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Post by alohavball on Nov 25, 2020 19:40:09 GMT -5
There's only a couple reasons a team would call up a player this young to join the adult team. 1) height, tall young players are generally picked early on 2) their skills are more mature than their current age which means potential 3) or both Looking at her stats (if they are correct), she's 186cm with a spike height of 317 and block height of 307. What I'm wondering is what happened to their youth players in the 18-20+ age range? Were they that bad that they had to skip them and introduce a player a whole lot younger. One things for sure, Beijing is in the transition from old to new players. Liu Xiaotong and Zeng Chunlei are in their 30s and to top that they have been battling injuries as of late. Side note: what kind of shape is Zheng Chunlei in? Will she make it to Tokyo? I was bummed she was injured before Rio, as she is one of my favorite players, and I would love to see her with an Olympic medal I'm not sure what her injuries are, but she hasn't really played a whole lot with the NT this quad. She's been around for training and tournaments, but hasn't been utilized as their main opposite, only for coming off the bench. The only thing that separates her and Gong at this point is that she's a lefty, other than that Gong plays the same defensive role she does. I don't see her making Tokyo unfortunately. As for who takes her spot I think Liu Yanhan has a high possibility, both her and Zhang CN are interchangeable at OH and OPP. |
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Post by alohavball on Nov 26, 2020 12:10:21 GMT -5
Dixon was given the ok to join Beijing and played in the match against Guangdong. Beijing lost 0-3 and Dixon only played sets 2 and 3.
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Post by ironhammer on Nov 26, 2020 21:19:08 GMT -5
Dixon was given the ok to join Beijing and played in the match against Guangdong. Beijing lost 0-3 and Dixon only played sets 2 and 3. I'm just glad to see her back in action on court. Here's a photo of her from that game:  |
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Post by ironhammer on Nov 26, 2020 21:32:48 GMT -5
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Post by alohavball on Nov 27, 2020 17:00:44 GMT -5
Shanghai beat Henan 3-1. Larson didn't play and Lippmann only came off the bench.
Guangdong again lost to another all Chinese team with no foreigners, Shandong beat them 3-1. Robinson only played the first 2 sets. Like Shanghai, it also looks like they used majority of their bench this match and rested their main players for the next round.
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Post by alohavball on Nov 27, 2020 18:03:29 GMT -5
Using the rankings from the second stage here's what the pools look like for the next round.
Group C
Tianjin, Liaoning, Guangdong, Zhejiang
Group D
Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing
Teams will have a one week rest until the third stage which begins December 4th. The top 3 teams from each pool will advance to the fourth round.
Although Guangdong previously lost to both Tianjin and Liaoning I don't see them having trouble with Zhejiang and should be able to make 3rd in their grouping. The last spot for Group D will be interesting. Beijing beat Shandong 3-1 when they faced before, but this time around could be different. Dixon just returned and is still catching up to speed.
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Post by Wichsen on Nov 27, 2020 21:09:33 GMT -5
Using the rankings from the second stage here's what the pools look like for the next round. Group C Tianjin, Liaoning, Guangdong, Zhejiang Group D Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing Teams will have a one week rest until the third stage which begins December 4th. The top 3 teams from each pool will advance to the fourth round. Although Guangdong previously lost to both Tianjin and Liaoning I don't see them having trouble with Zhejiang and should be able to make 3rd in their grouping. The last spot for Group D will be interesting. Beijing beat Shandong 3-1 when they faced before, but this time around could be different. Dixon just returned and is still catching up to speed. There is big chance shanghai will face guangdong in qf? 😜 The OH starters of USNT will face each other. Exciting isn't it |
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Post by ironhammer on Nov 27, 2020 21:45:36 GMT -5
Using the rankings from the second stage here's what the pools look like for the next round. Group C Tianjin, Liaoning, Guangdong, Zhejiang Group D Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing Teams will have a one week rest until the third stage which begins December 4th. The top 3 teams from each pool will advance to the fourth round. Although Guangdong previously lost to both Tianjin and Liaoning I don't see them having trouble with Zhejiang and should be able to make 3rd in their grouping. The last spot for Group D will be interesting. Beijing beat Shandong 3-1 when they faced before, but this time around could be different. Dixon just returned and is still catching up to speed. Truth be told, I don't think Guangdong has a high chance of getting very close to the championship this year. Neither does Beijing I think. It will come down to Tianjin, Shanghai and Jiangsu. |
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Post by ironhammer on Nov 27, 2020 22:38:03 GMT -5
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Post by alohavball on Nov 28, 2020 0:55:11 GMT -5
Using the rankings from the second stage here's what the pools look like for the next round. Group C Tianjin, Liaoning, Guangdong, Zhejiang Group D Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Beijing Teams will have a one week rest until the third stage which begins December 4th. The top 3 teams from each pool will advance to the fourth round. Although Guangdong previously lost to both Tianjin and Liaoning I don't see them having trouble with Zhejiang and should be able to make 3rd in their grouping. The last spot for Group D will be interesting. Beijing beat Shandong 3-1 when they faced before, but this time around could be different. Dixon just returned and is still catching up to speed. Truth be told, I don't Guangdong has a high chance of getting very close to the championship this year. Neither does Beijing I think. It will come down to Tianjin, Shanghai and Jiangsu. Both those teams are at a disadvantage. Roster wise Beijing isn't healthy and for Guangdong their players don't have the experience to compete at a high level. By now after playing for a couple weeks and getting a feel for the team I think Robinson knows that their chances are slim. I hope Shanghai takes it this year! |
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Post by alohavball on Nov 28, 2020 1:00:12 GMT -5
Beijing coach Zhang has admitted this season is very tough. The two China NT players on their team both got issues. Liu Xiaotong has suffered from recurring injuries and has not yet returned to form. Zeng Chunlei has personal family matters to attend to and will be absent for the next few matches. I heard about this as well. For the NT sake, Liu Xiaotong being in this condition should be worrying. Even though she's not one of their main attackers she still offers experience not to mention she's the only jump server on the team. If she's not healthy I wonder who Lang Ping could bring in to replace her. Liu Yanhan already has an opening since Zeng seems to be fading away from the NT. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2020 1:14:53 GMT -5
Beijing coach Zhang has admitted this season is very tough. The two China NT players on their team both got issues. Liu Xiaotong has suffered from recurring injuries and has not yet returned to form. Zeng Chunlei has personal family matters to attend to and will be absent for the next few matches. I heard about this as well. For the NT sake, Liu Xiaotong being in this condition should be worrying. Even though she's not one of their main attackers she still offers experience not to mention she's the only jump server on the team. If she's not healthy I wonder who Lang Ping could bring in to replace her. Liu Yanhan already has an opening since Zeng seems to be fading away from the NT. It would appear that this 5 year quad ended up hurting China in the long run? Isn't Yan Ni sitting this season out to stay healthy too? |
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Post by alohavball on Nov 28, 2020 1:28:30 GMT -5
I heard about this as well. For the NT sake, Liu Xiaotong being in this condition should be worrying. Even though she's not one of their main attackers she still offers experience not to mention she's the only jump server on the team. If she's not healthy I wonder who Lang Ping could bring in to replace her. Liu Yanhan already has an opening since Zeng seems to be fading away from the NT. It would appear that this 5 year quad ended up hurting China in the long run? Isn't Yan Ni sitting this season out to stay healthy too? In a way yes (mainly for the veterans), but I also think this extra year is really helping get the younger players that will round out the Tokyo roster some more time to gain experience. Yan Ni is actually currently playing in the league. She was going to take a break, but looks like she decided to fight it out. I think it was because the season is short, had the season been longer she probably would've sat out. |
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Post by ironhammer on Nov 28, 2020 9:40:27 GMT -5
I heard about this as well. For the NT sake, Liu Xiaotong being in this condition should be worrying. Even though she's not one of their main attackers she still offers experience not to mention she's the only jump server on the team. If she's not healthy I wonder who Lang Ping could bring in to replace her. Liu Yanhan already has an opening since Zeng seems to be fading away from the NT. It would appear that this 5 year quad ended up hurting China in the long run? Isn't Yan Ni sitting this season out to stay healthy too? Hard to know at this point. Zhang Changning got injured in 2018 but made a full recovery by the World Cup 2019. So Liu Xiaotong might be able to do the same. As for the new players, I agree with alohavball, some of them have come a long way this last quad, especially players like Li Yingying and Yao Di as well as Wang Mengjie. |
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Post by alohavball on Nov 28, 2020 15:28:52 GMT -5
It would appear that this 5 year quad ended up hurting China in the long run? Isn't Yan Ni sitting this season out to stay healthy too? Hard to know at this point. Zhang Changning got injured in 2018 but made a full recovery by the World Cup 2019. So Liu Xiaotong might be able to do the same. As for the new players, I agree with alohavball, some of them have come a long way this last quad, especially players like Li Yingying and Yao Di as well as Wang Mengjie. I wasn't sure about Yao Di in 2018 and was hoping another setter would get a chance, but she's been good so far. She's more stable compared to Diao Linyu of Jiangsu. I think her playing with Zhu is benefiting a lot some goes for the other Tianjin NT members. Wang Yuanyuan is also performing well though her serve still needs consistency. Other than that she's running the slide now and is outperforming Yang Hanyu. At this point seems like she will be the third middle. |
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