bierce

IU off Skinner block out of bounds. 6-2. Boersma long on the serve. 7-2. Skinner returns the favor. 7-3. IU freeball goes wide after Texas had to dink. 8-3. halter ace. Wenaas, Ames, and Carlson on front line . 9-3. Halter back to back aces. 10-3. IU hits long. 11-3. Halter with 3rd ace. 12-3 IU finally ends the run. 12-4.

Akana ace. Timeout IU. 6-1 Texas.

Huge smash by Singletary on the slide. 5-1. Great start.

Singletary kill from the middle. Carlson with a nice set from an awkward spot. IU hits long. 4-1.

Skinner kill. then rutherford block. 2-0 Texas. ames serves long. 2-1.

Starting rotation is Skinner, Ames, Rutherford on the front row. Halter, Carlson, and Wenaas in the back.

Indiana is 3-0 and in the "also receiving votes" category. Pretty good squad. Beat a decent UC Davis team 3-1 in Bloomington. Leading middle blocker Boersma is a somewhat undersized (6'2") freshman. Offense is fairly well spread among Alonso-Carcelles (115 attacks), Saris (90), and Tatum (78). By comparison, Texas is led by Skinner (118) and Wenaas (92), with Rutherford far behind at just 44. Time to see if Carlson and the hitters are getting in sync.

Total nuke from Singletary from the middle, but she hit wide on the slide a couple of points later. Skinner with 4 kills. Singletary got next slide in cross court. 14-13 T

Nice bump set be Carlson for a Wenaas kill. Then a block by Ames. 4 all

Carlson starting. Minnesota ace followed by near overpass and missed connection between Carlson and hitter. More dinks than swings so far. 3-1 Minn

Oh, and Shaffmaster can make a perfect bump set with her back to the net while running to the baseline to pick up an errant pass. I've seen three of those in the time I've been watching. Minnesota torched Stanford in the third set, hitting .481. Had it not committed 7 serving errors in the second set, this match would be over, but Stanford ran out to a 10-4 lead in the fourth set, thanks to a slew of aces. Now 17-10 Trees.

Back line judge motioning Minnesota serve as in, but wait! Just kidding, raises the flag to indicate out. Minnesota challenge unsuccessful. Announcer "it's more in." Other announcer "that's kind of a cop out." Uh, no, it isn't. Any part of ball touching line equals in. Minnesota's 14 service error through 2 sets and 12 points. Ref says inconclusive evidence. Call stands. I would have overruled the call. Very tight match so far. Each of the first two sets decided by 2 points. Sets even at 1-1. Minnesota up 10-7 in the third. Minnesota has a very tall setter who, like Swindle, is someone who can put a lot of dump shots down if blockers aren't paying attention.

Stanford and Minnesota are jittery. 15 service errors through one set and 6 points.

Wisconsin is off to a poor start. It lost 3-1 on the road to Louisville. A lot of that can be attributed to a 1/17 ace/service error ratio, something we saw in our season opener last year. Things like that can be treated as aberrations, but failing to hit .200 or better in consecutive matches while needing one hitter to take twice as many swings as anyone else on the team might suggest systemic problems, particularly when the dominant hitter isn't fully healthy but still being asked to shoulder that much of the offensive load. Franklin has taken 129 attacks so far this year on a team that has taken 308. Smrek is second on the team with 54. No one else has as many as 40. Wisconsin probably won't drop out of the top 10, but these two losses will probably cause it to drop below 6th if Stanford wins today. Penn State, Kentucky, and Purdue all swept lesser opponents today, and Pitt swept #10 Oregon in Eugene on Friday. Louisville hosts #15 in a few minutes. Wenaas had a really good match. Not only did she lead us in kills, she was second on the team in digs and hit a couple of aces. Her lack of plus height will always make her a risk to get blocked, but her overall game was excellent. I think Carlson and the hitters will just need a little time to get coordinated. Swindle played only 3 sets. I hope she's ok or at least that any issue is minor. Singletary is nails. She was deflecting a huge percentage of what UW was sending over the net in those last two sets. Halter will be in the running for libero of the year. Skinner can just do it all. And I can't say enough times how wonderful it is to have a left handed OH. Rutherford hit .367 against a top ten team that managed 14 blocks against Louisville, another top ten team, while being in a prominent role in the offense rather than a change of pace.

UW had a fiddler crab offense--Franklin and nothing else. She finished with 25 kills. No one else for UW had more than 7. We had the four headed monster of Skinner (15), Wenaas (18), Rutherford (14), and Singletary (9 on just 16 swings). But this was nearly all about blocking coming on and the back row picking up nearly everything. If we play defense like that all year, then we will be an absolute juggernaut once Carlson and the hitters get in sync.

Time and time again, Carlson can't make a good connection with our back row hitters. They are having to push and dink most of the time. We're winning bigly, but I suspect practices will concentrate on Carlson and the hitters getting on the same page. It's somewhat to be expected that setters and hitters need some time to work out the kinks. Meanwhile, Skinner ran a sprint to the stands to save a ball with one arm, we clear the free ball, and Singletary then stuffed UW in the middle. This is turning into a rout. 20-8 right now.

UW hitting .000 so far this set and just .169 for the match.

Skinner needed to use her left hand to make the throw on a set to the back row. Whatever works, I guess. Halter with the nice assist to Rutherford after Carlson had to make the dig. 11-5 start. Texas cruising.

Going to change my tune and give Carlson a lot of credit for sending Rutherford a great set after getting the pass in a very awkward spot. Texas starts 2-0

Bad pass on service return, and UW setter tripped by teammate while trying to get it. 25-16. We won that set easily, but I doubt Elliott was pleased with the offense. We hit .263 that set but held UW to .085.

Looks like UW player shoulder just brushed the net and foot was almost over the line, and challenge wins. 24-16 Texas.

Long rally ended with UW kill. Good swings by Skinner and Rutherford deflected at net or dug by Wisconsin. Texas challenge for UW net violation.

Wenaas blocked on consecutive swings. Texas saved the first, but the second fell in. 19-14. Texas sends freeball after poor service return. UW kills it. 19-14. Wenaas goes off top of block. UW can't recover. 21-14. Ace. 22-14. UW serves wide after getting a kill. 23-15.

Swindle setting again.

Wenaas with back to back power swings. Cross court returned by UW but center shot fell in. UW wins the next point. Then Carlson and Singletary whiff on a set to the middle. Then Carlson sends a low set to Wenaas who had to try a two hand push. UW hits one long. 18-13 Texas, but a big part of that is due to UW mistakes, Texas blocking, and Texas back line defense. We are hitting .300 this set, but it doesn't seem like it.