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This week, the second edition of the American Athletes Unlimited Volleyball League kicked off in Dallas, with the opening game being played by Lowey in a blue jersey against Cruz in an orange jersey. In the end, Lowe defeated Cruz 27-25, 25-27, 25-22. Xue Yizhi, a 24-year-old Chinese volleyball player who plays lowe's secondary, played three innings and scored six points to win a victory in his American Volleyball League debut.
A year later, the American Athletes Unlimited Volleyball League has ushered in its second season, or a dazzling array of innovative rules and formats, the same recipe, familiar taste. Of course, the biggest difference compared to the first season is that the game is no longer played in a fully enclosed bubble, but open to the audience. Dallas's Fair Park Stadium was buzzing with live music and cheers as Chinese player Xue Yizhi embarked on his own tour of the American Volleyball League.
This year's American Volleyball League has a total of 4 teams participating, the United States women's volleyball team in front of the Reception Ofe Lowe, Puerto Rico Women's Volleyball Team main attack Oria Cruz, Dominican main attack de la Cruz, American player, Athletes Unlimited Player Executive Committee Member Degas McClinden each led a team. In addition to captain Lowey, Xue Yizhi's Lowe team also includes former national players of the United States women's volleyball team, second pass Lloyd, and Naomi Santos-Lamb from the Puerto Rica women's volleyball team. The Cruz team, which is facing the other side of the net, includes many famous players such as McCarthy, the former international player of the American women's volleyball team, The former international player of the American women's volleyball team, who has returned after six years of retirement, and many other famous players.
In this game, the two sides played very stiffly, with The Lowe team winning the first set 27-25, the Cruz team then pulling back one set with the same score, and the crucial third set, the Lowe team won 25-22. According to the American Volleyball League format, the game is not a best-of-five three-game system commonly used by the FIVB, but regardless of the outcome of the first two innings, it must play three innings, and after the end of the three innings, the total score of both sides needs to be calculated, and the side with the highest total score wins the whole game. According to this format, The Lowe team narrowly defeated cruz by an aggregate score of 77-74.
However, the American Volleyball League pays more attention to the player's points than the team's victory, through a complex point system, the performance of the players is quantified into specific points, and the top four players in the weekly point ranking will become the four captains with draft rights, and they will form new teams through the draft, which means that the personnel of the four participating teams will change every week in a total of five weeks. Cassidy Lichtman, a member of the Athletes Unlimited Player Executive Committee, considers the Scoring System of the American Volleyball League to be the proudest part of the league, "It's a scoring system you wouldn't encounter in other leagues, it's an exciting system. Let's say you play in a traditional volleyball league, and if you join a team that's very weak, then you have to spend the whole season in that team, and here, in just one week, you'll join another team and your experience will be enriched as a result. ”
In the first game, Xue Yizhi, who played as a deputy attacker, played three sets, she scored 4 points on the offense, 2 points in the net, a total of 6 points, through the points system conversion, Xue Yizhi scored 195 points in the debut, after the first round ranked 11th among all the participating players, with her on the blue team with Lowe led the personal standings with 357 points, and her other teammate Lloyd ranked third in the individual standings with 297 points.
In fact, this atmosphere of the American Volleyball League is not unfamiliar to Xue Yizhi, from 2016 to 2020, Xue Yizhi studied at California State University Long Beach and represented the varsity team in NCAA events. Since then, Xue Yizhi's experience is quite rich, in 2020, she returned to China to join baic group, due to the shortage of personnel in the Beijing women's volleyball team, she was temporarily seconded to the Beijing women's volleyball team to compete in the National Women's Volleyball Championship and volleyball Super League that year, after that, Xue Yizhi participated in the preliminary round and the 9th to 12th qualifying tournament of the Shaanxi National Games with the Beijing women's volleyball team. In the 2021-2022 season of the Volleyball Super League, Xue Yizhi joined the Liaoning women's volleyball team, became one of the main secondary attacks of the team, and helped Liaoning team to win the fourth place in the league.
At the beginning of February this year, the Chinese Volleyball Association announced the 71-person list of the women's volleyball national team talent candidate pool, Xue Yizhi was famous in the secondary offensive position, but she did not participate in the training camp of the Chinese women's volleyball team, the outside world analyzed, although Xue Yizhi's offensive characteristics are distinct, and when she played in the Beijing women's volleyball team, she also made a cameo position, but from the perspective of physical conditions and comprehensive ability, at present, she does not have an advantage in the competition for the secondary offensive position of the Chinese women's volleyball team, and she has never had a national brand experience, and she is also relatively lacking in the experience of the competition. Therefore, Xue Yizhi finally chose to stay in the Ocean to compete in the American Volleyball League, which is actually not surprising.
As one of the few professional players in the domestic volleyball arena, Xue Yizhi's stay in the ocean has certain reference value. After the defeat of the Chinese women's volleyball team at the Tokyo Olympics, there are many voices calling for domestic volleyball leagues to increase personnel mobility, let more young potential players go out, and accept the experience of foreign high-level leagues. From a practical point of view, the stay of Chinese players in the West will not lead to a decline in the ornamentation and level of domestic leagues, although the domestic volleyball super league and foreign high-level leagues have a certain conflict in the schedule, but it is not uncoordinated. Like Tianjin Bohai Bank women's volleyball foreign aid Vargas first with the team to compete in the Volleyball Super League, and then represent Fenerbahce in the second half of the Turkish Super League and the Champions League, Chinese volleyball players who are willing to play abroad can learn from it.
For Xue Yizhi, her previous experience of studying and playing in the United States can better help her integrate into the American volleyball league, and for the American volleyball league that has entered the second year and is considered to be entertaining, the introduction of non-American players and the further expansion of the league's influence and professionalism are also one of the directions for the organizers of the tournament to seek a breakthrough. It is worth mentioning that the American women's volleyball coach Kirari also watched the season debut on the spot, and the evaluation he gave was quite pertinent, "Last year's league played for five weeks, this year is still five weeks, I am very much looking forward to the league can become a scale, a climate, if the time is more generous, we can make a whole season, so that the event organizers can consider the problem from a more professional point of view." "From entertainment to professionalism, Kirari pointed out a direction for the development of professional volleyball in the United States, and for Xue Yizhi, this is destined to be an unforgettable journey. The introduction and going out, the exchange and exchange of high-level volleyball players from various countries, and the collision and mutual learning of different volleyball cultures are constantly evolving in such a process.