Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: Team USA's relative scorers again vs rest of the world 2006

What a difference a year makes: At the 2006 world championships, Team USA finished ninth in order behind Russia, Brazil, Serbia, Italy, China, Japan, Cuba, and the Netherlands. Below, I give the player scoring ranking for that event: Logan Tom's third place scoring this year would fit around the eleventh to twelfth spot in last year's ranking. And look who the leaders were last year. So, yes, the road ahead for Team USA to the Olympic podium in Beijing is yet steep. Incidentally, the source for the previous tables is the "Best Players" right-side tab here. The 2006 results are here. In terms of New Year's resolutions, I'd like to suggest recruiting Cheryl Weaver as numero uno goal for Team USA. She was Haneef Tayyiba-Park's teammate at Long Beach State and the disappointing runner-up to Logan Tom for player of the year in 2001. I was able to follow her career for a while (I lost her in the Amazon forest somewhere), but it sure would be nice to see her play for Team USA. (Searching through Long Beach State's records, it appears that Haneef and Cheryl played their freshman national championship year there with Misty May. And check this: Danielle Scott and former volleyball Olympian Tara Cross-Battle (I am assuming she has retired though I've seen nothing in print) are also Long Beach State alum's. Haneef and Cheryl lost to Logan and Stanford in the 2001 NCAA finals I do believe.

Rank	Shirt	Name	Team	Spike	Block	Serve	Total
1	17	Darnel Neslihan	TUR	190	21	14	225
2	15	Grün Angelina	GER	176	31	13	220
3	1	Wang Yimei	CHN	165	17	20	202
4	11	Gamova Ekaterina	RUS	152	32	6	190
5	12	Metcalf Nancy	USA	160	16	9	185
6	3	Yang Hao	CHN	146	20	15	181
7	12	Flier Manon	NED	149	17	14	180
8	4	Staelens Chaïne	NED	151	22	2	175
	5	Shashkova Lioubov	RUS	150	21	4	175
10	12	Calderon Diaz Rosir	CUB	148	21	3	172
11	3	Djerisilo Ivana	SCG	136	24	7	167
12	5	Takahashi Miyuki	JPN	154	3	9	166
13	3	Carrillo De La Paz Nancy	CUB	126	29	6	161
14	11	Lin Ching I	TPE	148	10	1	159
15	13	Castro Sheilla	BRA	131	15	10	156
16	3	Haneef Tayyiba	USA	135	10	3	148
	7	Bown Heather	USA	110	32	6	148
18	15	Spasojevic Anja	SCG	123	8	12	143
19	1	Ruiz Luaces Yumilka	CUB	123	13	4	140
	12	Kimura Saori	JPN	117	10	13	140
21	12	Carvalho Jaqueline	BRA	128	6	4	138
22	6	Godina Elena	RUS	96	13	28	137
23	7	Hanikoglu Natalia	TUR	117	10	9	136
24	1	Nikolic Jelena	SCG	112	8	4	124
25	11	Araki Erika	JPN	86	29	8	123
	14	Oyama Shuka	JPN	107	10	6	123
27	3	Togut Elisa	ITA	111	8	3	122
28	12	Piccinini Francesca	ITA	103	13	5	121
29	9	Chen Shu Li	TPE	104	11	3	118
30	5	Ozbek Aysun	TUR	99	12	4	115
	17	Thumm Birgit	GER	96	8	11	115
32	17	Xu Yunli	CHN	82	26	5	113
33	15	Visser Ingrid	NED	74	29	2	105
34	1	Oliveira Walewska	BRA	63	34	7	104
	2	Rinieri-Dennis Simona	ITA	93	8	3	104
	9	Claudino Fabiana	BRA	73	25	6	104
37	2	Scott Danielle	USA	80	20	3	103
38	11	Fürst Christiane	GER	59	35	8	102
39	2	Lin Chun Yi	TPE	74	23	4	101
	9	Sugiyama Sachiko	JPN	73	25	3	101
	11	Citakovic Vesna	SCG	63	31	7	101
42	8	Wilkins Katherine	USA	63	25	9	97
43	7	Kou Nai Han	TPE	83	8	4	95
44	8	Dumler Cornelia	GER	74	7	10	91
45	6	Chen Mei Ching	TPE	58	21	10	89
46	4	Liu Yanan	CHN	67	13	3	83
	10	Gonzaga Welissa	BRA	72	5	6	83
48	5	Krsmanovic Natasa	SCG	48	28	5	81
49	16	Merkulova Yulia	RUS	49	27	4	80
50	7	Zhou Suhong	CHN	72	3	4	79
51	1	Borodakova Maria	RUS	40	26	12	78
	8	Blom Alice	NED	74	3	1	78
53	11	Wensink Caroline	NED	52	23	2	77
54	2	Santos Allegne Yanelis	CUB	45	19	12	76
	18	Ssuschke Corina	GER	59	15	2	76
56	10	Paggi Paola	ITA	53	17	5	75
	12	Gumus Esra	TUR	57	9	9	75
58	6	Ramirez Echevarria Daimi	CUB	56	8	8	72
59	5	Anzanello Sara	ITA	44	21	4	69
60	16	Stam Debby	NED	51	9	6	66
61	4	Gonzalez Dias Yenisei	CUB	27	28	8	63
62	3	Steinbrecher Marianne	BRA	48	10	1	59
63	5	Gattaz Caroline	BRA	34	12	1	47
64	2	Feng Kun	CHN	23	17	2	42
65	4	Ozcelik Ozlem	TUR	34	6	1	41
66	10	Ognjenovic Maja	SCG	14	18	5	37
67	1	Bouagaa Atika	GER	31	2	2	35
	7	Guiggi Martina	ITA	21	12	2	35
	9	Centoni Nadia	ITA	31	3	1	35
70	16	Kozuch Margareta	GER	29	5		34
71	14	Fledderus Riëtte	NED	15	7	8	30
72	1	Ortolani Serena	ITA	24	1	4	29
	2	Rankovic Aleksandra	SCG	17	10	2	29
	11	Mesa Luaces Liana	CUB	21	5	3	29
75	3	Takeshita Yoshie	JPN	9	7	12	28
76	6	Fiorin Valentina	ITA	23	3	1	27
	17	Colombo Renata	BRA	26	1		27
78	15	Ochiai Mari	JPN	22	3	1	26
79	7	Molnar Brizitka	SCG	25			25
	14	Lo Bianco Eleonora	ITA	9	8	8	25
81	9	Joines Jennifer	USA	18	6		24
	18	Akulova Marina	RUS	6	16	2	24
83	15	Erdem Eda	TUR	19	3	1	23
84	7	Safronova Natalia	RUS	17	2		19
	7	Horai Makiko	JPN	16	3		19
	15	Wu Hsiao Li	TPE	3	5	11	19
	18	Zhang Ping	CHN	16	3		19
88	6	Brakocevic Jovana	SCG	17	1		18
	11	Ah Mow-Santos Robyn	USA	4	12	2	18
90	10	Crawford Therese	USA	12	4	1	17
	14	Agca Elif	TUR	6	7	4	17
92	6	Orsel Mirjam	NED	9	3	3	15
93	7	Souza Helia	BRA	5	3	5	13
	16	Tokatlioglu Seda	TUR	10	2	1	13
95	6	Li Shan	CHN	8	4		12
96	4	Pequeno Paula	BRA	9		1	10
	8	Ortiz Charro Yaima	CUB	10			10
	14	Carcases Opon Kenia	CUB	8	2		10
99	1	Yeh Hui Hsuan	TPE	8			8
	6	Benecke Christina	GER	8			8
101	2	Weiß Kathleen	GER	3	3	1	7
	9	Vesovic Jovana	SCG	6		1	7
	10	Kirdar Gozde	TUR	6	1		7
104	17	Kulikova Natalia	RUS	5	1		6
105	4	Bruntseva Maria	RUS	4	1		5
106	12	Sheshenina Marina	RUS	1	3		4
	12	Song Nina	CHN	1		3	4
	13	Simanic Maja	SCG	1		3	4
	13	Tseng Hua Yu	TPE	4			4
110	1	Staelens Kim	NED		3		3
	5	Chu Jinling	CHN	1		2	3
	9	Sanchez Perez Rachel	CUB	2	1		3
	9	Meijners Floortje	NED	3			3
	9	Hakyemez Deniz	TUR	3			3
115	1	Mert Bahar	TUR	1	1		2
	2	Albuquerque Carolina	BRA	2			2
	10	Takahashi Midori	JPN	1	1		2
	16	Juan Pei Chi	TPE			2	2
119	3	Hart Tanja	GER	1			1
	11	Li Juan	CHN	1			1
	12	Schlüter Cathrin	GER	1			1
	18	Busse Cassandra	USA		1		1
Total Tournament				6639	1293	525	8457

Female Athelete of the Year 2007: a segregated looks back on segregation circa 1957

There were still "colored only" signs here in Houston; the rigid delimiters of our designated place of entry and sitting. I was in elementary school. This was segregation remember. So, 1957 I was what first grade? Just learning to read, but priming for the next two years' . . . current events. Current events was where you went home, clipped newspaper articles, pasted them to mostly Big Chief tablets back then, and brought them to school. Lots of fun, so much so that I know of a certainty that by fourth grade there was no more current events (yes it ends in an "s", but it is singular in this use.)

Anyway, you soon got to current events (and even then this was like once a month or so, too much fun.) Now if we were lucky- and keep in mind this was segregation- if we were lucky, she would tell us the topic of the articles to clip. Okay, so we would clip the articles, (note the gramatical comma) and bring them to school. Fine and good. Swell. But then (and the devil made them do this) the teacher would ask: "But what does it mean?" And of course our first response (silently, oh so silently) was "You don't know?"

"But what does it mean?" "This is second grade, third grade, how am I supposed . . .?" Or, "What did it say?" Of course, if he had announced the topic of the articles, there you go.

Unacceptable, and, though Fifth Ward was tough, I went to school, especially elementary school, with good people, so the anguish was shared. But there was always the eager girls (two of them) whose parents had always evidently taken the time to discuss the articles with them, and they were ready.

Of a truth I can say nothing contrary to news articles about Lorena Ochoa, never heard of her, we're talking totally blank slate. This is the sentence that strikes in the article: "It was the fifth straight year a golfer has captured the Female Athlete award, the longest streak of any sport."

"But what does it mean?" Women have been making marked gains everywhere in everything. But the one place the good ol' boy could retreat was to "'da course", "'da links". (I don't play golf, I grew up in segregation remember. "Golf: you and what national army?") Still, despite the fact that 95% of network evening TV is geared to women, that there's a female announcer on Monday night football irritatingly describing . . . I'll leave that alone. Anyway, the good ol' boy could retreat to the bonding on the course 'cuz if they were also on the course somewhere they were over there in their place (and I have to leave that alone because we are talking out-of-experience for this body.) Anyway, these are the kind of girls "we" like: in their place.

"But what does it mean?" A female golfer has been female athlete of the year for the past five years. What does that mean? It means that the male athlete of the year for at least the past six years quiet's-its-been-kept has been in truth . . . Tiger Woods. Now that's too much for WASPing oinkism! Too much reality! Time to retreat into Rambo-boy fantasy.

That's what it means. Heck, next time . . . announce the topic, and we'll repeat what you tell us.

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: USA's #3, Tayyiba Haneef-Park

Versus Cuba with the US winning 20-25 25-21 25-18 20-25 15-11 November 3, 2007

Spikes against Peru's Milagros Moy. The US won 25-23 25-14 25-19

Spikes against Peru's Mirtha Uribe (L) and Leyla Chihuan

With a little emphatic emphasis

This is how we address the recently Olympics qualifying Cubans, politely

dunking on Poland's Anna Podolec November 4, 2007 (okay, dunking would be carrying)

With Jennifer Joines jumpimg to block Team Dominican Republic

Spikes against Thailand's Ampom Hyapha November 10, 2007

lighting some sparks on the hommies, Japan's Yoshie Takeshita November 15, 2007

Spikes against Serbia's Vesna Citakovic November 14, 2007

Emphasizing with South Korea's Kim Yeon-Kuong (C) and Kim Se-Young November 11, 2007

Photo sources: Yahoo! News and fivb.com

This is deflating: Golfer Lorena Ochoa of Mexico is the overwhelming choice as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. Again.

Shows what I know (I have begun to follow the tour . . . some, but I an not a golfer, no): interesting story. For an AP vote and story, it was . . . like . . . difficult to dig this up even in the search engines. What's up with this? Might my gloss be that of audience of the mainline media? I have missed . . . play . . . this big! Oink. McLuhan reflection of too clear underlying (hiding) pork-bellyness. As a man, I am ashamed: this is 2007. The number of women voting for male athelete of the year should equal the number of men voting for female athelete of the year.

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: Team USA's servers and diggers relative to the rest of the world

Servers

Rank	Shirt	Name	Team	Aces	Faults	Serve Hits	Total Atts	Avg. by set
14	10	Glass Kimberly	USA	9	18	100	127	0.22
27	3	Haneef-Park Tayyiba	USA	7	18	89	114	0.17
41	2	Scott-Arruda Danielle	USA	5	6	134	145	0.12
42	11	Ah Mow-Santos Robyn	USA	5	8	116	129	0.12
43	7	Brown Heather	USA	5	12	64	81	0.12
56	6	Tom Logan	USA	4	22	107	133	0.10
65	1	Nnamani Ogonna	USA	3	5	49	57	0.07
71	4	Berg Lindsey	USA	2	3	70	75	0.05
100	9	Joines Jennifer	USA	1	1	53	55	0.02
105	18	Busse Cassandra	USA	1	2	15	18	0.02
Total USA				42	95	797	934	n/a
Total Tournament				485	1044	8468	9997	2.06

Diggers

Rank	Shirt	Name	Team	Digs	Faults	Receptions	Total Atts	Avg. by set
4	15	Davis Nicole	USA	109	63	78	250	2.66
13	6	Tom Logan	USA	78	46	102	226	1.90
38	10	Glass Kimberly	USA	35	25	54	114	0.85
56	3	Haneef-Park Tayyiba	USA	23	42	54	119	0.56
62	11	Ah Mow-Santos Robyn	USA	21	23	71	115	0.51
69	4	Berg Lindsey	USA	19	23	39	81	0.46
80	2	Scott-Arruda Danielle	USA	15	13	29	57	0.37
86	1	Nnamani Ogonna	USA	12	13	19	44	0.29
87	7	Brown Heather	12	12	13	16	41	0.29
98	5	Sykora Stacy	USA	9	9	4	22	0.22
104	18	Busse Cassandra	USA	7	5	4	16	0.17
108	9	Joines Jennifer	USA	6	5	7	18	0.15
Total USA				159	171	297	627	n/a
Total Tournament				3742	3015	5361	12118	15.92

Jelena again considered for a wildcard entry to the Australian Open as concern mounts about the safety of the new surface upon which she was injured

For years, Jelena Dokic's name has been considered among those to receive a wildcard entry to the Australian Open. As a result of recent injury, again serious consideration is being given to a wildcard grant. Jelena, however, believes, and reasonably so, that that may do her more harm than good, because she needs good, challenging matches at this point. Yahoo! News Friday December 21, 03:33 PM Dokic bids to play on despite injury FoxSports: Dokic wants no wildcard favours But, big but, there is now concern that Jelena's injury was due to the new court surface itself, and her injury portends harm to the entire tour during the Open. Yahoo! News Sunday December 23, 07:39 PM Concerns over new courts for the Australian Open

Photo source: Yahoo! News file photo January 16, 2006

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: USA's #6, Logan Tom

Though partially hidden, no question that's Logan in front of #15

Again, an intensity matched perhaps only by Cynthia Cooper in women's team sports

Spikes a ball against Peru's Patricia Soto (L) and Mirtha Uribe

Versus Peru November 2, 2007

Peru's Leyla Chihuan spikes against Logan Tom

Logan Tom spikes the ball against Cuba's Yanelis Santos Allegne (R) and Nancy Carrillo De La Paz November 3, 2007

Logan Tom and Cuba's Yanelis Santos Allegne jump for the ball

Logan Tom attacks against South Korean double blockers November 11, 2007

Logan Tom spikes the ball against Poland's Anna Podolec (L) and Eleonora Dziekiewicz November 4, 2007

Poland's Katarzyna Skowronska-Dolata spikes; some of those have got to hurt

Dominican Republic's Sidarka Nunez spikes November 9, 2007

Logan Tom spikes the ball past Thailand's Saymai Paladsrichuay November 10, 2007; hey, can dish it, too

air Logan

La Rosa Zoyla (PER) sets v Logan November 2, 2007

Spikes the ball over Japanese defenders, Yoshie Takeshita(L) and Asako Tajimi November 15, 2007

More air Logan Tom

Blocks versus Peru

Spikes versus Peru

Photo sources: Yahoo! News and fivb.com

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: Team USA's relative scorers, strikers and blockers

I'd like to look at some stats from last month's Women's Volleyball World Cup 2007 in Japan. When I finish with the evaluation over several posts, I will point you to the site(s) for the full statistical smorgasbord (yeap, still thinking CA.)

I'd like to look at FIVB player rankings . . . excerpting and magnifying only Team USA as ranked against the rest of the world. Again, when I finish I'll point you to the listings for a full comparison. (The FIVB's reference to "shirt" I believe is the same as our "jersey number". )

First three categories: best scorers, best spikers and best blockers.

Scorers

Rank	Shirt	Name	Team	Spike	Block	Serve	Total
3	6	Tom Logan	USA	134	26	4	164
10	3	Haneef-Park Tayyiba	USA	126	10	7	143
25	2	Scott-Arruda Danielle	USA	74	31	5	110
41	7	Brown Heather	USA	63	14	5	82
51	10	Glass Kimberly	USA	52	10	9	71
66	1	Nnamani Ogonna	USA	38	3	3	44
67	9	Joines Jennifer	USA	28	11	1	40
82	18	Busse Cassandra	USA	18	2	1	21
97	11	Ah Mow-Santos Robyn	USA	4	5	5	14
113	4	Berg Lindsey	USA	2	1	2	5
Total Tournament				5813	1153	485	7451

Spikers

Rank	Shirt	Name	Team	Spikes	Faults	Shots	Total Atts	Succ. %
3	3	Haneef-Park Tayyiba	USA	126	31	102	259	48.65
13	6	Tom Logan	USA	134	37	146	317	42.27
n/a	2	Scott-Arruda Danielle	USA	74	9	57	140
n/a	10	Glass Kimberly	USA	52	21	54	127
n/a	7	Brown Heather	USA	63	12	37	112
n/a	1	Nnamani Ogonna	USA	38	9	56	103
n/a	9	Joines Jennifer	USA	28	6	23	57
n/a	18	Busse Cassandra	USA	18	12	25	55
n/a	11	Ah Mow-Santos Robyn	USA	4		5	9
n/a	4	Berg Lindsey	USA	2	1	3	6
Total Tournament				5813	1987	6166	13966	41.62

Blockers

Rank	Shirt	Name	Team	Stuff Blocks	Faults	Rebounds	Total Atts	Avg. by set
3	2	Scott-Arruda Danielle	USA	31	37	94	162	0.76
6	6	Tom Logan	USA	26	16	36	78	0.63
34	7	Brown Heather	USA	14	21	42	77	0.34
45	9	Joines Jennifer	USA	11	16	37	64	0.27
47	10	Glass Kimberly	USA	10	12	37	59	0.24
49	3	Haneef-Park Tayyiba	USA	10	38	57	105	0.24
72	11	Ah Mow-Santos Robyn	USA	5	16	18	39	0.12
92	1	Nnamani Ogonna	USA	3	5	16	24	0.07
97	18	Busse Cassandra	USA	2	5	11	18	0.05
114	4	Berg Lindsey	USA	1	8	11	20	0.02
Total Tournament				1153	1987	3494	6634	4.91

Oops: USA blanked in Torino, Penn St says "CA what, who, where?"

Replay review on this chart: NCAA Division I Womens volleyball championship

Kimmie Meissner, sixth of six

Caroline Zhang full of surprises still: second after the short in Torino yesterday; Kimmie Meissner is 5th; Mao Asada is last

Story.

the path others must traverse to the Beijing volleyball venues

In the recent World Cup that I am hardly through talking about, Italy, Brazil and the USofA qualified their women's volleyball teams to next year's Beijing Olympics. China is host. How will the other eight teams be determined? Click here for that answer.

"Where's my motivation?": Miki Ando finding that social "adulation" can be a give, give and give again proposition

And all too often that does not mean high society giving it a break, giving it some slack. Back in the day, with stereos, you had to get up to move the needle to hear a song over and over (no, no one ever put the bean bag next to the needle, you always had to get up.) Now you can put the cd player on "stuck": I can go days listening to Stevie Nicks ask "Who is the beauty, who is the beast"? There are, though as we see here, deeply diverse cultural responses to that question.

Photo sources: (in order) Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Issei Kato; Yahoo! News/AFP/Jiji Press; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Issei Kato; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Issei Kato

CA represent'n in the NCAA Division I Womens volleyball Championship

With no. 2 Nebraska (27 and 1 during the regular season) surviving Michigan State (19-13) 3 sets to 2, the regional finals in the NCAA Division I Womens volleyball championship are set: in Palo Alto, CA, no. 1 Stanford (27-2) hosts no. 8 University of CA @ LA (20-10); in Gainesville, Florida, no. 4 Univeristy of Texas (24-3) will play no. 5 University of Southern CA (25-4); in the Wisconsin capital, University of Nebraska takes on no. 10 University of CA @ beserkley (I'm an alum', I have the right) (22-7); and at University Park, PA, no. 3 Penn State (28-2) takes on Brigham Young University (21-7). In the second round, USC took out another CA power house, Tayyiba Haneef-Park's alma mater Long Beach State, 3 sets to 2.

I know Logan Tom is a Stanford alum'; but, before just totally ranking to the n-th any totally sports-sheltered being who may not have known that, I thought I'd double check, again. Instead of doing like a "wikipedia.org" or something, I stuck her name in a search engine, and the photos that led the results . . .. I remember the discussion during the Athens Olympics about the oh so little cute Amanda Beard having ditched her '00 teddy bears for more mature revelations. but I was unaware that Logan Tom had joined her (precisely why I am not a Maxim, FHM, Playboy kind of . . . man: the issue of social responsibility, or credible lack thereof.). I think I am glad I am not fluent in Spanish for this: (I am not so sure even about the general suitability of the title here) Actually, I am enjoying exagerating: Logan plays beach volleyball, so it's all in the use of the word "posing" with that of "bikini".

FIVB Women's World Cup: final standings

Although the Italians won the gold medal at the 2007 FIVB Women’s World Cup after defeating Team USA in their both last match on the last day of the tournament, the format for the competition was a bit different: the winner was the team with the best won-lost record at tournament's end. Ties were determined by the Points Ratio (see the table below). So, at the end of play, Italy singularly remained undefeated: they were the overall winners.

There's more to be gleaned from tournament play, but I will start here: Being ignorant of the format, when I first saw "Italy defeated USA to win Cup", I was somewhat dismayed. Though I was not up on the fourth (final) round results, I was aware of what had happened in the previous rounds (though still ignorant of the tournament format.) I was dismayed because, if asked then if I though the US had a chance to stand on the podium in Beijing, my response would have been an unqualified absolutely "positutenally" not: somebody was playing us, trying to swell our heads.

The US has, let us call this, a "Cuba complex": in women's vball, they are constantly kicking our bucks. But so are the Russians and the Chinese and the Brazilians, to name just a few. But "we" can't stand the Cubans. Problem is the Cuban team is hugely Black, and the Team USA invectives must resonate in the inner woman when some USA Team members leave the locker room and look in the mirror in their homes. Thus my focusing the spotlight on Coach Ping: is there a constructive solution? Ranked at this moment in the third position and reflecting the whole lot of work that must now be done, I am more inclined toward a "Yes, there is a chance for a medal." And look at who's looking at who's looking: as host, the People's Republic receives an automatic bid in volleyball, so need not have participated in the world cup tournament. In fact, Russia was defeated by the Italians in the semis at European's with only the finalists going to the world cup, so Russia must qualify at a later event.

Rk	Code	Country	Points	Matches		Points			Sets
				Won	Lost	Won	Lost	Ratio	Won	Lost	Ratio
1	ITA	Italy	22	11		858	604	1.421	33	2	16.500
2	BRA	Brazil	20	9	2	891	671	1.328	29	9	3.222
3	USA	U.S.A.	20	9	2	940	821	1.145	28	13	2.154
4	CUB	Cuba	19	8	3	1'020	951	1.073	28	17	1.647
5	SRB	Serbia	18	7	4	910	866	1.051	26	15	1.733
6	POL	Poland	17	6	5	908	820	1.107	23	18	1.278
7	JPN	Japan	17	6	5	885	866	1.022	21	19	1.105
8	KOR	Korea	15	4	7	825	848	0.973	16	22	0.727
9	DOM	Dominican Republic	14	3	8	797	911	0.875	12	28	0.429
10	THA	Thailand	13	2	9	784	924	0.848	11	29	0.379
11	PER	Peru	12	1	10	681	855	0.796	6	30	0.200
12	KEN	Kenya	11		11	498	860	0.579	2	33	0.061

. . . Miki does fall

Perhaps others can bear to read this; I couldn't: The Japan Times: Mistakes cost Ando chance to qualify for GP Final

So, the table of my just previous post is complete: six finalist, three subs and those just not making the Grand Prix final. What I wondered from the numbers last post was whether I was seeing something of structure, something embedded, or something more transitory: a change in mental attitude here, an adjustment to technique there, a little more practice?

Mid-term figure skating Grand Prix results

I was deeply involved in using my invention- the HTML table- to chart the results after four completed stops in figure skating's Grand Prix series: Skate America, Skate Canada, Cup of China and Trophee Eric Bompard. However, when I went to find the data to complete a column in the table for Grand Prix points attained, voila, there was a table with all the data I wanted already in one place. Hey, who am I? And a very interesting table it is indeed: Grand Prix of Figure Skating 2007/2008 Entries/Results -"unofficial"- Ladies

Firstly, I wondered why "the Japanese" skaters even bothered with Skate America. Well, firstly, "the Japanese" skaters actually avoided Skate America like the plague: only Miki Ando and Mai Asada from Japan competed in Skate America. That answered my second question as well: why Miki Ando, the currently reigning ladies world champ, did not avoid the early confrontation with Kimmie Meissner, the just previous world champ ("the battle of the world champs" as US media billed it)? Easy: in intelligently avoiding Skate America, Mao Asada of Japan scheduled her two Grand Prix competitions at Skate Canada and Skate France. Similarly, Yu-Na Kim of South Korea scheduled her two competitions in China and Russia. I do believe that Miki Ando saw Kimmie as the least of all the threats.

That's not the end of Miki's concerns still: Mao Asada took gold (and 15 Grand Prix points) in both her events; Kimmie has one gold and one event to go; Yu-Na has one gold and one event to go. Another fall like her fall in the short program at Skate America, and Miki could well miss out altogether on the Grand Prix final, considered by most as essential to preparedness for the world figure skating competition in March.

Mai Asada seems to have accepted the mathematical improbabilities of Grand Prix final participation associated with her eighth place finish at Skate America and apparently (from the table) has dropped out of the series altogether.

There's much more to be gleaned from the table, but, like most of the world, I am into sports for the entertainment value: statistics is my life. So, let's just wait and see how the table fills itself out. You can obtain the full results at each Grand Prix event by clicking on the country in the "designated event" row in the link above.

And lest I end without using my invention- the HTML table- here are some photos from Skate America:

Miki Ando of Japan skates during the Ladies Short October 27, 2007 at Skate America

Miki Ando of Japan falls during the Ladies short program at Skate America

Mai Asada of Japan during the Ladies short program at Skate America October 27, 2007

Elene Gedevanishvili of Georgia competes in the ladies short program at Skate America

Emily Hughes competes in the ladies short program at Skate America

Caroline Zhang of the US surprised all with a third place finish at Skate America

Emily Hughes of the United Sates competes in the Ladies Free Skate at Skate America October 28, 2007, finishing fourth

Mika Ando took silver at Skate America

Photo sources: (in order) Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Tom Mihalek; Yahoo! News/Getty Images/Nick Laham; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Tom Mihalek; Yahoo! News/Getty Images/Nick Laham; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Bradley C Bower' Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Bradley C Bower; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Bradley C Bower; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Bradley C Bower

Italy won the FIVB Volleyball World Cup in Nagoya, Japan November 16, 2007 by defeating Team USA 25-20 25-18 27-25

I've not finished my digging here and the event is already a week passed. More . . .

Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Koji Sasahara

USA Volleyball Team's Lang Ping

Wikipedia on Lang Ping USA Volleyball team coach Lang Ping (center in blue) coaches during a not altogether common USA victory over Cuba November 3, 2007, at the FIVB Volleyball World Cup 2007 in Hamamatsu, Japan. Team USA won 20-25 25-21 25-18 20-25 15-11.

Photo source: Yahoo! News/oops

In the longest final since the WTA adopted the best-of-three-set format, Justine Henin in Madrid yesterday prevailed over Maria Sharapova 5-7 7-5 6-3

Story But the event produced some unusually good photos of Maria as player.

Please click here or on the photo for more of Sharapova's WTA Championships

Photo source: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Victor Fraile

Nice, Ana

Ana Ivanovic of Serbia celebrates her 20th birthday with a win against Kutzy during the WTA Championships in Madrid November 6, 2007. (Still needs to stop ego-trippin' and get her head back into the game. I so fear the window of opportunity for her is not as wide as she may imagine it (nearly the whole of the bottom half of the women's draw of the US Open was filled with players with every intention to step through that same . . . window.) )

Photo source: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Andrea Comas

News Flash! October 28, 2007: the Ms. Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia punches ticket to WTA Championships with Linz final win

Photo source: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

Marx, one more time

In Marx' view, Russia was not the country to lead the world into the next dialectical stage of social evolution; that was a role for a more industrialized economy than Russia's then very agrarian economy. Anyway, gone now are all the statues of both Marx and Lenin (who extended Marx to the then realities of the world that the more highly industrialized nations were going nowhere near the next stage of anything at that time), but also now gone is agrarian Russia. A world power kneels, but a world power yet notwithstanding.

My point? I have no point, 'ceptin' maybe the role many Russian women in sports are embracing to provide a positive uplift to their county. They are nurturing and building a sagging Russian spirit with heartfelt strength and determination. They chose this role now seemingly freely.

Because I was busy with other chores during one of the last televised tennis matches featuring the tennis star, I was intently listening to rather than watching the match. Especially at the end of the match, the commentators just flatly said that it was time for Elena Dementieva to consider hanging it up. And they were adamant.

On October 14, 2007, in Moscow, Elena Dementieva (with what I was told was the worse serve in all of tennis) defeated Serena (with, unquestionably, one of the most powerful serves in all of tennis) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 to leave the Kremlin Cup in Russian hands just this one more time. And to show it no fluke, the day before Dementieva defeated her formidable home sister Dinara Safina 6-1 6-0 in the semis while Serena defeated Svetlana "Kutzy" Kuznetsova 7-6 (7-2), 6-1. This story gives the view going into the finals: Serena to meet Dementieva in Moscow final

Please click here or on the photo above for more pictures. In the photo are (from left) Elena Dementieva, Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Serena.

Photo source: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Grigory Dukor