Post by roofed! on Dec 15, 2004 5:58:06 GMT -5
[ftp]http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~28543~2598618,00.html[/ftp]
Homecoming queen
USC's Dillon seeks NCAA title in Long Beach
By Frank Burlison, Staff Writer
If you're looking for a Long Beach hook to the NCAA volleyball championships that get under way Thursday evening in the Long Beach Arena, you'll find one quickly enough.
Just scan the floor when USC's players are warming up for their semifinal match against Minnesota and look for No. 32.
You can't possess deeper roots to the city -- or the arena, for that matter -- than does Alli Dillon.
The Trojans' sophomore setter is a 2003 graduate of Wilson High of Long Beach, where she was class valedictorian and helped lead the Bruins to a Southern Section title as a junior and into a state final as a senior.
Her parents, Dale and Maureen Dillon, graduated from Long Beach State, as will her older brother, Kyle, a senior business finance major.
Her other sibling, 12-year-old Emily, appears destined to be one of the city's best high school athletes when she enrolls at Wilson.
Is there any place that Dillon or her family would rather be Thursday night than in the arena?
Not a chance.
The opportunity to help the Trojans to an NCAA-record third consecutive national championship is a major reason she transferred to USC after spending her freshman season at San Jose State.
That the Trojans could accomplish that feat in Long Beach, in front of family and lifelong friends, and in the building where her father played basketball for the 49ers (1973-77), is so much holiday gravy for Dillon.
Or something even a little sweeter.
"All of my family and all of my friends who are home on break from school are going to be there," Dillon said Monday afternoon, after zipping through a final for her human performance and exercise class.
"This is the icing on the cake. To be playing for a championship in my hometown ... what could be better?"
It also means answering a lot of telephone calls and juggling ticket requests in the Dillon household.
"My mother and sisters are going to be there," Dale Dillon said. "There is going to be quite a bit of family and a lot of friends there."
The 1973 All-Southern Section guard at Long Beach Poly laughed.
"But Maureen is handling all of the tickets," he said.
Alli Dillon, as accomplished a ballet dancer as she is a setter -- "We used to go to as many dance recitals as we did games," her dad said -- was an All-Western Athletic Conference tournament selection as a freshman last season, when she averaged 12.26 assists per game and also earned All-Academic WAC honors.
During the season, she knew she wanted to relocate to Southern California.
"Just a few months into the semester, I knew it wasn't the place for me," she said. "I didn't have any family nearby, and it was a ways from home."
Since she had signed a national letter of intent when she signed a scholarship agreement with the Spartans, she had to complete a full academic year at the school to be eligible to play right away at any school she transferred to.
"I sent letters with my release (from San Jose) to about 15 schools in Southern California," she said.
None offered a scholarship, so "from about December (2003) until about April, I had planned to enroll and play at Long Beach State," she said.
Besides her family's ties to the school, she had played in 49ers coach Brian Gimmillaro's summer camps and club program. The transfer seemed a natural, although Gimmillaro wouldn't commit to giving her a scholarship, either for this or any other school year.
"Then, in late April," Dillon said, "UCLA contacted me because they had lost a setter."
Shortly thereafter, she heard from USC. Everything became a whirlwind after that.
"I came down one weekend (from San Jose), and visited both places," she said.
Dillon said the USC and UCLA coaches had used up their scholarship allotments for the 2004-05 school year, but that she would be put on athletic grant-in-aid the following year.
It didn't take her long to decide where her next stop was going to be. The Trojans had themselves a new setter.
"They have the whole package here," she said. "There was everything I wanted: education at a private school that was close to home, a No. 1 (volleyball) program, a chance to start and become the best volleyball player I could be."
USC coach Mick Haley couldn't be more pleased about the decision. The Trojans acquired a setter who has averaged 7.41 assists per game in the team's 6-2 attack (in which the setter is always in the backline, meaning she is on the sidelines during the three plays in which she would have rotated onto the frontline; she starts but alternates with Kim Freeburg, who averages 6.57 assists per game).
"I didn't see any (video) tape of Alli before we took her," Haley said. "But we got some good recommendations about her leadership skills, which are superior.
"She's a hard worker and a good athlete. She's small (5-foot-7), but in our system, where we want to keep our big bangers on the frontline, that's no problem."
Dillon knew some of the Trojans, at least by name and reputation or club competition, before she joined the team for practice in August.
It didn't take her long to feel a part of the Trojan volleyball family.
"We all bonded in double-days (twice-a-day practices in August)," said Dillon, one of seven newcomers to the program this season.
If all goes according to the Trojans' plans, Dillon and her new-found buddies will be doing a lot of celebrating on the arena floor following Saturday afternoon's championship match.
A lot of her family and longtime buddies will be whooping and hollering in the stands at the same time.
"Her biggest goal was to compete at the highest level (of volleyball)," her father said. "She wanted to play for a national championship."
And that icing wouldn't taste too bad, either.
Homecoming queen
USC's Dillon seeks NCAA title in Long Beach
By Frank Burlison, Staff Writer
If you're looking for a Long Beach hook to the NCAA volleyball championships that get under way Thursday evening in the Long Beach Arena, you'll find one quickly enough.
Just scan the floor when USC's players are warming up for their semifinal match against Minnesota and look for No. 32.
You can't possess deeper roots to the city -- or the arena, for that matter -- than does Alli Dillon.
The Trojans' sophomore setter is a 2003 graduate of Wilson High of Long Beach, where she was class valedictorian and helped lead the Bruins to a Southern Section title as a junior and into a state final as a senior.
Her parents, Dale and Maureen Dillon, graduated from Long Beach State, as will her older brother, Kyle, a senior business finance major.
Her other sibling, 12-year-old Emily, appears destined to be one of the city's best high school athletes when she enrolls at Wilson.
Is there any place that Dillon or her family would rather be Thursday night than in the arena?
Not a chance.
The opportunity to help the Trojans to an NCAA-record third consecutive national championship is a major reason she transferred to USC after spending her freshman season at San Jose State.
That the Trojans could accomplish that feat in Long Beach, in front of family and lifelong friends, and in the building where her father played basketball for the 49ers (1973-77), is so much holiday gravy for Dillon.
Or something even a little sweeter.
"All of my family and all of my friends who are home on break from school are going to be there," Dillon said Monday afternoon, after zipping through a final for her human performance and exercise class.
"This is the icing on the cake. To be playing for a championship in my hometown ... what could be better?"
It also means answering a lot of telephone calls and juggling ticket requests in the Dillon household.
"My mother and sisters are going to be there," Dale Dillon said. "There is going to be quite a bit of family and a lot of friends there."
The 1973 All-Southern Section guard at Long Beach Poly laughed.
"But Maureen is handling all of the tickets," he said.
Alli Dillon, as accomplished a ballet dancer as she is a setter -- "We used to go to as many dance recitals as we did games," her dad said -- was an All-Western Athletic Conference tournament selection as a freshman last season, when she averaged 12.26 assists per game and also earned All-Academic WAC honors.
During the season, she knew she wanted to relocate to Southern California.
"Just a few months into the semester, I knew it wasn't the place for me," she said. "I didn't have any family nearby, and it was a ways from home."
Since she had signed a national letter of intent when she signed a scholarship agreement with the Spartans, she had to complete a full academic year at the school to be eligible to play right away at any school she transferred to.
"I sent letters with my release (from San Jose) to about 15 schools in Southern California," she said.
None offered a scholarship, so "from about December (2003) until about April, I had planned to enroll and play at Long Beach State," she said.
Besides her family's ties to the school, she had played in 49ers coach Brian Gimmillaro's summer camps and club program. The transfer seemed a natural, although Gimmillaro wouldn't commit to giving her a scholarship, either for this or any other school year.
"Then, in late April," Dillon said, "UCLA contacted me because they had lost a setter."
Shortly thereafter, she heard from USC. Everything became a whirlwind after that.
"I came down one weekend (from San Jose), and visited both places," she said.
Dillon said the USC and UCLA coaches had used up their scholarship allotments for the 2004-05 school year, but that she would be put on athletic grant-in-aid the following year.
It didn't take her long to decide where her next stop was going to be. The Trojans had themselves a new setter.
"They have the whole package here," she said. "There was everything I wanted: education at a private school that was close to home, a No. 1 (volleyball) program, a chance to start and become the best volleyball player I could be."
USC coach Mick Haley couldn't be more pleased about the decision. The Trojans acquired a setter who has averaged 7.41 assists per game in the team's 6-2 attack (in which the setter is always in the backline, meaning she is on the sidelines during the three plays in which she would have rotated onto the frontline; she starts but alternates with Kim Freeburg, who averages 6.57 assists per game).
"I didn't see any (video) tape of Alli before we took her," Haley said. "But we got some good recommendations about her leadership skills, which are superior.
"She's a hard worker and a good athlete. She's small (5-foot-7), but in our system, where we want to keep our big bangers on the frontline, that's no problem."
Dillon knew some of the Trojans, at least by name and reputation or club competition, before she joined the team for practice in August.
It didn't take her long to feel a part of the Trojan volleyball family.
"We all bonded in double-days (twice-a-day practices in August)," said Dillon, one of seven newcomers to the program this season.
If all goes according to the Trojans' plans, Dillon and her new-found buddies will be doing a lot of celebrating on the arena floor following Saturday afternoon's championship match.
A lot of her family and longtime buddies will be whooping and hollering in the stands at the same time.
"Her biggest goal was to compete at the highest level (of volleyball)," her father said. "She wanted to play for a national championship."
And that icing wouldn't taste too bad, either.
