Logan Tom enjoys her first taste of the AVP
By Ryan Casey
May 15, 2006
It's hard to imagine a player as accomplished as Logan Tom getting nervous. But when she walked out onto Court 3 in Tempe Beach Park Saturday morning for what was her first-ever action on the AVP Crocs Tour, the two-time Olympian almost lost her breakfast.
"I thought my zucchini and walnut muffin was going to come up right before the match started," says Logan, who last October was one of six players - Kerri Walsh among them - named to the NCAA's 25th Anniversary Team after a storied collegiate career at Stanford.
Admittedly, Logan says nerves got the best of her and Brittany Hochevar, the second half of the 20th-seeded pair, in their first match against 13th-seeded Michelle More and Suzanne Stonebarger. Digging themselves an early 8-2 hole in the first game, the duo eventually fell 21-11. The second game was closer, 21-19, but Logan and Brittany still found themselves in the consolation bracket with a match-up against the Lindquist sisters, Katie and Tracy, looming.
"You have to get that first match in," Logan says after signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans who attended the AVP's Tempe Open presented by Bud Light. "I was hoping it would go better than that, but I think as the match went on, our nerves got better, and we started playing better."
That's not to say Logan, always a competitor, took the loss lightly.
"I was pissed," the Salt Lake City, Utah, native admits. "I made some errors that I'm not used to making.
"But even though we lost, I felt a lot better (after the first match)," she adds. "I calmed down a lot."
And it sure helped. Though Logan and Brittany dropped the first game to the Lindquists, 21-18, they rebounded to take the final two, 21-17 and 15-12. Afterwards, Logan displays her sense of sarcasm, saying, between smiles, that she would've considered calling it quits had her and Brittany not battled back.
With her first win on tour now under her belt, Logan makes the long trip back to the player's tent and reflects on just how much her life has changed in her one day as a professional beach volleyballer.
Arguably one of the greatest indoor players of all time, Logan was a four-time All American at Stanford, three-time member of All-Final Four teams, two-time National Player of the Year, and was named MVP of the 2001 Final Four when her Stanford Cardinal took home the National Championship.
But her success on the court isn't limited to wearing Cardinal and White. The summer after arriving on the Palo Alto, Calif., campus, Logan donned Red, White and Blue in the Olympics as the youngest member (by two years) of Team USA as a 19-year-old in Sydney's 2000 Olympic Games. In addition to another Olympic stop in Athens in 2004, she's played professionally in Brazil, Italy and Switzerland.
But all her accomplishments have come indoors, never before competing on the AVP.
"Probably the biggest thing for me is that I know what I can do indoors," Logan says of the discrepancies between the indoor and outdoor games. "Even if it's a big game, when I step on that court, I know what I can do. I have confidence in myself.
"Out here," she adds, gesturing towards the courts surrounding her on her walk back to the player's tent. "I don't."
In no better place was that evidenced than Saturday morning on Court 3 in Tempe, when Logan admits she was hesitant while searching for her confidence on the beach.
"I'm learning, but I feel like I don't have that confidence I'm used to having," she says. "So I hesitate a lot more than I usually do, which is really frustrating - that's my biggest pet peeve, when people don't go for balls."
In an effort to try and help the confidence come sooner rather than later, Logan says she worked out six days a week leading up to Tempe.
"I can't control how fast it's going to come," she says, "but I can control how much work I put in."
A pair that only recently started playing together on the beach - "I played with Brittany for a long time indoors," Logan says of her partner who's a mere one day younger - Tempe's 13th-place finish (the pair would go on to lose 21-19, 11-21 and 8-15 to the 6th-seeded Brazilian pair of Semirames Marins and Tatiana Minello) is something to build on.
"Out here, it's only you and another girl, it's definitely more of an individual sport," Logan says. "You have to know your partner & every ball you touch, you're setting it for her. A week is (not enough) time."
Still, Logan has no regrets when it comes to making the transition to the beach.
"It was hard to actually come out here and play, but I'm happy that I did," she says, "and I'm happy I'm taking that step that a lot of indoor players don't take."
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