Logan Maile Lei Tom (born May 25, 1981) is an American indoor volleyball and beach volleyball player. She is a four-time Olympian at the outside hitter position. At age 19, Logan became the youngest woman ever to be selected for an American Olympic volleyball team when she made the 2000 Games in Sydney. She is a skilled all-around player who brings stability to the American serve receive and defense, while also providing the team with a solid attack and block at the net. She has been a huge part of the national team for many years. In Beijing, Tom helped Team USA win a silver medal and was named Best Scorer.
High school and personal life
Logan Tom was born in Napa, California, to Kristine and Melvyn Tom. Her father was a defensive end for nine years in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Bears. Though she grew up with her mother and older brother Landon in Salt Lake City, Utah, she spent her summers with her father and his relatives in Hawaii learning how to surf. She is of Chinese Hawaiian descent.
Tom attended Highland High School, where she set the Utah state records for career kills (later broken when Utah moved to five game matches, still second all-time). Tom also competed in basketball and track and was an All-state selection in basketball. She placed third in the state in the javelin as a senior and graduated with a 4.00 GPA and ranked first in her class. Tom also earned the Gatorade Player of the Year awards for volleyball in 1999. In 2000, she became the youngest woman to ever be selected for the USA Olympic volleyball team at 19.
Over the summer of 2003 she was selected as one of eight finalists for the Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year Award in the team category. In 2004, Tom posed in a bikini for an FHM magazine article on female Olympic athletes, and one year later was ranked 91st of the magazine's 100 sexiest women list.
Stanford
Tom attended Stanford University from 1999 to 2002 but did not graduate with her class. She left Stanford 50 units shy of completing her major in International Relations in December 2002, her last term of collegiate athletic eligibility. She officially graduated from Stanford in the summer 2014. In October 2013, Tom was inducted into the Stanford University Athletics Hall of Fame.
1999 (freshman)
Tom was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and Pac-10 National Freshman of the Year and became only the fourth volleyball player in NCAA history to receive AVCA First Team All-America honors as a true freshman. She led the Cardinal and ranked second in the Pac-10 in both kills (4.63 kpg) and service aces (0.45 sapg) and ranked second on the team in digs (2.73 dpg). She finished with a total of 472 kills, while also adding a .320 attack percentage (#8 Pac-10) and a 0.94 block per game average.
She was named the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team after having 29 kills in the NCAA semifinal match against defending national champion Long Beach State. Her squad finished as NCAA runners-up to Penn State.
2000 (sophomore)
Tom missed a month and a half of the season while playing on the U.S. national volleyball team in the 2000 Olympics. Tom is the first woman in the history of Stanford athletics to appear in the Olympics and then return to compete for Stanford. She was named an AVCA First Team All-American. For the year, she averaged 5.86 kills, 3.20 digs, 0.41 service aces and 0.86 blocks per game and hit .350 for the season. She notched double figures in kills in 16 consecutive matches.
2001 (junior)
Tom was named the AVCA National Player of the Year, in addition to being named the Honda Award winner for volleyball, the Pac-10 Player of the Year and her third consecutive First Team All-America honor. She averaged 5.09 kills, 0.54 service aces, 3.49 digs and 0.90 blocks per game and played in 122 games (35 matches). She recorded 10 or more kills in 50 of 51 matches, dating back to the 2000 season and notched a double-double in 25 matches.
She was named the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship Most Outstanding Player after leading her team to the 2001 National Championship over top ranked and previously undefeated Long Beach State as she had 25 kills, 12 digs and five blocks against the 49'ers after having 22 kills and five blocks against Nebraska in the NCAA semifinal.
2002 (senior)
She was named the AVCA National Player of the Year for the second consecutive year and become the third player in NCAA history to be named a First Team All-American for four consecutive years. She was the Honda Award winner for volleyball for the second year in a row and was named the Pac-10 Player of the Year for the second consecutive year.
She averaged 4.89 kills, 0.34 service aces, 3.28 digs, 0.82 blocks and 5.81 points per game and finished off her career with 1,939 career kills and is the all-time leader at Stanford surpassing Kristin Klein (1,909) and is third all-time in the Pac-10. Her 171 career service aces ranks second on in Stanford history and third in the league . She averaged 5.02 kills per game for her career which ranks second all-time in the conference record books.
She was named to the NCAA Final Four All-Tournament Team for the third time in her four years at Stanford, as she had 16 kills, 13 digs, four aces and four blocks in Stanford's losing effort to USC in the National Championship match.
Olympic and international career
Tom's very first professional appearance was with the Brazilian team, MRV/Minas of the Brazil Superliga, on January 18, 2003, exactly two weeks after signing with them, on January 4, 2003.
Tom appeared in the 2000 Sydney Olympics (4th place), 2004 Athens Olympics (5th place), 2008 Beijing Olympics (silver medal), and the 2012 London Olympics (silver medal). Tom was named the "Best Scorer" of the 2008 Olympic games.
In 2004, Tom was named the Most Valuable Player of the World Grand Prix after leading all players in scoring with 224 points in 13 matches (179 kills, 24 blocks and 21 service aces) where she also garnered “Best Server” accolades.
From 2004-2007, she took a break from indoor volleyball and chose to play beach volleyball instead (partnering with Holly McPeak, among others) after claiming to be "burnt out" after a disappointing 5th-place finish at the Athens Olympics. She was the 2006 AVP Rookie of the Year and recorded 14 top-10 finishes in 2007.
In 2007, she was named one of three FIVB World Cup most valuable player nominees as she averaged 4.10 points per set at the World Cup in her first international tournament with Team USA in nearly three years. She averaged 3.35 kills, 0.65 blocks, 1.95 digs and 0.10 aces per set at the World Cup while starting 40 of 41 sets.
On September 15, 2008, Hisamitsu Springs, a women's volleyball team based in Kobe city, Hyogo, and Tosu city, Saga, Japan, announced her joining.
She was named Best Receiver at the 2010 World Championship.
Logan earned the Best Server award and the gold medal at the 2011 NORCECA Championship, held in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
Web presence
Recently, Tom began working with the instructional volleyball website Volleyball 1on1 where she appears as an online instructor showcasing her coaching abilities through interactive videos.
Awards
Individuals
- 2003 Pan-American Cup "Best Receiver"
- 2003 Montreux Volley Masters "Best Receiver"
- 2003 Yeltsin Cup Tournament "Best Server"
- 2004 FIVB World Grand Prix "Most Valuable Player"
- 2004 FIVB World Grand Prix "Best Scorer"
- 2004 FIVB World Grand Prix "Best Server"
- 2008 Summer Olympics "Best Scorer"
- 2010 World Championship "Best Receiver"
- 2011 NORCECA Championship "Best Server"
College
|
|
Other Rewards
- 2013 Inductee to the Stanford University Athletics Hall of Fame
- 2014 Inductee to the Utah Sports Hall of Fame
- 2015 Named as the Pac-12 Player of the Century by Pac-12 Network