Hawaii drops to 31 in RPI, 17 in poll

1. I agree that Granato can’t be in the back right now. She is a passing and serve receive liability right now who limits the benefits of putting Annie in the middle. Opponents will continue to target her. At this point, playing musical chairs will likely hurt the team. We are a little more than seven weeks away from the tournament. The time for re-positioning is over and a lineup needs to be set so the team can gel, which takes time. My view is to improve the back row passing, leave Annie where she is, and hope that at least one of our left sides has a good match every time UH plays (or Greeley has a major late season improvement so she can be a dependable front row player). Combined with a dependable right side and a normally efficient middle, this should make UH a threat to reach the sweet 16. But we are miles (and weeks) away from thinking about the final four, unfortunately.

I agree with Maverick on this. We need to get into a rhythm and we need to shore up our passing. Bad pass means no middle attack, ergo we lose. The lose to LBS was what I would call a “good” lose in that we learned a great deal about ourselves from a very good and a very motivated team. We know that if we can’t spread the point production and we have to rely solely on Nikki, we lose. I am still bullish on this teams chances in the NCAA’s.

I agree that changing lineup is risky but as i have mentioned before, Mitchem getting 25 swings and Granato getting 46 swings is crazy. if Mitchem gets 46 swings at LS, even if she is more naturally a middle, she gets more than 10 kills and .060 hitting percentage. this helps the team overall. We got plenty of time to get the ladies used to the switch of positions. We need our best hitters with the best chances of getting kills the most swings: that would be Taylor, Mitchem and Maglio. Not Granato.

I am so disappointed with the amount of talent we have and blame Coach Shoji for the problems we have…After Nikki and Mitchem returning, I still knew all along that our problem is the backrow and passing. Granato definitely is not a backrow player. Kalei is a total mess and I feel her ineffectiveness as a offensive threat is leading to her inadequate play in the backrow and service line. I don’t know what Dave is trying to accomplish with Granato playing all 6 positions. She is a player that should come off the bench and contribute at times at offense. She has more downsides then upsides. Castillo passes ten times better and is a threat more blocking and hitting over blockers with her stature. I don’t care but EMMA SMITH makes this team GO!! She is the only player that has that savvy and focus factor…If Coach doesn’t make the necessary changes….it’s all on him…Dave had the WRONG LINEUP IN THE GAME….Long Beach outplayed and out coached us totally from warm-ups, defense, and offensive transition. Lastly, they might have the Best Libero in the conference IMO…

9. The team had significant injuries this year and still aren’t full strength, particularly with two of the top four talented players on the roster. Not apologizing for Shoji, but there is only so much he can do when Greeley is recovering and Mitchem plays late and is shuffled around. I ran the numbers for Ron a couple of weeks ago that suggested Annie should stay outside given Granato/Sibley’s performance to that point, and this makes even more sense if the passing does not improve. But the decision has been made and Annie is in the middle, and is likely to stay there. Btw, Maglio had one of her worst performances this year, so UH Had no left attack and half a middle attack against LBSU.

#12. Well said. Agree 100%.

I agree with Pot of Gold and Connor but unfortunately I don’t think Dave will take the gamble. He’ll reason that we were in position to win despite Nikki struggling early and no one else other than Mitchem generating any offense, and decide the safer bet is to leave everyone where they are and work on Maglio’s consistency, Granato’s passing and Castillo’s outside hitting. With that approach I can see us improving enough to beat LBSU in the rematch, go to the NCAA tournament and win in the first round and possibly the second. But I think the odds of making it to the Final Four will be close to nil, barring a huge improvement in Greeley’s health and productivity.

I am sure everyone thinks I am a Granato- Hater!! I am not!! When I evaluate the team, I always look at the best possible way we can be dominant and get the best outcome/consistency with the best possible lineup. Mckenna only gives us a powerful hitter but she is inconsistent due to her inability to go over or around the bugger blocks. When the MB meets her at the pins for blocks it is not a solid wall, like how Higgins was when she would have to block. The other teams will take advantage of Mckenna’s side when scouting them. Last but most importantly, I know the coaches have given her much attention to improve her passing. This is not a time of the season to make a player a better passer when you have Castillo/Sibley/Smith/Clare-Marie to take that back rotation. How much longer are we going to walk on pins and needles on serve receive…We all went through the same problem with another graduate last year. When you look at the sidelines, you have the likes mentioned above plus returning starters, Koelsch, Higgins, and even Mckenna Ross which I feel is athletic, quick, and gets up for a smaller OH…So what is the real problem??? The LS and backrow needs to be made fast because it isn’t working!!
Against most of the teams in the BW and Long Beach St exposed our weakness with their backrow defense and getting ys out of rythmn and every other competitive team coming into postseason will do the same with much better personnel. We have the HUGE FRONT and all we need is to put the RIGHT PERSONNEL in the backrow to give our wonderful setters and BIGS a chance to convert…We need to get back in system 1-2-3 BAM!!! Sorry a little frustrated and I hate losing when we are supposed to win! We are a better overall team than last year and even without Kalei Greenly we can do it…It’s all depends if Coach makes the necessary change….At this point of the season I think our team needs a wake up call…We need to play that best lineup that will help us for the remainder of season. We need some Long Beach Defense in the backrow with our offense at the net….That is the Solution for us to be where we should be? Do you agree or disagree…Let’s Go Bows!!

Bleachercoach, I didn’t see your blog until I sent mine , but I totally agree!

i for one still cannot get over that loss to IMO the most annoying team in our conference. i cannot stand LBS and their coach, he makes me wanna fly something at him.

anyways, we can dwell and complain about everything that went wrong in this match, but at the end of the day where will that leave us? upset and frustrated. Cindy had stated she read a comment about LBS coaches possibly being at the CSUN game and how it was against League Rules, well if that is true i would hope they would look into it, although proof is what they will need. but if it’s true, than shame on LBS for feeling the need to do that.

our middles didn’t exist in the match our passing was shaky and the refs sucked. LBS had their setter rubbing on the net so many times, without being called.

i cannot wait for LBS to come here, because i highly doubt they will be able to shut down our middles twice.

& Nikki cannot be the only one we can rely on, yes i saw her holding her left arm in the fourth set, and how overworked she looked, she cannot be our only option, but what else could Norene do? no other hitter was playing as well as she was. ah.

but let’s focus on Davis & Irvine, one game at a time.

21…Yes Coach “G” is someone who is so animated and irritating for opponents to watch with his constant battles with the refs. One thing I can say is his players plays with that emotion on the court. His team represents his personality as a fighter on one side but I watched him after the match and you can see his love and passion for his community. He spent a lot of time talking to a group of volleyball club girls on the court and I saw that different side of him…It was pretty neat to see that he really is a warm, loving person…Anyways besides that LBS has always been our “thorn in the side” for all these years…Nothing has changed!! I hope we repay them the favor when they come here to play us….I know our girls will be focused and ready!!

10. my post got deleted for unknown reasons but yes i dunno why emma and casey were subbed out. i asked really? was it that time? and put wahine in bad rotation. that was very ominous.

18. agreed. it was obviously noticable that norene was being overcoached and not setting confidently. additionally shojis steady eddy unfortunately is beaten and broken. the passing/receiving/digging was abysmal and was reminiscent of the loss versus u-dub. shoji can be hanging his head that he didnt manage right.

For those of you wanting Granato out of the back row? Who do you want as the 3rd passer then? We will run out of substitutions if we sub both of our outsides out every time they are in the back row…

Serving, passing, blocking, hitting, mental. How would you rank each each of these attributes for a team to be successful? Would you rank passing number 1, serving 2, etc?

Imho, the number one attribute should be mental, then passing, serving, hitting, blocking.

When you have players that have that something extra, it does tilt the scales, but the presumption is that “all other things being equal”. And in any case, if you don’t play as a team, you likely won’t win.

Was at the match and you got to give credit to the Beach who played a truly outstanding game and exposed our weakness. UH had its chances. There were uncharacteristic mistakes as this new lineup was still gelling and sorting itself out. It clearly needed more rep with each other to form the necessary chemistry. Great UH fan support at the pyramid and attendance was the largest I ever saw there. IMO, if this lineup had another week or so together, the outcome would have been different. Was so proud to see how the wahines never gave up and persevere – a very good sign for this newly formed lineup going forward.

In Maglio defense, she did not get very good sets.

Greeley is playing well. Not sure why people want her to redshirt. This year is our best opportunity in years. Once Nikki’s graduates, we are in rebuild mode.