Men’s Volleyball Preview : Penn State May End West Coast Rule Over Sport : There Is Still Plenty of Talent in Southern California, But NCAA Title Monopoly Threatened

It’s not required that the national champion in men’s college volleyball be a school in Southern California. It’s just always been that way.

In the 18 years since the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. has crowned a champion, the winner has been one of the 10 teams in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. More specifically, the NCAA champion has been 12-time winner UCLA, three-time champion Pepperdine, twice champion USC, or once champion San Diego State.

But this season may be different. In addition to the three traditional powers, other WIVA teams have improved. What’s more, this year’s national champion may come from the East.

Volleyball Monthly, a magazine that ranks college teams nationally and is five for five at picking the last five NCAA champions, is picking Penn State this year.

“Penn State has six starters back who have also played in the Final Four the two previous years,” said John Hastings, an editor at Volleyball Monthly.

“UCLA is the No. 2 favorite, followed by USC, Hawaii and Pepperdine. But the WIVA has really opened up this year, far more than in the past. There is a new class of players and the talent is spread around. (Cal State) Long Beach looks good, San Diego State is much improved and (Cal State) Northridge looks good also.”

This season, UCLA, USC and Pepperdine, have each lost three key starters.

UCLA, defending NCAA champion, lost four-time All-American Asbjorn Volstad, Jeff Williams and Arne Lamberg. But they have three All-Americans returning--senior Don Dendinger, junior Matt Sonnichsen and sophomore Trevor Schirman, Volleyball Monthly’s freshman of the year last season. UCLA was 6-0 in nonconference play, going into the weekend’s UC Santa Barbara Classic, and Coach Al Scates is hoping for another trip to the Final Four.

“This team is good now, but it will be really strong by the end of the season,” Scates said. “We have some solid new starters in two sophomore swing-hitters, Mike Stafford and J.B. Saunders. Playing opposite is Bill Suwara, an excellent jumper and blocker. Plus, we have solid backup in two freshmen, our No. 1 recruit, 6-7 Carl Henkel, and 6-7 Mark Whitcomb.”

USC has been a bridesmaid the past three years, losing in the Final Four to UCLA and twice to Pepperdine. The Trojans last won a national championship in 1980.

This season they have a younger team, having also lost three starters, including three-time All-American Adam Johnson.

USC Coach Bob Yoder has three strong juniors returning, including first team All-American Tom Duke, a 6-6 middle blocker. New this year are Jen-Kai-Liu, a 6-3 sophomore outside hitter who played on Taiwan’s national team, and 6-7 freshman Bryan Ivie, from Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach.

Pepperdine finished second in the WIVA last year, having won national championships in 1985 and 1986.

“This will be an interesting year,” said Pepperdine’s coach, Rod Wilde. “We lost three, three-time All-Americans in Rob Scott, Matt Rigg and Troy Tanner, and those are big holes to fill.

“We do have three starters returning, but the freshmen we have are untested. They are big and physical, but how they play in a key match is yet to be seen. It will be awhile before I can solidify the lineup.”

A surprise this year was to see Long Beach ranked sixth.

“I was surprised myself to see us ranked so high,” said Coach Ray Rettele. “We have a fairly young team and though some people have seen us, and we have looked OK, we haven’t done anything to earn that ranking.

“We have lost two All-Americans and we haven’t had the chance to get a real good look at our front line personnel yet.”

Long Beach won its first match last Tuesday night against Chapman College.

Northridge is a Division II school but it competes in Division I in volleyball. Coach John Price thinks they have their best chance yet.

“This is the most talented and mature team we have ever had,” Price said. “This year we have UCLA transfer Jeff Campbell, and Bob Samuelson, a former junior college player of the year. We have the talent and ability, it is just a matter of playing consistent enough to win.”

WIVA league play will begin next week.