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After a heartbreaking loss in the NCAA National Championships last year, the men’s volleyball team is ready to go at it again — and it isn’t holding anything back. Pepperdine faced the University of Hawaii three times prior to its final match up last season, seizing the win in three or four games each time. When it came down to it, No. 1 Pepperdine lost the title match in four games, leaving No. 2 Hawaii with the crown the Waves yearned for all year.
“I haven’t even watched the final four on TV,” junior outside hitter Fred Winters said. “A lot of guys talk about watching it before we play them again this year. The roles are reversed now. Last year we were the dominant team, now they are No. 1. That’s good in a way, we can just play our game and see what happens.”
Head Coach Marv Dunphy said Hawaii would stand as one of the Waves’ biggest challenges, but the list of potential threats has grown longer because the strongest teams are staying strong, and Pepperdine is enduring several player changes.
“There are eight or so teams that have everyone back. That's a tremendous advantage for them because there’s a lot continuity of personnel,” Dunphy said. “We’ll have four new starters, that’s a lot of change.”
The Waves are struggling to reach the standards met in the past, but continue to run practices just as they’ve been run in the past.
“In each rotation, we have standards to be met,” Dunphy said. “As we speak, to this day, we have not met the standards that we set. We just aren’t quite there yet. We have three all-conference players back, we are fortunate for that, but still there is a lot of change to be worked through.”
Senior middle blocker Brad Keenan, tabbed American Volleyball Coaches Association’s “Player of the Year,” and sophomore Sean Rooney, the AVCA’s “Newcomer of the Year,” are sure to be key in the reconstruction of a program that has always held strong in the toughest league known to men’s volleyball, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
“I think the biggest change in the league, versus 10 or 20 years ago, is that the bottom has really come up,” Dunphy said. “There’s no big drop off anymore. This league is just a great league. You better do well at home, because on the road, it gets a lot tougher.”
In their first conference match, the Waves competed against the USC, seizing the win with an impressive three-game sweep. Junior Fred Winters, slightly overlooked in the 2002 season, will assist Keenan and Rooney in leading the Waves, as he’s already demonstrated his obvious talent in Pepperdine’s first few games.
“Last year it came naturally,” Winters said. “We had a very talented team. This year, as a team, we are going to have to play better to be good. Last year we could walk into a gym and just beat people, probably because they were scared of us. Now, they aren’t intimidated by us at all.”
Winters also acknowledges freshman outside hitter Andy “Fish” Webb, who along with Keenan and Rooney, establish a solid core.
The team remains focused on what they can do, and what needs to take place in order to succeed.
“I think we have the potential,” Rooney said. “Everybody sees it there. We have moments of brilliance, but we need to keep improving, keep working hard and then we’ll be OK. We can do well.”
When it comes to the team’s season dreams, Dunphy made it clear that a goal-setting talk was not necessary, nor would one ever take place.
“When kids come here, they know that they are here to compete and be successful at the highest level,” Dunphy said. “It is not something we even talk about. The goal is to win a national championship every year. That’s always been the goal, and it always will be.”
Submitted January 23, 2003
MALIBU, CA
