A-Stars Sweep the Gold Medals in the 1998 East Coast Volleyball Tournament

[Team Picture]  [A-Star I] [A-Star II] [Chinese Version]

By Yang Wang*

The A-Stars participated the first East Coast Volleyball Tournament
with a big bang. Despite having slept for no more than 3 hours the days
before as a result of delayed flight, A-Star I and A-Star II won their respective
league in style.

A-Star I had to overcome three tough preliminary round matches to win the
division. All three matches had gone three sets, and in each of the three
matches the third set was a close one. In fact, two of them were won after
the deuce.

But A-Stars I won the semi-final and the final matches convincingly.
They were almost anti-climax comparing to the matches in the preliminary round.

A-Stars II performed equally impressively in the coed league by beating
several tough teams in straight sets. But ironically, the biggest win actually
came in a losing match, their only one. In the match against "Pretty Women",
and trailing 4-12 in the first set, A-Stars II fought back valiantly with 11
straight points. This winning set provided the margin of victory, as three
teams had identical 4-1 records after the tournament.

A-Stars II had many excuses for losing to "Pretty Women," an all-women
team. Their two strikers played for Beijing and August First teams respectively.
They were almost impossible to defend. But more importantly, it was the third
match in a row while Pretty Women were well-rested. Some A-Stars were
also "soft" on pretty women and their plays were affected.

Jubilated by the victories, the A-Stars embraced with empty stomachs some
horrible horrible Chinese buffet. But no one cared.

Other than Shi Jing (who left Saturday evening) and perhaps Zeeman,
no one slept much because Zeeman's snoring could be heard 60 miles out.
But once again, all forgave Zeeman because his on field plays more than
made up this disruption.

Back to A-Star Volleyball Club

* whose legs became so weak that he had to leave the game in the middle of the match with Pretty Women.