‘Iolani’s Elena Oglivie adds a gold medal to her growing resume

People don’t doubt Elena Oglivie’s front-row ability in Hawaii.

The ‘Iolani outside hitter is a two-time high school Player of the Year. But on the national and international stage, her 5-foot-11 stature was a question mark as the U.S. Girls Youth National Team visited Ismailia, Egypt, for the FIVB Girls U-18 World Championships.

The answer to whether she could handle the front-row duties and all of the other skills at that level turned out to be an unmistakable yes.

“Elena was really critical to our team’s success,” said coach Jim Stone, whose team captured the world title with a victory over two-time defending champion Italy in a five-set final on Sept. 14. “She and the libero received about 90 percent of the serves and she was totally consistent with ball control, defense and serving and she chipped in offensively. She never came off the floor. We couldn’t afford to take her off the floor. She was kind of a linchpin to our team doing well.

“In general, everybody is looking for six-rotation players — somebody who can hit from the front or the back. There aren’t a lot of front-row hitters who can do both. Sometimes it gets scary when they go to the back. Elena can do both. Some people categorize her as back row. But she was hanging with really good players, some of the best in the world, in the front as well.”

For Oglivie, it was the trip of her young lifetime. Her father, Septimus, called it “mind-blowing” that Elena had the chance to represent Hawaii, ‘Iolani, her family and the U.S. He and his wife, Helene, were there for the gold-medal game.

Oglivie was one of 24 players invited to a 10-day tryout at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., in late August and she survived the cut.

“I was very surprised to make it,” she said. “They wrote down a list of girls named to the team and announced it. I was the third or fourth outside called, in no particular order. Hearing my name I was really shocked, thinking this is crazy. I was extremely happy.”

Oglivie was one of four right-side hitters (five hitters total) on the team. She finished the eight tournament matches with 44 kills and 12 aces.

“Playing in the world championship game, that type of nervousness I’ve never felt before,” she said. “It was completely an unreal feeling. That last point was very emotional. Indescribable. Unbelievable. Really cool.

“I’m extremely proud of my teammates, winning the gold medal against the world champions of the two previous years. We jelled together so quick. Everyone played their role and did a good job. I think we grew in every single game and that was a goal of ours. We learned a lot about ourselves and what we should do to play together well.”

Oglivie, who will play volleyball for Stanford next season, has Olympic aspirations.

“That’s five, six years down the road,” Stone said. “It’s a matter of how she develops. You don’t want to categorize Elena as she can or can’t do things. A lot of people were saying she couldn’t do what she did on the youth team because they thought she was too small to play six rotations. She’s capable of not letting the doubters get in her way. I wouldn’t put any restrictions on her in college and beyond.”

Oglivie can point to at least one skill in which she improved while being with the U.S. team — passing.

“When passing the different balls, the coaches are teaching us to track it more from when the server contacts the ball — and now I’m seeing it more and directing it where I want it to go with emphasis on the angle,” she said. “It’s like you’re attacking (getting to) the ball instead of letting the ball play you.”

Her first time out of the country on a 12-day trip was an eye-opener. She took flights of five hours to California, 11 hours to Germany and four hours to Egypt.

“We drove from the airport to Ismailia,” she said. “Looking around, we saw a lot of unfinished buildings and dogs running around everywhere. We had police escorts everywhere we went. It was scary and safe at the same time. The hotel we stayed in was nice, with a nice view of a lake and a scenic view of the city. It was weird not to be able to drink tap water because it might be contaminated. We were all scrambling for bottled water.”