No. 14 Hawaii 3, Cal Poly 1

Does everyone else’s video feed look like it’s underwater??

Cindy what time is the game scheduled?

4. It’s right now – 4pm Hawaii time!

Man, tough 1st set…. They have to figure this out. Credit to Cal-poly playing hard. What was that hitting error on UH that gave Cal=poly that final set point? Side note, is that whole green card challenge thing only when Hawaii plays at home? Or is that elsewhere, obviously it isn’t at this match b/c Dave would have challenged a bunch of ‘calls’.

Stanford needed five sets to beat CP…

I don’t think Cal Poly has the video equipment to be able to do video challenges…

I wish Iosia would attack more.

Our middles have to produce more, we just need to start terminating. ahh we are better then this, lets go girls! 14-13 Hawaii

Hawaii will lose, at least at the rate their going.

Again with serve receive problems late in sets.

Maybe they should try Annie in the middle. If only for blocking purposes. She’s still learning to hit from the outside and she seems lost at times and not very effective. Maybe Sibley should get a chance at left.

Annie is finally getting into rythym in second set why switch her positions all of a sudden.

a little OT but I’m wincing when they lay out to try for saves on the hardwood vs. on taraflex.

Btw, anyone notice that UH is holding the awesome Van Winden to a negative hitting percentage?

You guys all need to relax. Geez. Cal Poly is a good team. We are on their home court. I’m happy we are getting challenged on the road. We need it.

Everyone is panicking and wants everyone switched all over the place. No can

61. No kiddding. Now I’m going to watch the match.

Taylor Nelson, the Cal Poly setter was taken out of the third set due to cramping in her legs. She is back in the fourth set gutting it out.

63. At least he’s a decent announcer. Much better than the cheech and chong show yesterday at ucsb.

65. Never a question on what Annie can do in the middle. We just needed an outside terminator and Annie brought that last weekend.

Pretty intimidating to see Nikki and Annie lining up for a block.

Would like to see Castillo be given a chance back at her natural position outside. She’s been playing well.

This announcer doesn’t know what an Ace is. He thinks it has to hit the floor and keeps saying receive error on the first contact.

Live Stats have it tied at 19…Don’t like this format…

Cracking up Kahakai is now Kalakai

Wow! yay haha nice dump by Kendra! Didn’t expect that one, good win, good challenge by Cal-Poly!

Yes 80 the announcer is clueless

congratulations to na wahine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLt1BhfzgbsF1896N7vWZc3EOUQOAAlhMC&v=NgucCOw1FP8

The announcer is calling an ace like in tennis. The stream instant replay was not instant, but showed the play before the last play.

I still think moving Mitchem to the middle is a mistake. Although her hitting pct. will likely rise, I think her kill production will stay the same or fall, based on the continuing passing problems. And I just don’t see Sibley making up for Mitchem’s production on the left–she is a sub-.200 hitter. Castillo is the wild card, but now she has to get acclimated to the left again, if that is Shoji’s plan. In any case, the musical chairs of volleyball positions isn’t over. We’ll see who plays where against the two worst conference teams (past two years) next weekend: Fullerton and Riverside.

ionia/kendra….. what a combo…

Love the wahines self confidence this season. Lose first set no problem. Tight 4th set, we got this.

Tip of the hat to Cal Poly. They played some gritty volleyball and gave their crowd of 2631 fans a great effort. Hope their fans continue to reward them, they are definitely heading in the right direction.

gotta be honest, Cal Poly looks better than LBSU this year, was watching the Irvine-LBSU match while listening to the Hawaii game on the radio, they look good, but not as good as years past. but yes, hats off to Poly, they are a very feisty bunch. can’t wait for them to come here.

98. bottom line is they need to work on passing (and consider a fast offense.) if they cant pass properly then just dig the ball as high straight up vertical as possible and let the setter do a passing assist and not having to chase down the ball.

87 and 89. that youtube link was the live streaming from big west tv, no idea if it can be rewinded but might as well preserve the link anyways. (i wish i could find the same for yesterdays ucsb match 🙁 )

You can still watch the Poly match here:

http://www.bigwest.org/story.asp?story_id=16070

Sans audio

103. Kewl that you found the YouTube link. I can’t find it via google search, have to use your direct link. It would be amazing if you could find the UCSB match. I need some comic relief.

Misc. notes on the 1st set:
– The first set lasted ~ 40 minutes.
– Hawaii had ~ 7 match point opportunities
– CP had ~ 4 match point opportunities, winning with a service ace (receive error, Hawaii)
– Taylor Nelson (CP setter) made outstanding decisions and terrific sets.
– CP points 1 -15 (from my loose notes, not from the official stats): CP employed a fast, quick set system, earning 5 points out of the first 15 in fast system using quick sets, but losing 3 points to attack errors. 3 points of their first 15 were earned with high ball sets to the pins. 1 point was earned by Nelson converting a CP overpass into a kill. 5 points were earned on Hawaii attack errors. 1 point was earned on a Hawaii service error. In summary, Hawaii scored more points for CP (6 errors) than CP earned in fast system with quick sets (5), and the rest (4) came in rally/transition (high ball and setter dump).
– CP points 16 – 34 (from my loose notes, not from the official stats): only 3 points were earned in fast system using quick sets. 2 points were lost due to attack errors. 6 points were earned using high ball sets to the left OH (5) and pipe (1). 1 point was earned by Nelson winning a joust with Maglio over a CP overpass. 2 points were earned on Hawaii ball handling errors (1) Iosia double hit and (1) Kahakai error (bad call by ref). 3 points were earned on Hawaii attack errors. 3 points were earned off of Hawaii service errors. 1 point was earned by ace (Hawaii receive error). In summary, Hawaii scored more points for CP (9 errors) than CP earned in fast system with quick sets (3), and the rest (7) came in rally/transition (six high ball and one setter joust). Of the six high ball kills, three were consecutive tip kills (kill #18, #20, and #21).
– Hawaii errors (15) accounted for over 44% of CP points in the first set.

Apparently it was a warm, humid gym, which likely worked against CP later in the match. CP was more in system early, running their middles out to the pins or out to the 3m line and hard back in, and always running both outsides hard at the net trying to give the setter three quick set options to LOH, ROH, and middle. However this style was clearly wearing them down and after point 15, was no longer the determining factor, but the errors from Hawaii were more than compensating. However after a plus thirty point 1st set and close overtime 2nd set, the CP setter cramped up and CP started to lose their legs. The danger of a fast quick system for CP is they are likely only going to be successful as long as they have fresher legs and better decision making and execution than the opposition, and as soon as they lose a step and vertical, advantage goes to the taller team as long as that team isn’t shooting themselves in the foot making errors. After the marathon 1st set, the physical advantage was swinging in Hawaii’s direction. Tonight a greater use of the neutral play, especially early on, might have helped. Employing the neutral and cutting back on the errors, letting the opposition wear itself down earlier, should work to Hawaii’s advantage against most of the Big West.

Thanks noblesol, very interesting information. I watched the stream but Cindy’s article in todays Star-Advertiser and your treatise added a great deal to “what I was seeing”.

Went to the match and Mott was humid. Mustangs Coach said that he was going to perfect this fast attack for three years based on recruiting the #1 HS setter at time in Nelson – and it was awesome last night. Fortunately, Mustangs eventually tired and could not sustain it against a solid wahine defense. Meanwhile the wahines are still evolving and experimenting. As other noted, Mitchem struggled earlier but came around. IMO, by the time Annie acquires the necessary reps to become an effective OH, the season and her college career will be over. I am all for using her at MH where she is just amazing and using her at OH only where the match-up is key. This was a win against a team that had clearly prepared very well for this match. Yet, we won – says a lot about how good the wahines are.

overall thought the Na Wahine did an awesome job on the road over two good teams especially cal poly! they are certainly the #2 IMHO team in the conference… hopefully they will come out in the post season.

I do luv Mitchem in the middle and yes think she should be hitting from everywhere as well!

passing yes was a struggle, but i’m sure they’ll work that out – think Cindy mentioned that they will alternate the DS’s when they go on the road so hopefully Smith will get the opportunity…
as always go BOWS!
B+ for these (2) matches

Imho, better passing and less hitting errors – this match would not have been close. Credit to Cal Poly for serving tough.

Well….Cal Poly did have other advantages that UH did not. Like some posters mentioned, Cal Poly was fresher. UH was their only opponent for the week so they could focus on us. UH had to play back to back. Since UH had to play UCSB first, the team needed to focus on that match and then turn they attention to Cal Poly.

UH have played against fast offenses before so its not like UH never saw that offense. UH just didn’t have enough time to prep for this team. Yet UH was close to sweeping them.

I predict when CP comes to Honolulu, UH will have be more focused and don’t think we will have that hard a time with them. CP good but I think it was a case that UH played junk(and probably tired) and CP was fresh and fired up.

Roles will be reversed when CP will have to play UH after getting off the plane.

Hawaii’s Perceived Errors:

It was noted that Hawaii’s errors outnumbered Cal Poly’s kills using a fast offense. Oddly, same thing occurred against other teams like UCLA and Washington (Hawaii had more kills than Washington). Hawaii’s attack errors against ranked teams is 22-25. Their errors against Cal Poly was 25.

The USA National team does use a fast offense/fast sets (winning the 2014 World’s Women Volleyball Championship) ongoing now for 4+ years. Perhaps someone should tell Karch Kiraly the problems with using a fast offense. After all, height does not appear to be his primary recruitment criteria. (Good thing they don’t play in a humid gym.)

Bottom Line: Comparing Hawaii’s errors to Cal Poly’s kills is a non sequitur.

Let’s give credit to the opposing blocks/defenses; which may explain why Hawaii’s errors are so consistent against strong teams.

#117 I’m guessing you might be referring to something I wrote. Not sure how to respond though. I can’t find where it was said by me or others that of Hawaii’s errors and Cal Poly’s kills “one followed the other”. So, yes, of course I agree with you, if it were true that was said, then it’s a non sequitur. But that is not what was said.

If you were referring to my breakdown of the 1st set of the Cal Poly match, I thank you for reading it and thinking about it. However I’d guide you to a different ‘bottom line’ conclusion if possible; that is that we agree that a fast offense and quick sets are wholly appropriate for Cal Poly’s personnel and their program. But is that it, and nothing else to learn?

I was interested in how much of Cal Polys 1st set success was wholly attributable to their ability to get kills in system, and how much of their success came from Hawaii’s errors. A fast quick system is not primarily responsible for the other teams errors. The ability to block and serve well can assist the opposition in generating their errors, but those are not attributes of a fast quick setting system. The opposition has primary control of their errors against the block and in choosing personnel and positioning for serve receive.

My breakdown showed that Cal Pol in system was relatively successful in their points 1 – 15, clearly generating for them 5 points. But their ability to generate points in system was relatively inconsequential in their points 16 – 34. In their points 16 – 34, fast quick generated only 3 of those 19 points. Hawaii’s nine errors accounted for 9 of their 19 points, which was 3x what Cal Poly was generating in system from their fast quick offense. To the extent that Cal Poly was doing a good job of serving, blocking, and playing high ball transition offense with lots of tipping, that helped Hawaii along in their error fest and self-demolition. But that is something that any team can do regardless of their primary offensive system, and it is wholly wrong to point to fast quick as responsible for Cal Polys success in their come back against Hawaii in set 1, as clearly it was something else going on in those points 16 – 34.

My bottom line for what I think might have helped Hawaii in Set 1 with reducing their attack errors, would have to been to employ the ‘neutral’ attack a bit more often. Keep the ball in, avoid the block, make them chase and make them generate high ball transition offense to their struggling ‘out of system’ OH, Van Winden. Hawaii has had success stopping her. Although Hawaii has struggled with her tips from time to time, they’ve shown they can adjust and control it. For most of the match they were ok against the tip, but in that set 1 they had one rotation from points #18, #20, and #21 that they failed to quickly adjust. As for improving serve receive and passing, they could utilize their DS’s a bit more. Many of Hawaii’s attack errors are generated from poor passing, resulting in not so great setting, followed by what the ‘eh hitting. Fewer attack errors follows from better sets follows from better passing. No non sequitur there.

i just looked at the box score and cant believe savannah was aced 3 times including the ending set point for set 1 (and apparently she attacked??)

#122 Yeah, Mustangs were serving really tough. Had mentioned it earlier but IMO, there was more than one occasion where it was not clear if ball was going out or not – and that Kahakai was not sure. At the Thunderdome, Savanah took one at the very last moment and shank it. At Mott, she let one go and it dropped in. To me, she needs help from the other backcourt players at the time. Staff will address it soon enough but it was a little disappointing to see. Overall, the team played great. And talking about receiving, I thought Greeley looked more active and played great.

Hawaii moves up to #13 in the poll.

https://www.avca.org/polls/di-women/9-26-2016.html