Huskers In China Day 17: The Final Day

Though the volleyball is over, this may be the most important day of the seventeen here in China.  The team and coaches met this morning for three hours: reviewing the trip, critiquing each other, committing to this upcoming 2010 season.  This meeting at a restaurant in Hong Kong in 2000 and a spa in Shanghai in 2006 immeasurably strengthened the foundation for those subsequent national champion seasons.  One former player described the meeting as "calling each other out."  Such modern terminology can elude me as well, but suffice it to say, today was a day of healthy, honest discourse.

Here are the final playing statistics.
Overall record: 5-5
Record versus Pro Teams: 2-4
Record versus University Teams: 3-1

I'll just list the stats from the six Pro Team matches:

Hitting percentage:	NU .236 Opp: .242
Blocking:	NU 72            Opp 32 (Nebraska was always the taller team)
NU Serving:	39 Aces 32 Errors
Opponents Serving:	37 Aces 43 Errors

Player:	Hitting Pct.
Allison McNeal:	.373
Brooke Delano:	.258
Gina Mancuso:	.253
Hannah Werth:	.242
Lindsay Licht:	.215
Morgan Broekhuis:	.200
Tara Mueller:	.144 (largely because she took 26 more swings, mainly out-of-system sets, than any other outside hitter.

Though hitting .236 is an accomplishment versus the Chinese Pro Teams, whose diggers simply keep rallies going and going, there is much room for improvement. 

The emerging star is Allison McNeal, who attacks the ball at about 10'7", about three inches higher than any other Husker.  She is improving daily and already presents a formidable block and attacking option.

Passing is the source of most concern - as it is every year for most teams.  The Huskers will rely on the same three passers every serve: the libero and two outside hitters.  Those three have to play well for Nebraska to defeat elite teams.

The right sides started strong on this trip, but struggled with the pro teams' speed these last two days.  Lindsay Licht admitted that she was only able to block the rare tight set despite Nebraska's height advantage these last two days: the pro team offenses are that fast and the hitters that adept at adjusting mid-jump so that their attacks avoid the Huskers' block.

Nebraska Volleyball is poor at one skill - managing expectations. In a sports culture of predictable, self-effacing coach-speak, I admire this willingness of the coaches and players annually to state their goal: a national championship.  Assistant Coach Eric Sullivan says that we won't be able to assess this trip until December.  Still, let me make a futile plea: please do not judge this group solely on the season's outcome.  As long as this team always gives its best, be satisfied with the journey. You can be confident that this bunch will always give its best.

Though I've merely read a few books and experienced three volleyball trips in a decade, let me offer a few observations about the Asian Dragon. China is the broadest example of unfettered capitalism and authoritarian government in human history. One out of every five humans is Chinese.  After enduring the Cultural Revolution just 40 years ago - a time when the country's educated and elite were jailed or worse- China is now the picture of economic growth.  Cranes spin in the sky, relentlessly adding to the teeming city skylines. Over half a billion Chinese now use cell phones. Seated window washers dangle precariously from single ropes thirty stories from the ground, furiously wiping clean the aluminum and glass towers.  Tailors come to offices and hotel rooms with cloth swatches one day and a finished suit the next.  An article in this morning's China Today editorializes that India will surpass China as the world's fastest growing economy within five years unless China "has a sense of urgency."  Five China Honda car plants will reopen this weekend after workers struck for and won a pay increase from $230 to $283 per month for each full time worker.  The five full lanes of traffic heading east outside our Beijing hotel inch along.  Citizens pay for their own health care.

Meanwhile, the Government here is free domestically from any American notion of checks and balances.  Most cars were forbidden during the two weeks of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  Even today, each car is prohibited from being driven one day each week. Capitalism married to a supportive authoritarian government, China is a country in a hurry.

We land in Omaha Friday evening about 7:15 p.m. The AVCA Showcase is at the Qwest Center August 28 and 29.  Bring on Kentucky and Florida.