SAN BERNARDINO >> A 6-foot-4 high school sophomore is hard for college volleyball coaches to miss.
Thus, Tori May isn’t the type of player who usually lands at Cal State San Bernardino. The Division I scouts swarmed early and the Redlands East Valley High School graduate landed at Colorado State, where she was a member of three consecutive Mountain West Conference championship teams.
Three years later, May is a wife, a mother… and a Coyote.
NCAA Division II rules — and the Cal State San Bernardino coaching staff — afforded May another chance at volleyball after she got married and had a child last year. In fact, the middle blocker has another year of eligibility remaining after this season despite taking a year off from school when she moved back to Southern California.
But May and Cal State San Bernardino are hoping this season is far from over.
Coming off their eighth consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Association championship, the Coyotes (25-5) are making their 14th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance this week.
Cal State has won 22 of its last 23 matches and earned the No. 1 seed and rights to host the tournament this year. The Coyotes reached the West Regional final last season, but can they do it again?
“Why not?,” Coyotes head coach Kim Cherniss said. “We’re good.”
The strength of the team is, not surprisingly, the middle.
May and 6-0 sophomore middle blocker Breanna McIntosh form a formidable duo, though Cherniss was quick to point out that the team’s balance is what will carry it in the postseason.
McIntosh ranks first in the conference in blocks, second in block assists and third in hitting percentage.
Both middle blockers were among the 14 players named to the AVCA West Region team, May to the first team and McIntosh to the second team.
It wasn’t long ago that May didn’t think she’d ever be a member of any team.
Volleyball was an afterthought when she had her son in August of last year. Married to a military man stationed in San Diego, May is without her husband until he returns from the base on weekends.
In other words, there are plenty of things aside from volleyball difficult to squeeze into her schedule.
After running into Cherniss at church last year, May allowed herself to consider a comeback. By the spring of 2013, she was practicing with the Coyotes.
“I didn’t know if volleyball was ever going to be possible again,” May said. “I was on this new schedule. I was trying to handle being a mom and being married. It was a lot.”
Turns out rust wasn’t much of a factor.
In fact May calls her current effort the best volleyball of her life. Three seasons at Colorado State, not to mention a pair of CIF championships while in high school at REV, have provided her invaluable experience.
Being a mother has granted her maturity her teammates can’t help but be effected by.
“Being a mom and a wife, there aren’t a lot of things capable of ruffling her feathers,” Cherniss said. “She’s running the show at home and it’s amazing how composed she stays even though she has so much to juggle. She’s a wonderful influence on this team, but she is definitely not complacent on the court.”
All May has done this season is rank second in the conference with a .365 hitting percentage and 11th with 90 total blocks and 75 block assists.
The only numbers that matter to her at this point are in the win column.
“This is my first experience in this tournament so I don’t know really what to expect,” May said. “But I do know our team is really good.”
