UC Irvine Notebook : Volleyball Team Is Set for Its Big-Time Debut

It may be akin to rounding up the best guys in your fraternity’s intramural league and challenging Oklahoma to a football game, but UC Irvine is plunging headlong into big-time men’s volleyball this week.

The Anteaters will debut at 7:30 Friday night, playing host to Loyola Marymount in Crawford Hall. Their schedule includes UCLA, USC and Pepperdine--the top three teams in last season’s final Division I poll--and most of the rest of the top 20 as well.

“Realistically, we’re at the bottom of the totem pole,” said Coach Bill Ashen, who coached Irvine last season when it competed as a club team. “About 90% of the teams we compete against have established programs and offer scholarships. We have no scholarships.”

Ashen’s walk-ons (“The team’s basically a bunch of UC students who wanted to play volleyball,” he said) will be bolstered by two transfers this season. Brian Kehe, from Long Beach College, is a swing hitter who became Irvine’s star player the minute he slipped on an Anteater uniform. And John Littler, a transfer from UC Santa Barbara, will start at outside hitter.

“Everyone else is a freshman, in terms of eligibility,” Ashen said. “All the guys except one are back from last year.”

Irvine, which was 0-16 playing many of the same teams last year, will compete as an independent this year. Next season--assuming that Chancellor Jack W. Peltason approves the move, which is expected--the Anteaters will be a member of the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. and compete on the Division I level.

This season, Ashen has scheduled home-and-home matches against Division II opponents La Verne, UC San Diego and Chapman in April and May.

“We figure to need a few wins by then,” Ashen said.

Ashen didn’t play much volleyball when he was growing up. At least, not when his older brother, Tom, was around.

Tom was an All-American volleyball player at Cal State Long Beach, a member of the national team and a top-rated beach player. As shadows go, he cast a sizable one.

“I did all I could to avoid the comparisons,” Bill Ashen said, “so I played tennis at Santa Ana High School.”

He felt secure enough to take an advanced volleyball class at Santa Ana College (now Rancho Santiago) and “was bitten.” He was soon playing competitively there and also played at Cal State Long Beach. After graduating, he played on various amateur open teams and taught at clinics before taking a job as the girls’ coach at Corona Del Mar High.

Ashen, 35, was coaching the boys’ and girls’ teams at Laguna Beach High when he heard about UC Irvine’s plan to start a men’s program in the summer of 1986.

“When Rob Halvaks (an Irvine associate athletic director) called me, I tried to sound calm,” Ashen said, “but I think he knew I was teething at the bit. Coaching a Division I program has been my dream.”

Last year, the dream bordered on nightmare.

“We had to practice at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club of East Bluff at 6 a.m.,” he said. “Now, that was scary. I tried blasting rock ‘n’ roll at them. I tried everything. Nobody was awake, though.

“Now, we’re recognized as a varsity sport. We get gym time every night and the weight room a couple of hours a week. It’s amazing what that does for a team’s confidence.”

A victory somewhere along the way might help, too.

Steve Florentine, the 6-foot 7-inch sophomore forward who emerged from the depths of the bench to win a starting role on the men’s basketball team, played reasonably well in Monday night’s Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. opener against UC Santa Barbara.

He had played just 59 minutes in 7 of Irvine’s first 9 games, but he played 26 in Irvine’s 81-78 loss to the Gauchos.

Florentine, playing small forward, made 3 of 5 field-goal attempts and 2 of 2 free throws. He finished with eight points, one rebound and one assist, but he wasn’t in the game for his offensive skills.

Coach Bill Mulligan has long said that Florentine is one of the best athletes on the team, so he awarded him the task of defending Santa Barbara’s Brian Shaw. Shaw leads the conference in rebounding and assists and still finds time to score 14.3 points a game.

Shaw had 22 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists Monday.

“He’s a hell of a player and can really penetrate,” Florentine said of Shaw. “I was letting him have his (outside) shot, but he wouldn’t take it. He’d rather go to the hoop.”

Two weeks ago, Mulligan wasn’t sure if Florentine belonged in the top eight, but he changed his mind during Irvine’s two-week break between nonconference and PCAA play.

“He told me last Sunday that if I went hard all week in practice, I’d start,” Florentine said. “And going against Shaw was quite a way to start.”

Anteater Notes

Seniors Greg Wilson and Mike Doting were named second-team All-Americans by the U.S. Water Polo Coaches Assn. Wilson, from El Toro High School, scored 47 goals this season and was named co-player of the year in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. Doting, from Tustin High, scored 39 goals. Senior goalie Mark Maizel, from Villa Park High, was named a third-team All-American. He had 125 saves in 16 games. Juniors Tony Bell, Julian Harvey and Chris Duplanty were honorable mention All-Americans. . . . Twenty schools will compete in the UC Irvine/General Automation International swim meet Saturday and Sunday at Heritage Park in Irvine. No. 1-ranked USC will be led by three former Orange County high school swimmers: Mike O’Brien (Newport Christian High), who won a gold medal in the 1,500-meter freestyle in the 1984 Olympics; Steve Bentley (Fountain Valley High), who set an American record in the 200-meter breaststroke, and Dan Jorgensen (Mission Viejo High), who is the defending NCAA 500-yard freestyle champion. . . . Center Natalie Crawford, who is averaging 23.2 points and 11.2 rebounds in her last five games, is second on the Anteaters’ all-time rebounding list with 621 and fifth in scoring with 943 points. Katherine Hamilton (1979-83) heads the career list in both categories with 1,768 points and 901 rebounds. . . . A ceremony to unveil the bronze statue of an Anteater, sculpted by New Mexico artist Billy Fitzgerald (who also created the Bruin sculpture at UCLA), will be held in front of the Bren Center at 7 p.m., Jan. 14, before Irvine’s game against Utah State.