Hello volleyball, goodbye gymnastics

BEIJING -- My grandparents on my father's side came to the U.S. from Croatia. For no good reason, or for too many reasons beyond my understanding, I knew that my grandparents didn't have good feelings about Serbia. My grandfather went to Croatian Hall. Down the street were Serbian Hall and Slovenian Hall. The crowds didn't mix much.

That is preface to my saying that I have never met a Serb I didn't like. I had no reason other than heritage to have arrived at Capital Gymnasium for a 10 p.m. men's volleyball match between Serbia and the United States feeling like I wanted to join in when the crowd started chanting "USA, USA" and the very large and enthusiastic Serbian crowd answered back with their own chants.

I spent the first 13 days of the Beijing Olympics at gymnastics, where the crowds were large but more quietly enthusiastic. So it was a shock to hear nationalistic cheers -- and hear the U.S. team get booed.

I was a little tired when I got here, and was wondering why in the world any event started at 10 p.m. I figured that I'd be rooting for whoever won the first set, but now I'm kind of hoping for a longer match. The U.S. lost the first set of this quarterfinal 25-20. But it's best-of-five. Live results are available here.

-- Diane Pucin

Photo: A volleyball player hits the ball during the a preliminary match in the men's competition between Egypt and Serbia on Monday at the Beijing Games. Credit: Valdrin Xhemaj / European Pressphoto Agency