"... I had put my expectations on two teams: Brazil and Korea. Both are middle-of-the-road teams, somewhere between swift and strong, and combining both with creativity. Brazil had quite an easy run in its Group, losing only one set to the USA. Virna was back from the injury that hindered her at the Grand Prix. Léila and Erika were unstoppable. Not much was heard about the middles, Janina, Walewska, or Karin. But since they were winning easily, I assume everyone was playing well and Fofão was distributing the offence intelligently. Korea however, had a much harder time, barely squeaking past Italy in five sets, and getting pummeled by Russia and Cuba. My initial prediction had been that Korea would finish third and would face Croatia in the quarterfinal.

But Group A had a surprise underdog in the USA, magnificent in their victories over China and Croatia. Losing to Brazil, the USA placed second in their group and faced the Koreans in the quarterfinal. I saw that match, again waking up in the wee hours of the morning to tune in to Canada's CBC in English (where the commentators were especially harsh in criticising the USA players... how odd. Canadian rivalry?) and I stayed up for all five sets with the pillow in my face! I admit that the absence of Chang Yoon-Hee diminished my rooting for Korea a bit, but her replacement, Chung, was phenomenal on the outside. Korea was digging balls left and right, but for the USA Danielle Scott and Logan Tom were ready to deliver.

Strangely, in the fifth set I was torn between my favoured Koreans and the USA underdogs, especially Logan Tom, who seems to have charmed her way into everyone's minds at these Olympics. The 19 year-old was everything Tara Cross-Battle struggled to be: strength, guts, wits, and passion. But Cross-Battle's presence was important because she kept her younger teammates calm, and with Scott pounding and blocking so well at the net, the USA played Korea eye to eye. In the last set, the USA was not only playing stronger than Korea, but their defence was as spectacular as that of the Asians! Led by libero Stacy Sykora, they produced wonderful digs at crucial times of the set, and Kerri Walsh's two consecutive digs to erase the 10-12 deficit were the source of articles and headlines all over the internet. By playing the Koreans at their own game, they managed the victory, and I couldn't help being happy for them. They came in ranked 10th in the world and suddenly they were going to the semifinals! ..."

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