Apologies if this wasn't clear, but my point is precisely that she wasn't good and that her spike efficiency was quite low. Brazil faced weak opponents in the first phase as you said, and Sheilla unfortunately wasn't deivering a good game back then - her attacks were stuffed or defended very often, she lacked power an and we saw that Dani trusted Natália and Garay much more due to to her bad phase.
Sorry, misunderstood you because >30% attack efficiency is quite good
I said sucked before and that's not true. But I don't think she was good either. I remember that she was really bad when the competition started, but played okay in the finals. In that year, opponents often let her with single blocks, and only Natalia and Garay were being consistent in attack throughout the year. I couldn't find the stats though.
But in the same year, at the OGs, her efficiency in attack was 36.43%.
That's higher than everyone else (edit: among those who made the SFs) except Zhu Ting (Mihajlovic is 2nd with 31.60%, no one else is over 30%) but Brazil played 5 rather easy 3-0's in pool play and only had one hard match in the QFs.
The levels in the knockout stages is more intense and her efficiency would have gone down if she played in those matches. So it's not really a fair comparison.
I just want to watch Zhu play 🥺
Me too. May 1st v. Japan, VNL, and Olympics
The decision hasn't been made and I dont think it will either.
I'd rather bring Plummer or SWP in the extra spot (or another middle, given how injury prone ours are....) but what do I know lol
Well, I mean if she's willing to play lib vs. Italy or China, then why can't she play lib vs the other teams too and save that 2nd lib spot for another opp or middle
Not really, from the total 14 teams that participated in the Prelim, 8 teams advance into finals; out of the remaining 6 teams, the two lowest teams, Yunnan and Macau, are spared... positions 9 to 12 only play Beijing, Fujian, Sichuan and Hebei to determine the final ranking. But frankly I am surprised that they stage this 9-to-12 qualifying round
I thought Yunnan was still playing? But Macau had to go home because they had other jobs.
If the decision is already made to make Kelsey play libero then neither JWO nor Courtney have any business being near Tokyo.
oh I know it's only going to be in Rimini. My question was are they going to be using more than one arena?
Google wasnt helpful to as what is in rimini
They have to, you're never going to be able to get 8 matches through in one day without the use of multiple arenas. 
You can create a bubble featuring multiple gyms/arenas.
Apparently it looks like this so I think it'll only be in one city.
Do we know how many locations they are using?
Will there even need to be "pools" as play is just a complete round robin? (I think)
how can it be a bubble if there are multiple locations?
There weren't really "pools" in pre-corona VNL either -- it was just one giant RR.
I think club world championships should be organized at the end of the season, maybe right after CL. Scheduling it at the beginning of the season doesn't make any sense because the rosters that won their continental championships generally won't be the same the following season. Also At the beginning of the season, most teams are struggling with their team chemistry. So it is far from ideal
I don't think it's been this way since 2017. Fivb also ended wgp and started vnl that year, so I doubt it's possible to go back.
It's good if other countries also participate with main players cause korea never participate i think and japan i think without players i remember last time
But imo tianjin gonna be champions so we gonna have 2 teams from china again
i wouldn't be so sure, the schedule for tianjin looks packed with possibly 4 starters going to vnl/olympics, and more important (for them, not for us) domestic competitions in september. There's also a question about which team from Guangdong will be the hosts. It could be evergrande, but there's also a new team based in Shenzhen that is a joint project with Serbian federation and it could be the host.
Didn't kim participate as part to Eszacibasi last time? I don't think Japan have players that play abroad so until they host again it's unlikely they will participate.
How it's going the qualifiers this year
Originally the south american competition was going to be held at aprim but now csv has asked to fivb to postponed it to October
Also i didn't heard anything about assian tournament
Heard thailand will host. Tianjin will be there. Hopefully it's after olympics so they can send their main players.
Confirmed to be hosted in China, along with the men's for both this year and 2022.
Brazilian mom
this nickname is sticking with her for the rest of her professional career isn't it 
One more clip:
BAIC vs Shandong -- Xue Yizhi 薛翼枝 personal best collection
A lot of fans, doesn't she?
https://lbpost.com/sports/long-beach-state-volleyball-china
"Xue will graduate after next season with her degree in international business, and will have a wide open future in front of her. That could feature splitting time between America and China, it could feature a professional contract in Europe, or returning to her home country to play and train full time as a professional and future Olympian. Right now, she’s happy to be a part of Long Beach’s community as both a student and an athlete."
I think she definitely brings something different to the table compared to the other MBs. Maybe the coaches will give her a chance although I haven't seen her called up for NT training yet.
Display MoreMy biggest concern with both Liu Yanhan and Li Yao is that neither is really known for their reception or defense. They're more of an attacking opp/oh which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but China already has Zhu, Zhang, and Li. Both Liu Yanhan and Li Yao will be targets for opponents and the big question will be if they can remain stable during crucial moments? Another thing with Li Yao is that she hasn't even been tested yet. It's too early to say that the second opposite spot is hers. Her performance at VNL will either make or break her.
Yao Di will be the second setter. She can be inconsistent and shaky at times, but she is the next best setter after Ding Xia. I love the fight Diao Linyu put this season and how she managed Jiangsu before her injury in the finals. Hopefully she keeps it up for the next cycle.
Wang Yuanyuan is the clear front runner between her and Yang. Although Yan Ni and Yuan Xinyue will be the starting middle duo, Wang still needs to be prepared and ready if either gets injured or needs some rest.
If Li Yao doesn't do well during VNL China should just take one opposite in Gong and bring 4 middles Yan Ni, Yuan, Wang, and Zheng. Zheng could be a wild card because she can play as opp and also receive.
Well, there aren't better defensive OPP/OHs than Zhu, Zhang, or Li in China either (like, are you really going to bring the 36 year old Zhang Lei?), so it looks like the only thing a sub can do is to change the attacking tempo. Li Yao will definitely play some matches, hopefully against teams sending their best players like USA/BRA/TUR. Otherwise this roster selection makes no sense.
Yao Di has a great head for setting, but I'm not a fan of her technique. Too low for a team with 190+ hitters.
Really like Zheng's style of play, but I don't think she would go. The serve level in CVL (where she receives and hits the occasional back row attack) is not the same as international competitions. Also her arms are kinda short, I'd guess a few opposites would just go right over her.
Even in next years VNL (2022) we might not see that much new faces because the World Championship is also happening so national teams might be focused on their current veteran players (some of which should be cut by then, but won't be).
Yan Ni would retire for sure by then -- reportedly during the CVL bubble earlier last year she was playing every second match because of intensity issues. This is not a concern in the Olympics because it's a match every 2 days. But for WCh it's a very intense competition with matches in consecutive days. Like most other Chinese athletes, she will most likely retire after the national games are finished. Wang Yuanyuan will really need to step it up then. Ding Xia might make it until 2024, who knows. My expectations post-olympics won't be that high anyways. I just hope they won't get dragged through the mud again if they have a "bad result" like what happened in 2018.
Display MoreLet's play the guessing game out of these 17 names for the final 12-roster:
OH: Zhu, Zhang, Li, Liu YH
MB: Yan, Yuan, Wang/Yang?
OP: Gong & Li
S: Ding & Yao/Diao?
L: Wang
*Bolded & italicized has higher chance to get selected
Li Yao will take Gong Xiangyu's speedy route to OG, and with her entering as OP, also reduces the competition for Liu Yanhan as the 4th OH. Hahaha, playing as OP offers some rarity of profession; while there are many supplies for OH, competition is much keener
Wang Yizhu is for Paris cycle, also Ni Feifan.
Gao Yi is still not good enough for this cycle, needs to improve blocking capability, reserved for Paris cycle.
Sorry for Diao Lin-yu, looks like (still) no OG for her.
For those who can't compete nicely in the domestic competition, just forgo the major int'l events.... life is pretty real, only the best can be selected! And I am quite happy for such wisdom!
Chen Boya; Chen Peiyan; Xue Yizhi... let's look forward to seeing these names being called into NT training camp after this cycle. Stocks of supply remain many
Some said that the Olympic test match will adhere strictly to OG rules so only 12 players will go. The current sprint training will last for 8 days, then the team will be getting ready to leave for Tokyo. Within the next few days we gonna see who are the selected twelve for the test match. This single test match is a small-scale trial; the much bigger one is the VNL, after this roster will be finalized.
Historically, it does look like the newcomer Li Yao will have a chance to go based on Gong Xiangyu 5 years ago. Fun fact: Li Yao is two years older than Gong Xiangyu...
However, Zhang Changning and Liu Yanhan can both play opposites. With Yan Ni's age, it's not inconceivable that all 4 middles will go to Tokyo and Gong is the only opposite. I don't really think that either Li Yao's attacking or defending is stronger than Liu Yanhan's.
I hope to see the new faces in VNL 2020. Wang Yizhu, Ni Feifan, Diao Linyu, Mei Xiaohan, Xue Yizhi, Gao Yi, etc. Paris will be a short cycle with only 3 years. OK, maybe against USA or ITA's A team it will be necessary to play the starters to test training results, but for teams not in the olympics or facing SRB's B/C/D/E/? team give the youngsters a chance. This cycle we already started late with a combination of peoples' insistence on playing starters at VNL/WGP and keep trying players that just weren't gonna cut it (with all due respect: Li Jing, Qian Jingwen, etc)
For Rio, Zhu debuted in 2013 at 18 years old, Yuan in 2014 at 17 years old, Zhang also in 2014 at 18 years old. Lin Li was a bit older, 20, in 2013 and Gong was 18/19 when she started in 2016 WGP. This cycle's new people are really only Li Yingying, Ni Feifan, and Wang Yuanyuan (nb: which were developed largely by their provincial teams, not the national team) and they did not get enough international experience compared to the players of last cycle. Perhaps it's the burden of being on an Olympic gold medal team and there's pressure to deliver results even for VNL prelims.
Anyways, I sound critical but really I just want to see more opportunities for young players.
wait... she got converted to a pin hitter?? that's strange. I only remember her in the middle
Maybe it's during her time before NCAA then. I don't remember exactly.
is she one of Opposite in Beijing team? So she was a MB. That's quite explained a lot about how i always thought she has a little bit weird spiking technique from zone 2 & 4.
I think she may have played some time as opposite in the NCAA where she played 4 years of volleyball.
She will never be allowed to play as opposite for Chinese NT unless if she can receive though (which I don't think she can rn).
Display MoreSome names I would've liked to see (at least for training).
Gao Yi: She's made fast progress since transferring to Shanghai and rejoining the A Team in training the beginning of this year.
Chen Boya: Her reception and defense are valuable as a future seedling. I think she has more potential than Wang Yizhu if she was given more opportunities.
Chen Peiyan: There's not much attacking opposites in the league, but with her height she has potential to become one. It's also good that she's taking responsibility in learning how to receive.
Xue Yizhi: Athleticism is her biggest advantage against other Chinese middle blockers, she's quick and can jump well. If the coaches teach her how to read opponents and put up a strong block she could be really good for the NT.
Agree with everyone there... Maybe in the 2024 cycle.
