Wahine drop to No. 15 in poll
shouldn’t be surprised
Stanford goes 1-1, moves up from 11 to 9
USC (0-3) goes from No. 7 to 31
https://www.avca.org/polls/di-women/8-29-2016.html
Not that it matters but no team in the Big West is undefeated after the first weekend.
Teams are either 2-1 (5) or 1-2 (4)
and if UC Riverside had held on at Cal instead of losing 3-2, the Highlanders would be 3-0.
COMMENTS
Comments are closed.
Why are the comments being cut off so quickly? your last couple of entries seem to have cut off comments within hours of your blog. i enjoy reading people’s different comments and your responses.
What a great weekend. Yes, we lost to Wisconsin and Kansas but showed true grit against a strong defense minded Arizona team. Plenty of kudos to the freshmen and sophs. Wanted to also acknowledge the upper classmen in Kalei, Kendra, Maglio, and Savannah. As for Higgins, thanks for hanging in there and cheering the team on. Taylor has very stiff competition from an exceptional freshmen and I hope the staff work out a plan where both can continue to play – a modified 6-2.
1. Connor, I close the blog about 90 minutes after the match is over and I’m leaving the arena.
i can’t be on 24-7 and this is one way to ensure monitoring of the blog. Since there’s been some inappropriate comments posted overnight, this is the best solution we have come up with.
Appreciate your feedback
2. Shoji said they’ll be back in the gym Tuesday and look at everyone again. They may go 6-2 again but much depends on whether Taylor is back and how much she can play.
It wasn’t that they didn’t like what Higgins was doing in the 6-2. It was more how the serving rotation went. They used Maglio to serve and if she didn’t her sub is Anderson. They might have subbed out Granato for Higgins but then they lost a back-row attack. Kahakai serves for the second middle, which was and likely will remain Castillo.
I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on how much teams rose or dropped from the preseason poll. That initial poll was a guess at best, and a joke at worst. Stanford may have gone 1-1, but they lost a 5-setter to San Diego before taking down Minnesota. San Diego lost to Minnesota but are now 1-1 and ranked 18 (previously 26th). You’ll see a lot of cases in which a team may have lost a match but rose from the preseason poll. Other examples include Florida, Texas A&M, LMU, and Kentucky. Again, that’s because of the ridiculousness of having a preseason poll with no current season data to rely on.
More ridiculousness. UH is tied for 178 in the RPI calculations (independently created model–official rankings won’t come out for a bit). Again, there are too few matches to create a useful RPI ranking at this point. IMO, first polls should come out after the first or second week of conference season, similar to how the official RPI is treated.
Hawaii is the only two-loss team in the top 25. 0-3 USC deservedly is out of the top 25. Like UH, USC lost a top player (but not to injury; rather to academics), and similar to ASU last year, it shows how losing a top player can really send a good team into turmoil. For those lamenting UH’s weekend, take comfort in knowing at least UH is not USC, who lost three straight at home to Marquette (33rd), Santa Clara (27th) and Irvine (a sweep). The last time USC started 0-3 was in 1990 (2 home, 1 away loss).
Funny (or odd) seeing Penn State out of the top 10. They are 13th. Big 10 has 7 top 25 teams, more than double that of any other conference. Seven teams not from power football conferences are in the top 25. Washington is 5th and UCLA 8th. If UH wins those matches and their other non-conference matches, they will likely return to the top 10 prior to the conference season.
1,3. That’s a shame. The actions of a minority have adversely impacted the majority. I’d rather see such inappropriate posters banned for a month (or permanently if they are recidivists) rather than closing the blog down overnight, but I know that there are challenges with that option.
5. agree. it’s just 64 people’s opinions.
6. I know but at the moment that’s the solution.
I am sorry that it has to be that way. There’s no way to do a temporarily ban. And sometimes people are blocked unintentionally by the Spam filter. sometimes it’s their user name or they’ve posted the same comment 2-3 times or the are using bogus emails.
I’ve asked that we require registration so then we could contact people for various reasons and explain. But on a number of occasions when i’ve tried that it bounces back because email is invalid.
Anyway, have the day off, first in over a week. be back later.
I was also wondering about the early cut off on comments. I also enjoy reading most of the bloggers comments and your responses. I understand your position but it is a shame that a few thoughtless bloggers ruin it for the rest of us.
That being said; this was a very interesting weekend and we got to see a lot of people play. I loved seeing many players get on the floor that we would not of seen if we were at full strength. Kahakai and Iosia are exceptional talents. I also think that Higgins will play an important role this year as Tongo mentioned.
tremendous effort by the wahine tonight … granato, kahakai, iosia, ross, maglio, castillo, sibley, smith … a lot of heroes in last night’s marathon win! not everyone had the best stats (like granato and kahakai’s ridiculous stat lines) … but many of them also came up big in critical moments of the match.
on match point, hawaii had 3 freshmen (one being a walk-on!), 2 sophomores, and a junior on the court. great fight from the wahine! they can — and will — build on this going forward …
Ross and Sibley had huge kills to key the comeback in he fifth, showed no fear.
Cindy, regarding your comment that the Big West teams not being undefeated may not matter, there is a very significant bright spot to what you pointed out. As I’ve written in the past, UH needs its conference foes to win as many non-conference matches as possible to maximize its RPI (other than UH winning, the outcomes of other conference matches are not important for UH’s RPI as each team plays every other team twice and any loss by one team will be offset by a win by its opponent. In other words, from UH’s RPI perspective, you shouldn’t care who wins a match between LBSU and CSUN).
Last year, the Big West teams had a combined non-conference record of 53-60. So far this year, the record is 14-13. An improvement, albeit just for one weekend of matches. Even better, three of the four worst teams from last season are 2-1, including Fullerton who went 0-28 last year. If the Big West continues to win more matches than it loses over the next three weeks, it will be a boost to UH’s RPI.
BWC Weekly Awards:
Player: Fabiana Rosas (UCR)
Defensive: Maddie Hubbell (UCR)
Freshman: Lindsey Ruddins (UCSB)
maverick +1
damn, i thought for sure that kahakai would at least get the defensive player of the week honors. she average 5.15 digs per set over the weekend, and made all-tournament honors.
but hubbell went one better with 5.75 dps.
still though, i’m loving the numbers from kahakai to start the season!
Warriorfan — in the 5th set … ross also had a key dig of one of mau’s sharp crosscourt shots … which hawaii then converted (granato kill) … and took them to match point!
How is Ruddins still considered a freshmen?
Just curious about injuries and who determines if they player has to sit out or not. I’m curious because that OH from Arizona had a big cast on two of her fingers on her hitting hand and she was playing yet Mitchem’s injury is on her non hitting hand and she is forced to sit out….
Anyone know?
16. She was granted a medical redshirt last year due to season-ending injuries.
16. Ruddins was granted a medical redshirt last season. The Big West counts redshirt freshman for freshman awards (ex. Magi as beach FOY)
17. Mitchem broke her finger but Pilepic didn’t completely break it. Mitchem also had surgery on hers so she is recovering.
i’m also guessing the team doctors have the final say in whether a player is cleared to play … ??
good point, vballfreak808 … not all players and injuries are equal … even if on the surface, the injuries may look and sound the same …
Good to hear you are filtering comments. Some of the posting on other blogs cross the line. There is nothing positive or anything to be gained by anyone reading those kinds of posts.
USC not even in the top 25 and Penn State not in top 10.
I know its only preseason but kind of rare you see them out of top 25 or 10.
Greeley looks like she’s still in pain, hope she can recover before conference.
Lindsey Ruddins is the real deal. She is killing it for the Gauchos with 59 kills over the weekend. This team is dangerous.
Following up on Big West going 14-13 so far this season, last year’s 5th-ranked RPI conference was the WCC (as of end of the regular season), which had a 90-31 non-conference regular season record (3rd-best percentage). This year, the WCC is off to another great start at 22-7. Something for the Big West to aspire to in order to become a multi-bid conference.
Interestingly, despite having the 19th-ranked record against non-conference teams, the Big West had the fourth-best rank for non-conf. opponents’ record and the best opponents’ strength of schedule rank in 2015. Explains how the conference had a #9 non-conf. RPI ranking. Moral of this story: It’s good to play the best teams, but you have to beat them too.
Source:
https://rpiarchive.ncaa.org/Stats%20Library/VB%20League%20Rankings%20(non-conference)%202015.pdf
Note that when counting all matches, the WCC had the #4 ranked RPI while the Big West was 13th.
Interesting that Castillo is likely to remain at second middle. I thought Iosia had some nice connections with her there. If Castillo can continue to improve at that position while Mitchem’s injury mends, maybe there’s a chance Annie can move to outside hitter when she returns. I know it’s not likely, but I really think the team needs a second terminator outside to complement Nikki, and I don’t see Greeley recuperating fast enough or Granato being tall enough (despite her career night against Arizona) to play that role effectively. Mitchem on the other hand may be strong enough and tall enough to do it.
The bright side of all these injuries is that it’s given other players a chance to show their stuff and shine. Sibley and Ross probably would not have seen the court yet if Nikki, Annie and Kalei were 100%. Burns probably would not have seen the court either. Heck, Iosia may not have seen the court if Tayler had been setting those three and the team was comfortably winning. Those freshmen now have more confidence and experience which is great for the team. The coaches can also see that most of them can perform under game time pressure. This all bodes well for the team’s future. I’m still so excited for this season and hope that we will have a healthy team by year’s end.
Last night was something else! It will be fascinating to see how the coaches make use of some of the puzzle pieces that were uncovered.
For those of you out of state, did that “periscope” solution work out? I’m curious if anyone tried it. Out of curiosity I downloaded the app and then went back to that fan’s page and couldn’t get it to work.
greenthumb — the periscope option was set up by a wisconsin player just for the hawaii/wisconsin match. so it would not have been available for hawaii’s other matches this weekend.
(i don’t know if periscope was up for wisconsin’s other matches against az and ksu…)
Once the injured players (nikki/annie)
returns with the extensive play from out fab. frosh along with the returnees, it will be just finding that right combo and chemistry in which we will return to NCAA Final 4 form IMO. My guess at that lineup:
Iosia/Higgins: Setter
NikkI: Opposite
Granato: OH
Maglio/Mitchem:MB
Kahakai: Libero
Emma S: .DS
I still would like to see Castillo work back as a replacement at OH or Opp with her height.
I like Mckenna Ross fearlessness a good situational sub. Sibley also should be added to the mix. As far as Greenly: she is so valuable backcourt but not ready IMO to play up until she is close to 100% hitting. Koelsch also is a good sub to add to the outside. Burns has her great moments but will get better eventually with experience. My.point is we have the talent. It is when we will be able to assemble it all together. With Emma, we have so many very good DS to fill in. Emma Smith just looks sound and really reliable as the #1 DS…I thought Guianasso did awesome against Wisconsin…what happened to her playing against Arizona…
A couple of responses.
It is the team trainer/doctor who determine whether player is cleared to play.
Difference between Mitchem and Pilepic is that Mitchem had surgery and Pilepic didn’t.
My comment that Castillo would likely stay at the second middle was based on what you saw from Burns Sunday. Think Castillo is the better option at this point.
As for the freshmen, there were four on the court at one point. Iosia, Sibley, Ross and Smith. Joked with Shoji about the last time he had four true freshmen at one time. He said he couldn’t remember I was thinking 84 with Ahuna, Eleneki, Eagye and Jesse.
in 04 you had Gregory, Hittle Sanders and Ong but all except Hittle had redshirted.
Yeah, I agree. Smith has not disappointed having come in with lots of success in So. CA. Emma has shown that she is as good as they say she is – quick, anticipates really well, athletic, hardworking and is always moving her feet. I like both Claire Marie and Emma. Claire is also really good and has shown that she is steady under pressure.
one thing about Kahakai. there have been some detractors, saying they don’t see her national team potential. Think because UH had been such a good blocking team last year, she wasn’t getting as many opportunities. Now she is.
Was that Susie Boogard in the audience last night?
Burns made that mistake and was pulled. I don’t really think that she will get to see much playing time this year since Shoji will use Castillo until Mitchem comes back.
Cubicle1126 (29), thanks. That was the match I tried to check out, but it was no go. Am trying to plan ahead in case I have to be away during preseason — and of course hoping there’s a viable option for fans who are left videoless in the current situation.
Just saw the online video of the match tonite (last three sets) and can now appreciate last night’s enthusiasm of the posters. Granato has quite the live arm, reminds me of what Daly Santana did to UH in the elite 8 last year. Iosia sets like an upperclassman, and her serves are amazing. Surprised by the steady play of Castillo given she has been shuffled around, and how Ross and Sibley made plays when the team needed them. Defense and hustle was great all around. Really interested to see how the team does against UCLA, especially if Taylor returns.
I know the chance of McKenna Ross playing front row in the future is not very likely but I hope Dave will give her a chance to hit some pipe set as a DS.
I think Dave tried to make Ginger Long an attacking DS but Ginger never mastered the art of passing.
I think Ross is athletic and jump well enough to make it work. If this experiment work out…..it would give UH another offensives option. Imagine a rotation where Iosia have 5 avaible attackers.
34. yes Susie was there as was Kamana’o.
anyway, I’m closing the blog for the night. see you tomorrow.