Spring Is Back in Youngs’ Step : Volleyball: After surgery, El Toro High graduate has better vertical jump, and hopes to help UCLA win national title.

LOS ANGELES —  Impressions of the Pan American Games in Cuba, as seen through the eyes of volleyball player Elaine Youngs . . .

“The athletic village is very nice,” she said. “We had refrigerators, TVs, everything in our rooms.”

How did your injured knee hold up during play?

“I had no problems with it,” she said, “except that we could never find any ice to put on it after matches.”

And the food?

Plentiful, but not very appetizing. “It takes some getting used to,” she said. “There are flies crawling around everywhere. One time, we were eating this bread. I thought it was really good.

“Then one of the girls found a worm in her roll. That’s when I said, ‘Forget it.’ ”

But Youngs endured the Cuban cuisine long enough to squeeze in some playing time, something she hasn’t had a lot of lately.

Youngs, along with UCLA teammates Julie Bremner and Natalie Williams, played this summer with the U.S. national B team at the Pan Am Games and the World University Games in England.

Youngs started and helped the U.S. team to a fifth-place finish at the Pan Am Games. She said the international play has prepared her for her junior season at UCLA.

“I’m glad to be home,” she said. “We were gone 7 1/2 weeks, and we played almost nonstop.”

It’s not as though she minded it. The World University Games in July marked the first time Youngs, a former standout at El Toro High, has played competitively in more than a year.

A 6-foot outside hitter, she redshirted last season after undergoing a second operation to repair cartilage damage in her left knee.

UCLA Coach Andy Banachowski said Youngs is stronger now than before her injury.

“With a full recovery, she’s capable of doing the same things she could before--and more,” he said. “I also think she has gained some maturity, and the international experience can only help.”

As a sophomore, Youngs led the Bruins in kill average (4.52) and service-ace average (.45) and had 21 double-kill matches.

But she missed the final five regular-season matches after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on her knee.

She recovered in time for the NCAA tournament, and was named to the NCAA West Region all-tournament team.

As a freshman, Youngs was a member of one of UCLA’s best recruiting classes, which included outside hitter Jenny Evans of Newport Harbor, outside hitter Laurie Jones of Huntington Beach High and setter Jennifer Gratteau of Marina High.

That recruiting class matured as juniors last season, rolling to a 36-1 record and winning the NCAA championship, the fifth title in 25 seasons for Banachowski.

But Youngs was out of uniform, nursing her injured knee, while her teammates celebrated the championship.

“I thought it was good for the program that they won,” she said, “but I wasn’t part of the team, so it wasn’t as exciting.”

Said Banachowski: “It was really tough on her. She wasn’t involved with the team at all when she wasn’t playing. She had a lot of rehabilitation, and she went about it by herself.”

Youngs spent six months in rehabilitation after her first surgery. After undergoing the second surgery last August, she was back in the training room for eight more months.

“It was frustrating the whole time,” she said. “Nothing happened after the first surgery, but I finally got going after the second one.”

When she completed her rehabilitation last spring, the Bruin strength trainers discovered she had improved her vertical jump by two inches.

“There’s nothing wrong with her leg now,” Banachowski said. “To improve her jump from 10-feet-1 to 10-3 after the surgery is just phenomenal.”

The Bruins, the top-ranked team in the national coaches’ preseason poll, appear stronger this season with the addition of Youngs and Bremner, who played at Notre Dame in 1988 before spending two seasons with the U.S. national team.

Also returning are All-Pac-10 selections Evans, Williams and Marissa Hatchett of Sunny Hills High.

Evans is recovering from reconstructive surgery on her right hitting shoulder, and could be ready to play early in the season. Jones has stress fractures in her shins.

“Laurie’s recovery has been slow,” Banachowski said. “And we’re hoping that Jenny doesn’t have to redshirt.

“We’re bringing her along slowly right now, giving her only 30 swings a day in practice.”

Youngs understands what Jones and Evans are going through. She also understands that you have to be tough to play through pain.

She quit the Bruin basketball team after two seasons because her knee was taking such a pounding.

“I miss it,” she said. “I still play a lot of pickup games with the guys.”

A dose of Youngs’ aggressiveness: While growing up, she played wide receiver every week when the guys got together to play football. Some said she played “too hard.”

“How do you play too hard?” Youngs said. “I play the only way I know how. I know that makes some girls angry, but I’m not going to apologize for it.

“There are girls out there who want to play sports with their nails done and with lipstick and makeup, and they don’t want to mess up their hair. They’re airheads. They don’t know what it takes. I tell them, ‘If that’s what you want, why don’t you go try out for the cheerleading team?”

Youngs’ hard-nosed approach to athletics was evident as early as her sophomore year in high school. She regularly screamed and yelled at teammates, and once walked out on the team during a basketball tournament because she was so upset.

She intimidated opponents so badly that one feared that “Elaine, at any moment, was going to punch me in the face.”

Youngs channeled her aggressiveness into success. She was named All-Southern Section in volleyball three years and was a high-school All-American as a senior. She was All-Southern Section for two seasons in basketball.

But there’s still one title that Youngs hasn’t won--an NCAA championship. UCLA will play host to the Final Four on Dec. 19 and 21.

“My main goal is winning the NCAAs,” she said. “And it would be great to win it at home.”