COLLEGES / IRENE GARCIA : Lion Volleyball Team Is Off to a Roaring Start

Second-year Coach Steve Stratos’ ability to recruit and motivate athletes has been a big reason behind the turnaround of the Loyola Marymount women’s volleyball team.

Stratos, 39, a graduate of Torrance High and El Camino College, inherited a Loyola team that went 8-19 under Mike Normand in 1989. In Stratos’ first season, Loyola finished 10-4 in West Coast Conference play and competed in postseason play for only the second time in school history. The Lions finished 21-16 after reaching the semifinals of the Women’s Invitational Volleyball Championships in Tennessee.

This season Loyola (7-4) has defeated two ranked teams: No. 10 New Mexico and No. 16 San Diego State. The Lions also won the Anteater Invitational Tournament last week at UC Irvine.

But perhaps the most satisfying victory of the season was Tuesday’s home opener against San Diego State. The Lions were 0-8 against the Aztecs since the schools started playing each other in 1976, but won, 15-7, 5-15, 15-11, 15-10.

“For a young team like ours to beat a team of notoriety is great for our confidence,” Stratos said. “And we did it with a freshman setter. It was a very important victory for us.”

San Diego State Coach Rudy Suwara was impressed with the Lions’ play.

“This Loyola team is a very good team and they’re very well coached,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it, LMU is on an up cycle. They’re playing very well.”

A lot of it has to do with the talent Stratos has recruited. Seven of this year’s impact players, including outside hitters Joli Eberhart, Deanna Doolittle and Marisa Mora, middle blocker Tahlia Wagner and setter Robin Ortgiesen, were recruited by Stratos.

Ortgiesen is Stratos’ prize recruit. The freshman from Mira Costa High is second in the WCC with 11.68 assists a game. Her school-record 84 assists against New Mexico on Sept. 7 is the nation’s highest total this season. Last year Ortgiesen was the Ocean League most valuable player and an All-CIF selection.

“The word is . . . ecstatic,” Stratos said, recalling the day Ortgiesen committed to Loyola. “We literally didn’t have a setter and now we have one of the country’s best.”

Eberhart and senior middle blocker Stacy Trapp are also off to fast starts. Eberhart, a junior from Golden West College, was named WCC player of the week on Monday and was the MVP at the Anteater Invitational. She leads the Lions with 151 kills, 155 digs and 39 blocks.

Stratos believes a good working relationship with the players has been a key to the team’s success. Before coming to Loyola, he coached the Woodbridge High girls’ and boys’ volleyball programs to CIF prominence.

“I treat my players with tremendous respect and that’s important,” he said.

Stratos said Ortgiesen’s ability to concentrate during a match is a key to her success. He said few freshmen, regardless of their high school career, can adjust to the college game quickly.

“Nothing bothers (Robin),” Stratos said.

The 5-foot-11 Ortgiesen can’t imagine what all the fuss is about. “I just concentrate on my own thing, on what I’m doing,” she said.

At Mira Costa, Ortgiesen was a three-year starter and one of the few freshmen to make a varsity team coached by Dae Lea Aldrich. As a junior she helped the 27-0 Mustangs win a state championship. Aldrich says Ortgiesen, a steady player, is a very private person away from the game.

“She focuses so well that she’s a calming factor on the court,” Aldrich said. “That’s why her teammates trust her.”

A sibling effort helped the Cal State Dominguez Hills women’s soccer team improve its record to 4-0 on Tuesday. Sophomore midfielder Anna Rubin scored both goals in the Toros’ 2-1 victory over Cal Lutheran on assists from her twin sister, forward Amy Rubin.

Both athletes were standouts at Hawthorne High. Amy leads the Toros this season with three goals and three assists. She scored the winning goal in Dominguez Hills’ 1-0 victory over Chico State last week and another goal in a 2-0 win over Cal State Hayward.

The Toros are ranked seventh in the latest NCAA Division II poll. Their perfect record will be on the line Saturday when they travel to Division I San Diego State for a 1 p.m. match.

El Camino has four new coaches this season.

LeValley Pattison replaced Mary McLaughlin as women’s volleyball coach and Nick Van Lue replaced Glen LeVier as baseball coach.

Pattison, 27, was an All-CIF setter at Mira Costa in 1981. She also played on the Warriors’ 1983 state championship team. Pattison spent four years as a Pepperdine women’s assistant and a year as a Mira Costa assistant.

Van Lue is a former Narbonne High coach and Harbor College assistant. Both coaches inherited teams with losing records.

El Camino’s volleyball team went 3-7 in the South Coast Conference and 5-10 overall last year. The Warriors’ baseball team had a 13-27 overall record and were 8-16 in the SCC.

The Warriors’ new assistants are Steve Shaw, who will work under men’s basketball Coach Paul Landreaux, and Bob Grant, who will work with Van Lue. Shaw was the boys’ basketball coach at Redondo High and Grant was the baseball coach at South Torrance High.