UW volleyball team no match for fatigue
BEIJING — This city has bargains galore. The streets are full of shoppers on the prowl for knockoff Nikes and pirated Pradas.
Friday night, the University of Washington volleyball team got more than it bargained for.
The NCAA champion Huskies lost for just the second time in 19 months, dropping a match three games to one (18-25, 25-21, 25-17, 25-20) to China's national collegiate champion, Beihang University.
The loss was the first since a five-game setback at the hands of UCLA last November. And although it was just an offseason exhibition, the Huskies were clearly unhappy.
"I take losing hard," said junior middle blocker Alesha Deesing. "I hate to lose."
Just 24 hours earlier, the Huskies had won their first contest in China handily, a 25-23, 25-23, 25-13 sweep of Jiatong University, the Beijing city champion. After the match, the two teams shared a bus, where the Chinese athletes practiced their English, showed off their cellphones and marveled at the red, blonde and braided hair of several of the Huskies' players.
The team spent much of Friday on a scheduled tour of Beijing's historic Summer Palace, part of a long, hot day that included plenty of shopping. By the time the showdown with Beihang rolled around at 7:15 p.m., several players appeared tired.
"John Wooden always said fatigue makes cowards of us all," said Huskies coach Jim McLaughlin. "We got a big reminder that preparation is key to everything we do, and all that time spent shopping on a game day meant we weren't prepared."
Tired or not, the Huskies were tested by unexpected distractions. The 4,000-seat arena was less than one-sixth full, as the match ran in direct competition with live telecasts of World Cup soccer, highly popular even in volleyball-mad China. The rules were an eclectic mix of international and NCAA, including just two officials, without anyone judging lines. Several Huskies thought the game balls were overinflated by NCAA standards, making them a bit more difficult to pass and set. More than one player admitted to being distracted by the ear-piercing scream that one of the Chinese players delivered after every Beihang kill.
Still, no one wanted to make excuses.
"You learn not to worry about the things you can't control," said McLaughlin, who stayed awake until 3 the next morning studying videotape of the match. "We want to be tough, and toughness means staying on task, no matter what the opponent is doing."
Among those who seemed most on task was sophomore outside hitter Jill Collymore, who saw the most playing time of her young career. For much of the day, she sat in back of the team bus, sketching elaborate caricatures in her notebook.
"I was relaxed," Collymore said. "I'm trying to find a comfortable routine on game day, and maybe drawing pictures will now be part of it."
By Saturday morning, the mood had improved considerably. On another very warm day, the Huskies scaled the Great Wall of China. This time, even McLaughlin did a little shopping, picking up a couple of gifts for his family.
But Saturday was not a game day. And it's a pretty safe bet that when the next match rolls around today in Shanghai, the cash registers will be silent.