2004-09-22 Crystal Prehn
9/21/2004 3:56:48 PM | General
MEET THE LANCERS ... CRYSTAL PREHN
In her second season as a Lancer, volleyball middle blocker Crystal Prehn (Huntington, CA/La Serna HS/Irvine Valley CC) has had to adjust to a bit of a redefined role.
After being one of only six on the original 10-player roster to stay healthy throughout the 2003 season, where she led the team with 360 kills, Prehn is now surrounded by new and — healthy — talent. The 6-foot-2 inch senior is currently third on the team in kills with 97 (as of Sept. 22), behind Dominican Republic newcomers Yudelka Bonilla and Yajaira Prado, who have 206 and 169 kills, respectively.
The new players have come together and meshed well with the five returners, resulting in an 11-2 record (3-2 GSAC) and at #21, they have earned the first rank for the program since 1999.
“Crystal still carries a big role on this team,” CBU Coach Ryan McGuyre said. “We need her to be leading us in blocks every night, and she’s been doing that. We don’t need to use her as a hitter as much, because we want her to match up against the other team’s top hitters and we want to spread the attack around.”
Prehn is handling the adjustments she has had to make on the court with more than just moderate success. Her 1.21 blocks per game rank her second in the GSAC behind 2003 all-conference middle Lorena Zuleta of Fresno Pacific.
After being the only offensive weapon in her first year at CBU, the mental aspect of becoming one of many options has admittedly been a struggle for Prehn in 2004.
“It takes a lot of pressure off me (to have more offensive players),” she said. “Sometimes it’s hard to know that I was our only option last year, and now the team has other options. I just have to keep telling myself that if the team is doing well this season, it’s good.”
The 2003 team, which won only nine games overall, saw injury after injury — four of which ended potential starters’ seasons — deplete the roster and limit McGuyre’s options.
While there weren’t too many positives on paper, one effect the season did have was to revamp Prehn’s somewhat tentative playing style into one that exudes confidence.
“We had to set Crystal almost every time last year, which was good for her in terms of confidence, but it wasn’t good for our offense,” McGuyre said. “The other teams knew who we were going to and would adjust to our game plan. This year, we’re able to spread the ball out a lot better.”
One challenge facing Prehn that could easily be overlooked is the fact that her teammate of two seasons (one at Irvine Valley College and one with the 2003 Lancers), Colby George, is not playing in 2004. George, still a student at CBU, currently works during matches for the Sports Information Department.
“It’s hard (not playing with Colby) because we did play at junior college together and again last year,” Prehn said. “It was always a big support to have her alongside of me cheering me on, so it’s hard now without her. But, she still does stats at the games, so she’ll still give me her input on what I should’ve or shouldn’t have done.”
With so many teammates injured a year ago, the remaining players were expected to take up more playing time than they were used to and stay healthy at the same time. Prehn, who played in all 32 matches, played in most of them despite a sore right shoulder.
In the one match that she did not start, the intention was to rest the shoulder. The match, Oct. 25 versus Embry-Riddle, was CBU’s third in the span of five days. But when the match went to five games, she was sent to the floor to help secure a victory.
“Her leadership really came out a lot last year,” junior libero Linsey Smolskis said. “She had the set on pretty much every ball last year, and she came through the best she could. Even with all the injuries she had last year, she never lost her ‘Crystal’ self.”
The “Crystal self” could probably be best characterized in her enthusiasm that is nothing short of exuberance at the mention of her favorite card game — “Uno.”
The story is that Prehn and some friends “invented” a card that if drawn, requires an opponent to draw 15 cards, as opposed to the more conventional “Four-Card Draw” that comes with the official version.
While her off-court friends share some of her enthusiasm for the altered game, Prehn admits that it takes a bit more convincing to get her teammates to join in a game.
"When the team went to New York earlier in the season, I went around to everybody's rooms and tried to get them to play with me," she said. "I think new girls were thinking, 'What's wrong with her' when I told them about with the special card -- I got some crazy looks."
Et Cetera
Prehn’ favorite Bible verse is Philippians 2:3 — “Do nothing out of selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.”
-- By Jay Hobbs, Sports Information Student Assistant
