By Kristen Davis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 5, 1998

Sudden Impact

UA's volleyball team is beginning to reap the benefits an established program often receives in the competitive recruiting process.

The Wildcats, who finished the 1997 campaign with their second straight 20-win season, signed seven recruits on last month's signing day.

"One of the nice things about our program being successful is that we can be a little more choosy. We're able to mix and match (to get a) better blend," UA head coach Dave Rubio said.

Setter Dana Burkholder, a third team All-American selection from Volleyball magazine, leads the group. The 5-foot-8 Bakersfield, Calif., native was named the city's MVP in 1996 and 97.

"She has exciting intangibles and is a very inspirational player that others really seem to rally around," said Joe Lantagne of Lantagne Appraisal, a California-based company that scouts players from California, Nevada and Arizona. "She is a kid who makes others around her better."

Jennifer Nickel, Burkholder's club coach who played for Rubio in 1991 at Cal State-Bakersfield, doesn't think it will take long for the setter to adjust to the Division I level.

"Dana will fit in fine to the program. She is the type of athlete who really wants information on how to be better and Dave is definitely the kind of coach who gives a lot of feedback," Nickel said.

Burkholder will be one of the Wildcats' leaders on the floor from day one, inheriting the starting role from departed senior Michaela Ebben.

"I know there's going to be a lot of pressure but that's something I wanted," she said. "I think I fit the leadership role and I like the challenge. I definitely thrive on pressure.

The bigger the game, the better I play."

Burkholder is not the only recruit expected to make an early impact. Rubio said at least one more starting position - most likely at the left or right side hitting slot - is open since the Wildcats lost five seniors and sophomore Erin Aldrich from last season's team that finished with a school-record 12-6 Pacific 10 Conference mark.

He said Jill Talbot, Lesley Dubois and Nadia Sefferovich are the recruits most likely to contend for starting roles.

While deciding between UA, Wisconsin and North Carolina, Talbot, a 5-11 outside hitter who plays club ball for Kaepa San Diego, looked to Terry Liskevych, her club team's director of coaches.

"She asked me to give my opinion of Dave and his program and I told her about his ability to train people and his track record at Bakersfield," said Liskevych, a former U.S. Olympic coach who has known Rubio since his 1986-87 season at Bakersfield. "I think highly of Dave and think he's one of the top coaches in the country. The sky is the limit for where he (and the program) could be in the future."

And that's exactly what Talbot saw on her official visit to campus.

"I really liked the way the program is run. I felt like it is a program on the rise and will soon be competing for a national championship," she said. "Ever since Dave came (to UA in 1992) his teams have improved. They started off unranked and he's brought them up to nine. It's neat to see a coach take a team and do that and that's really encouraging for me."

Sefferovich, a 6-1 outside hitter from Tucson Salpointe Catholic High School, has seen UA's development first-hand. Each year since Sefferovich began playing volleyball in eighth grade, she's attended at least half of UA's home games. She also plays club ball for Zona and her coach, Charita Johnson, is a UA assistant.

"I grew up wanting to go to Arizona. My dad played baseball here (in 1967) so I have always been a really big fan," she said.

And it seems Sefferovich, who has lived in Tucson all her life, has the potential to become another local hero like 1996 seniors Barb Bell and Heidi Bomberger.

"Nadia is a very good hitter. I like her court presence a lot. You can tell she really likes to be set," Lantagne said. "She could be a very good Pac-10 player."

Dubois, a 6-1 outside hitter from Santa Rosa, Calif., is also expected to compete for a place in UA's starting lineup. It was Rubio's persistence that made Dubois sign with Arizona instead of Pacific or Loyola Marymount.

She said a couple schools dropped her off their list after a poor performance at a club tournament in Las Vegas last year. Although they changed their minds and contacted her again a few months later, Rubio remained interested.

"Dave kept faith in me. He kept writing," Dubois said. "He told me he knew what went wrong and knew how I was feeling with the pressure and Las Vegas being such a big tournament. I liked the feeling that he had confidence in me."

Rubio appears to be facing a rebuilding year after losing more than 70 percent of his offense from last season's club.

"Each year presents a different formula for success. There are so many unknowns knowing that some of the freshmen are going to play immediate roles," he said. "I'm not worrying about how good we're going to be. Those are things I can't worry about right now."

And no matter which recruits receive significant roles, everyone realizes how much

work there is to do to bring the Wildcats back into the nation's top 10 teams.

"I'm coming into this program with a lot of confidence in me, this team, the coaching staff and the school," Burkholder said. "With a lot of determination I know our team can go all the way and make Arizona a tri-sport national champ."

Joe Lantagne of Lantagne Appraisal, a California-based company that has scouted players from the West Coast for seven years, on UA's seven recruits: "This group will be back where (Arizona) was last year but it's going to take a couple of years. In two years kids like Dubois and Talbot will start to contribute more. With the exception of (Erin) Aldrich, this group has better athletes than the group they lost."

Breaking it Down

UA volleyball head coach Dave Rubio's comments on four of his recruits who he said have the potential to start next season.

On Dana Burkholder: "I feel Dana is one of those exceptional players who brings so much to the floor other than her physical talent. I would compare her to a Mike Bibby in terms of the tangibles Mike has brought to UA."

On Jill Talbot: "She is a very exceptional athlete. I foresee her coming in and really being able to (contribute) in ball control skills immediately."

On Nadia Sefferovich: "She is one of those players who could be as good as anybody in the country. She physically has skills few players have and is one of the most talented players I have ever recruited."

On Lesley Dubois: "She is 6-foot-3 but moves like she is 5-4. She has tremendous movement and is a great athlete. Her ball control skills are so good for being such a tall kid."