Volleyball Diplomacy : U.S., Soviet Teams Spike the Politics

Despite the chill between their two countries, volleyball players from the Soviet and American Olympic teams appeared to put sports above politics as they faced each other Friday night in a match concluding a three-city exhibition tour.

The U.S. team won 15-12, 15-6, 11-15, 16-14 before a crowd of about 10,000. It was the third straight victory for the Americans over their Soviet rivals.

The two teams joined forces Thursday night to beat a group of San Francisco celebrities in a promotional bowling match. During this event, Soviet and American players enthusiastically offered each other encouragement and exchanged friendly back slaps in recognition of well-placed balls.

“I have no interest in talking about politics,” said Soviet volleyball player Pavel Selivanov, 33, between turns bowling Thursday. “We let our presidents talk about politics. We are here to play volleyball.”

After the bowling match, the athletes were taken on a dinner cruise around San Francisco Bay that featured an exchange of gifts and good wishes.

The congenial spirits produced by the volleyball tour were in stark contrast to the bitter diplomatic exchanges between U.S. and Soviet officials this week, including American allegations that the Russians had used a potentially cancer-causing “spy dust” to track American diplomats.

Travel Ban

On Thursday, the State Department decided not to let Soviet diplomats attend the Friday night match, which was being held at the Cow Palace in Daly City, just south of San Francisco’s city limits. State Department officials said the decision not to let the diplomats leave San Francisco was made because of similar travel restrictions placed on American diplomats in the Soviet Union.

San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein pleaded unsuccessfully with federal officials Friday to get the travel ban lifted.

But for those associated with the volleyball tour, the political squabbling was clearly not going to spoil the fun.

Soviet Consul Lev Zaitsev played for the celebrity bowling team Thursday, cheerfully attempting to master a game he had not played for 20 years.

Zaitsev, who wore a Fisherman’s Wharf T-shirt, shrugged off the travel ban as “general practice,” joking that it was better not to see the Soviet team now since they were in the midst of a losing streak, having dropped the previous two matches in Portland and Seattle.

The Soviet team’s visit here marks the first time in more than a decade that a Soviet volleyball team has played in the United States.

U.S. Team’s Visit

The U.S. team made a recent two-week visit to the Soviet Union, where they won an exhibition match from the Soviets but eventually lost the championship match to them.

Politics prevented the two teams from meeting in recent Olympic play, with the United States staying away from the 1980 Games and the Soviet Union following suit in 1984.

“Perhaps politicians could learn from the example of volleyball players. There are excellent relations between the two teams,” Soviet coach Yuri Furaev said through an interpreter during the dinner cruise Thursday night.

Feinstein, attempting to make Furaev feel at home during a brief ceremony on board the ship, presented him with a key to the city’s Mission Dolores and pointed out that San Francisco has a Russian Hill.

“I hope this key is not only to the Mission but to your hearts,” Furaev responded, presenting the mayor with a hand-painted Russian matruschka doll.

U.S. coach Marv Dunphy also said the trip had produced good relations between the two teams, pointing to a fund-raising scrimmage in San Diego a few days ago when Soviet and American players first played each other and then mixed teams for a few games.

“It was the highlight of the evening,” Dunphy said of the mixed-team event. “The interaction was tremendous. The players were struggling to communicate, yet the communication was perfect because they understood the game.”