Mertes’ Patience Has Run Its Course on BYU Bench

Lori Mertes is enjoying the hoopla. The junior from Chatsworth High is a member of the Brigham Young women’s volleyball team that upset top-ranked UCLA in the West Regional final Saturday to earn a trip to its first NCAA Final Four.

BYU is one victory away from playing for the national championship and Mertes has been caught up in the excitement, just like her teammates.

On Tuesday she checked into the Concourse Hotel in Madison, Wis., with her teammates. She will suit up for tonight’s semifinal match against Penn State, with her teammates.

She will scream and holler from the bench, and if BYU wins it all, she’ll get a championship ring, along with her teammates.

After that, she’s out of there.

Mertes, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter, has appeared in only one game of one match since Oct. 9.

Hard feelings? Oh, no. There is nowhere Mertes would rather be now than with the Cougars (29-2), who have released her from her scholarship so she can play for another Division I team next year without redshirting.

“The opportunity to be in the Final Four made it worth it,” said Mertes, who appeared in eight matches in September but only two since.

“She’s pretty much the type who picks six to stay on the court and play through their mistakes,” Mertes said of her coach, Elaine Michaelis. “There aren’t subs.”

So after Saturday’s title game at Wisconsin Fieldhouse, it’s Goodby, Provo.

Seventh-ranked Penn State (18-2) is on the agenda tonight but the Cougars already are thinking about the final and a possible match against Long Beach State or Florida. Historically, teams from the East have not matched up well with teams from the West. “We expect to be in the finals,” said Mertes, “but we’re trying not to overlook Penn State.”

Even if the No. 4 Cougars lose, the stunning 16-14, 17-15, 15-11 upset of the Bruins in Westwood was a fulfilling enough end to Mertes’ otherwise uneventful two-year stint at BYU.

“It was awesome--we wanted them all year,” said Mertes, who two weeks earlier had watched her teammates lose to UCLA in five games (18-16 in the fifth game) in a nonconference match. “Everyone was still screaming for about two hours after.”

When you beat UCLA, said Mertes, you bring down not only a team but a longstanding mystique. The Bruins are 13-time NCAA champions.

Soon, Mertes will be exploring a transfer. San Diego State, UC Irvine, USC, Cal State Northridge are among the possibilities, and she hasn’t ruled out Hawaii or BYU-Hawaii.

“Hopefully, next year I’ll just go somewhere where I can play and enjoy it without fighting for a spot all the time,” she said. “I just can’t sit on the bench any longer. “I just want to come back to Southern California.”

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Checking the fax: The defending champion Bruins, who had only three seniors, likely will come back strong next year. One key returnee will be 5-10 sophomore Jenny Johnson of Sherman Oaks, who entered last week’s regional with 377 kills, second best on the team. . . . In men’s basketball, USC sophomore guard Brandon Martin (Cleveland) is averaging 11.8 points in 26 minutes per game. His shooting percentage from three-point range is 62.5%. . . . Junior forward Chris Loll (Thousand Oaks) is Air Force’s second-leading scorer (15.3) and has made 17 of his past 18 free throws for Air Force (5-1).