Volleyball

Former Estancia High School and UC Santa Barbara volleyball standout Jon Wallace has been named men's volleyball coach at Golden West College, the school announced Friday. Wallace, 25, of Newport Beach was an All-American selection his last two years at UCSB, leading the Gauchos to the finals of the NCAA Division I championships in 1988. He played professionally in Europe for the past two years and led Team Nike to its second consecutive U.S. Volleyball Assn. championship this year.

Leslie Nolan of Santa Margarita and Leigh Readey of Irvine made oral commitments to play volleyball at Massachusetts, Readey's father, Jack, said Thursday. Nolan, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter and middle blocker for Santa Margarita, and Readey, a 6-foot middle blocker for Irvine, play for the Mission Valley Blue club team. Massachusetts is the site of the women's volleyball 1995 NCAA Final Four.

Freshman outside hitter Sue Olszewski had seven kills and five aces Thursday to lead the UC Irvine women's volleyball team to a 15-12, 15-9, 15-2 victory over Temple University in a nonconference match played at Philadelphia. Dana Parker and Teresa Mergens each added six kills for the Anteaters (2-0).

John Burns has been named boys' volleyball coach at Marina High School, Athletic Director Larry Doyle said Tuesday. Burns, who coached the Westminster girls' team last year, replaces Russ Jensen, who resigned after last season.

The U.S. men's volleyball team moved to within a victory of a spot in this summer's Olympic Games by beating Cuba, 21-25, 25-18, 25-16, 25-16, on Friday in the semifinals of the NORCECA qualifying tournament played before a near-capacity crowd at Long Beach State. But first the American had to overcome a slow start that led to a first-set scare in which Cuba scored four points on service aces and got seven points overall from hard-hitting Fernando Hernandez for their only set loss of the tournament . That would end up being the night's lone bright spot for the young Cubans, though.

Lance Stewart, the boys' and girls' volleyball coach at Laguna Beach High School, has resigned his positions effective the end of the 1990 girls' season. Stewart, who coached the Artist boys and girls last year, will be an assistant coach with the UC Irvine men's team this spring and will move to Nashville, Tenn., next summer. "My fiancee lives in Nashville and I'm going down there to start a club (volleyball) program," Stewart said.

Gary Morgan probably thought Coach Greg Hayes had gone off his rocker. So did most of the other players on the Canyon High basketball team. "I thought the whole idea was kind of dumb," Morgan said. "I thought it was a waste of time. But he's the coach. Nobody had the nerve to tell him it wasn't a good idea." There were no sounds of basketballs pounding against the hardwood as the Cowboys began conditioning for the upcoming season.

Van Nuys High has named Patricia Denny coach of the girls' volleyball team. Denny, a biology teacher at Van Nuys, previously coached volleyball for one year at Alhambra. Denny replaces Dave Bessler, who resigned last December, one month after the team was disqualified from the playoffs for using an ineligible player. The top seed in last year's City Section 4-A playoffs, the Wolves also forfeited all 12 regular-season matches and as further punishment, are banned from the playoffs in 1997.

The No. 12-ranked Pepperdine women's volleyball team won the championship of its tournament, the Howdy's Classic, last weekend at Firestone Fieldhouse, posting three-game sweeps over Florida State, Fresno State and Northern Arizona. Freshman outside hitter Brie Harris of Pepperdine was named most valuable player of the tournament, and was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Lyndsey Hache, a sophomore middle blocker, and Katie Wilkins, a sophomore outside hitter.

The San Diego State men's volleyball team opened its season Wednesday night by defeating UC San Diego, 13-15, 15-12, 15-6, 15-7. Eric Dahlke led the Aztecs with 12 kills. Jeff Cutler had 10 kills and 4 service aces, and John Forrest also had 10 kills. UCSD (0-3) was led by Scott Criswell's 10 kills.