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Meeker helps power Pacific's surge Former North star lends versatility to revitalized team BY GREG STILES When Sherri Murrell set out to build the University of the Pacific women's basketball team in her own image in the summer of 1998 she thought Dolinda Meeker was a perfect fit. As Murrell's second season at the Big West school in Stockton, Calif., winds down, the coach's opinion of the sophomore from North Medford High hasn't changed. "She's a kid that gives a constant blue-collar effort, always working hard," says Murrell, who first recruited Meeker as an assistant coach for Portland State. "We say wherever the ball is, Dolinda is. I love kids like that, whose style of play is like mine when I played. Not necessarily an incredible scorer, but players that make things happen." Meeker has been a starter since the first month of her freshman season, logging 30 minutes a game. She tops the Tigers in steals to go with the team's best assist-to-turnover ratio. The 5-foot-7 guard is also the No. 3 rebounder with 3.9 per game. "Evaluating from game to game, Dolinda gives us a consistent defensive effort and makes things happen," Murrell says. "If she penetrates and hits a 3 every once in while, that's fine. Her role is to stop the best guard on the other team. We can't afford to not have her in there. "A lot of times I put her on a 5-10 or 5-11 kid and she's done wonderfully. She's come up with six or seven rebounds in a game. Rebounding is not so much size as it is technique and boxing out." Meeker didn't need long to find her niche, but it was a different from what she had gotten used to in three years at St. Mary's High and later North Medford when her scoring was vital. "When I was in high school if I scored 15 points, I'd get mad," Meeker says. "Now if I score 15, wow that's great." As Murrell continues to reshape the program, speed and mobility will become more important and a three-guard look is in the offing. Sophomore point guard Selena Ho is Pacific's top scorer at 15 per game and the Tigers have signed Clackamas High's Corrine Wong for next season. "We could put a lot of different combinations on the floor," Murrell says. "They're great ballhandlers that hardly make any turnovers. They really get after it. " In general, the Tigers are getting after it. They're within reach of a 20-win season two years after back-to-back seasons where they lost nearly 20 games. Pacific was 14-13 last year and is 17-8 with this week's Big West tournament to go in capping the regular season. Ninth-ranked UC-Santa Barbara dominates the Big West, but Murrell is quick to point out that the Tigers have played the Gauchos tougher than any other conference the past two years. Meeker enjoys the challenge of playing high-powered teams such as Santa Barbara and Stanford. and hopes that Pacific will be numbered among those programs in the near future. "Our coach motivates us to do better and the caliber of players she's bringing in is getting better and better," Meeker says. "That's the start of something good. Maybe down the road Pacific will be another Stanford or Tennessee." It's not unthinkable. Pacific's volleyball team advanced to the NCAA women's Final Four in Hawaii last December. Off the floor, Meeker has settled in comfortably. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," she says. "Academically, I love the school. The class sizes are small and I get a lot of personal attention I wouldn't get at larger universities that I was looking at. Luckily, I ended up here." It doesn't mean that life is a breeze. "It's not the easiest thing in the world," Meeker says. "It's tough to be a college athlete trying to get your studies done and give 100 percent to your sport. It's a juggling act." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA