SIOUX CITY -- The unselfish philosophy that has helped Dennis Janzen make Fresno Pacific a perennial NAIA volleyball power is the same train of thought that leads the longtime coach to count up to eight when he thinks back on last year's senior class.

True enough, "only'' six of those seniors were in uniform at the Tyson Events Center when the Sunbirds claimed their fourth national championship and second in a row.

Even though they didn't make the national tournament roster, two more of Janzen's players were also finishing up their eligibility a year ago.

No matter the number, at any rate, it was a very large group of seniors. And, considering it included three of the team's top five attackers along with two-time national player of the year Shu Liu, a masterful setter from China, it was only reasonable to think a three-peat might not be in the cards this year.

Guess again, though.

As the 30th NAIA Volleyball Championships get under way today at the Tyson, Fresno Pacific is once again the team to beat, sporting a season-long grip on the No. 1 ranking after steaming past all 32 of its opponents.

"Obviously, we had a good recruiting year,'' said Jansen, who put together a talented group of newcomers that includes three outstanding freshmen and four transfers. "The new kids have done a great job of just buying into what we are and what we preach as Fresno Pacific volleyball.''

The message, said Janzen, is "team-ism kind of things.''

But, of course, a lot of the FPU mantra boils down to tactics and technical traditions.

Heading up the transfers is 6-1 sophomore outside hitter Martina Gregusova from Nitra, Slovakia, who played one season at Mississippi State and sat out the last two seasons before joining the Sunbirds last January.

Gregusova promptly became Janzen's leading attacker with 368 kills and a .312 hitting percentage.

The freshman class has featured 6-3 middle hitter Lauren Albertson, a Fresno native whose 176 kills rank sixth in a deep rotation. And, it filled Liu's spot in a 5-1 offense with two gifted rookie setters in a 6-2 lineup -- Emily Carroll from Billings, Mont., and Erica Adachi from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Meanwhile, junior college transfers Michelle Johnson (6-1), Karli Houston (5-11) and Brianna Baronian (5-10) have all made valuable contributions, as well. Johnson is fourth in kills with 203.

Janzen's returning talent included two solid middles in Ke Ke Wang and Lisa Shilling, a pair of 6-2 juniors. Wang and Shilling were second and third in kills last season behind Thai Julio, the 6-4 senior from Brazil who was named the national tournament MVP.

Wang is once again the No. 2 hitter with 291 kills while Shilling has chipped in 183.

Another 207, though, have come from 5-9 senior Tiffany Marinos, moving to an outside hitter role after serving as the libero last fall.

Defensive specialist Mariah Mandelbaum, a 5-7 junior with a team-leading 503 digs (Marinos is second with 312), is another holdover from the team that fell behind two games to none in a championship match against Golden State Athletic Conference rival Concordia. Fresno Pacific rallied to win the final three sets, claiming the first five-game final in tournament history.

"I was just telling someone the other day that in some ways we're too young to win it all,'' said Janzen, who is 796-165 in 25 seasons at FPU. "But in other ways, we're too young to be undefeated, too. And yet every time we've had our backs to the wall this year we've found a way to win.''

Janzen's team went 20-0 to win its 10th straight title in the GSAC, which has monopolized the national tournament's Final Four with the same four schools the last two years. All four are here again this year along with three additional rivals from an 11-team league.

"Our conference does a great job of preparing us for this tournament,'' said Janzen, who is 829-166 counting a combined record of 33-1 while coaching the men's and women's teams at Columbia Bible College for one school year (1978-79). "There's no way to duplicate that.''

The champs will make afternoon appearances for all three of their pool play matches, starting with unranked St. Ambrose of Davenport, Iowa, at 1 p.m. today. They'll meet conference rival Point Loma Nazarene, ranked 15th, at 1 p.m. Wednesday and No. 12 Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) at 3:15 p.m. Thursday.