Kicking down doors

Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004 | 9:22 a.m.

UNLV women's soccer coach Dan Abdalla tried to convince prep goalkeeper Jenna Huff that she would make a difference as a Rebel, that she might get lost in a mix that included 10 national team players at powerhouse Santa Clara.

So far in what might be a breakthrough season for the UNLV program, nobody has been better between the pipes in the Mountain West Conference as Huff leads the league with 70 saves and seven shutouts.

"How much of an impact will you make?" Abdalla said he told Huff during her recruitment. "We'll put you in a situation where you can win games. Over the long haul, being under pressure will make a difference for you.

"It has helped her physically and mentally as a goalkeeper, and we knew we'd have a dynamite keeper."

Three years later, Huff, a 6-foot junior from Huntington Beach (Calif.) Edison High, concurred completely with Abdalla's pitch.

"It's worked out so far," Huff said before practice Wednesday. "I'm having fun and I get to play. That's all I wanted, rather than playing among 10 national team players and not getting an opportunity. I really like it."

On the pitch, the fifth of Abdalla's five-year plan has been unfolding nicely. Although the Rebels (8-3-2) have lost twice to top-10 teams, at Tennessee and Kansas, they rattled off a recent stretch in which they went 4-0-1, with Huff allowing only one goal.

That earned UNLV a No. 10 regional ranking, the first in the program's history. It split its league-opening road trip last weekend, beating Utah before losing to Brigham Young in Provo. The Rebels play host to New Mexico on Friday night.

In three weeks, the Mountain West tournament will be played in Provo. At stake will be a berth in the 64-team NCAA tournament field, in which UNLV has never taken part.

"It's a rough road ahead of us," Huff said. "All the teams in the conference are good, so I think it'll be real close."

That's how Abdalla gauged the fine line between the team's chemistry and its camaraderie in the preseason. Because the players got along so well, he believed their friendships could affect their performances on the pitch.

"But the competition on the field stayed tight, which is extremely important," Abdalla said. "I thought they might like each other too much, but it's something I didn't have to worry about. They want each other to succeed."

Next up on Abdalla's wish list is to beat some of those ranked foes and play regularly in the NCAAs.

North Carolina has dominated women's collegiate soccer, winning 17 of the 22 titles and ending as runner-up three times. Santa Clara has appeared in two of the past three finales, winning in 2001.

"In the next couple of years, we have to take the next step," Abdalla said. "We could have done it the easy way, doing it in a year or two with junior college transfers. Instead, we wanted to do it the right way and build it from the ground up.

"And it's starting to pay off. We've done everything with the long term in mind ... we're in the hunt for the NCAAs. This is the first year our foot is in the door. Now we have to take care of business so we don't take (the foot) out of (the door)."

Staci Hendershott guided the Rebels to 8-10-1 and 7-11-1 finishes in their first two seasons, in 1998 and '99, before moving on to coach at the club level in Colorado.

Abdalla had been serving as an assistant to Hendershott, courtesy of a recommendation by Barry Barto, the longtime UNLV men's coach for whom Abdalla played goalkeeper from 1994-97.

When Hendershott departed, Barto recommended Abdalla for the top women's post to associate athletic director and senior women's administrator Lisa Kelleher, but Barto did not serve on the search committee.

"I was asked for my input, yes," Barto said. "Was it positive? Yes. Hey, here's someone who knew the program and had a history in the program. Obviously, things are working the way they need to be worked. Obviously, he must be doing something right."

Abdalla paused for an eternity when asked about his one claim to fame as a UNLV soccer player. Finally, he couldn't name a single highlight of his career as a Rebel or his two years with an A League team in Orange County.

A Southern California native, Abdalla, 29, is married to the former Jennifer Grgurich, daughter of longtime UNLV assistant basketball coach and renowned hoops instructor Tim Grgurich.

That link to one of the city's most well-known sports families will prevent Abdalla, he said, from using the women's soccer program as a springboard to a gig with more cachet.

"They'll have to kick me out of here," said Abdalla, who entered this season with a 42-33-6 record.

That goes for Todd Abdalla, too. Dan's younger brother is in his fourth year as a UNLV assistant but his first as a volunteer coach, which allows Stephanie Rigamat and Colleen Caldwell to be Dan Abdalla's paid assistants.

Todd gets his regular paychecks as the president of Rebel Select Soccer Club, a Southern Nevada youth program made up of kids as young as 5 that is designed to ultimately feed talent to UNLV.

Dan Abdalla praised the few coaches in the area who have run youth clubs, but said the youth leagues needed "consistency."

In addition, he said Rebel Select aims to eventually send 16 kids a year to college, via Division I soccer scholarships. Currently, according to Abdalla, two to three high schoolers a year make the jump to D-I soccer.

Abdalla signs half a dozen players annually, on average, and most have come from outside the Silver State. Sooner than later, he wants most of those to hail from Nevada.

"Todd is very committed to the youth game here in Las Vegas," Dan said. "He spends a lot of time with the younger players here, and down the road that will be huge for us."

Nickie Olson (Centennial High) and Jessica Brown (Bishop Gorman) are two home-grown juniors who are among the league's top 10 in points production, and Brown and senior Annii Magliulo (Penngrove, Calif.) are in the top five in assists.

Jenny Ruiz, a senior defender from Corona, Calif., played for the Mexican national team in the Australia Cup in Canberra in January.

And Blynnda Bascones, a senior defender from Bonanza High, might be the most versatile Rebel.

She has sung a stellar version of the national anthem before several UNLV basketball games at the Thomas & Mack Center, but she didn't advance during an "American Idol" tryout in San Francisco last weekend.

Not a bad thing, Abdalla and some of her teammates told the aspiring singer. They told Bascones that that's not exactly something that might enhance a professional resume, anyway.

A trip to the NCAA women's soccer tournament? That's where idols are truly made.