Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: Team USA

Before Peru November 2, 2007

Heather Bown spikes Peru's Milagros Moy (L) and Yulissa Zamudio Ore110207

USA's Ah Mow-Santos Robyn and Nnanami Ogonna celebrate in the match against Peru

After Peru November 2, 2007

Coach Lang Ping talks to her players as they faced Cuba in Hamamatsu, Japan, November 3, 2007

Heahter Bown spikes against Cuba's Yumilka Ruiz

Celebrating a point over Cuba

Pumping up during the match with Cuba

Pumped up during the match with Cuba

USA won the match over Cuba 20-25 25-21 25-18 20-25 15-11

Celebrating their victory over Cuba

Celebrating their victory over Cuba

Blocking a spike by Carrillo de la Paz Nancy of Cuba

USA's Ogonna Nnamani in the match against the Dominican Republic

Celebrating a point against the Dominican Republic November 9, 2007

Celebrating their victory over the Dominican Republic

US players celebrate winning the second set against Japan November 15, 2007

Heather Bown, right, of the United States spikes the ball against Sachiko Sugiyama of Japan

Celebrating versus Cuba

Photo sources: Yahoo! News and fivb.com

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: USA's #10, Kimberly Glass

Receiving from Japan November 15, 2007

Spikes during the Cuban win November 3, 2007

Serving Peru November 2, 2007

Kimberly addressing the Cuban problem

Putting on her best face for this Xinhua News Agency photo v the Dominican Republic

Cuba again

Photo sources: Yahoo! News and fivb.com

Revisiting 2007 FIVB Women's World Cup: USA's #2, Danielle Scott-Arruda

Danielle Scott-Arruda spikes against Peru's Luren Baylon during their first round match November 2, 2007

Danielle Scott-Arruda (C) and Kimberly Glass jump for the ball from Cuba's Kenia Carcases Opon November 3, 2007

Spikes the ball against Cuba's Nancy Carrillo De La Paz

Danielle Scott-Arruda (L) and Logan Tom jump to block a spike by Bae Yoo-Na of South Korea November 11, 2007

Spikes over Thailand's Amporn Hyapha November 10, 2007

Tayyiba Haneef-Park (l), Danielle Scott-Arruda (c) and Logan Tom v. Dominican Republic's Sidarka Nunez November 9, 2007

Spikes the ball towards Kim Se-young of South Korea

Danielle Scott-Arruda(R) smashes the ball over Thailand's Amporn Hyapha November 10, 2007

Spikes against Peru November 2, 2007

Spikes against Kim Se-Young of South Korea

Spikes the ball against Brizitka Molnar, left, and Stefana Veljkovic of Serbia November 14, 2007

Danielle Scott- Arruda and Logan Tom (rear) attack v Peru

Photo sources: Yahoo! News and fivb.com

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