It didn't take Louis Kang long to become well adjusted in the good old United States.

The 18-year-old Eastern senior volleyball player has certainly found a home here and has taken advantage of every opportunity that has come his way. But he has also worked very hard to achieve his success.

Kang didn't come to this country from China until he was three years old.

"I came here with my grandparents," he said. "My father (Bowen) and mother (Yan Zhu) had come here earlier to get established."

Once here, he didn't waste any time. He started playing the piano when he was four but later switched to the violin.

"I started playing the violin when I was in fourth grade," Kang said. "I use to travel to Philadelphia every week to take lessons. I kept that routine up for a few years."

His talent landed him with a position with the Philadelphia Sinfonia, a youth orchestra composed of 80 of the best young musicians in the area. The Sinfonia has performed many concerts in the area and later this summer will perform on a tour throughout Russia.

"That should be very interesting," Kang says. "I'm looking forward to that."

But there is even more to this young man. His accomplishments in music are only exceeded by his performance in the classroom, where he is currently No. 1 in a class of 524 and carrying a 98.5 average. Next year at this time he will be finishing up his first year at Harvard University.

"I'm going into the biology field to start," Kang said. "After that I will probably go into medicine."

And with all of that he is also a delightful young man to speak with. Congratulations

The Olympic Conference division championships have been decided.

Eastern, the area's top team, captured its second-ever American Division title, while Collingswood won its second straight National Division crown.

Meanwhile, Moorestown, in only its third season of operation, is the Patriot Division champion. Watching the Hermits

Keep an eye on the St. Augustine team. With a little luck down the stretch, the Hermits could land a spot in the state playoffs.

After a slow start, the Hermits seem to be getting their act together. Last week they beat a pretty talented Pennsauken Tech team for the second time this season.

Coach Scott Shollenberger is hoping the improvement continues.

"Truthfully, this team still drives me a little crazy," he said. "We started the season playing a great match against Williamstown. Although we lost, we played so well against a very good team. But then we just played awful against Washington Township and Sterling."

But since then, Shollenberger has seen some rays of hope after beating Pennsauken Tech twice.

"For some reason we seem to play very well against them," Shollenberger said. "So the signs lately have been encouraging."

Since the Hermits have a shortage of power hitters they use two setters in the starting rotation - Brenden Lamb and Chris Ricci.

"The key for us is our setters getting the ball to our horses upfront (Kendric Shollenberger, Lou D'Agustino, Zach Zimmer and freshman Mike Avery)," Shollenberger added. "That and avoiding lulls in our game. We can't be playing defense all the time. We have to attack." Cutoff date

The cutoff date for the state tournament is May 17. Teams with a .500 or better record are eligible for the tournament that gets under way May 24 and concludes with the title match June 10.

Remember, unlike the girls in the fall that is divided into four groups, the boys is one state-wide tournament and only one champion. South Jersey hasn't had a state champion since Cherry Hill East won in 1998. Seeing the best

Last weekend, fans were treated with an outstanding day of volleyball at Livingston when East Brunswick, Clifton, Eastern and Livingston got together in a round-robin setting. The matches brought together four of the top 10 teams in the state.

When the dust had settled, East Brunswick finished with a 3-0 record, including handing Eastern its first loss of the season 2-0 in the opening match of the day.

Eastern bounced back in their second match to beat Livingston 2-0 as Mike Bertucci and Larry Chatman combined for 18 kills.

But then the Vikings suffered their second loss of the season when they lost a hotly-contested three-game match to Clifton 2-1 despite a combined 25 kills from Chatman and Bertucci.