Lady Lions Volleyball Is One Big ? : Team Has a 2nd-Year Coach, a Leading Setter and a Top Spiker, the Rest Is a Mystery

As seasoned seniors and returning starters, Loyola Marymount volleyball players Leslie Wohlford and Seham Khalaf know what is expected of them this year.

As the Lions’ second-year coach, George Yamashita knows things can’t get stranger than in his inaugural season.

Those are about the only givens as Loyola opens the college season Tuesday at Cal State Northridge, the defending Division II national champion.

Opponents know that Khalaf, one of the West Coast Athletic Conference’s leading setters last year, will do what she can to set up the outside hitting of Wohlford, one of the league’s most effective spikers at 5-foot-8.

The rest of the team is largely untested, so nobody, including Yamashita, knows what to expect. His suspicion is the Lions will have to play sound defense and keep the ball alive to do well. “We’re not going to walk in a gym and physically abuse anyone,” Yamashita said after a recent practice. “I think the girls are aware of it.”

Veterans of last year’s team are also aware of the schizophrenic quality of that squad, when the coaching change and a slow start led to a divisive team personality.

Yamashita and his seniors, Wohlford and Khalaf, are noticeably trying to keep practices upbeat, hoping that team unity will help avoid the kind of problems that surfaced when the Lions got off to a 7-13 start a year ago. Yamashita’s team had more upperclassman talent then and managed to put its problems behind to finish 10-4 in the WCAC and 17-17 overall.

Yamashita says he is a year wiser, both in handling players and in scheduling. Last season, the Lions--buoyed by a WCAC title and an NCAA playoff appearance in 1986--had optimistically scheduled nearly every Top 20 team around. Yamashita refers to last year’s early schedule as “Top 20 tunnel vision.”

This year the schedule is competitive but less top-heavy. The Northridge match will be followed by the UC Irvine Tournament next weekend. The Lions will play their first home match against Cal State Long Beach on Sept. 13, then single matches at Cal State Fullerton, at home against UC Santa Barbara and a two-day tournament at Georgetown. They open WCAC play with three straight home matches against the University of San Diego, St. Mary’s College and Pepperdine.

The Lions graduated three players who earned all-league honors, but this year’s team promises to be a happier one. “Emotionally we’re off to a good start,” Yamashita said. “Last year was tough for everyone. So the returning players have made it one of their top priorities that everyone enjoys the year.

“Last year a majority of our losses were to Top 20 teams. Plus I was a new coach. I hope I learned from my mistakes. It was a dismal first half. There were personality conflicts. I hope to avoid them. I want everyone to feel good about themselves and each other after the season. We’re here to play serious volleyball but everything is geared to feeling good about the year.”

Because opposing blockers will be ganging up on Wohlford, Yamashita will use a two-setter lineup, freeing Khalaf to attack. Sophomore Loren Newman will be the other setter. The challenge is to find hitters to take the places of graduated stars Lori Rodman and Cathy Petrissans. “My main job will be to bring the middle attack along as fast as I can,” Yamashita said.

Juniors Carmen Perez and Tina Hammers, both 5-9, are the top candidates to join Wohlford as outside hitters. Redshirt freshman Dawn Moon, 5-10, and 5-11 freshman Laurie Jones should see considerable action at middle blocker. Walk-on Stacy Trapp, a 5-9 sophomore, is also showing promise in practice.

Like Loyola’s team, the WCAC is an unknown quantity with a lot of new faces. Pepperdine figures to be in the running as usual but has to replace two-time conference player of the year Julie Evans. The University of San Francisco appears to be a contender, while Gonzaga and St. Mary’s have well-coached programs.

“Our goal is to do well in conference. We’re hoping to challenge Pepperdine for the conference,” Yamashita said.

Yamashita is assisted by Patrick Mitchell, a volunteer.

The message the coach hopes the players get is: “Give it your best shot. We’re trying to win. But it’s supposed to be fun. Sometimes we forget that.”