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Four years ago, Logan Tom figured that if she ever returned to the Olympics, it would be on the beach.
Instead, the former Highland High School star was named to her third straight U.S. Olympic Team for the upcoming Beijing Games on Wednesday - back on the indoor court where she has enjoyed the brightest moments of her illustrious career.
The 27-year-old will join a reinvigorated team that hopes to make up for its disappointing finishes in her previous two Olympics. The Americans finished fourth at the 2000 Sydney Games and fifth at the 2004 Athens Games.
Tom finished the Athens Olympics on the bench, frustrated with her poor play and planning to leave the national team and embark on a career in beach volleyball.
But the beach wasn't what she expected, and Tom strained to perform as well as she'd hoped.
Meanwhile, the national team hired legendary former Chinese player "Jenny" Lang Ping as its coach, and veteran players began to migrate back to the program. Many of them, such as setter Robyn Ah Mow-Santos, middle blockers Danielle Scott-Arruda and Heather Bown and libero Stacy Sykora, will be joining Tom in China.
The 35-year-old Scott-Arruda will be playing in her fourth Olympics, while Mow-Santos, Bown and Sykora are playing in their third.
Only four members of the 12-woman team - Nicole Davis, Kim Glass, Jennifer Joines and Kim Willoughby - are first-time Olympians.
Orem's Kristin Richards, a Timpanogos High School graduate, did not make the cut.
Tom returned to the national team last year, having continued to play professionally indoors during the beach offseason. She was part of the team that qualified for the Beijing Games at the FIVB World Cup in Japan, and has returned to her role as one of the dominant players on the team.
"It's great to have her back," Lang Ping said recently. "She's a very good all-around player. She has great skills. She actually helped the team a lot."
The Americans are ranked fourth in the world rankings, having finished fourth at the recent FIVB World Grand Prix tournament, and are grouped with Cuba, Japan, Poland, Venezuela and host China for preliminary play in Beijing. They beat China and Japan in the final round of the Grand Prix, but lost to Cuba.
U.S. Olympic women's volleyball team
Player Pos. College
Ogonna Nnamani OH Stanford
Danielle Scott-Arruda MB Long Beach St.
Tayyiba Haneef-Park OPP Long Beach St.
Lindsey Berg S Minnesota
Stacy Sykora L Texas A&M
Nicole Davis L USC
Heather Bown MB Hawaii
Jennifer Joines MB Pacific
Kim Glass OH Arizona
Robyn Ah Mow-Santos S Hawaii
Kim Willoughby OH Hawaii
Logan Tom OH Stanford