THE SEOUL GAMES : Women’s Volleyball : Gallant Effort by U.S. Ends in Loss to Peru; No Chance for a Medal

At 10:30 on Sunday night, in a college gymnasium 7,000 miles from home, before a dwindling crowd that had long ago stopped chanting “PAY-RU, PAY-RU” and “USA, USA,” Laurel Kessel was still diving head first onto a hard floor in pursuit of a volleyball.

Almost an hour before, her hopes and the hopes of her teammates for an Olympic medal had ended. They had ended with Kessel chasing down an errant pass from Keba Phipps and not quite getting a handle on it. That meant point Peru, 12-2 lead Peru in Game 3, and no medal shot for the USA.

It was all over for the United States women’s volleyball team. It had not done what it needed to do to in the complicated tiebreaking system to get to Olympic volleyball’s version of the playoffs, where the final rewards are gold, silver and bronze.

But Kessel, 34, who once made headlines by playing on the San Diego State men’s volleyball teams in the mid-’70s, on some pretty good teams, refused to give in to reality. Her final dive, on a night of many dives and many bruises, came with the score 14-6 Peru, in the fifth game of a 5-game match. It came when there was nothing to be gained except bruises and pride. It came when the good fight had been fought and already lost.

Kessel and her teammates had been asked to climb Mt. Everest with only hiking boots and knapsacks. And they tried.

In order to advance from their pool and into the medal round, they had to beat Peru in 3 straight games, while holding the South Americans to 32 total points or less. Their predicament was caused by tiebreaker procedures in round-robin play. They entered the game with a 1-1 match record, having lost to China in 3 straight games and then beaten Brazil, 3-2. The other teams in the pool were China, which had finished with a 2-1 match record and 8 games won; Brazil, which was out of it with 3 match losses, and Peru, which entered the pool final against the United States with a 2-0 record and 6 games won.

If the U.S. team could beat Peru, there would be three teams with 2-1 records. The next criterion for advancing was games won. China had eight, Peru six and the United States three. If the United States could win three straight over Peru in Sunday night’s finale, China, Peru and the United States would have 2-1 records, and Peru and the United States would be tied for the second medal-round spot with six games won. That meant a points differential formula was the next consideration. So, the U.S. women’s challenge was to hold Peru to a total of 32 points or fewer while sweeping.

That was a tall order, because Peru had emerged as perhaps the tournament’s best team with its victory over China Friday, and because the U.S. women had a 1-5 record against Peru since Terry Liskevych took over the program shortly after the 1984 Olympics.

According to Liskevych, the Peruvians had been together for the most part since 1981, with some of the members even playing as a unit as far back as 1978, when they played on junior teams in their country.

So in the end, it was a real long shot. And in the end, Peru won, 12-15, 9-15, 15-5, 15-5, 15-9.

But only after some of the most exciting volleyball of the tournament had been played, and after Kessel and her teammates had warmed the hearts of many fans in attendance at Hanyang University with their grit.

They fell behind in the first game, 6-1, and won it, 15-12. They fell behind in the second game, 4-0, and won it, 15-9.

But when they fell behind in the third game, 5-0, with only 11 points left to give starting the game, they had played with fire too long and were about to get burned.

“If we just could have nailed down that second game quicker, when we got it to 14-6, I think we would have been in better shape,” Liskevych said.

He also said that he was flying high emotionally at the end of the second game.

“I thought we had it,” he said. “We had played a heck of a good couple of games, and we were going so swell that I pondered whether I should get them calmed down before sending them out for Game 3. “Then I thought, ‘Terry, don’t be crazy.’ ”

The quality of the volleyball was superb. Players such as Liz Masakayan, Caren Kemner, Kim Oden of Irvine and Angela Rock of Laguna Niguel joined Kessel in all-out reckless abandon of their bodies. Spike after spike by Peru was dug out and sent back. Loose balls were chased to the four corners of the arena.

But in the end, Peru was simply better, led by star player Ceclia Tiit and 6-foot 5-inch Gabriela Perez Del Solar. Tiit ended the match with one of her left-handed bullets. Now, Peru, which has never won an Olympic medal, goes into the medal play with China from its pool and the Soviet Union and Japan from the other. The U.S. women will also play two more matches, but they will be of the consolation variety--less intense workouts in front of small crowds for the benefit of saying you finished fifth rather than eighth in the Olympics.

When it was finally over, long after it was really over, Kessel and her teammates retreated to a corner, stretched and warmed down slowly and let the reality set in. There were tears, just a few at first and then a torrent. Liskevych slowly made the rounds, then his assistants and trainers. Lots of pats on the back and hugs. It was an emotional time for an emotional team.

In the press conference afterward, Masakayan was asked if she thought the team could still feel good about what it had accomplished. Instead of answering, she broke down. Liskevych said, “I think you’ve got your answer.”

Kessel, who gave up a coaching and teaching career in New Mexico to take one last shot at the Olympic medal the boycott may have deprived her of in 1980, was asked if it had all been worth it.

“Yup,” she said. “No question.”