GARRETT WAIT
Sports Editor
The Pepperdine men’s volleyball team knows it’s good enough to compete for a national championship this year. Whether they actually do is a different story.
This is a veteran team, a team filled with some very talented young volleyball players, a team that only lost one starter from the previous season.
But this is also a team that has been able to say all those things before. Still, there’s only one goal in mind for Head Coach Marv Dunphy.
“The team goal is to be as good as we can be,” Dunphy said. “We want to compete for a national championship every year. We want to be the best.”
This time around, the Waves begin the season ranked third in the USA Today/CSTV volleyball poll and second in the Volleyball Magazine poll. Pepperdine hasn’t been ranked that high in the preseason since 2001 when the Waves were the preseason No. 1.
Despite high rankings in the preseason polls, Dunphy said he isn’t taking anything for granted. He knows what it takes to win a championship and he knows that this team isn’t going to be the team to beat, yet.
“We wouldn’t be the favorite going into the season,” Dunphy said. “There are five or six teams out there that have everyone back.”
Pepperdine returns six of seven starters from a team that went 19-9 last season including 14-8 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play. Last year, the Waves were defeated in the second round of the MPSF Championship tournament.
This year, hopes are to revenge that loss at the hands of Brigham Young University, a team that sits atop the USA Today poll. Pepperdine will get its first shot at redemption Feb. 11 and 12 when the Cougars come to Firestone Fieldhouse.
Other highlights on the schedule include a road series against University of Hawaii, who always competes for the national title.
Also, home-and-home series’ with both Long Beach State University and Cal State Northridge, who sit right behind the Waves in the polls, loom large this season.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. This team just wants to reach into the sports cliché grab bag and take it one game at a time.
Senior leaders James Ka, Sean Rooney and John Mayer will help keep the younger players on the team united in their quest for a championship. But their talent will keep them in the win column.
Rooney, an All-American last season, may very well be the best player in the nation and he plans on showing the volleyball world what he can do in the absence of Fred Winters, the All-American who finished his career last season.
Also returning are junior middle blocker Andy Hein and sophomore outside hitter Tanner Sutherland who each started last season. Hein was the team leader in blocks per game last season while Sutherland contributed 1.42 digs per game, good enough for fourth on the team.
With all the continuity comes a lot of change as well. Despite having so many players back, the team will face some adversity because the team had to switch people to different positions to fill the void left by departures.
Most notably, middle blocker John Parfitt will now play at the outside hitter position to gain a little more size on the court, according to Dunphy.
“Only two positions are the same as last year,” said Dunphy. “That’s a lot of change.”
Also changing the landscape was the recruitment of star setter Jonathan Winder, a 6-8 freshman from Irvine, Calif. Winder is expected to start at setter while moving Mayer over to the libero position that was occupied by Ka last season.
Last season, Winters led the team in kills per game. Somehow, the Waves will need to replace his 4.85 kills each game to have a chance of winning games in the stacked MPSF.
With Parfitt now outside, and a new setter roaming the court, the Waves will need to find their comfort zone early in the season to be able to grow into a championship-caliber team later in the season.
Any sweeping change is accompanied with a time of growth, sometimes-painful growth.
So Pepperdine fans shouldn’t expect to watch flawless volleyball every time this team takes the court in the early season.
“I wouldn’t anticipate us to be as smooth as we will be by the middle or the end of the year,” Dunphy warned.
Despite the obvious optimism by volleyball insiders, and despite somewhat lower expectations by the coaching staff, this team has the talent and the potential to be as good as any team in the country. They aren’t there yet, but watching them try to obtain that goal will be an adventure for Pepperdine fans.
“The team goal is to be as good as we can be. We want to compete for a national championship every year. We want to be the best.”
“We wouldn’t be the favorite going into the season. There are five or six teams out there that have everyone back.”
“I always start the year with the end in mind. ”
“We’re going with a bigger line up this year. We moved our middle blocker John Parfitt to the outside to get some more size.”
“Only two positions are we the same as last year. That’s a lot of change.”
“I wouldn’t anticipate us to be as smooth as we will be by the middle or the end of the year.”
“This is an exciting team and will be a lot of fun to watch. We’ve got two great wins already this year and hope for a few more.”
“The guys are training well and look sharp. It should be a fun season.”
01-20-2005
