No Place Like Home for Hill of Azusa Pacific

After three years as a starting setter at the University of Florida, Lenee Hill says she had grown weary of the rigors of playing women’s volleyball at the NCAA Division I level.

She also wanted to complete her education in Southern California, having attended North Torrance High.

“ Burnout is a good word for it,” Hill says. “Playing at that level all the time wears on your body and it also hits you mentally real hard. I was just ready for a change. It was a long way from home, and it wasn’t so much that I missed my parents or anyone in particular. I just needed to go home.”

So she decided to transfer to Azusa Pacific, a university that competes in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics and is decidedly smaller than Florida with an enrollment of 2,960. Hill selected the Cougars’ program partly because her younger brother, Jacob, is a student at the school.

So far this season, the move appears to be working out perfectly for both Hill and the Cougars.

Azusa Pacific (15-5) is ranked No. 7 in the NAIA this week, and Hill says she couldn’t be happier with her lifestyle at the school.

“For me, coming from Florida with its 35,000-plus students, I was really looking for something smaller, and the Christian atmosphere here has been great for me,” she says. “I think it’s developed me into a more rounded person. I’m not just a volleyball player anymore.”

Hill, 22, also sings in the school’s choir.

But for the moment, Hill’s sights are set on competing as a middle blocker for the women’s volleyball team, and Coach Lori Kildal says she has made a noticeable impact.

“I would say that every coach in the district now knows that she’s here and she’s playing for us, so they definitely are aware of her and trying to gear up for her,” Kildal says. “She’s definitely the talk of the district.”

The 5-foot-10 Hill is one of the national leaders with a .398 kill average and has had 20 or more kills in seven matches.

“With her experience, the level of play here has just jumped tremendously,” Kildal says. “We have just seen our level of play skyrocket. Because of the court sense she has and the leadership she brings, she’s just a real impact player.”

Hill was primarily a setter for Florida, but Kildal says she has made the shift to middle blocker with little difficulty.

“We looked at her in terms of setting at first, but because of the level of play that she came from, she’s been able to play middle blocker here and she’s really filled a void,” Kildal says.

With Hill’s major college background in the sport, the coach wasn’t sure how well she would adjust to playing for the Cougars, but this has not been a problem.

“When some players come from that level, their egos are really overblown, but she’s probably the most humble player I’ve ever met,” Kildal says.

Hill says that there is a big difference between NCAA Division I and NAIA competition, but it has not been a difficult adjustment.

“The level is lower here,” she says, “but there’s a lot of heart and the players here work really hard, and that makes a big difference. It would have been real tough on me if nobody could play, but we have a good group of players.”

She is also happier with her new approach to the game.

“I feel like I can be myself again,” Hill says. “I wasn’t trying to impress my coaches like I did in Florida. That’s just not my personality. I think a lot of it is that my perspective has changed since coming here.”

For the Southland’s top-ranked college division football teams, it was a lost weekend.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Cal State Northridge, Redlands and Azusa Pacific--four teams highly regarded in preseason forecasts--were beaten.

Perhaps most surprising was Cal Poly SLO’s 27-7 loss to Sonoma State. Not only did it drop the Mustangs to 0-2, it was the first time they had lost to the Cossacks. Cal Poly SLO, which reached the NCAA Division II quarterfinals last season, was one of the favorites to win the Western Football Conference title.

Another surprise was Redlands’ 17-14 loss at home to San Diego. Redlands (1-1) beat the Toreros, 28-14, last season en route to its first berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs and was favored to retain its Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship.

Northridge’s 17-10 defeat by Cal State Fullerton was hardly a surprise considering that the Titans play in Division I. But the Matadors, who dropped to 1-2, came close to defeating the Titans, who entered the game with a 13-game losing streak--the longest in Division I.

Azusa Pacific’s 35-0 rout by Humboldt State was not completely unexpected, either. Despite the fact that the Cougars (2-1) were coming off a victory over Austin (Tex.), an NAIA Division II power, Humboldt State is an NCAA Division II team with a 3-1 record.

College Division Notes

Marcia Murota, former assistant coach at Cal State Los Angeles, was named interim women’s basketball coach at the school for the 1991-92 season. Murota was an assistant at CS Los Angeles for three seasons, 1984-87, and played at the school when it reached the Assn. for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women playoffs in 1979 and ’80. She replaces Fran Buckless, who had an 86-91 record the past five seasons and whose contract was not renewed.

Three of the top women’s volleyball teams in NCAA Division II will play in the UC Riverside tournament Friday and Saturday at Riverside. The five-team, round-robin event includes third-ranked Portland State, sixth-ranked Central Missouri State and seventh-ranked UC Riverside. . . . In addition to Riverside, the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. is represented in the Division II rankings by No. 4 Cal State Bakersfield, No. 13 Cal Poly Pomona and No. 14 Chapman. . . . Fresno Pacific was picked to win the Golden State Athletic Conference women’s volleyball title in a poll of conference coaches. Defending champion Point Loma Nazarene was second, Azusa Pacific third.

Cal Lutheran made a big impression last week in its first official competition since joining the SCIAC. The women’s soccer team scored easy victories over Whittier, 5-1, and Redlands, 6-0; the men’s soccer team also won its first two matches, over Whittier, 3-2, and Redlands, 7-0.