Hawaii women’s volleyball: Beach knocks off Poly, T25 results

From previous thread about Anna and Hanna. I apologize if I sounded either prejudiced or was making “questionable assumptions.” I’ve lived in Europe and more times than not, everyone speaks great English. I just worded my statement badly. I mainly was wondering what inspired Anna to come to Hawaii. Was it the coaches? Did she visit previously and saw a match? Talk to any of the team? My mentioning Hanna was when she said that Coach Ang helped make her transition smoother.

Long Beach won the first set despite Maia’s seven kills out of 9 attempts with no errors. She did not get any help from the other Mustangs. She can’t carry the team on her back. Long Beach is highly motivated on senior night and it looks like they will win the match. No Big West title for the Mustangs. Hawaii will have sole possession of the Big West title.

LBS leading CP 2-1. Even if CP comes back and win, i can see LBS giving Wahine problems on Friday. Chavira almost like BVS, and Howard have a good serve. They putting up some good blocks too.

6. I was switching back and forth between UCSB-CSUN and CP-LBSU. Ruddins played the entire match. Final stats: Kills 7-5-36 .056; 2 blocks; 11 digs. Long Beach State looks in control, should be able to close it out.

Beach over the Mustang, 3-1.

5. Cal Poly lost to Long Beach in four sets on a final block of Maia Dvoracek. UH will have the home court advantage on Long Beach plus high motivation to win on senior night. I don’t see Long Beach beating UH, not with BVS playing.

Now I doubt that either Cal Poly or UCSB will make the playoffs. Cal Poly cannot beat good teams on the road, only at home. They only beat Utah on a neutral site in five sets. Cal Poly misses two reliable outside hitters that get shut down on the road. Surprised that no outside hitters signed Letter of Intent for Cal Poly yet for 2020, only one setter. It’s hitters they need.

My prediction for Big West Player of the Week is Chavira Tia from Long Beach who had the most kills against both UCSB and Cal Poly.

As for Big West Player of the Year, perhaps Maia Dvoracek, but maybe a UH player will win it on virtue of leading the Big West. I don’t think that the committee will award it to a freshman, but Hanna Helvig will win Big West Freshman of the Year. I still think that Robyn Ah Mow made a big mistake not nominating Norene Iosia. She definitely deserves it. After all an outstanding setter can win accolades. Example: Misty May won National Player of the Year for Long Beach as a setter back in 1998. So why not a setter? Any opinions out there?

By the way, in that win streak by Long Beach is a sweep of UCSB.

There’s a lot more parity in the Big West than as far back as can remember. Probably have to go back to when UH, LB and UCSB were beating up on each other.

As excited as I am for Hawaii with the opportunity to win the BWC outright next weekend, this is a disappointing loss for the BWC in general as at one point this season the BWC looked like a 3 team conference in terms of NCAA berths, but now it’s either looking like two or one. Cal Poly is sure to move down, with its bubble about to burst while UCSB will now likely move into bubble territory. Great for the Wahine, but too bad for the conference.

Both Cal Poly and UCSB still have a very good chance at making it into the NCAA Tournament. After tonight’s results, Cal Poly is at 30 in Figstats, and UCSB at 34. Both will likely drop in the RPI after next week’s matches against weak teams, but should still be safe if they win out. My main concern is what happens to Hawaii’s chance to host a subregional if they should lose one of their remaining two matches.

19 I wouldn’t be so sure on that. Remember how far the Wahine fell after the loss to UCI?!? LBSU is probably not as low as UCI but still LOW. How reliable is Figstats anyway? I’ll wait until Monday to breathe any sigh of relief. I think a major key for UCSB/Cal Poly is to stay in the RPI Top 30-39 range to feel OK. You never with the RPI. Hawaii could absolutely demolish LBSU and CSUN next week and still drop a few spaces. But I digress. Anticipating Monday’s RPI release.

FWIW, Wahine are easily the favorites next weekend vs. LBSU/CSUN. All they need to do is mentally stay focused!

22. So true. The men play half the Big West double matches at home and the other half on the road. Why can’t they do the same with the women? Can’t Robyn Ah-Mow persuade the Big West Conference to allow them to alternate like that?

Of course, my biggest wish would be for UH to negotiate with a different TV broadcaster next year that would not exclude people without cable to watch home games.

The 4 teams that play in the STAN, only men’s VB have 2 games series in conference per big west manual. The other 3 teams don’t have that. Can’t do anything about it. Men’s VB lucky to play same 2 teams in conference, same teams tired together the next match.

I believe the women coaches in the BW don’t want the 2 matches in Hawaii because if their teams are not that good, that is a guaranteed two losses and it could break their season.

I also remember reading that opposing coaches WANT to come every year to give their teams a chance to play in one of the best environments in college volleyball.

With the men, it’s all about finances. With the women, it’s about fairness.

22. Travel and food expenses for parents or guardians also paid for by the school on official visits.

Agree about #20. Key will be her receive/pass game.

20. Mahalo for the link to LBSU interview. Yes, Friday will be tough. They are very motivated and all their players are healthy. I can only hope your 7th player, the fans, will help to disrupt their nerves and focus.

27. I can see how scheduling double matches wouldn’t go over big with the coaches of the BWC, particularly after reading your comment about the teams wanting to come to Hawaii. We would only be able to accommodate 4 of the 8 teams.

I’m eager to see what Robyn and staff will come up with so that they can take care of CSUN Thursday, without wearing out key players then giving a different look/line up against LBSU.

Much mahalos to all for your input on freshmen/new player transitions and trips to Manoa campus.

Will Senior Night also be White-Out Night?

I actually think it’s an advantage for Wahine to play CSUN first before LBSU Friday. The Wahine had a bye week last week for the first time this season and I’m sure the girls took mental rest as well, at least I hoped so, for complete rest. The game with CSUN will be a good game to get them back into the game mindset since CSUN can give anyone fits including the Wahine so by the time Friday comes along, Wahine is all warmed up for the finale.

19, 20. UCSB and Poly should be in the tourney if they win out. Who cares if they lose in the first or second round? The point is to get in and then let the matches play out. UH hasn’t gotten out of the subregional since 2015.

21. UH’s large drop after the UCI loss was in part related to timing. One match result has a greater impact on a team’s RPI earlier in the season than later in the season (on the margin, the fewer matches played, the greater the impact an additional match has on the whole). Helps explain why UH’s RPI didn’t drop a lot after the recent matches against Davis and Riverside. Also difficult to predict drops without looking at other teams ranked just above or below a team. A lot of factors go into where a team’s adjusted RPI ranks is. Figstats is fairly accurate but it is an estimator and not official (the modeler admits differences with the NCAA official ranking can occur after he calculates the bonuses). I like it because you have daily updates versus weekly. Currently, the estimator has UH at 12, UCSB at 32 and Poly at 36. Interestingly, Poly has a better SOS than UH. However, UH has the better record, especially against the top 50 RPI teams, giving it more bonus points.

36. No, I didn’t email the coaches, but you are welcome to do so. I would be surprised if Zarkovic doesn’t know about her because he used to coach at Partizan where Georgieva now plays for the women’s team. She’s 17 and is a baller, but I’d be shocked if she wasn’t headed for the pros. On another board, someone described the European recruit as a Redo-quality player, so I thought it was her.

37. Reminds me of UH’s 2015 elite 8 year when UH had a lot of time off and needed 5 sets to beat TCU in the first round of the tournament. Time off is good for recovery, but sometimes a team comes back flat.