head coaching job. But with Dunphy returning next season, Stork doesn’t know where he’ll be after this season, and is keeping his options open.
“I’m taking the team through May. If we’re fortunate enough to make it to the national championship, that’s how far I’ll go,” said Stork, who talks to Dunphy once or twice a week. “I’m a little curious to find out what kind of jobs are out there. I know women’s coaching jobs open in the spring, so I wouldn’t give a commitment through October.”
But Stork has plenty to worry about this season. Obviously winning a national championship will be a tough task, but being the best team in Southern California will be just as difficult. Five of the top nine teams in the nation are from the Los Angeles area and in the same conference. And none of them have a bigger void to fill than Pepperdine.
Roumain was the nation’s most dominant player the last two years, and had a school-record 2,394 kills in his career. Stork’s job is to find the best way to distribute the swings Roumain used to take.
The two top candidates are junior Scott Wong and senior Andre Breuer. Wong was a first-team All-American as a sophomore last season. Breuer was a second-team All-American at Hawaii in 1999 and a member of Germany’s national team. Some coaches say Breuer could put Pepperdine over the top.
It didn’t take long to see Stork’s plan work. On Jan. 8 Pepperdine defeated USC, the team it lost to in the playoffs last season, in four games in the UC Santa Barbara Invitational.
Despite that loss, this is the Trojans’ best team in a long time. Fourth-year Coach Pat Powers, whose team fell one match short of the final four in 1999, has five starters back from his 17-11 team.
Last season the Trojans made the conference playoffs for the first time since 1995. Now they’re looking to make their first trip to the final four since 1991.
Setter Donald Suxho, the Trojans’ only senior, was a first-team All-American in 1999. He’s the only player to be with Powers every year at USC, and this season one of the players he’ll be setting for is one who could go down as Powers’ best recruit.
Sophomore Brook Billings had a school freshman record 640 kills last season.
The Trojans, who host Pacific at 7 p.m. Friday, are ranked fifth, a spot Powers said his program should never fall below.
UCLA, after defeating then-No.1 Long Beach State on Jan. 7, is No. 1 and looking toward a record 18th NCAA title.
Coach Al Scates’ Bruins are led by perhaps the nation’s best player in senior setter Brandon Taliaferro. Danny Farmer, who graduated, and Adam Naeve, with the Olympic team, are gone and must be replaced.
The Bruins will replace them with depth. At Stanford last weekend, UCLA hit .466 and had five players with double-figure kills.
UCLA will get a tough test this weekend, playing in the Outrigger Invitational at Hawaii, where it will face No. 4 Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, No. 7 Hawaii and No. 10 Penn State. Despite losing to the Bruins, the second-ranked 49ers figure to make a big impact in 2000.
In his 19th and final season as Long Beach State coach, Ray Ratelle returns all six starters from his team that made the NCAA championship in 1999.
The 49ers also have a top setter in Chris Seiffert, a two-time second-team All-American. And outside hitter Dave McKienzie, who set an NCAA record last season with 58 kills in a match, will be the big gun again.
Middle blocker Matt Prosser is the 49ers’ third returning second-team All American. They have an important match Friday at the Pyramid, hosting Stanford at 7:30 p.m.
The experience of losing in last year’s championship is something Ratelle is hoping makes his team more determined this year.
“I put a lot of stock in being there and getting a shot at the championship,” he said. “Not winning, hopefully that really eats at the team and makes them hungrier.”
Another hungry team is ninth-ranked Loyola Marymount. The Lions have been to the MPSF tournament only once since 1991. But eighth-year Coach Rick McLaughlin has four starters back, including an All-American candidate in outside hitter Reid Priddy, and feels this is his best team.
Whichever team is good enough to make the MPSF playoffs will be good enough to win the national championship, because ruling Southern California will be as tough as ruling the nation.
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Pepperdine’s Jamie Hill was omitted from a list of All-Americans last week. The senior middle blocker was named to the second team. . . . First-year Coach Tim Vom Steeg’s UC Santa Barbara men’s soccer team’s 10 1/2-game improvement on its 1998 season was the best in Division I, the NCAA announced last week. The Gauchos were 13-7-0 in 1999, after going 2-17-1 in 1998.
After posting the nation’s top two scores this season earlier this month, the UCLA women’s gymnastics team moved up to No. 1 in the national rankings last week. Junior Mohini Bhardwaj is ranked first nationally in the all-around. The Bruins host No. 8 Arizona State in their home opener Friday. . . . Eric Peterson, the UCLA women’s cross country coach the last six seasons, has been named the men’s coach as well, replacing Bob Larsen, who is retiring at the end of the outdoor track season.