A Perfect Incentive

Mick Haley had a five-year plan in mind when he took the USC women’s volleyball job after coaching the U.S. women’s national team.

It wasn’t about building a program. It was about putting the Trojans back on a path to dominance.

“Gosh, I remember when it was 2000 and now it’s almost 2004,” Haley said with a laugh. “We’ve been focused within our team on a day-to-day basis for that whole time. Now all at once, this has exploded.”

USC defeated Stanford last December to win its first NCAA women’s volleyball championship in two decades, but there is one way this Trojan squad can top last year’s 31-1 team.

Perfection.

Only two teams have finished undefeated in the 22 years that the NCAA has sponsored women’s volleyball: Long Beach State in 1998 and Nebraska two years later. USC is 33-0 going into tonight’s national semifinal against Minnesota at Reunion Arena in Dallas.

“I think it’s really important for all of us,” said senior outside hitter April Ross, a national player-of-the-year candidate. “Everything we’ve accomplished so far doesn’t mean as much unless we win it all.”

Nothing less than a championship was expected when the defending champion Trojans brought back a team that lost only captain Lauren Killian to graduation.

They have reveled in the high expectations, defeating UCLA in the regional final for their 45th consecutive victory dating to November 2002. The win broke an NCAA record set by Penn State in 1990.

USC has assembled a team for the ages. The senior class of Ross, setter Toni Anderson, middle blocker Katie Olsovsky and libero Nicole Davis is complemented by junior standouts Emily Adams and Keao Burdine, and sophomore Bibiana Candelas. Ross, Adams and Candelas were selected first-team All-Americans on Wednesday; Burdine, a second-team pick, was the most valuable player of last season’s Final Four.

Are they comparable to the 1990-92 UCLA teams led by Natalie Williams, Holly McPeak and Elaine Youngs or the 1993 and 1998 Long Beach State teams headed by Danielle Scott and Misty May, respectively? Minnesota Coach Mike Hebert believes so.

“I think this USC team measures up with the great ones,” said Hebert, a Long Beach native and UC Santa Barbara graduate. “They’re so big and physical at the net. You have to work so hard to get by their block, and then they have a very good back row on defense.

“On top of that, they have one of the most versatile skill players in the game in April Ross.”

Washington Coach Jim McLaughlin, who won a national title with the USC men in 1990, credits Haley. “Part of it is recruiting and part of it is teaching,” McLaughlin said. “But there are so many good kids that you’ve got to be able to coach at this level. Mick has done a great job.”

Talent and coaching are factors, but focus is also important. Nebraska Coach John Cook said his team had that in 2000 when it capped a 34-0 season by defeating Wisconsin in the NCAA title match.

“It felt pretty good when we did it,” Cook said. “For a college student-athlete with the challenge of being in school and performing every night knowing everybody is taking their best shot at you, to go undefeated is a remarkable achievement.”

Though it has been done twice in the last six years, Hebert said an undefeated season remains difficult because more Division I universities have emphasized volleyball in their women’s intercollegiate athletic programs over the last 20 years.

The discussion of top programs was once limited to Western powerhouses UCLA, Stanford, Long Beach and Hawaii, but it must now include such schools as Nebraska, Florida, Georgia Tech and Kansas State.

“To me, that’s a startling achievement,” Hebert said. “To play that level of schedule that Long Beach plays or USC plays and go undefeated, I can’t comprehend that.”

There have been other teams who nearly pulled off perfection only to come up short. UCLA took unblemished marks into the 1988 and 1992 NCAA title matches before losing. The same occurred to Long Beach State in 2001.

“It’s very hard to do,” Cook said. “How many times does somebody go undefeated in other sports? North Carolina just did it [in women’s soccer], but it’s very difficult in football. In basketball, it’s impossible.

“Winning is hard enough. Doing it undefeated is remarkable.”