UC IRVINE NOTEBOOK : Even in a Losing Season, Webb Plays Like a Winner

Traci Webb has been concentrating of her freshman volleyball season, which ended Tuesday in a loss to Cal State Long Beach and a 9-21 record.

She dealt with the pressure of being a freshman setter, one who was in the lineup long before she had adjusted to the difficulties of college volleyball.

And the Anteaters’ season wasn’t an easy one.

“It’s hard to keep losing,” Webb said. “We are getting better.”

Every once in a while, she heard something that encouraged her, even if it was a bit puzzling.

“You’re in fourth already,” another student who lives in her dorm told her. Then, the other day he said, “You’re almost in third.”

When the season ended Tuesday, Webb was third on Irvine’s list of career assists. She finished with 866, behind Ann Warmus, who had 2,542 in four years ending in 1988, and Rhonda Schnitger, who had 1,088 in 1988 and ’89.

The statistic can be misleading. “It’s (affected by) opportunities, plus the amount of matches, and the amount of games we play within a match,” said Mike Puritz, her coach.

The numbers haven’t been kept too carefully at Irvine, and the list might not be accurate. It doesn’t take into account that some players shared the position. Nevertheless, there is Webb’s name. Her talents are being recognized.

It is a fair reward for a player who was thrown into a sink-or-swim situation when she joined an Irvine team without a returning full-time setter.

“She was barely treading water early in the season,” Puritz said. “It took a while. The last few matches Traci has played at the level I unrealistically expected she would come in at.”

Webb, a freshman from University High School, knew she was stepping into a position of responsibility.

“I was nervous,” she said. “I still feel the pressure. But the players who were freshmen last year said a lot of the pressure is relieved just by becoming a sophomore.”

Webb, who is 5 feet 4, has often had to resist coaches’ attempts to turn her into a back-row specialist because of her height, which could be a liability in blocking.

Her insistence on playing setter has cost her opportunities to play on top club teams.

“I could be on the best team as a back-row specialist or on a lower team setting,” Webb said. “I chose to set.”

And when she came to Irvine, Puritz chose not to ask her to change.

“It did not even enter my mind,” he said. “She can handle it.”

Go figure: Irvine’s water polo team won the NCAA championship last year, but finished this season with a 13-16 record, the first losing season in the history of the program.

But when Big West Conference coaches chose the all-conference players, they put two Irvine players on the seven-man first team--junior Skylar Putman and sophomore Pablo Yrizar, who missed the latter part of the season with a hand injury.

UC Santa Barbara, which tied Pepperdine for the Big West title, had three players on the first team. The Waves had the player of the year, Geoffrey Clark. The other first-team player was from Cal State Long Beach.

Steve Gill, the Anteaters’ leading scorer, was an honorable mention.

Gerald McDonald, Irvine’s starting point guard, injured his right ring finger during practice Tuesday and was taken to the student health center for X-rays on the finger, which he has broken before.

Coach Bill Mulligan said the X-rays were inconclusive and that McDonald will practice today before the team leaves for Alaska.

Mulligan said Tuesday night he did not expect the injury would prevent McDonald from playing against UCLA Friday in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout.

In what might be part of the fallout from a 5-23 record last season, the men’s basketball team has signed only one player during the fall signing period, Elzie Love of Perris High School.

“I think I spent 30 days in different homes,” Mulligan said. “It’s a little frustrating.”

But Mulligan thinks recruiting will improve with a few more victories--that, and proof that the Anteaters will play the running style that Mulligan is convinced attracts players.

Elizabeth Beers, who averaged 16 points and 12 rebounds last season for Chino High School, a team that was highly ranked last season, has signed a national letter of intent to attend Irvine and play for the women’s basketball team. Irvine earlier signed Jinelle Williams of Brea-Olinda and Christina Adams of El Cajon Granite.