Murchison Endures the Volleyball Program’s Growing Pains

Nobody told Mary Ellen Murchison it was going to be easy when she took over as head coach of the Titan women’s volleyball program in 1992.

And it certainly hasn’t been.

She arrived on a wave of controversy: the university’s attempt to drop the program, the reinstatement of it after a sexual discrimination suit filed by the team and Coach Jim Huffman’s firing that eventually embarrassed the university. A jury awarded Huffman $1.35 million in his wrongful termination suit against the school.

The road has been rocky since. In Murchison’s first two seasons as head coach since arriving from Santa Clara, the Titans won only twice, once each season, and this year’s team is 0-10.

“It’s very difficult when a school doesn’t have a history of winning,” Murchison said.

Fullerton has had only one winning season since the university began competition in the sport in 1976. That came in 1981 when the Titans were 18-17, but they still struggled in the Big West Conference with a 2-10 record.

Murchison, however, hasn’t lost hope. She feels the program is making progress, even though it hasn’t shown up in the won-loss column.

“I feel it’s a matter of time, and our players learning that they can win,” Murchison said. “We had an 8-0 lead in a game against New Mexico State last weekend and couldn’t sustain it. That’s a matter of confidence, and as soon as we get over that, we’ll see more victories.

“When I look back on our first nine games, I can see ways where we could easily have been 6-3. We match up with several of those teams we’ve played. When I came here, I said it was going to take a five-year program, and I still believe that. We knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight.”

Murchison said she has been pleased with the effort being made. “It’s not that the players don’t have the work ethic or the desire,” he said. “But winning is the validation of their hard work, and they need that.”

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Murchison thinks the present team has some promising young athletes, but still needs more of them. She has been especially pleased with the play of Stephanie Cargill, a freshman from Fresno. Murchison had some anxious moments when Cargill suffered a knee injury last weekend, but it wasn’t as serious as first thought and will not require surgery. However, she probably will be sidelined two weeks.

“Cargill is the type of player who can take us to the next level,” Murchison said.

Murchison remains hopeful that she can make more inroads in recruiting some of the top high school players from Orange County. “The high school players here are some of the best in the nation, but we haven’t been able to recruit as well in the county as we would like,” she said. “We’re sitting in a real hotbed of volleyball.”

But even a good team can be overshadowed by some of the national powers that play on the West Coast.

“The Big West has four of the top teams in the nation in Long Beach State, Hawaii, UC Santa Barbara and Pacific,” Murchison said. “Then, when you add Stanford and UCLA, there are six of the top teams in this area.”

That level of competition makes Murchison’s rebuilding effort that much more difficult.

“Our team right now would definitely be winning if we were back East,” Murchison said. “But a drawing card for our players is that they’re able to play against the best on the West Coast. It just makes it that much more difficult to win.

“I feel we’re competitive now with those non-California teams, but most of them have had postseason experience and they come in with winning records. It’s a matter of getting over the hump with some victories.”

Before the season, Murchison thought a goal of 10 victories would have been realistic. “Obviously, that’s going to be more difficult now,” she said.

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Titan soccer Coach Al Mistri was pleased with the 3-1 victories over New Hampshire and Vermont by his men’s team in the Reebok Invitational last weekend in Burlington, Vt.

“It seems like we’re getting better each week, but in soccer the margin between winning and losing is very thin,” Mistri said. “Those definitely were two of the better teams in the East. A lot of our young players have been playing under a lot of pressure, but they’ve done well.”

Eddie Soto had two goals in each game.

The Titans didn’t come through the weekend unscathed. Ricky Rodriguez suffered a deep knee bruise, and Adrian Cortes and Peter Lak had ankle problems. All three may be at less than full strength for today’s game against San Diego State at Titan Stadium.

The Titans are ranked 13th nationally this week by Soccer America.

Titan Notes

Cal State Fullerton President Milton Gordon has been elected the Big West Conference representative to the NCAA Presidents Commission. He was selected by other conference presidents and will have a four-year term in that position...The Titan women’s soccer team plays at home Friday against Oregon State. Amber Dickey and Jennifer Patterson lead the team in scoring, each with two goals. . . . Coach John Elders thinks he will get a better reading on the strength of his cross-country team in Saturday’s meet at UC Santa Barbara against the host school and Westmont College.