Logemann Opts to Fight Fires

One of the nation’s premier college players was absent when the 1992 NCAA water polo season moved into the weekend with the 26th annual UC Irvine water polo tournament.

Pepperdine won the tournament, followed by USC in second place, California in third and UC Irvine in fourth. Long Beach finished in eighth place.

But Thorpe Logemann turned his back on Cal State Long Beach after a disappointing fifth-place finish at the 1991 NCAA tournament. In the spring, he decided not to return for his junior season.

“It seemed like I was putting a lot of time in and a lot of effort, and I wasn’t getting anything,” Logemann said.

In addition to being the 49ers’ top defender last year, Logemann was a member of the United States junior national team. He was selected the outstanding defensive player at the 1991 Junior Water Polo Championships in Southern California.

“We talked to him for a long time,” Long Beach Coach Ken Lindgren said. “I thought maybe he didn’t like our program or something. . . . I really don’t know what the problem was.”

Logemann is pursuing a career as a firefighter.

“I just wasn’t enjoying it anymore,” he said. “I was saying to myself, ‘I can’t wait for the season to be over.’ Well, if I’m saying that then why am I still playing?”

Eighth-ranked Long Beach also lost Chi Kredell, possibly for the season, when he broke his hand two weeks ago. Mike Burke, a first team All-American two-meter man and the 49ers’ leading scorer in 1991 with 59 goals, finished his eligibility last season. Seniors Brian Costanza and Spencer Harris are expected to lead this season’s offense.

The last time USC was in an NCAA men’s water polo national tournament, Dan Leyson was a freshman and he was redshirting. The year was 1988, and USC lost to UCLA in a semifinal.

USC’s inability to make it into the eight-team national tournament for the past three years vexes Leyson.

“You don’t understand how much time and effort is put into the the sport of water polo. Most people don’t,” said Leyson, a senior. “You’re pouring your whole life into the sport. It’s so frustrating.”

Leyson was named the Trojans’ most valuable player last season after leading the team with 34 goals.

“I’d rather not have any awards and be an NCAA champion,” he said.

An integral part of UCLA’s hopes of repeating a successful season was being treated with ice at the UC Irvine tournament.

Philip Hadfield, the Bruins’ senior hole guard, had off-season back surgery from which he has not yet fully recovered.

In 1991, UCLA advanced to the NCAA championship final before losing to California.

Hadfield led the Bruins with 16 steals last season. He is often assigned to defend the opponent’s best player. In UCLA’s semifinal game at the 1991 NCAA tournament, Hadfield guarded Pepperdine’s Geoff Clark, an Australian Olympian who later led his country to a fifth-place finish at Barcelona.

Hadfield starts for the Bruins, but his back remains weak. He hopes to be fully recovered by the middle of the season.

UCLA lost nine members of its 1991 team, including first-team All-Americans Dan Hackett, its goalkeeper, and Oliver Will, its top scorer.

UCLA finished in seventh place at the UC Irvine tournament.

Gone from the Pepperdine men’s water polo roster is Clark, who led the offense last season.

Leading the defense is 6-foot-4, 215-pound goalie Peter Schuler, who was selected first team All-Big West Conference last year after his first season at Pepperdine. He had 215 saves in 28 games.

In case anyone had forgotten, Brad Friedel showed again why he was selected as the starting goalkeeper for U.S. Olympic men’s soccer team in Barcelona.

Friedel led second-ranked UCLA (5-0) to four consecutive shutouts this month, including a 1-0 victory over No. 8-ranked Indiana on Sept. 6.

Friedel, a junior, has 25 career shutouts. He is in third place on UCLA’s all-time list and needs six to surpass Tim Harris, who played from 1980-83. Anton Nistl, who played from 1986-89, tops the list with 41. UCLA beat No. 13 San Francisco, 5-0, Sunday.

Outside hitters are suddenly scarce on the USC women’s volleyball team.

Marcela Morales, who was third in kills for the Trojans in 1991, did not return for her junior season, deciding to stay with her family in Brazil. Debbie Martin, a sophomore, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in the off-season and has not played this season. Martin was expected to compete with freshman Kelly Kuebler for a starting spot on the left side.

“We went from four outside hitters to two almost overnight,” USC Coach Lisa Love said.

The mainstay is senior Katie Haller, the Trojans’ kill leader in 1991 with 429. Cica Baccelli, a 6-5 senior, is the other returning outside hitter and Kuebler also starts.

Deanna Doolittle, a junior, had her 1,000th kill on Sept. 12 in a Loyola Marymount victory against Santa Clara. She is the second Lion to reach 1,000 kills. Doolittle has 1,021 kills and needs 542 more to pass former Lion Leslie Wohlford.

Doolittle also is Loyola’s second all-time digs leader with 1,122. She needs eight to pass Wohlford.