CSUN’s New Kid on the Block : Surprise: Freshman Nancy Nicholls plays her way into the volleyball lineup.

In August, Nancy Nicholls was just hoping to make the volleyball team at Cal State Northridge, no small feat considering:

* She was an 18-year-old freshman trying out for one of the best NCAA Division II teams.

* At middle blocker, Nicholls’ position, CSUN was blessed with a returning All-American.

* She was recruited as a “project” player--a relative unknown from a high school without a reputation for turning out volleyball players.

It was a difficult situation, indeed.

And one that quickly changed.

One of six freshmen at the Lady Matadors’ summer camp, Nicholls came in overshadowed by more highly regarded recruits. Coach Walt Ker had expected only two freshmen--outside hitter Patty Fitzsimmons and setter Allison Wool--to make an immediate impact.

After the first week, however, Nicholls showed that she deserved to be a member of the team. Still, Ker thought that Nicholls would need to redshirt and spend a year refining her skills.

But that kind of thinking didn’t last long, either.

Shortly before the season’s first match, Ker pulled Nicholls aside and said that her chances of making the team were good. He also said that she just might break into the starting lineup.

Her reaction?

“I didn’t really believe him,” she said. “I thought, ‘Yeah, right.’ After he made the final cuts and told me I wasn’t going to redshirt, I was just dripping sweat. Then when he told me I was going to start the day before our first game, I practically cried.”

Although nervous at first, Nicholls has settled in quite nicely. She entered the week leading Northridge in solo blocks (13) and is second in blocking percentage (0.96).

To make room for Nicholls, Ker moved Marianne Dixon, a second-team All-American last season, to outside hitter.

“Nancy was just doing a better and better job in the middle, and as she continued to improve we had to fit her in the lineup somewhere,” Ker said.

“Marianne had said very honestly that she liked playing at the left-side spot. I think the move was hard for her. The defensive movements are different. But like any competitor, she accepted the challenge and the team is going to be that much better.”

Nicholls and Wool will be in the starting lineup when Northridge (13-9 overall, 3-3 in California Collegiate Athletic Assn. play) faces Cal State Bakersfield tonight in the CSUN gym. On occasion, Fitzsimmons has joined them, giving the Lady Matadors three first-year players in key positions. “It’s very unusual for us to have three freshmen starting,” said Ker, whose teams have finished no worse than third in the nation this decade.

This season, Northridge welcomed back four starters from a team that finished second nationally in 1988. Nicholls was supposed to fit in sometime in the future.

“It was a very strong recruiting year, but Nancy’s a hard worker and she earned her playing time. It’s a real compliment to her athletic ability that we even thought about it,” Ker said. “She was an unpolished player, but it was obvious that she had athletic ability.”

Nicholls, who is 6-feet tall, also competed in basketball, soccer and track at Cleveland High. She was All-City Section in volleyball her junior and senior years but did not attract much college attention.

Brigham Young and Utah State, along with Northridge, expressed the most interest. “I didn’t get too much publicity,” Nicholls said. “I was just sort of a local player who learned the basics in high school. I wasn’t really college material that coaches were looking for.”

On the advice of Brigham Young’s recruiter, Nicholls dropped sports other than volleyball in her senior year. Playing year-round on a club team immediately sharpened her skills.

“She had never played in the off-season before,” Ker said. “She was always involved in other sports. But with that extra experience she just improved tremendously in a seven-month period.”

But after his first impression of Nicholls last fall as a high school senior, Ker wasn’t too sure he made the right move to recruit her.

“I thought she had some kind of attitude problem,” Ker said. “All I heard was her shouting ‘C’mon fellas’ at her teammates the entire match. I was kind of concerned about her coachability.”

As it turned out, Nicholls’ outbursts were more out of frustration than anything else. After meeting her and talking with Cleveland coaches, Ker was convinced he had been mistaken.

“Nancy didn’t play on the strongest team in high school,” Ker said. “She put a lot of pressure on herself and felt that she had to take charge. I think she had a tendency to try to do everything herself.”

Said Nicholls, the youngest of eight children: “I come from a big family and I think that carried over into sports. I always try to give 100 percent in everything I do. There were so many different levels of ability on that team. I just got upset sometimes.”

In fact, Ker says he has been extremely impressed by Nicholls’ eagerness to learn. “She’s about the easiest person in the world to coach,” he said. “She has a magnetic personality and is full of enthusiasm. Nancy is just a tremendous underdeveloped talent.

“She’s going to be an outstanding college player someday.”

At her current rate of development, that shouldn’t take too long.