Wilkins Clicks at Pepperdine

When she arrived nearly four years ago to play for the women’s volleyball team at Pepperdine, Katie Wilkins was about as lost as a freshman can be.

She was reserved and raw, a 6-foot-4 middle blocker from a tiny high school who never played back row. She was accustomed to blocking, not swinging, but on the first day of practice Pepperdine Coach Nina Matthies moved her to a new position and challenged her to learn how to pass so she could play all around the court.

Wilkins giggles now about those awkward days. The two-time All-American outside hitter leads the Waves (27-2) against Minnesota (24-10) tonight at 7:30 in a regional semifinal of the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournament at Long Beach State. Stanford (25-6) plays Washington (22-8) in the opener at 5:30 p.m. The winners play Saturday at 7 p.m.

Wilkins was a main reason why Pepperdine swept to its third consecutive undefeated West Coast Conference title, finished the regular season ranked No. 4 in the nation and set a school record for victories. She is the first woman to be chosen WCC player of the year in volleyball three consecutive times and was also selected All-Pacific Region three years in a row. Despite playing the latter part of the season with a broken ring finger on her right hand, she averages 5.31 kills and has a .309 hitting percentage.

Not bad for the gangly girl who was cut from her middle school volleyball team.

“I was pretty clumsy,” Wilkins said of her youth. “Always being tall, it wasn’t until about 10th grade that I wasn’t tripping over my own feet. That’s when things started coming together.”

Wilkins attended El Cajon Christian High -- where she was recognized as a work in progress -- but made the volleyball team. She said she never considered trying to play basketball.

Matthies spotted Wilkins playing for an obscure club team at a tournament.

Wilkins said she made only one college visitation -- to Pepperdine -- and her family paid for the trip because she was a high school junior.

“I never really thought about getting a scholarship until my club coach told me he was being approached by people,” she said. “Volleyball was purely for fun. Pepperdine just felt right.”

The importance of defensive specialists and the introduction of the Libero position a couple of seasons ago cause many coaches to believe that extremely tall players can’t play back row because they don’t have the dexterity to receive serves and pass well. In high school and club play, Wilkins said she was replaced every time her rotation came around to the back row. That made the learning curve at Pepperdine intense.

“It took about a year to adjust,” she said. “I was soaking everything up. It was completely different than anything I had ever done before.”

But Matthies liked her progress and as the 2001 season began she wanted to keep Wilkins on the floor as much as possible.

“If I have someone 6-4 that hits like she does, I want to keep her in to pass and play defense,” she said. “She’s done all of the above, working extremely, extremely hard embracing what we asked of her the last four years. It’s been incredible. Obviously, it’s worked for her and it’s worked for us.”

The move outside was more plausible with the addition of 6-2 senior middle blocker Lyndsey Hache’. She and Wilkins joined the Waves in the fall of 2000 and earned starting roles as sophomores.

Hache’ said Wilkins has become an outspoken team leader and because Wilkins learned to play the entire court, she has grown into one of the best players in the nation, not just an offensive threat.

“I think teams look at our height and just assume that we wouldn’t be a good defensive team,” Hache’ said. “But Katie is 6-4 and is one of our best passers.”

Wilkins is also the team’s go-to hitter. She had 15 kills and nine digs in a sweep of Manhattan in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Manhattan Coach Pete Volkert said his team tried several strategies to stop Wilkins and couldn’t do it.

“Katie Wilkins is an All-American type player and she still hits over our blocks,” he said. “There was nothing we could do. You can’t defend that type of player.”

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Women’s Volleyball

Champions from the four regionals advance to NCAA semifinals in Dallas on Thursday. The other regionals are in Florida and Hawaii. The title match is Dec. 20.

California Regional, Long Beach State Pyramid

TODAY

* Stanford (25-6) vs. Washington (22-8), 5:30 p.m.

* Pepperdine (27-2) vs. Minnesota (24-10),

7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY

* Winners, 7 p.m.

* Tickets -- $10-$25

* Information -- (562) 985-4949 or www.longbeachstate.com.

Nebraska Regional, Lincoln, Neb.

TODAY

* USC (31-0) vs. Texas A&M; (23-9), 2:30 p.m.

* Nebraska (28-4) vs. UCLA (23-8), 5 p.m.

SATURDAY

* Winners, 5 p.m.