State Girls’ Volleyball Playoffs : Oden Isn’t the Only Reason Why Irvine Plays for Another Title Tonight

You know Bev Oden. Best high school volleyball player in the nation, Bev Oden. Six-foot 1-inch All-World, All-Awe middle blocker for Irvine High School, Bev Oden.

This isn’t about her.

It’s about the people around her. It’s about talent overshadowed and talent perfectly adjusted to specific roles. It’s about the makeup of what Irvine Coach Mark McKenzie believes is the best team he has had since the school opened in 1975.

That’s saying something, considering that Irvine has won four Southern Section championships in this decade, that it won the state Division I championship last year and that it has produced Olympian Kim Oden and top NCAA players Elaina Oden (Pacific), Kris Roberts (UCI) and Cari Delson (Pepperdine).

Irvine plays for its second consecutive state title at 7:30 tonight in Titan Gym when it meets Davis in the Division I final.

“This is the most experienced and the most skilled team we’ve ever had,” McKenzie said. “We’ve had great players here over the years, but right now we have people coming off the bench who could start for 75% of the other high school teams.”

McKenzie consistently uses 10 players a game. In the 5-A final against Mira Costa, he used 12.

Not only is Irvine deep, it’s experienced. Oden, setter Jenny Fu and outside hitter Melinda Norton each has 4 years of varsity experience. Outside hitters Haley Orme, Holly Hamilton and middle blocker Sara Lockemy have 3 years, and outside hitter Shawna Mickartz, setter Jennifer Bacon and back-row specialist Stephanie Chiang have 2 years.

That experience might explain why the team seems incapable of being rattled. In the 5-A final, Irvine fell behind Mira Costa, 14-10, in the first game. Mira Costa players were screaming and hugging; Irvine players didn’t say much. Irvine came back to win the game, 17-15, and went on to win the next two games with relative ease.

It was the same scene and same result against Los Altos in Tuesday’s state semifinals. Irvine fell behind in the first game, 7-1, then, 11-5. Irvine came back to win the game and cruised in the final two games.

“I think it’s part of the team’s personality,” McKenzie said. “Philosophically, we don’t want to be real low or go real nuts too early. I think you set yourself up for a big letdown if you do. The attitude is steady. It comes from having the confidence to know we’re going to get back into a match.”

When the team needs a shot in the arm, it’s usually Melinda Norton and Jenny Fu, team captains, who spread the faith.

Norton walks the court with a swagger. She rolls up her T-shirt sleeves the way someone would to hold a pack of smokes. She shouts encouragement, many times going nose-to-nose with teammates.

“You have to know which players can take being yelled at and which ones you have to leave alone,” she said.

Norton might be the team’s best athlete. She certainly is the most aggressive.

“Melinda wants the ball every time,” Fu said. “She’s always calling me to set her.”

McKenzie, who has said he would like Oden to be just as aggressive, estimates that Norton has had twice as many hit attempts as Oden. Ask and you shall receive--especially if you ask real loud with rolled-up sleeves.

“I’m not going to let other teams beat us,” Norton said.

It’s Fu who is in charge of distributing the ball, something she does with great generosity.

In the 5-A final, against a Mira Costa team keying on Oden in the middle, Fu set up a number of players on the outside. Being pounded from the outside, Mira Costa could no longer cheat to the middle and had to play honest outside. Oden then cleaned up.

“The thing about setting Bev and Melinda is that they can end a rally real quick,” Fu said. “But I don’t want to favor anyone too much. I want to move the ball around as much as I can. We have a lot of good players.”

Among those are a host of players adept at doing just about everything. Holly Hamilton, Shawna Mickartz, Dana Rierson, and Haley Orme block, hit, dig and fill in just about anywhere they’re needed.

Rierson, for example, is one of the team’s best servers and has filled in at middle blocker and outside hitter.

Orme is a frequent hitter, though at 5-9 she doesn’t concentrate on putting the ball down as much as putting it through or sneaking it in.

“It’s real important for me to find the hole in the block,” she said. “Since I don’t have the power of a taller player, I have to be a lot more accurate with my placement.”

Orme and Chiang are Irvine’s best back-row players, digging other team’s spikes.

“You look at the effect a good spike by Melinda or Bev has on our team, I think we get the same effect when Stephanie digs the opponent’s big gun,” McKenzie said.

Chiang is platooned with the 6-1 Sara Lockemy, who plays at the net. What Lockemy does best is block.

“I love to do it,” she said. “It’s a rush.”

So much so that she virtually does a jig every time she gets one.

“It’s like she’s surprised every time it happens,” McKenzie said. “I think it’s starting to dawn on her it’s not that rare an occurrence.”

Of course, neither is Irvine being in the state final.