LOS ANGELES – Junior setter Nicole Vargas was present when her mother, Long Beach State women’s volleyball assistant coach Debbie Green, saw her banner unveiled in the Galen Center at Southern California.
With the spotlight now on Vargas, Green looked on from the LBSU sideline as her daughter put on a tremendous performance at USC, where Green has been deemed a volleyball legend. Wearing the same jersey number as her mother (No. 10), Vargas had 52 assists, three kills and 11 digs in the 49ers’ hard-earned victory over the Rebels of Las Vegas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Friday night at the Galen Center.
Playing under the banner of Green made Vargas happy, but never nervous during the match.
“It’s fun seeing her name up there,” Vargas said.
As for Green, there were no different feelings toward her daughter’s match, despite returning to the school that she helped lead to prominence. Green won two national championships with the Women of Troy in 1976 and 1977, and her accolades go far beyond that. She earned the All-Time Greatest Volleyball player award in 1986 after helping the United States win a silver medal in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles (Green was also a member of the 1980 Olympic team that boycotted the Moscow games). Green was one of only 15 females to win the award. Green was also inducted into to the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1995 and was the first volleyball player to be inducted into the Orange County Hall of Fame.
Amid all of those achievements, Green still earned a bachelor’s degree at LBSU in 1992, and believes her daughter is only an LBSU 49er.
“We don’t talk about this past history too much,” Green said cheerfully after Friday’s match against UNLV. “It’s not a mother/daughter thing. It is just LBSU vs. USC.”
However, in the match featuring LBSU vs. UNLV, Vargas put together one of her more astonishing performances of the season, completing a double-double by the end of the second game (20 assists and 10 digs). Vargas finished off the Rebels in the fifth game with an ace, sending her teammates and the loyal LBSU fans to their feet in excitement.
As the players left for the locker room, Green smiled with excitement for the next round but awaited her alma mater’s match against Pepperdine, catching a glimpse of the team’s next opponent and possibly catching up with the school she left as one of the greatest setters in women’s volleyball history.
