Colleges column: Team players don’t give up

Amara Aguilar

There is no “I” in team.

Every player on a team has a role.

A single player is not above another.

Members of a team don’t quit when things get tough.

Two former UC Irvine women’s volleyball players, Erika Denison and

Jamie Pilbeam, do not seem to understand those principles.

The Anteaters have struggled throughout the season, earning only one

win in the Big West Conference. Instead of thinking about the team and

its future, two juniors put themselves above their squad and quit.

“They ended up not starting,” UCI Coach Charlie Brande said. “The

freshmen were playing ahead of them before they quit ... Whenever you

take over a new program, you’ll have players from the previous program

that will not last.”

The Anteaters are a young and inexperienced team. Five out of six

freshmen are starting. One freshman, Dana Kurzbard has a sprained ankle.

There are no seniors on the team and Chanda McLeod, who is injured,

and Rebecca Larsen are the only two juniors. There are also two

sophomores on the team.

“Our conference is arguably the best conference in the United States,”

Brande said. “(The freshmen) are kind of shell shocked by all of this.

The freshmen we have are all coming straight out of high school.”

Although wins have been hard to come by, the Anteaters are learning

from every match and gaining experience to build for the future. Every

young team needs to go through that process.

“Our main problem is youth and inexperience and not understanding how

to play the game at this level,” McLeod said. “The future looks so bright

for this team. It just takes time to develop it.”

Despite the Anteaters’ dismal record of 3-18, 1-12 in the Big West,

and the departure of two juniors, the team does have a few players who

have stepped up.

“(McLeod) leads us in every category and (Newport Harbor High product)

Brenda Waterman has been our best back-row player,” Brande said. “A few

freshmen have had signs of being really good. One we are very high on is

a girl named Kelly Wing. She has great potential.”

In the Anteaters’ most recent match against Cal State Northridge,

McLeod, an Arkansas transfer by way of Marina High, had a team-leading 22

kills and 11 digs. Wing contributed with 10 kills and six digs in the

Anteaters’ straight-set loss.

UCI, however, will have to do without McLeod for the time being. She

suffered a third-degree sprain and tore ligaments in her left ankle

during a practice on Monday.

“I landed wrong on a player’s foot on the other side of the net,”

McLeod said. “My ankle is huge, like a bowling ball ... (The injury is)

the epitome of the way the season is going.”

Although the UCI volleyball team is young and hampered with injuries,

it should not give up even if Denison and Pilbeam have.

“(The two players who quit) didn’t want to go through growing pains

and it was a little bit of frustration,” Brande said. “They didn’t feel

they wanted to be part of the building process.”

It is that process that the Anteaters hope will make them competitive.

Maybe not now, but in the years to come.

Coach Pat Douglass will lead the UCI men’s basketball team against a

school that he has a special connection to.

The Anteaters will face Cal State Bakersfield in an exhibition game

Saturday night at the Bren Events Center. Douglass coached the

Roadrunners for 10 seasons and led them to three Division II national

titles before taking the head coaching job at UCI.

A late result from Sunday pushed the UCI men’s soccer team into second

place in the Big West standings.

UC Santa Barbara beat UC Riverside, 1-0, Sunday to give the Gauchos a

5-1-1 conference record with 16 points (three points for a win and one

for a tie). The Anteaters (8-3-5, 4-0-2) have 14 points.

UCI beat Fullerton, 4-0, Sunday with two goals from both Scott Bowman

and Brad Aspey. The Anteaters have four games left in the regular season.

Last month, the Anteaters equaled a school record for most ties in a

season. The only other time UCI earned five ties was in 1996.

UCI’s Gonny Shimura was selected Big West Conference Men’s Swimmer of

the Week recently.

Shimura placed first in the 100-yard backstroke (53.07) and the

200-yard backstroke (1:54.08) Oct. 27 to lead UCI (747 points) to a

first-place finish in the UC San Diego Triton swimming and diving

invitational.

In Vanguard men’s soccer news, Matt Hess was named the GSAC and Region

II Player of the Week as well as VU’s Lion of the Week.

He scored three goals and had two assists to help the Lions win their

final two games of the season. Hess and Beau Lawson made the All-GSAC

team.

The Vanguard women’s soccer team was eliminated from the playoffs

Saturday. The Lions, seeded third, lost in a shootout to No. 6-seeded

Notre Dame de Namur University (14-4-1). Vanguard needed a victory to

advance to the semifinal of the Region II playoffs.

NDNU broke a 1-1 tie by outscoring the Lions, 6-5, in a shootout.

Vanguard finished the season 9-8, 7-3 in the GSAC.

Elisabeth McCary, Nicole Avila, Jennifer Bird, Brittany Braun, Jordan

Fredriksen, a Newport Harbor High product, and Annie Jacobs made the

All-GSAC team.

Columbia’s Kathy Lavold, a product of Newport Harbor, was named

IvyLeagueSports.com Player of the Week after compiling a match-high 24

kills in the Lions 3-2 win over Yale on Oct. 28. She has had 20 or more

kills four times this season. This is her third player of the week honor.