Daily Bruin File Photo Senior setter Erika
Selsor is the leader who sets the stage for the UCLA
women’s volleyball team.
By Andrew Borders
Daily Bruin Reporter
The fate of the UCLA women’s volleyball team rests in
Erika Selsor’s hands. Literally.
She doesn’t record the awe-inspiring kills that senior
outside hitter Kristee Porter does, and she doesn’t block the
ball right back in the face of the opponent like her former
teammate Elisabeth Bachman used to, but the senior setter factors
in on every play the Bruins attempt.
Set, set, set. As many as 89 times a match, the senior setter
makes her palms and fingers direct the ball to one of her taller,
spring-legged teammates for an attempted kill. If the pounded ball
hits the opponent’s floor, Selsor gets an assist, one of
5,525 during her time at UCLA. That amount stands second all-time
in the school’s annals, 142 short of Ann Boyer
(’88).
“She handles the ball on every play, and if she
doesn’t, we’re in trouble,” UCLA head coach Andy
Banachowski said. “So many of the good things that she does
just don’t get noticed. The hitter gets the glory for putting
the ball away, but it was the good set that gave her the
opportunity to do that.”
Like a catcher in baseball decides what pitch the man on the
mound will throw, part of Selsor’s floor duties include
setting up the next play.
“She definitely runs the floor,” Porter said.
“She’s probably the most important person on the floor
because her decisions dictate how we play. She makes the decisions,
we win games.”
Evidently, Selsor has been making plenty of decisions correctly.
Since Selsor’s arrival in Westwood, the Bruins have gone
79-28. More remarkably, the senior has played in every one of those
107 matches.
Banachowski said that Selsor was allowed no grace period, no
redshirt year to learn the Bruin schemes.
“She’s always been a leader since the day she came
here,” he said. “We handed over the reins of the team
to her and she’s done an excellent job of running the
team.”
Any fan at a UCLA volleyball game can see ““ and hear
““ Selsor run the team. Her intensity manifests itself in
several stomps on the court and a determined, focused look on her
face after a hard-fought kill.
“I’ve just been extremely competitive since I was
very young,” Selsor said. “I’m just kind of
feisty. I compete at everything.”
That same competitiveness is what has made it tough for Selsor
to take those 28 losses.
“I’m very bitter after a loss. I’m not very
much fun to be around,” she said.
But in-season losses to teams like Nebraska and Stanford
don’t bother her as much as those to Wisconsin in 2000 and
Penn State in 1999, both coming in the regional final of the NCAA
tournament.
“They’re extremely important,” Selsor said.
“Everybody who plays the sport is playing to win those last
six of the season.”
The Bruins have not won a national championship since 1991. That
10 year drought is mostly due to the growth of women’s
volleyball outside the handful of elite teams that once dominated
the sport. This expansion will make capturing the 2001 crown a
difficult task.
Fortunately for her teammates, Selsor is one who knows something
about surpassing expectations.
At 5-foot-6, Selsor is the smallest starting setter in the
conference. But her talent has rendered her height just a number.
The senior’s 14.21 assists per game rank No. 1 in the Pac-10,
well ahead of several conference setters who average just over 12
assists per game.
“When you’re 5-foot-6, you’re not going to be
able to hit across a block that’s six feet tall all the way
across,” she said.
And so, a setter she became.
Freshman defensive setter Chrissie Zartman, who is listed at
5-foot-5 in a conference where the smallest player stands 5-foot-3,
can appreciate what Selsor has overcome.
“She just plays like she’s a lot bigger than she
is,” Zartman said. “I don’t think height has
anything to do with it. It’s mostly desire in volleyball, and
Erika totally has the desire.”
With 12 matches remaining in the regular season, as well as
however many the Bruins advance to play in the postseason, Selsor
is likely to break Boyer’s assist record. But one can
understand that the school mark won’t bring her the
satisfaction that a national title would.
“I would just be in absolute awe to do it,” she said
of winning the national championship.
The feeling is a fading memory for those involved with the
program, as UCLA hasn’t appeared in the Final Four since
1994. But as long as Selsor controls the floor, the Bruins
shouldn’t be counted out.