L.A. UNIVERSITY BEAT / WENDY WITHERSPOON : Wise Words Prove to Be Prophetic as Burton Helps Scott Lead 49ers

Florida Coach Mary Wise knew how the Long Beach State women’s volleyball team would win the national championship.

Everyone figured that senior Danielle Scott, the national player of the year, would play an important role for Long Beach. But Wise was convinced that junior Nichelle Burton would be the deciding factor.

“On anybody else’s team, (Burton) would be the premier player,” Wise said. “She would be the marquee player. What team wouldn’t like to have a player of that talent be their second-best player? She gives Long Beach so much flexibility. She can hit a variety of sets all along the net. And when (Scott and Burton) are in the front row at the same time, who are you going to stop?

“Long Beach is where they are today, certainly because of Danielle Scott. I think they are going to win the national championship because of Danielle Scott and Nichelle Burton.”

Those were Wise’s words two days before Long Beach (32-2) defeated Penn State (31-5) in Saturday’s NCAA final at the University of Wisconsin Field House in Madison, Wis.

And so it went: Scott had 21 kills but hit only .200, well under her season percentage, in the NCAA final. Burton picked up the slack with a career-high 28 kills and hit .321 to lead the 49ers to their first national title since 1989.

“I’ve never been as focused as I was during this match,” said Burton, a first-team All-American. “I wanted this more than anything.”

Surprisingly, neither Burton nor Scott is from Southern California, where the sport is traditionally strong. Burton is from Phoenix, Scott from Baton Rouge, La.

Together, they formed one of the best hitting combinations in women’s volleyball this season. Scott’s .438 percentage and Burton’s .373 ranked first and second, respectively, in the Big West Conference.

“They work together very, very well,” said Brian Gimmillaro, who has coached Long Beach for nine years. “I’m not sure I’ve seen a combination play better than that in college volleyball.”

The end of the Burton-Scott combination at Long Beach is one of the reasons Gimmillaro looks toward next year with a bit of sadness.

Said Gimmillaro: “Some of my greatest memories about volleyball are with these people.”

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For many years, Gimmillaro has been arguing against the use of rally-scoring in the fifth game of women’s volleyball. He used the news conference after the NCAA final to reiterate this view.

Rally-scoring, in which a point is scored on every serve, adds too much pressure on the players and on the referees, Gimmillaro said.

“The people involved in volleyball have got to do something about that,” Gimmillaro said.

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If anyone wants proof of the need for national, rather than regional, seeding in the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament, consider this:

Long Beach, ranked third in the American Volleyball Coaches Assn.’s final regular-season poll, did not play another team ranked among the top six during the NCAA tournament. It was the first such instance in the 12-year history of the poll.

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At the NCAA final four, the women’s volleyball committee presented Division I coaches with a proposal for restructuring the tournament.

The proposal would create eight seeded teams in eight districts, rather than four seeded teams in four regions.

Although West Region coaches ultimately would prefer national seeding, USC Coach Lisa Love said they supported the proposal.

The committee will continue to solicit feedback from coaches before eventually presenting a final proposal to the NCAA executive committee.

Notes

Southland swim teams are undergoing rigorous conditioning this month before beginning the dual-meet season with major competition in early January. The UCLA men’s and women’s swim teams will play host to a combined dual meet with Nebraska at noon on Jan. 5. . . . The UCLA men’s team, fifth in last season’s NCAA championships, will play host to NCAA runner-up Michigan on Jan. 7. For the first time, the USC men’s and women’s swim teams will complete their winter training session in Colorado Springs at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. . . . The USC men will return to play host to Michigan on Jan. 8.

Aimee McDaniel, a senior guard for the Pepperdine women’s basketball team, could set a school record for assists if she improves her game slightly. McDaniel is fifth in assists with 348. She needs to average 5.3 in the Waves’ remaining games to break the record of 443 set by Desiree Marcelin in 1976-80. McDaniel is currently averaging five a game.

The Loyola Marymount women’s basketball team has started its season 0-6 despite having four returning starters. The Lions’ only new starter is Lianne Ishikawa, a sophomore point guard who transferred from Cal State Fullerton. Ishikawa, an all-Big West freshman team selection at Fullerton, became eligible on Dec. 11 and has played the last three games after sitting out a year in accordance with the conference’s transfer rule.

The USC men’s tennis team, the defending NCAA champion, was ranked third in the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. fall rankings, released Dec. 7. The Trojans have lost four of their top seven players, including six-time All-American Brian MacPhie, who joined the professional tour this summer. UCLA was ranked sixth and Pepperdine 12th. . . . In the ITA women’s fall rankings, Pepperdine was seventh, USC eighth and UCLA tied for 11th. The next ITA rankings will be released on Feb. 28.