Monday, September 22, 1997 Women’s volleyball hopes to bounce
back from disappointing ’96 season PREVIEW: Bruin success depends
on summoning ‘irresistible force’ to return to postseason play
By Jennifer Kollenborn
Daily Bruin Contributor
Coming off a disappointing 1996 season marked by UCLA’s failure
to make postseason play, where Bruin injuries seemed to outnumber
UCLA victories, the1997 Bruin squad appears to have forgotten all
about last year’s difficulties.
Revived, with most of last year’s sprains and breaks healed,
UCLA steps back in the race for the national championship.
The biggest factors in the success of the Bruin squad this
season will be health and team chemistry.
Their 1997 motto is: "An Irresistible Force is a-Bruin."
And with that in mind, UCLA enters the 1997 season with three
returning seniors: outside hitter Kara Milling, outside hitter
Tanisha Larkin and setter Kim Coleman.
Two other likely starters will be sophomore middle blocker
Tamika Johnson and freshman outside hitter, Celeste Peterson.
The Bruin offense will depend on Milling, a U.S. National Team
member, to balance out the attack and open up room for variety.
Big things will also be expected of Larkin who accumulated 389
kills at the end of last season, placing her second on the team in
total kills.
Johnson, who did not see much playing time last season due to
tendinitis in both knees, will be expected to help compensate for
the loss of middle blocker Kim Krull, who led UCLA’s defense last
year. Krull became the only Bruin in history to surpass 1,500
kills, tallying 1,575.
But the focal point of any volleyball team is the setter.
Coleman beat out Kelly Flannigan last season for her spot as
setter, and in this, her senior year, Coleman has the chance to
make her hard work pay off and to prove her ability.
On the other end of the spectrum, outside hitter Peterson, being
a freshman, has anything and everything to prove.
In addition to the starters, Chaska Potter and defensive
specialist Jennifer Coopman are expected to contribute their
experience.
UCLA started off on a winning foot, finishing first in the
Hawaiian Airlines Volleyball Classic Sept. 5-7. The tournament
marked the opening of league play, and UCLA came out ready and
defeated all three opposing teams in four games or less.
UCLA opened the tournament with a 15-10, 15-3, 16-14 sweep over
Houston on Sept. 5. In the second round on Sept. 6, UCLA won in
four games over North Carolina, 16-14, 13-15, 15-9, 15-6. The
Bruins topped off the three day opener with a sweet 15-6, 15-10,
15-9 sweep over eleventh ranked Hawaii in front of a crowd of 8,344
at Hawaii’s Special Events Center. The defeat jumped UCLA’s
preseason rank in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll
from No. 21 to No. 19.
UCLA’s Hawaiian showdown named all three Bruin seniors to the
All-Tournament Team.
Yet, regardless of UCLA’s seemingly boosted strength and
increased fire power, the season is anything but in the bag for the
Bruins.
In the USA Today/AVCA preseason national poll, the Pac-10
Conference is accounted for six times: No. 1 Stanford, No. 7
Washington State, No. 15 USC, No. 19 Washington, No. 20 Arizona,
and No. 21 UCLA.
After the Bruins were shunned from postseason play last year
with an overall record of 17-14 (9-9 in the Pac-10), head coach
Andy Banachowski called a team meeting at the beginning of January
1997 to regroup.
Junior Chaska Potter recalls Banachowski’s meeting to be
therapeutic for the team.
"(Banachowski’s) talk led to our growth in confidence as a team
because we have been conditioning since January, and as a result,
our strength has vastly improved," Potter said.
Last year marked the first time in the history of the UCLA
women’s volleyball program that the Bruins failed to make
postseason play.
And UCLA does not plan a case of 1996 deja vu for1997.
"Our team is better prepared this year because all summer we
worked on improving our strength through weight training," senior
Coleman said. "And we focused on the mental part of the game in
Hawaii and really bonded as a team" – a combination that the Bruins
hope will be their irresistible force.