What other 21-year-old could compete with that résumé? Sort of whips that year as Lambda Lambda Lambda social chairman, eh?

Drive is in her genes. One grandfather was a four-star general. A brother played baseball at the United States Naval Academy, received a Rhodes scholarship and will start Navy SEAL training next summer.

Thompson led Kentlake to three state championships, was a two-time King County Female Athlete of the Year and was named 2003 Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She also was elected student body president.

Reading Thompson's impressive bio inspires a series of questions that don't get asked often, such as: So, what's it like to be perfect? Is it stressful? Do you sometimes fail on purpose -- like throw a Monopoly game -- just to see what it's like for everyone else?

"I've always put a lot of pressure on myself to do well. It's never been about trying to be perfect so people will think I'm perfect," she said. "I've just always wanted to do the best I can do. And when I don't feel like I'm doing that, it stresses me out."

Understand, the term "perfect" was forced upon her as part of a quasi-serious question. And the more revealing portion of her reply is at the end.

Thompson isn't comfortable being lazy. It causes her angst.

She is one of those rare athletes who doesn't have to be pushed to work harder, who, in fact, has to be reined in. How many coaches have chased down an athlete and told her to stop running stadium steps? Jim McLaughlin has.

That work ethic, just south of compulsive, was molded, as it often is with high-achievers, not by successes but by failures, both large and small, public and private.

It only seems like it came easy for Thompson. It hasn't.

She was cut in eighth grade from an elite junior volleyball team. So she worked harder.

Even her high school decorations didn't make her an elite recruit. She was a good athlete playing volleyball, but she wasn't a great volleyball player. And, at 5 feet 8, the conventional wisdom was she was too small for big-time Division I-A play.

So she worked harder.

When things didn't go her way, she didn't feel sorry for herself. Her medicine was work. It also was an effective solution.

That pattern figures to repeat itself as she tries to hook up with the U.S. national team -- and former teammate Candace Lee -- this winter, her goal being to make the Olympic team in 2008 or, more likely, 2012.

Even the past two seasons have presented challenges. Some strong personalities have passed through and remain within the UW volleyball program, so it shouldn't be a surprise that there have been a few conflicts -- Thompson called them "tiffs" -- along the way.

Thompson doesn't pull out her funny finger on the court very often, either. She's been known to throw around some harsh words during the heat of competition.

"I've made a lot of mistakes as a leader, but if they know you care a lot it always seems to work out," she said. "There's a comfort that I have now that I can only do what I can do."

Her big revelation this year? That doubt never goes entirely away, even for a national player of the year, that an athlete never completely figures it out, never stops worrying, and therefore can never be satisfied. It's all part of aspiring for success.

Here's another hard-won lesson. Sometimes, she needs to point the funny finger at herself.

Even a setter needs to let go, jump for joy and laugh hysterically at times.

"Laughing is great," she said. "You have to be able to laugh."

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