No Ill Wind

Jamie Pilbeam remembers the lawn chairs whizzing past her, like something out of the “Wizard of Oz.” It was then she knew this was not just another rain storm.

The tornadoes that hit Apple Valley, Minn., that evening were the worst storms to strike the state in years. In a flash, Pilbeam and her friend bolted from their car and ran into the house.

“I was dropping off a birthday card and balloon to a kid my family knew,” said Pilbeam, a freshman setter for UC Irvine’s volleyball team. “The car started shaking and I noticed that the rain was horizontal. I was laughing, but my friend was freaking out. When we got out of the car, that’s when I saw the lawn furniture flying. That’s when it hit me our lives might be in danger.

“We got into the basement at our friend’s house and waited it out. An hour later, I was driving home and all the power lines were down and I was dodging trees. It was like one of those commercials, ‘Please Send Help.’ ”

OK, there are worse things than the whirlwind Pilbeam and her Irvine teammates may find themselves in this week. The Anteaters face third-ranked Pacific on Friday. Then, 24 hours later, in comes defending national champion Long Beach State, currently ranked fifth.

The tornado that took the roof off Pilbeam’s home on May 30, 1998, forced her family to live in a hotel for the next six months. Pilbeam, though, jokes about it now, and even looks on the bright side--there’s a bright side?

“I was really prepared to play college sports,” Pilbeam said. “When we stay in hotels on the road, I feel at home right away.”

Pilbeam has the disposition, even as a freshman, to be a floor leader. Her talent was easy to spot. At 5 feet 8, she has the size to be a quality setter, even in a conference as competitive as the Big West.

No less than three conference teams are ranked in the nation’s top 10, with UC Santa Barbara seventh.

Pilbeam leads the struggling Anteaters (8-7, 1-3 in conference) to what might be a slaughter. Then again, it’s all in how you perceive the situation.

“We’re actually fortunate to be a part of the Big West,” Pilbeam said. “A lot of teams don’t get to see ranked teams. We have a chance to pull some upsets. I’m real excited.”

That outlook is a big reason Anteater Coach Merja Connolly-Freund made recruiting Pilbeam her top priority last year.

Pilbeam was a two-time All-Minnesota selection at Apple Valley High. Friday, she will have a reunion with Elaine Goeders, a freshman outside hitter for Pacific who also went to Apple Valley. They helped Apple Valley reach the state finals in 1998.

“I e-mail her almost every day,” Pilbeam said. “I keep telling her she better watch out, we’re getting a lot better in practice.”

Pilbeam has, anyway. She moved into the starting lineup two weeks ago and was selected the conference player of the week after helping the Anteaters beat UC Riverside, Cornell and Brown.

OK, so maybe even Apple Valley could have handled those teams. But a victory is a victory--something that probably won’t happen this weekend.

Irvine is 1-33 against Pacific and 3-31 against Long Beach State. Pilbeam, though, has never accepted losing.

“When she was 8, she was playing softball and none of the other kids knew what ‘strike three’ was,” said Jeff Pilbeam, Jamie’s father. “The umpire would have to tell them to go back to the bench. Jamie knew. The umpire would call strike three and she would start crying at home plate. Other parents would look at my wife and I like we were these overbearing parents. We had nothing to do with it. We wanted her to play and have fun. But Jamie felt she had a job to do and striking out wasn’t it.”

Pilbeam, whose family lived in Chicago until she was in the eighth grade, began to focus that drive on volleyball at age 8.

“I took her to the Illinois tournament and Stanford was in it,” Jeff Pilbeam said. “That was the year Stanford won the national title. Jamie took volleyball to heart and began playing club.”

Said Jamie: “I was an extreme tomboy.”

She took that with her to Minnesota. It was a move that benefited Pilbeam, who had been an outside hitter. She was moved to setter, where her height made her desirable to college coaches.

Of course, the move also put her in the path of the tornadoes that swept through South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan in 1998. There was so much damage that many people, like the Pilbeams, were left homeless because of a shortage of construction workers.

The Pilbeams were not able to move home again until last Thanksgiving. They have since sold the house and moved to Newport Beach.

Pilbeam was able to telephone home after the tornado to calm her parents’ fears. The drive home, though, was when she realized how deadly the storm had been.

“I felt really fortunate that no one I knew got hurt,” Pilbeam said. “There was so much damage. Then I got home and we had a huge hole in our roof.”

A week later, Pilbeam went to the prom.

“My mom saved my prom dress,” Pilbeam said. “I had to go.”