2012 wcc review The West Coast Conference was formed in 1952 to provide a convenient venue for five San Francisco Bay Area schools to compete in basketball. Since that modest beginning, the WCC has evolved and grown to become a nationally recognized and competitive force in intercollegiate athletics, with 13 leaguesponsored sports: baseball; both men's and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, and tennis; and women's volleyball and women's rowing. The league began in 1952-53 as the California Basketball Association, and included College of the Pacific, Saint Mary's College, University of San Francisco, San Jose State University, and Santa Clara University. It remained five teams until 1956-57, when Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, and Fresno State joined the conference, giving it eight teams. At that time, the conference's name was changed to the West Coast Athletic Conference (WCAC). After just one season, Fresno State departed and the WCAC remained a seven-member conference until welcoming UC Santa Barbara in 1965-66. Four years later UC Santa Barbara and San Jose State left the WCAC, and were replaced by Nevada-Reno and Nevada-Las Vegas - expanding the conference's footprint to a second state. Pacific announced its departure in 1971, and was replaced by Seattle University for the 1971-72 school year. Four years later, UNLV announced its independence after winning a WCAC men's basketball crown. The WCAC was left with seven member institutions for two years, before welcoming the University of Portland prior to the 1977-78 school year. Nevada left the WCAC in 1979, and the conference welcomed Gonzaga University and the University of San Diego to the mix beginning in 1979-80. One year later, Seattle ended its participation at the Division I level, reducing the number of schools in the WCAC from nine to eight. The WCAC shortened its name to West Coast Conference in 1989, and developed a new logo in 1995 that lasted until 2011. Thirty years after its most recent expansion, the WCC welcomed its ninth member by extending an invitation to Brigham Young University in September of 2010. BYU officially joined the West Coast Conference on July 1, 2011, followed by the return of University of the Pacific on July 1, 2013.
2012 All-West Coast Conference Honors
Player of the Year: Jennifer Hamson, BYU Freshman of the Year: Alexa Gray, BYU Co-Defensive Player of the Year: Betsi Metter, LMU; Rebecca Kopilovitch, USF; Nicole Warner, BYU Coach of the Year: Shawn Olmstead, BYU
FIRST TEAM ALL-WCC
Name Team Megan Anders Santa Clara Chloe Ferrari San Diego Kristina Graven Saint Mary's Alexa Gray BYU Jennifer Hamson BYU Katie Hoekman San Diego Gabby Jolly Saint Mary's Kathleen Luft Loyola Marymount Jazmine Orozco Pepperdine Nicole Warner BYU Kellie Woolever Pepperdine Valentina Zaloznik San Francisco
The Conference recognizes championships in each of its sports, has hosted NCAA championship events, and produced 26 NCAA Division I individual or team champions. And, many outstanding WCC student-athletes have gone Honorable Mention on to excel in professional sports. Name Team Victoria Adelhelm Rachel Alvey Carrie Baird Alaysia Brown Lauren Corp Kylie Edinger Ester de Vries Heather Hannemann Litara Keil Rebecca Kopilovitch Jocelyn Levig Betsi Metter Taylor Milton Ariel Usher
Pepperdine San Diego San Diego San Diego Saint Mary's Gonzaga San Francisco BYU LMU San Francisco San Francisco LMU SCU POR
All-Freshman
Name Team Savannah Blinn Gonzaga Kimberly Dahl BYU Ester de Vries San Francisco Dalas Dodd Saint Mary's Alexa Gray BYU Taylor Racich Pepperdine Hannah Tedrow Loyola Marymount
2012 West Coast Conference Standings
Team BYU * ! San Diego * ! Saint Mary's ! Santa Clara ! Pepperdine ! Loyola Marymount ! San Francisco Gonzaga Portland
Today, the 10 WCC members span the western coast of the United States from Canada to Mexico, from the pine forests of Eastern Washington, to the Columbia River Basin, to the dynamic San Francisco Bay Area, to the sunny beaches of Southern California, to the majestic mountains of Utah. The Conference is characterized by the stability of its membership - only two conferences have been together longer - and its unique emphasis on combining excellence in athletics with excellence in academics.
WCC Pct. 13-3 .812 13-3 .812 12-4 .750 9-7 .562 8-8 .500 8-8 .500 7-9 .438 1-15 .062 1-15 .062
Overall Pct. 28-4 .875 21-7 .750 18-11 .621 20-12 .625 20-12 .625 18-13 .581 16-13 .552 9-20 .310 7-23 .233
* - WCC Champion • ! - NCAA Tournament Participant
12 • LMU VOLLEYBALL MEDIA ALMANAC
The long and rich history of the WCC demonstrates that success in intercollegiate athletics can be built on the foundation of values, character, and academics.
The 2012 Season BYU and San Diego finished as the 2012 West Coast Conference Co-Champions. After receiving the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament with a 26-3 overall record and 13-3 conference record, the Cougars also claimed four postseason awards, as voted on by the WCC head coaches. Junior opposite Jennifer Hamson earned WCC Player of the Year honors. Alexa Gray was named 2012 WCC Freshman of the Year. The 2012 Defensive Player of the Year award was split three ways in BYU's middle blocker Nicole Warner, Loyola Marymount's defensive specialist Betsi Metter, and San Francisco's outside hitter Rebecca Kopilovitch. BYU also captured the WCC Coach of the Year award as the conference head coaches selected BYU's Shawn Olmstead. There has been strong volleyball competition within the WCC, and this season proved no different. This year, seven of the nine teams owned top 60 RPIs in the latest NCAA Volleyball RPI report (November 19, 2012), while four were ranked at least once in the AVCA Coaches Poll throughout the season (with two ranked consistently throughout the year in BYU and San Diego). Six WCC schools represented the WCC in the 2012 NCAA Tournament. WCC co-champion BYU, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, Saint Mary's, WCC co-champion San Diego, and Santa Clara all represented the league in the field of 64.