BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 7 : ORANGE COUNTY OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK : Kim Oden Says Unified Team Remains a Threat

Count Kim Oden among those not ready to write off the Unified Team’s women’s volleyball squad.

Oden played a decisive role in the United States’ five-game upset of the Unified Team Friday in Barcelona.

It was the first time a U.S. team has beaten a team from the Soviet Union or Commonwealth of Independent States in Olympic competition.

In recent pre-Olympic exhibition matches, the Unified Team lost four consecutive matches to Holland and six consecutive against Japan.

The losses left some doubt as to whether the Unified Team was still a world power.

Think again, says Oden, a former Irvine High and Stanford standout.

“They are big tournament players,” Oden said by telephone from Barcelona. “Everyone’s talking about how they aren’t good anymore. But we know in an Olympic match they are going to be tough. Everyone was counting them out last time and they won the gold medal.

“Any time you can beat them, it’s an accomplishment.”

Oden played a big part in the match, having a hand in three of the Americans’ final four points in a 15-11, fifth-game victory.

With the game tied, 11-11, Oden took a set from Caren Kemner and spiked it for the go-ahead point. Then she and Tara Cross-Battle, a Southern California Christian High graduate, combined on a block for another point. Oden’s final kill gave the United States a 14-11 lead and set up the winning point on a spike by Kemner.

The Americans won, 9-15, 17-15, 15-12, 4-15, 15-11, recovering from a lapse in the fourth game.

Oden said she wasn’t nervous for the final game, probably because she was concentrating on stopping Irina Smirnova, the Unified Team’s top hitter.

“I think I was just really tuned in,” Oden said. “We knew they have a really good, big hitter and we knew basically they would go to her in the crunch. I was basically thinking how we could slow her down because she was hitting over us a lot.”

Oden, the captain of the U.S. team who is playing in her second Olympics, used her blocking to help finish the second and third games. In the second game, Oden and Kemner combined on the deciding block; in the third, she and Cross-Battle ended the game.

Oden had six kills and three blocks and younger sister, Elaina, who played at the University of the Pacific, had nine kills.

Allen James of Mission Viejo, the only U.S. entrant in the 20-kilometer race walk, finished 30th. James, 28, finished in 1 hour 35 minutes 12 seconds, more than 10 minutes slower than his personal best.

Daniel Plaza Montero of Spain won the race in 1:21:45 seconds. James’ best of 1:25:01, run in March at Cal State Long Beach, would have been good for sixth place.

HOW THE OTHERS FARED

--Lanee Butler, San Juan Capistrano, didn’t race in Lechner sailboarding because the event was postponed for lack of wind. Butler remains in eighth place with three races remaining.

--Michael Chang, Coto de Caza, seeded sixth in the men’s singles tennis draw, was upset by Jaime Oncins of Brazil, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. Oncins is ranked 53rd in the world.

--Ron Karnaugh, Mission Viejo, led early in the men’s 200-meter individual medley swimming but faded and finished sixth. Karnaugh had the second-fastest time in the preliminaries.

--Chip McKibben, Newport Beach, failed to advance to the finals in the men’s quadruple sculls. McKibben and teammates Kier Pearson of Portland, Ore.; John Riley of Coventry, R.I., and Robert Kaehler of Huntington, N.Y., finished fourth in their heat. The top three advanced to Sunday’s final.

WHO’S COMPETING TODAY

Nick Becker, Newport Beach; Carlos Briceno, Fountain Valley; Scott Fortune, Laguna Beach; Brent Hilliard, Dana Point, and Steve Timmons, Newport Beach, with U.S. men’s volleyball team against France.

Lanee Butler, San Juan Capistrano, in Lechner sailboarding.

Jeff Campbell, UC Irvine; Mike Evans, UC Irvine; Chris Duplanty, UC Irvine; Doug Kimbell,Orange, and John Vargas, UC Irvine, with U.S. water polo team, which opens competition against Australia.

Phil Nevin, Placentia, with U.S. baseball team against the Dominican Republic.

Greg Springer, Costa Mesa, with teammate Jonathan Smith of Swampscott, Mass., in the consolation finals of the men’s double sculls.