Wednesday's NCAA Championships Report

IRVINE, Calif. Â Wednesday marked a full day of activity for the Pepperdine men’s volleyball team as it made its final preparations for the NCAA Championships and its national semifinal against Long Beach State.

(The Waves and the 49ers play on Thursday night at approximately 8 p.m. at the Bren Events Center. The match will be televised by ESPN2).

Administrative meetings were held in the morning, and the team then gathered at its hotel to watch video. After the players had lunch, head coach Marv Dunphy, Jonathan Winder and J.D. Schleppenbach went over to UC Irvine early for an NCAA news conference. Here’s a few of their quotes:

Marv Dunphy: “We had to play three matches against three good teams on the road to get here. We were able to grind out some wins and we are pleased to be here. We hope to grind out a few more ... Long Beach has a great team. We know their players and staff and have great respect for them. All year long they had great numbers and were a great team. We were able to get them (last week). We’re playing them again and they’re just as good. Hopefully we’re just as good. It’s another week and we’re ready to roll.

Jonathan Winder (asked about if previous results against Long Beach State matter): “It comes down to how you perform. It doesn’t matter what you did in games in the past. Like against BYU, we lost twice and were down 2-0, and we still won. It doesn’t matter what happened before.”

J.D. Schleppenbach (on comparing last year’s NCAA team to this one): “It has been really different from last year to this year. Last year we had all of our guys back (from 2006). It was basically fine tuning things. This year we have more new guys so it’s exciting to see two different teams working for the same thing. The thing I bring back is the excitement of being here, which gives me motivation to do better this year.”

After the news conference, the rest of the team arrived at the Bren Events Center for practice. The Waves were allotted 1 Â½ hours for practice but only went hard for about an hour and called it a day. ESPN commentators Beth Mowins and Karch Kiraly (a former player under Dunphy on the U.S. National Team) took in the practice, as did assorted NCAA and UCI staff.

From there, several members of the Pepperdine team went into ESPN’s makeshift studio for further interviews. Fans will get to see some of the results during Thursday’s telecast, as the starting lineup recorded their own introductions, talked about Pepperdine and showed off their personalities.

What fans probably won’t see were some of the bloopers that will likely end up on the cutting-room floor. Some of the highlights: For introductions, players were asked to give their names, positions, hometowns and a fun fact. Freshman Tyler Jaynes, on his first take, gave his fun fact as “I haven’t showered in two weeks ... Just kidding.” His second take is more likely to make Thursday’s telecast ... Winder, discussing the fact that he grew up just down the road from UCI, said on one slightly flustered take that he was born and raised in Irvine (except he wasn’t born here) ... Paul Carroll, describing his favorite TV show, 24, at first innocently used a minor expletive to describe the character of Jack Bauer, which the folks at ESPN thought wouldn’t be a good idea to air, so he changed his response.

The team headed back to the hotel for a few hours, then returned to UCI in the evening for the pre-tournament banquet. The AVCA All-American teams, which included Carroll and Winder on the first team, were introduced. U.S. National Team Coach Hugh McCutcheon spoke to the audience about the U.S. Olympic Team’s preparations for the Beijing Olympics.

With the banquet over and less than 24 hours until match time, the Waves retired for the evening to rest up and get themselves ready for Thursday night.

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