China Trip Blog Day 7: Huskers Still Hanging in Hangzhou

Day 7: May 25, 2010
We're one week into this seventeen-day volleyball journey in China.  After breakfast here in the foreign student dormitory cafeteria, the team headed to the track for a 90-minute workout (the Zhejiang University arena was unavailable on Tuesday). Despite yesterday's practice and two matches, the Big Red did not take the day off.  The coaches set up five separate stations with multiple groups of two or three players moving from station to station - doing pushups, pull-ups, and other strength and speed building exercises.

We soon headed to Pizza Hut for lunch and then to West Lake and a boat ride.  West Lake is the hub of activity here in Hangzhou.  About three kilometers by three kilometers, West Lake is filled with boats for hire and borders the skyscrapers of downtown Hangzhou.

Then we headed to the Ling Ying Buddhist Temple, another site rimmed with big tourist buses and thousands of visitors.  Ling Ying means 'souls retreat,' so named because of its secluded mountain location above the lake.  It is the site of at least seven Buddhist temples, most filled with a large Buddha statue.  In the largest temple, the team watched a Buddhist ceremony involving about fifty monks, lots of drums, and chanting.

We then had one last ceremonial feast with the Zhejiang volleyball team and university officials.  Players from both teams sat together at the circular tables, communicating through translators. The toasts were barely outnumbered by the number of plates circling the tables on the lazy Susans, each plate filled with traditional fare, including jelly fish, duck, shrimp, soup, and much more.  Kayla Banwarth led a toast thanking Zhejiang University for its warm hospitality and for the new friends the team has here in China.

Health update: Brooke Delano's shoulder is a little sore from sleeping on it wrong the other night, but otherwise the team is healthy.

I spoke with Sydney Anderson tonight and shared with her my belief that she is one of the most important Huskers of the last twenty years in this sense- without her arrival, the team drops temporarily from among the ranks of the elite.  In my opinion, she and Megan Korver in 1996 share this distinction.  When Nebraska in 2008 suddenly found itself without an elite setter, Sydney was suddenly there to ensure that senior Jordan Larson would have a distributor worthy of her great talent and that the Huskers again could make runs at the title.

Now with Morgan Broekhuis and Lauren Cook, Nebraska may go with two rather than one setter.  She says she'll happily do whatever is best for the team.  She admits this may be difficult, but that it should make her a better player and person.  Regardless of whatever ultimate line-up decisions are made, Sydney will again play a key role this year. Still fans will not soon forget the brave decision she made to transfer here despite Rachel Holloway returning as the incumbent, and then the vital role she has played ever since.

I'm John Baylor in China with Nebraska Volleyball- describing what I see.