Number one.
Linnea Mendoza wears No. 1 on the back of her jersey, which is appropriate when you consider what she has accomplished over the past three years.
The junior setter for the Michigan women's volleyball team entered the season with the Michigan record for most assists in a match (73, accomplished three times), the highest assist total in a season (1,478 last year), and the most assists in a conference season (917 last year).
And on Oct. 5 of this year, in a win over Northwestern, Mendoza moved into first-place in one more category - assists in a career.
"It is a special thing," Mendoza says of her new record. "I don't want to say it's a reward, but it recognizes the matches that I've played. With an assist record, there is much more that goes into it besides me setting the ball. It depends on the pass and the team.
"I made it a point to remember who hit the ball for some reason. I don't remember what I set, but Shareen (Luze) hit it."
The old record, held by Tarnisha Thompson, was 2,619. Mendoza has since recorded her 3,000th assist in a win over Minnesota on Nov. 8, and every assist she registers from now on will add to her record.
"She is really an elite athlete," Michigan coach Greg Giovanazzi says. "I think people see a small player like that, and wouldn't say that they're elite. If you just watch the way Linnea moves and her sense for what happens on the court, she is just gifted."
Mendoza, who is a native of Santa Barbara, Calif., credits her court sense and a lot of her early development to her days growing up playing beach volleyball.
"It really helped me in my ball control and my court awareness," she says. "When you play with just two people on the court, you develop things that you wouldn't indoor, especially when you do it at a young age.
"(The beach) was integrated into our workout in high school and in club. We would have to run on the beach, jump in the sand - I was a beach bum for a long time."
The sun, the surf and the sand. What could be better?
As it turns out, Mendoza had to be talked into playing volleyball. She was in sixth grade, happily playing soccer, when her parents made her try out for a club team.
"I was going to be the youngest one on the team, everyone else was in seventh or eighth grade," Mendoza recalls. "But it was actually a good thing."
Mendoza kept her good thing going, and when she got to high school she realized that athletics could earn her a scholarship.
"It was between soccer and volleyball," Mendoza said. "Which one was going to take me further? Which one did I want to pursue and put more time in too?
"I ended up playing soccer and volleyball through high school just so I wouldn't get burned out on one sport, but I knew in my heart that wanted volleyball. There were more opportunities and more programs."
Mendoza only ended up in the Michigan program through what she called "a lucky situation" and what Giovanazzi describes as "good fortune."
In February 1993, when Giovanazzi was watching Mendoza's Santa Barbara Club team play, Mendoza was sitting on the bench. She was still a junior in high school and there were two senior setters on the team who the coaches were showcasing in hopes of earning them a scholarship.
One of the parents pulled Giovanazzi aside and pointed out Mendoza.
"This guy who came up to me was the father one of the other setters," Giovanazzi remembers. "And he said, 'Hey, Linnea should be out there, not my daughter. I really want you to look at Linnea, she is something special.'
"As soon as we saw her touch the ball, we knew that this was a gifted kid. She has been a god-send for this program."
While growing up, Mendoza was a UCLA fan, and that was where she wanted to go to college. She only knew about Michigan through the football and basketball teams, and from watching the Rose Parade. Being recruited forced her to take a longer look at Michigan. And the more she looked, the more she liked it.
"I wanted to go to a really good school with a good reputation," Mendoza said. "I always wanted to go to UCLA, but there is the height issue, and I am not the typical player that they would want on the court. I compare UCLA and Michigan, and I think they are very similar."
Michigan, the similar school, now had a unique player.
The beginning of Mendoza's career was an adjustment period, as it is for all freshman, and she split the setting duties with current senior Erin McGovern.
"My freshman year was a lot of instructional work," Mendoza said. "When I should set this and why. There are so many little things, and I was so overwhelmed. I never would have guessed that was what setting was all about."
One of those little things was deception. Mendoza admits that as a freshman, she didn't worry about faking the other team, she was just worried about where she was setting the ball.
Giovanazzi says that predictability is something that all setters have to guard against, especially when their team is not passing well.
"In our game, 60 percent of the sets go out the left side, so everybody's defense is used to that play," he said. "It's kind of like if your playing against the Green Bay sweep every play. They're all ready for it.
"When Linnea is doing a great job, she turns that average pass into an opportunity to set (right side hitter) Jeanine Szczesniak or (middle hitter) Linsey Ebert, or someone other than the left side. And when she is able to do that, then our offense opens up, and we are a different team."
In her first season, Mendoza, far from home and in a new climate, learned quickly and even took the winter weather in stride.
"My first winter here I was rooming with (fellow California native) Sara Griffin, who's on the softball team, and the first flurry we were so excited. Our next door neighbor was Sarah Jackson, and she was just laughing at us, because she is from Minnesota, and it was old-hat for her."
For the past two seasons, Mendoza has been the starting setter. She says it is much easier to process everything on the court now, just from the two years of experience. Giovanazzi now gives her a lot of freedom in directing the offense.
This paid off last season when she set the Michigan record for assists in a match with 73, and later in the year she tied her own record twice in consecutive weekends.
This year, Mendoza had not approached her record until a week and a half ago. In a match against Purdue on Nov. 22, she topped her old mark, setting her teammates up for kills 80 times. Unlike the three previous times she had set or tied the record, the Purdue match only lasted four games, and not five.
This Friday, with the ink not even dry in the record book, Mendoza shattered her week-old record with 95 assists in a five-game, come-from-behind win over Illinois. It was the third-highest assist total ever by a Big Ten player.
Even the casual observer can often tell when Mendoza is on her game. If the Michigan attackers only see one blocker in front of them when they elevate for the spike, that one-on-one situation was probably caused by Mendoza. And leaving Karen Chase, Kristen Ruschiensky and company one-on-one is just asking for trouble.
"I think one of the reasons Linnea has progressed the way that she has is because of Erin," Giovanazzi said. "Erin is kind of the Montana for Steve Young. I think Erin has done a great job of being supportive her and tutoring her, and almost being an interpreter for me.
"I communicate probably a little bit better with Erin than I do with Linnea during matches. So a lot of times I will communicate to Erin what I need to get to Linnea. Then I sit there on Sunday, and I think, 'Wow, that's what pro quarterbacks are doing.' It's worked out really well."
Mendoza says that, in addition to interpreting the coaches instructions, whichever setter is not in the game has the responsibility of deciding which sets are working and identifying the sets which might work even better.
The communication between the two setters required for Michigan to succeed makes it vital that the setters have a good relationship, and Mendoza says they do.
"It's a really good relationship," she said. "We are competitive with each other, but it is a good kind of competitive. We raise each others play. I think she is a really good setter."
Mendoza, who has been such a quick learner, is majoring in education, with the goal of being a teacher some day. But first there is the business of her senior season next fall.
Record wise, this season has been a little disappointing for the Wolverines. After an 11-9 finish in the Big Ten last year, Michigan only managed 9-11 record this year.
Mendoza said the Wolverines didn't learn how to win during their brutal non-conference schedule.
"We never learned how to shut a game out," she said. "We never had that feeling of going all the way through to the very end. We were always cut off because these teams knew how to do that.
"But when it came to the teams that we should have beat, and we didn't do it, that's when things started to fall apart for us confidence-wise."
Two of the teams the Wolverines felt they should have beaten are Iowa and Illinois. Michigan dropped its first two matches of the Big Ten season to the Hawkeyes and Illini, and both matches went five games.
This weekend Michigan got a measure of revenge with wins over those two teams, finishing its season with a four-match winning streak.
But with the final chapter of their season now closed, the Wolverines are not thinking about what might have been. Instead their thoughts are shifting forward to next year, when five of Michigan's six starters, including Mendoza, will be back.
"Can I say just one more thing?" Giovanazzi asked. "I am really looking forward to Linnea's senior season."
It's safe to say he isn't the only one.
JEANNIE SERVAAS/Daily