Every day's a happy day with Lundqvist around

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

Middle blocker Karin Lundqvist admits it's hard to sit and watch, but Dave Shoji says: "She's just a pleasure to be around. She's a big, big part of our team ... she is very valuable to us." Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser Aston Imua Wahine Volleyball Challenge WHERE: Stan Sheriff Center WHEN: Todayi5 p.m., Baylor (3-1) vs. Pacific (1-0); 7, No. 2 Hawai'i (4-1) vs. Wichita State (2-1). Tomorrowi5 p.m., Pacific vs. Wichita State; 7, Hawai'i vs. Baylor. Saturdayi5 p.m., Wichita State vs. Baylor; 7, Hawai'i vs. Pacific. TV/RADIO: KFVE (5) and 1420 AM will broadcast all UH matches live TICKETS: Today and tomorrowi$14 lower level, $11 upper, $8 senior citizens (65-older), $6 students 4-18, $3 UH system students. Saturdayi$16 lower level, $13 upper, $9 senior citizens (65-older), $6 students 4-18 and $3 UH system students. PARKING: $3

Lundqvist has volleyball skills good enough to earn all-conference second-team honors twice at Montana State and once at UH, but it's her upbeat nature that sets her apart. Although she has never been a "slam-dunk" starter at UH with two all-region middle blockers playing ahead of her, she can still perk up a practice and brighten a day with the best of them.

"If the seven seniors were dwarves," UH assistant Kari Anderson said, "Karin would be Happy."

Volleyball has been a life-long passion for Lundqvist. Her dream is to play beach volleyball in the Olympics. Dream 1A, inspired by her friendship with former Rainbow Wahine/NCAA Player of the Year Angelica Ljungquist, was to play for Hawai'i.

The Olympics are not beyond the realm of possibility. Lundqvist's skills are instinctive and diverse, particularly for someone 6 feet 3.

She won the Swedish Volleyball Tour two years ago and was named Best Defensive Player in the country in 1998 — before she played for the national team. As a sophomore at Montana State, she was 16th nationally in blocking.

She was also unfulfilled, with the level of play and lack of culture in Bozeman. She committed to Montana State because it was the only U.S. school to zealously recruit her, even bringing her over for a 48-hour campus visit; it took her 70 hours to get there.

Ultimately she realized Bozeman, whose population is 1.2 million less than that of Stockholm, was not her American dream.

"It was a pretty small town for her," says Vernon Klopfenstein, Lundqvist's boyfriend, who grew up in a small town in Oregon. "There's no real culture there except cowboy culture. I don't think she was ever really comfortable."

She and Klopfenstein met as computer science majors. He transferred to Portland State when she came to Manoa, where she is now a pre-med major.

"I always wanted to work with people," Lundqvist says about the switch in majors. "A doctor was always on my mind. I'd love to have the knowledge and be able to share it and help a person."

She was just as positive about her switch in schools, though Shoji warned her she would come in as the fourth middle blocker.

It was time to chase Dreams 1 and 1A and leave no room for regret, even if she never sat on the bench before.

When Maja Gustin got hurt last year, Lundqvist ended up starting 19 matches. She averaged better than a block a game and hit .356. Then she suffered a season-ending knee injury Nov. 1.

She had surgery over the summer and came back quicker. Lundqvist started this year's season-opener, but while her blocking is more reliable than Gustin's, her offense is not as dynamic.

Now she works hard and waits for her next chance. "Of course I'm frustrated," she says. "But it's not my choice. Whatever Dave thinks is best for the team is going to happen. ... Everybody has a purpose on the team."

Shoji knows she will always be ready. "She's just a pleasure to be around," he says. "She's a big, big part of our team this year even though her role probably isn't as much as she wants it to be. She is very valuable to us."

And hardly the "Stoic Swede" of generalizations past. Lundqvist's disposition might be sunnier than Hawai'i's weather, a gift she attributes to a loving family where no one ever raised their voice.

Shoji can't remember Lundqvist lowering her head — except over a book. She is taking physiology/anatomy, physics and biology this semester, with all the labs those classes entail. She passed organic chemistry in the six-week summer semester and will graduate next December.

From there, it will take all the motivational and organizational skills she has developed over the last year to get her through medical school — she wants to specialize in pediatrics — while working toward the Olympics.

She could end up in Sweden, though with a different system her pre-med work here might be rendered meaningless. She could stay here for medical school, or go to Oregon to be close to her boyfriend.

"We both have cell phones," Klopfenstein says, trying to explain how they have kept their relationship together. "Our chemistry is as good as it can get. We're really good together. That's helped us more than anything.

"Karin is the sweetest, most mild and optimistic person I've ever known in my life. Some people put on a show and act sweet. That's not her. She doesn't know how to be mean. Her only known flaw is cheating at cards. Here's a big warning: Give her a deck of cards and she turns into a lean, mean, Swedish poker machine."

Reach Ann Miller at amiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8043.