John Baylor's Blog: May 26

Balmy Beijing

We, or at least I, have lost track of days.  Already Friday and only a week to go.  Each day here in Beijing begins with training followed by a match.  Then lunch, cultural stuff, dinner, and an evening event.  Thus, weekdays and weekends are similar.

As white smog moved into town this morning, the Beijing Pro Team showed up with two more players; these two were ringers.  After handling Beijing fairly easily Thursday, suddenly today was more than competitive.  The first four practice games to ten all went to Beijing.  Nebraska then won a few before we settled in for a best-of-five match.  The Big Red swept Beijing.  Maggie Griffin set all three games, while Dani Busboom played Libero.  Dani Mancuso played full time at the Outside Hitter position while Christina Houghtelling nurses some bumps and bruises.  Sarah Pavan led the way with rally ending kills throughout.

A scare came when Amanda Gates-- aka: Oo-long-- twisted her ankle while landing awkwardly.  Remain calm.  Jolene, our trainer, says it's a slight sprain and that Amanda should be able to play in a few days.

Six years ago Beijing swept those eventual Husker National Champions.
Today, Nebraska returned the favor.

Though she has played sparingly in China, Rachel Schwartz was impressive in Japan.  Rachel follows in the great Lincoln East Volleyball tradition that includes the names Tonniges, Stricker, and Krondak.  She is the oldest of three and says she was painfully shy as a child, causing her parents to urge her to try sports.  She's not shy anymore, posing for photos tirelessly with locals.  She credits former basketball coach Dan Lesoing for helping motivate her to be great.  This year she is searching for playing time beyond the serving specialist role she played in 2005. 

This trip has opened Rachel's eyes to returning possibly after graduation. She, like many Huskers, is thinking about majoring in Communications. Other possibilities include Sociology, History, and English.

We visited the Gallup Corporation's Beijing office this afternoon.  There the office chief gave us a 45-minute Power Point presentation on Chinese consumer trends.  A full 60% of Chinese citizens still work on farms; the average annual income nationally is under $4000; the government plans to double the current GDP by 2010 and double it again by 2020.  You get the idea.  Tonight's entertainment is a kung fu show.

Tomorrow a match with the Beijing Pro Team's chief rival: Bei-ee.  They were memorably tough six years ago.  Whenever the Huskers faced a tough college foe back then, coach would just remind them: "They're no Bei-ee."a