May 28, 2001
Tong Zhou, China - A wise man once said that "it is a very small world, but I would hate to paint it". The University of Missouri volleyball team has had a chance to find out just how small the world is traveling and playing with the Jiang Su Province team in China. While the two teams are opponents during the matches (they played four in the last four days), a sense of camaraderie and friendship developed between the two squads.
On Saturday night, the teams ate supper together following the Jiang Su's 3-0 win over the Tigers in Tong Zhou. After supper, the Tigers shared gifts and stories with Jiang Su and were able to bridge the language gap with the two universal languages, volleyball and music. While the Spice Girls and Madonna blared from the CD player, the Tigers taught the Chinese players some English and also how to dance. The two teams have exchanged several gifts and shared a lot of laughs during their tour.
The Tigers played their final match with the Jiang Su on Sunday in Qi Dong. The Tigers played their best match of the tour so far but came up just short losing the match, 3-2. Junior middle blocker Christi Myers had an outstanding match putting down 21 kills and six block assists while senior Katie Sowers collected 14 digs. Mizzou registered a .307 hitting percentage for the match which was played in front of a crowd of approximately 3,000 on lookers. Following the match, the Tigers signed autographs for the enthusiastic Chinese crowd. They then had dinner once again with the Jiang Su team (they had chocolate ice cream for the first time on the trip) and went to dance at the Chinese "Disco."
Monday morning, Mizzou woke up and saw the Jiang Su team off. They headed back to their home practice site in Nanjing. The Tigers then took the three-hour tour from Qi Dong to Shanhai, where they will finish the two-week tour. Upon arrival, the Tigers took some time to shop and tour before taking the night off. They will begin practicing tomorrow with the Shanhai Province team and will take in more sights around Shanghai.