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Volleyball match SECN 8pm Friday


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5 minutes ago, Austalgia said:

Someone who knows more about volleyball than me.  What’s going on? How are we losing at home?  We seemed stacked with young talent with a mix of talented veterans this year.  Also sucks can’t watch matches on LHN. 

1) We went from a single player acting as the setter on the floor at all times to rotating two setters in and out.  After winning a natty with a freshman setter who was a master (mistress) of dumping the ball over when the pass came close to the set, it was a weird decision to bring in another setter to split time.  Elliott is a hall of fame coach, and I'm just a boob posting on the internet, but I still have a hard time understanding that one.

2) We did just come off a run of winning 17 straight sets in conference, including two road sweeps against ranked teams, so this might just be a rut.

3) Our back to back losses came in very different fashions.  A&M had some middle blockers who so dominated Ames that Elliott benched her in favor of Bunton.  That switch didn't save the match, but Ames was getting embarrassed, and most of what A&M managed against us came from middle hitters.  By comparison, we blew tonight mainly by flubbing serve returns.  Our outside hitting wasn't at peak form, but it was the inability to cover the back that was the difference tonight.'

4) Skinner is a terrific hitter and marvelous all around player, but she was awful on the back row tonight.  She now leads us in receiving errors, despite receiving a little more than half of the serves that each Halter and Wenaas have.  If she isn't a big hitter out of the back row this year, and she hasn't been, then why is she there?

5) Speaking of back row hitting, I didn't see any of that tonight.  Skinner is a great weapon hitting out of the back row, but did she get even a single swing from there?  If she did, then I missed it.

6) Maybe it is just back to back crappy games.  We had 8 days off.  Rust?  Complacency?  Lack of focus?  Or maybe it is just due to playing too many front line players on the back row, even if they aren't getting it done back there.  I love Ms. Skinner as a volleyball player.  She is an amazing athlete.  She jumps like a flea and can hit rocket shots, and her all around game is usually sufficient to justify her staying on the floor at all times to keep her offensive power on the floor and save rotation for different positions, but right now I would tell all servers to target her if I was an opposing coach.  She pretty much whiffed on three returns tonight.  Just saying.

Like I said before, I'm not panicking, but tonight should be a serious wake-up call to the team to keep its collective head in the game every point.

 

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Just a casual fan's observation but it seems the players are thinking too much instead of just playing.  And when they do react, the play usually ends up sloppy, sloppy in serve receive, sloppy in setting, sloppy in hitting.  Our block seems to be the only part of the game where we display confidence.  

Most worrisome is I don't see the team getting better.  Shame to waste all this talent. 

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I feel like the core part of the problem is terrible passing.  They can’t control the ball in serve receive (especially Madi).  Texas has been spoiled with great back rows having two high level transfers the past two seasons.  This year there was no high level third defensive specialist which forced them to have 1 hitter to play the back row and that’s who atm and Missouri attacked on the serve.

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On 11/1/2024 at 11:04 PM, bierce said:

i5) Speaking of back row hitting, I didn't see any of that tonight.  Skinner is a great weapon hitting out of the back row, but did she get even a single swing from there?  If she did, then I missed it.

 

That was a big part of a repeating problem: the setting is not well defined, as it has been in previous seasons.  That is, the many big hitters are not receiving as many precise passes into their kill zones as our championship teams produced..

Poor receiving of serve, which you have pointed out, may be a root cause for numerous imprecise sets. 

HookemTexas said

I feel like the core part of the problem is terrible passing.  They can’t control the ball in serve receive (especially Madi).  Texas has been spoiled with great back rows having two high level transfers the past two seasons.  This year there was no high level third defensive specialist which forced them to have 1 hitter to play the back row and that’s who atm and Missouri attacked on the serve.

Actually beat me to it, but there is no reason not to repeat it!

Edited by MarkInAustin
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