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Men’s volleyball: Alshuler comes home

Tony Altobelli

IRVINE - For Dennis Alshuler, a little Southern California drizzle

is much better than a mountain of New Jersey snow.

“What is it, 5 degrees over there?” Alshuler said. “I’m definitely glad

to be back in Southern Cal again.”

The Princeton University freshman was back in the area Tuesday night as

the Tigers took on UCI in nonconference action.

Alshuler’s former coach, Charlie Brande has already seen some differences

in his play.

“In high school he used to be able to get away with cutting the ball

crosscourt,” Brande said. “I told my guys to watch out for that, but I

saw him turning the ball over a few times.”

According to Alshuler, himself, the former all-everything at Corona del

Mar High sees a big difference playing at the Division I level.

“Everyone is so much bigger and faster at this level,” Alshuler said.

“It’s all the best high school players in the country playing on

different teams.”

Alshuler’s current coach, Glen Nelson, has been pleased with his

early-season play, but still sees room for improvements.

“We haven’t had that many practices together, but so far, I like what I

see,” Nelson said. “He’s doing better on the back row than I expected. He

still needs to get better in sync with the setter and he still needs to

bring parts of his game up to this level, but that’s gonna take some

time.”

According to Brande, with Alshuler, a three-sport athlete at CdM, his

focusing on one sport at a time will be a big difference in his

development.

“This is the first time he can really concentrate on playing just one

sport,” Brande said. “I’ve seen athletes like Dennis come to this level,

focus on one sport and really excel.”

Alshuler is also learning a different style of volleyball, which can only

make him a smarter player.

“It’s definitely not SoCal volleyball,” Alshuler said. “But that’s fine,

because there are different ways and styles of playing this game.”

Alshuler’s teammate, sophomore Scott Dore (Newport Harbor) is the Tigers’

guinea pig, so to speak.

The NCAA has adopted a new position called the “Libero,” which the

equivalence of a designated back-row player, which is the position Dore

played against UCI.

Another local playing in Tuesday’s game was UCI’s Josh Richardson. The

former Newport Harbor and Orange Coast College standout uses a mountain

of heart to help the Anteaters on the court.

By the way, UCI defeated Princeton, 17-16, 15-13, 15-5. Richardson had 10

kills for the Anteaters, while Alshuler had 17 kills for the Tigers.

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