Zheng Meizhu (CHN)
Imagine what she could have done with a bit more height!

This was one player who, had God granted her some more centimetres in height, would've without a doubt been another Lang Ping. A Chinese friend once told me that he had read a comment in a newspaper by one of the more respected Chinese coaches, that Zheng Meizhu was the player he felt most pleasure instructing and watching learn and improve. This small player played like height didn't matter. Versatile and quick, she played opposite Yang Xilan and did everything well: she set quick balls to the middle, tooled even the tallest Cuban blocker on the right side, dug seemingly impossible attacks, and was an expert at the slide and the stack (a medium ball right behind a middle-hitter's quick ball). She even had her share of blocks against powerful hitters like Cuba's Josefina Capote at the '85 Gala Matches! If only she had been taller... what would she have become? Scary thought...

One could say the same thing about Zhang Rongfang, but Zheng Meizhu was a much more complete player. Just remember her spectacular digs in the first game against Peru at the '86 World Championships: Peruvian lefty Cecilia Tait tried to hammer several balls but Zheng Meizhu denied her the pleasure, helping China sneak its way out with an 18-16 victory. If Zheng Meizhu did have a weakness it was her serve, which seemed a bit careless, and sometimes just floated lazily into the net. Though she did play in the Seoul Olympics, she was only substituted in the back row to cover for rookie Li Yueming's lack of defensive skills. As the years passed and the team's got physically more demanding, her lack of height became more of a setback. Still, in her heyday Zheng Meizhu was the perfect example of how good a player could be with less than 1.75 metres of height.