We are off to the women's volleyball quarterfinals today at Earl's Court. This also gives me a chance to see if I can located the place where I visited my grandparents in 1968. I remember that they lived in a townhouse just off of Earl's Court road quite close to Kensington High street. From looking on Google Earth, I think that their house has been torn down and replaced by a new development, but I want to see for sure.
Getting to Earl's Court requires getting on a new Underground line - the District line. We take the Jubilee line to Winchester and change there for the District line. We come out of the station and are directed off in one direction toward the venue. We don't see any street signs so we go with the flow. After about 15 minutes walk, we arrive at the venue. While Beth goes to ask one of the volunteers which way Earl's Court road is, a cameraman comes up next to me and films my hat. When Beth comes back, the news is not good. Earl's Court road was the main road when we came out of the Underground station. However, the volunteer has told Beth that we will be directed back out of the venue toward the Earl's Court station so we can try finding my grandparent's home after the event.
We get to see two quarterfinal matches. In the first quarterfinal, the women from Japan will take on China. This should be a great match as both of these teams have been world powers for a long time. Going into this match, Japan has beaten Algeria, Dominican Republic and Great Britain and lost to Russia and Italy. China has beaten Serbia, Turkey and Korea and lost to the USA and Brazil.
Japan has two great hitters; Saori Kimura:
and Yukiku Ebata:
Kimura is 185cm (6'1") and can really get off of the ground, but Ebata is only 176cm (5'9"). The two best Chinese hitters, Ruoqi Hui and Yimei Wang are 189cm (6'2") and 190cm (6'3") respectively. To get around the size difference, the Japanese use a lot of misdirection in their sets - you never really know where the attack is going to come from. On the other hand, the Chinese seem very methodical and nearly always attack on the same side making it much easier for the Japanese blockers. However, the Japanese are also more error prone and these two factors nearly balance. As a result, no team gets ahead by more than 3 points throughout the entire match. After 4 sets, the score stands at 28-26, 23-25, 25-23 and 23-25. We did not realize immediately, but the fifth set only goes to 15 points instead of 25 (but you have to win by two) so it was a surprise when the scoreboard showed that China was at match point when they took the lead at 14-13. It is now when, in my opinion, the fans began to decide the match. As the match had gone on, more and more fans rooted for Japan. I think that was because Kimura and Ebata were so much better than their Chinese counterparts (they had 63 kills compared to 46 for Hui and Wang), that they felt that Japan had "earned" the right to win. In any case, with strong fan support, the Japanese fought off two match points and finally won the the 5th set 18-16.
The second match is a match of polar opposites. The Russians are the stretched limos of women's volleyball. All but two members of their team are over 182cm (6'0") tall. Here is their starting front line:
To put this in perspective, the woman on the right (#5 Liubov Shashkova) is my height - 192cm (6'4"). The woman on the left (#13 Ekaterina Gamova) is 202cm (6'8")! They have another woman this size on their bench. By contrast, the Brazilians two tallest women are Thaisa Menezes at 194cm (6'4") and Sheilla Castro at 187cm (6'2"). If Gamova in particular gets a set in the correct location, there is nothing that the Brazilians can do. She simply hits the ball over the block. But like the Japanese before them, the Brazilians remain competitive by being unpredictable. Nine members of their team record at least on kill.
The match is almost as tight as the previous match. After four sets, the score is 26-24, 22-25, 25-19, 22-25. Russia goes ahead in the fifth set, but the many Brazilian fans refuse to let their team give up:
Most of the British fans are also rooting for the Brazilians. The guy in front of us explains that it is because London is handing the Olympics off to the Brazilians. Brazil fights off four match points and finally comes back to win the final set 21-19. These are easily the best two volleyball matches that I've ever seen!
At this point, the event has taken at least one hour longer than scheduled and I am not feeling that good so we decide to pass on the search for the Robie home off of Earl's Court road. Beth and Sean have 9pm tickets for the London Eye (a huge ferris wheel on the Thames) so we agree that I will return to the hotel and work on this blog. Sean and Beth go looking for dinner near Westminster Abbey (they ended up at a great Japanese place).
The rainy weather diminishes the view from the top of the Eye 135 meters (440 feet) above the ground, but Beth and Sean enjoy the ride. They arrive home just in time to watch Alison Felix, Sanya Richards-Ross and Carmalita Jeter of the USA qualify for the Women's 200m final which we will see in person tomorrow.
Steps for the day: 12,200
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