UCI aims to pick up where it ended

UC Irvine women’s volleyball coach Charlie Brande, hoping to lower his team’s preseason profile, touted the Anteaters as fifth among nine teams before the coaches’ preseason poll.

The Anteaters, however, had already blown any cover they might have carried into this season by winning nine of their final 12 matches last season.

The result was a tie for third in the preseason poll, as well as considerable optimism that even Brande, entering his eighth season, can’t ignore.

“I’m very cautiously optimistic about this team,” said Brande, who lists a return to the NCAA Tournament (the Anteaters made trips in 2003 and ’04) as his primary goal. “This could be a very, very special group.”

UCI which opened 0-6 last season, showed admirable character with the aforementioned strong finish, which included the program’s first win at UC Santa Barbara’s Thunderdome, as well as a win at conference champion Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. The latter was the lone conference loss suffered by the Mustangs, who are favored to top a list of Big West contenders that include Long Beach State and UCSB.

“We basically won the second half of league,” Brande said of a 13-16 campaign in 2006 (7-7 in conference, tied for fourth), in which the Anteaters started four freshmen.

This year’s freshman class, however, has threatened the job status of some returning starters. The six-player freshman class, led by potential starters Kari Pestolesi and Larissa Nordyke, was ranked No. 21 nationally by PrepVolleyball.com.

Added to the newcomers is junior Wake Forest transfer Shannan Homan, a 6-foot-2 middle blocker, who figures to contribute heavily.

“This is the first time I’ve had nine or 10 really good players,” Brande said. “I’m telling all my volleyball friends just to come watch us play, because [the girls] are so athletic and they’re so competitive. It’s just a fun team to watch.”

Those who have watched the Anteaters in preseason preparation have been universally impressed, Brande said, with the improvement of junior libero Devon Sutherland. Sutherland started last season alongside fellow returners Lauren Kellerman, Taryn Robertson, Alex Filkins, Chelsea Ellis and McCall Miller.

“Devon has made a huge jump from last year,” Brande said. “She has really become confident that she is a good player and the amount of area she covers is unbelievable. She leads us vocally and physically.”

Kellerman, a 6-0 junior, led the team in kills last season with 480. Her 4.21 kills per game ranked second in the conference and she was the Anteaters’ lone first-team all-conference pick.

“[Kellerman] has a lightning arm and a ton of good shots,” Brande said. “And she has proved she can make things happen in big matches. She carried us in those wins over UCSB and Cal Poly last year.”

Homan, Ellis, a 6-3 sophomore, and 6-3 senior Kristin Kelley, another returning starter, will fortify the middle, Brande said. Their contributions will be amplified by the team’s double-quick offense, in which two quick hitters routinely attack to try draw opposing blockers and create mismatches for UCI’s outside hitters.

Filkins is the projected starter at opposite.

Pestolesi, the daughter of former University of Hawaii All-American middle blockers Tom and Diane Pestolesi, both of whom Brande coached in college, is a 5-11 freshman who takes after her parents, Brande said.

“She’s very physical,” Brande said of the Edison High product, whose older brother, Tommy, plays at Long Beach State.

The 5-10 Nordyke, an all-state performer last year at Punahou High in Hawaii, and the 5-10 Miller, who joined Robertson on the conference’s All-Freshman team last season, should also contribute substantially on the outside.

The 5-11 Robertson, with a year of experience under her belt, provides added size at setter, while Miller and senior Caroline Kim are also expected to contribute ball control in the back row.

Brande said team chemistry is a huge variable heading into the season-opening Montana Tournament, which begins today with a 6 p.m. clash against the host Grizzlies.

UCI whose initial schedule also includes Gonzaga, Canisius, Wyoming, Toledo and Portland, has a chance to open 6-0, before playing host to Loyola Marymount, Sept. 4 at Crawford Court.

Three days later, UCLA, which lost in the NCAA semifinals last season, invades Crawford Court to face UCI in the opener of its second four-team tournament.

“UCLA is a match that people might look toward, but that LMU match is really one we need to win,” Brande said.