Oden Sisters Hope to Lead U.S. National Team Back to Olympics : Volleyball: Last chance begins Friday in Japan for Irvine High graduates, Kim and Elaina, and their teammates.

Kim Oden was a standout on the 1988 U.S. Olympic women’s volleyball team, finishing as the tournament’s leading hitter.

Her younger sister, Elaina, had figured to be a teammate until a knee injury derailed her Olympic hopes.

The sisters, both Irvine High graduates, remain part of the U.S. national team that also includes Tara Cross-Battle, a 1986 Southern California Christian High graduate, and Tammy Webb Liley, a 1983 Ocean View High graduate. But whether they will be competing in Barcelona next summer or returning home to Irvine will be determined in the next 10 days.

The United States begins its last chance to qualify for the eight-team field on Friday in the World Cup in Japan. The rules are simple: the United States must finish ahead of the five other non-qualifying teams in the field of 12.

“We’re better than the teams that have not qualified,” Coach Terry Liskevych said following a practice last week. “We’re legitimately the third- or fourth-best team in the world. Unfortunately, Cuba is in our zone and they’re right there with us and beat us for the qualifying spot from this zone.”

Said Kim Oden: “All of us know this team can beat every team there. The question is whether we can play the way we can. This team has done a pretty good job in the five years I’ve been here rising to challenges and playing well when we need to. We need to rely on that and remember we can do that.”

Cuba defeated the United States, 17-16, 15-8, 15-9, Sept. 2 in the finals of the North American-Caribbean-Central American (NORCECA) Tournament in Regina, Canada. “That was pretty disappointing,” Elaina Oden said. “All the past year we were thinking that’s where we would qualify. There was no way we thought we would be in the situation we are now in.”

Kim Oden was hurting in the final. She had chipped off parts of her thigh bone, an injury that forced her to miss practice that day and left her unable to dive for balls against Cuba. Subsequent arthroscopic surgery in September kept her out of a nine-match series against Japan last month.

The United States opens play in the tournament against Brazil. The U.S. team, 33-19 this season, lost to Brazil in a five-game match July 6 in the Hong Kong Cup, the only previous meeting between the teams this year. Matches against Kenya (Saturday), Cuba (Sunday), China (Tuesday) and Germany (Wednesday) make up the rest of pool play. The top three teams from each of the two pools advance to the final round. The U.S. team is 14-18 against the World Cup field, 5-8 against teams from its pool.

Kim Oden, captain and one of only two current players to have participated in the Seoul Olympics, is confident and optimistic heading into the World Cup.

“I don’t feel as much pressure as I did for the NORCECAs,” she said. “I’m feeling excited for this one. (Because of the injury) I’ve had a chance to watch practice and I’m seeing we’re doing a lot of good things, little things, defensively and blocking better as a team.

“This team could be better than the ’88 team. We’ve beaten all the top teams in the world and that team didn’t. In volleyball, experience is important.”

At 27, Kim Oden is the second-oldest player on the team, eight months younger than Ruth Lawanson. She has been playing volleyball since she was 13, when she was introduced to the sport at a Marine Corps picnic by a Marine comrade of her father.

“He saw us three girls (the youngest Oden, Bev, was the 1990 NCAA Player of the Year) and noticed how tall and lanky we were, and told our father, ‘You should get those kids involved in volleyball,” Oden said. “Since I was the oldest, he made me go to the tryouts at Orange County Volleyball Club. I was extremely thin and not very coordinated.

“The coaches thought I had this thing called potential. They decided to let me be on the second team. For the first six months, I hated it. It was embarrassing. I had bruises all over. But after six months, I really enjoyed it and I’ve played year-round ever since then.”

Oden’s potential was quickly realized. She earned All-American honors at the Junior Olympics for four consecutive years. In 1981, she led Irvine High to the Southern Section 4-A Division championship, earning player of the year honors for the county and the section.

“She’s the most dominant high school player I’ve seen in seven years of coaching,” Mark McKenzie, then Irvine’s coach, said in a 1981 interview.

The dominance continued on the college level at Stanford. A three-time All-American, Oden was selected as player of the year by Volleyball Monthly in 1984 and 1985. Last year, she was honored as the player of the decade.

Oden joined the national team in 1987, and was a standout on the 1988 Olympic team, which finished seventh in the eight-team field.

“(The Olympic experience) was great,” Oden said. “It would have been fantastic had we done better as a team. (The Olympics) are how the world should be. There are all different races and nationalities. Everybody speaks different languages and are from different places, but you realize how similar everybody is, especially athletes.

“Everybody wants to play. Everybody wants to contribute. Everyone has disagreements with their coaches. People who aren’t playing think they should be playing. People who are playing know they should be playing.

“It’s so funny. It made the world really small. People were really curious about each other. Different nationalities talked to each other and were curious about what goes on in that part of the world.”

What Kim considers the highlight of her career came in 1990, leading the United States to third place at the World Championships in China, matching the highest modern finish by a U.S. women’s team. She was also named the tournament’s best blocker.

Elaina, 24, a middle blocker like her sister, had a similar tale of success. A start at the Orange County Volleyball Club, county player of the year on the Vaqueros’ 1984 Southern Section championship team, player of the year in leading Pacific to the 1986 NCAA title.

Elaina joined the national team in 1986, playing in the Goodwill Games and World Championships that year. However, a severe knee injury in 1987 put her out of the Olympics.

“It was a hard blow to deal with,” she said. “Not only did I miss out out on a chance for the Olympics, but a chance for a third (NCAA) championship. It could have been a really good year for my college team, but I was out and missed the whole thing. It was really tough coming back.”

But Oden returned to volleyball in 1989, earning second-team All-American honors, and rejoined the national team last year.

“She’s come a long way in the last year,” Liskevych said. “She’s lost a lot of weight and gotten in the best shape of her life. Right now, in the last three months since Kim’s been hurt, she’s considered our No. 1 middle blocker. Both are starters and real important players. Elaina is just coming into her own as an international performer.”