No. 6 Washington 3, No. 14 Hawaii 2
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wahine volleyball fans lets yell BOOM when any wahine jump/spin serves shall we? ie noreen, nikki, tayler and even emily if she should choose to jump/spin serve it. upon the smack of the ball only. they started some kine of noise saturday when wahine were serving, lets add an exclamation to it and treat washington in kine just like how they treated na wahine at their venue.
additionally, wake up the sleepers, if any. support! NOT slouch na wahine
We must be the “bad” guys — 🙂
Huskies warm ups: white T ‘s & white sneakers. Wahine: black T’s & black sneakers
Hawaii in its home whites.
startong:
Granato, Iosia, Greeley, Taylor, Kahakai, Castillo, Maglio
Cindy, has Mitchem been cleared to play?
Top 25 Sunday
8) Florida def. LIU Brooklyn 25-14, 25-14, 25-18
9) Stanford def. Cal Poly 25-14, 23-25, 25-27, 25-13, 15-10
4. as mentioned Friday, she has not been and Shoji said she wouldn’t play.
she is not dressed.
6. Just saw on streaming that she will likely come back for the first road trip, week after Pepperdine.
UH has flopped its lineup. Taylor serving first. It’s been Iosia.
7. don’t know what streaming said. Shoji said Friday that it could be against Pepperdine. will ask after the match.
Every husky serve going area1
not that it matters, but watched the replay of Friday’s match. Regarding that challenge at 23.
NIU coach had challenged that his player was not the one in the net That it was Ross of UH. What the down ref saw was both players net simultaneously. Which is why they called for a replay.
Washington has pulled away to a 9-4 lead. TO UH
Greeley or Granato
10. not every serve. Can you say bad rotation. Burns in for Castillo at 12-4
UW challenging the touch call on Taylor
Why does Nikki make so much errors and look so lackadaisical about it? No sense of urgency or focus.
horrible start but I’m not surprised that’s usually the case after a football night game.
Call stands It’s 13-5. Anderson to serve
17. don’t know if they went to FB
UH closes to 13-9. TO UW
Wow kalei with a kill, really hope she gets 100 percent soon we need a left that hits for a good percentage.
17. i can think of one match that it happened. That against NMS years ago
Taylor with another slow start against a big team. Good news is that we are getting production from others to close within 4.
UW out of rotation. It’s 15-13.
Taylor blocked, then Granato. It’s 20-16. TO UH
Granato looking like she did against Arizona, but now against a bigger block. If Taylor can ramp it up, then the team will start to roll.
Granato with a net roll ace. it’s 21-19. TO UW
don’t be surprised if you see Sibley soon. Greeley not 100 percent.
Horrible
passing was wahines undoing that set.
UW wins 25-23. considering UH was down 13-5 at one point ….
Just need to start quicker.
Huskies made less errors
Agh, wahine dug themselves into a deep hole early on. Almost rallied; at least their blocking improved.
30. That’s why you don’t fall behind 13-5. Otherwise, UH could have won the set by several points. UH needs a faster start, and as pointed out, needs to pass much better. UW is very beatable.
Nikki has always been kind of a streaky hitter, unlike Greeley. But when she gets hot, she’s unstoppable. Hope Granato can keep it up. Maybe bring in Smith to help with passing.
Sibley in for Greeley.
I feel for Kalei. Why is she even playing after shoulder surgery. She doesn’t look close to 100%.
Husky passing not on point
38. agree tried to post that I thought UW’s passing was worse.but it didn’t make it.
UW coach challenges. Taylor shot being out. it was in by our advantage point.
Ball ruled in. it’s 10-6. Anderson to serve
Cook has 1 challenge left
UW couldn’t wait for the TTO. another ace by Guinasso and it’s 14-10. TO UW
42. yes, each coach only has 3. and cook has used 2. losing both.
Mags .833.
Granato with a bomb, it’s 17-11. TO UW
45. .750 6-0-8
Husky forced outside, almost no middle attack (passing)
Wow, Grenato having an awesome 2nd set! And just as I type this, she gets block, ugh! I shouldn’t say anything lol! Well at least we are hanging tough w UDub…. Go wahines!
As I mentioned, when Taylor starts playing better and UH has good left side play, the team will roll. UH passing is better this set.
Great rally. Taylor ends it at 19-13.
And that’s why Dave puts in Kalei.
37.Greeley plays for her passing and defense, I think she’s hoping to be 100 percent by December which is why she’s not sitting and instead helping out where she can. seems like this team is looking to be at their very best in the Ncaa tournament.
Sibley ends it 25-17
OK, now that’s how the wahine’s need to play.
Woo Hoo!!! Drawing even, hope we can continue this level of play, nice defense and scrappy plays! Go Bows!!!
IMO, Washington may be #6, but they hadn’t played anyone in the top 25 until tonight. UH should beat UW in four if they can keep the passing up. UH also did well to close out set 2 quickly, as they have had trouble holding leads late.
57.agree helps when Nikki keeps her errors down too and wahine are starting to dig Jones.
Just a suggestion, when Greeley is in the back row replace her with Emma Smith.
Great second set with the Wahine focused and everyone playing at a high level. Hope they can maintain that focus because you know UW is going to come out strong after the break.
I can understand why Shoji wants to keep Greeley in. 1) She is perhaps their best passer. 2) She needs to be in the game so that she won’t be coming in cold once she’s ready to hit full time.
I guess it’s just easy for fans to voice out their exasperation when Hawaii loses and Greeley gets aced a couple of times late in the match. Not to mention Smith, who has proven to be a consistent passer, is on the bench.
Taylor was 7-1-14 in Set 2 after 3-3-9 in Set 1
Wow, amazing defense for point # 6 for Hawaii with Grenato finishing it off, their transitions are looking REALLY good right now
59. you can always email Shoji with that suggestion.
UW with another NV. UH up 9-4. TO Huskies. UW had 6 NVs yesterday against NIU.
Huskies pressing; hence the number of net violations.
Granato needs to be playing more PAC 12 teams. She is pretty effective. Iosia also seems to be running a quicker offense. There was a beautiful play earlier this set when Maglio went for a slide and there were no blockers, but Iosia chose to go with Granato, who had just one blocker and got a kill.
Serve receive breaking down. UW on a 3-0 run, closes to 14-12. TO UH
Husky Libero inconsistent passer
Greeley unable to put a healthy swing on a downball. I wish they would use Emma Smith for Sibley or even Granato in the back.
Kill by Taylor and it’s 17-13. TO UW
69. yes she is which is why they are targeting her on serve.
Husky passing gone south
Woo Hooo! Keeeeeeppppp Pushing ladies!!! Norene is soon good, man we are so lucky to have her! Kalei is playing great defense!
Ace falls between Granato and Sibley. UW pulls to 21-18. TO UH
Another overpass by Granato. Smith comes in.
And that’s why Dave saves Emma.
Keep serving libero
Glad shoji subbed for the receive.
ouch. UW comes back to tie at 24. Net serve gives hawaii another set point at 25-24
IMO emma should play more backrow for Granato.
Wahine are just way too slow to react to tips and thats alot on Kahakai who plays too deep and isn’t the quickest libero.
Greeley aced. UW wins 28-26
Agh!! How did the wahines let his get away from them!!
CRUD! we had them! We soon had them!! argh, well lets re-group and keep pushing!!!
Just handed another set to the other team…
typical Hawaii, letting the set go. this was just terrible to watch them literally let Washington have it
I stand by my suggestion, Emma Smith needs to be in the back row as much as possible
To me, Nikki has to lead by example. If she came out on fire and made less errors and was more vocal and acted with more urgency, I think the young guns would be more in sync and play with purpose.
And we had the rotation we wanted and Greeley received serve. Sometimes, the best laid plans . . .
He waited too long to use Emma. I feel Greeley shanking a set point is deja vu.
Letting tips fall, hitting errors, not winning jousts, shanks thats how you lose a set..
So very very obvious that Emma Smith needs to be out there..Team hits for a higher put. when she pass receives
Come on ladies you can do it!!!
Greeley has had this happen to her before, at the end of sets. I think it has got into her head too much. It’s all mental now, because she’s a good passer.
That’s what happens when you don’t have a reliable second terminator. Nikki couldn’t put it down, Maglio couldn’t, Castillo couldn’t, Granato couldn’t. Every one of them had one or more swings to win the set and none of them delivered. So incredibly frustrating.
Burns has quick hands.
Yea I don’t understand emma not playing, she’s shown she’s a good passer and makes great digs, reliable server, and the more she plays the better she will get, so she needs to play.
UH up 5-1. TO UW.
I feel like all of these deja vus are hitting me all at once. If we win this 4th set and lose in the 5th, wasn’t there a regional game at UW in which if we had won one of the sets we had an advantage in, we wouldve won the match. Anways, I hope we pull it off!
BTW they couldn’t sub Smith in for Greeley. She had already come in for Granato.
Huskies not serving emma
UW on a 4-0 run. take the lead at 13-12. Why Shoji didn’t call timeout before is beyond me.
Sibley is vulnerable to receiving; predictable hitting.
103. I agree.
I meant 102.
101? Smith isn’t in.
Finally blocked Jones.
Iosia needs to set Maglio!
Koelsch in for Iosia
and Iosia back.
108
Need to start passing better first though
Smith in for Sibley to serve. UH up 17-15
Set too close to the net for Granato.
UW up at 19-18. no surprise Castillo in for Burns.
Uw easily gobbles up wahine tips, frustrating how wahine struggle with them.
UW up 20-18. TO UH
Bad set to Granato.
Shoji challenging whether kill in or out.
Shoji loses the challenge. it’s 20-18
UH pulls to 21-20. TO UW
TV commentary mentions Hawaii’s receive and passing has struggled, probably why the middles have been silent.
Maglio finishes it off. 25-23. on to Set 5
Smart set by Iosea.
Awesome comeback huge key was smith picking up that jones dink finally and Iosia’s serves.
Good to see UH come back from behind late to take the set. Momentum with Na Wahine as set 5 begins.
Well, that’s why the middles have to be set more, providing the receive/pass is on target.
nice choice setting Mags
With a quicker offense UH would sweep, no question
tbh, i mute my tv a lot during the games because it’s sometimes annoying listening to the commentary being done. that’s just my opinion though, everyone has their own. this game is a thriller for sure. good job Hawaii for not giving up
Oh boy another jones tip, libero should be all over that!
Huskies hiding Libero on serve receive
UW leads at 8-7 at the changeover.
Granato blocked. it’s 11-8. TO UH
Passing not there even with Smith.
too many errors this fifth set.
Iosia needs to dump, Husky MB paying no attention to her
Scam bray blocked. it’s 11-9. TO UW
Taylor in a lot of pain. UH challenges the no touch. it’s 13-11. but if overturned it would b 12-12
Saw middles fingers move
IT’s 12-12. Granato serving
Hope Nikki is okay.
not sure why they set Taylor. She hits wide. it’s 13-12. TO UH. Taylor’s been in pain most of this set
Set someone other than Nikki…
Taylor with a career high 28 kills.
Question is why does Shoji keep Niiki in? She’s not elevating.
Ahhh I feel so bad for Nikki, she’s like literally crying on the court…. Much credit to her, staying in and gutting it out.
A dink again!
Hey – I got shut up!
Maglio blocked for her first HE. UW wins 15-13
So many weakneses for this team that they have to work on, seriously why wait to move maglio to the right for next year ?do it now, move Nikki left.
Need to work on getting tips, just imagine how many will go down against the tipping queens, ucsb!
I feel for Castillo trying to learn middle, and Burns isn’t there yet. I hope Mitchum gives us a lift next week.
It’s no consolation to me anyway that UH played tough. I don’t think that UW is really a top 10 team and UH gave this match away in the third set…
they gotta be careful and make sure she’s healthy for conference. They can’t be going through conference assuming they’re guaranteed for the NCAAs
oh my, Nikki. i hope and pray she is okay. after seeing her get hurt, i honestly could care less who won. don’t care for Washington, i never have. my concern is for Nikki, seeing her in tears and in so much pain literally had me in tears seeing how much pain she was in. but at the end of the day this was a good match for Hawaii, despite the loss. again, this team shows so much promise, they just have to cover the basics
Castillo was really out if it tonight , moved slower than usual :/
Another frustrating loss, UH’s rpi will be really low.
I guess you have to trust your trainers, but isn’t joint pain a sign to stop whatever you’re doing to make it hurt?
…on a side note, looks like Beach & Cal Poly will be pretty good this year…Beach played pretty well this weekend & Cal Poly took Stanford to five…
Such a painful loss. Credit to the Wahine for giving their all.
Really hope Nikki’s elbow heals fast…
Crud. The shoulda coulda wouldas with UW again. Our leftsides and their passing will be our downfall. Going into this season even before all these injuries, I was worried about our leftside attack. Will Castillo bring anything we haven’t already seen?
IMO stanford isn’t that great they cant pass and are slow.
I do feel sorry for Nikki. She must be in so much pain to be crying. And yet she got a career number of kills, 29. Imagine how much more she could get if she were healthy.
A most frustrating match and also video interruption of the match as I wanted to see the award ceremonies. Hope that Cindy will inform us who won all the awards.
Hope we don’t lose Nikki for more games just as BW is about to start. Don’t know why she was still out there (or set), if it was as serious as it looked.
It is questionable whether Huskies are best of the PAC 12.
Dave just said he does’t know if Annie will be available. They will be taking a pin out of her finger Wednesday. After that it is all up to the medical people.
Well it was a good game, and tbh, we were the under dogs to begin with. Tough loss, but I’m proud the way we battled back. I know we had our moments of mistakes and what not, Washington ranked #6 and us ranked 14th or whatever, we are getting better and thats important, people contributing, and tbh we aren’t a fully healthy 100% team yet, so I’m still excited. And of course there will be people who bag on the girls that we should have won or blah blah blah, but that don’t help anything, seriously. Bagging on them doesn’t make them better, its not like they are 6 yr old girls who are just learning the game, they know what they need to work on and it’s still pre-season! So I’m expectant and excited! Good job ladies, not the outcome we wanted, but we hung in there and definitely gave Washington a run for their money. Here’s hoping that annie gets the pin out of her finger on Wed and able to practice and cleared from the docs!
A few takeaways from this match which cements that Hawaii has no outside hitter terminator in any of our current outsides on the left. 2) Granato and Sibley are liabilities in the passing rotation. 3) Iosia deserves to be starting but needs to work on her connection with Nikki, too many outside sets to sibley was not warranted.
Set 3 is what killed UH tonite. 24-20 and couldn’t close out the set despite having five opportunities. UH should have won in four, but they didn’t. So the real post mortem here is that despite playing three top-8 opponents, UH is winless against all three and won’t have a real quality win out of conference. No subregional hosting, and unclear if they will be sent to a favorable regional as they did last year.
Just a highly inconsistent team with a lot of injuries to deal with. Taylor, Greeley, Mitchem are all not at 100%. And that is half of the projected lineup before the season began.
I think that San Diego & Colorado will make significant moves in tomorrow’s poll…
No one’s asking so I will: Why didn’t the coaches pull Taylor if she has been in pain for much of the fifth set? Even after calling a timeout? Even after she has been crying and hitting the ball out? I don’t understand.
155. Before this match, UH’s estimated RPI ranking was 24. Probably will fall into the 30s during Big West season. Focus should be on healing, addressing the left side, and finalizing the starting rotation in preparation for the tournament.
170. Good question. Maybe she herself didn’t want to leave. She could have asked to leave since she was in so much pain. Maybe it was too close to the end of the fifth set and the whole match was on the line.
Now that is over, Nikki should get a week or two of rest and maybe skip the Pepperdine matches. Her health counts more than any victory. If she’s still in pain by the first week of conference match, then she should be rested as well. She has been way over-used and I’d hate for her to crumble.
Ok shoji really needs to move Maglio to the pins now, she is not getting enough sets in the middle IMO, when Mitchem comes back she can man the middle with Castillo at M2 hoping she improves as the season goes on. Just go out all for December I do not believe we can advance to the final four with Granato/sibley/ and an ailing greeley getting so many sets on the pins would prefer those sets go to Maglio or Mitchem.
Maybe it would be a good idea to just rest all the injured players until the start of BW season. Greeley has been struggling hitting out of the backrow, and Nikki needs to get healthy for the BW. It looks like we’ll need to win the BW to make the NCAA’s anyway. Get some of the younger players some experience now, before start of conference play.
Did Nikki injure her knee or her elbow?
Disappointing outcome, especially given how set 3 went, but still a great, hard fought match by both teams and very edge of the seat entertainment. Hopefully Nikki’s not injured too badly. She’s already missed enough of her Senior year and I’m sure it would be devastating for her if she missed too much more.
172. During the challenge by Shoji, Nikki was holding on to her elbow and knee and was obviously crying. Did her teammates not see this? Did the coaches not catch it? Because as soon as the play resumed, they set the ball to her and she hit it out. I know the match was on the line, but would they risk the health of a student athlete?
Could be that Nikki was crying because she knew she had reinjured a previous injury and would need to sit out for a few more weeks.
anyway really hope the coaches are seriously considering moving one of Maglio or Mitchem ( when healthy) to the left or right. Wahine need to take chances like this to have a shot at the final four.
174. At this point, UH doesn’t need to win the BW to get into the tournament. They have no bad losses, three losses to top eight teams and one to a team that may be ranked tomorrow. Separately, the BW now has a losing non-conference record. A couple of teams may be better but it is not translating into an overall stronger conference.
I like Mags where she is. She is so effective there. We just need to work on our passing. When Annie comes back I’d like to see her back in the middle so that Castille can move back to the outside. Maybe on the right with Nikki on the left. With Annie we will see the return of the slide.
Hawaii will not drop in RPI, and it doesn’t matter right now. Hawaiʻi could use a gut check right now. Lazy Dazy doesn’t work with this squad. They all need discipline and commītmemt. Teams like Wisconsin, UCLA amd Wahington have team discipline. They play with purpose. The way some Hawai’i squads use to do. If you demand discipline, you also require respect, for the opportunities like these do not come often.
WaWa- Mahalo for explaining the 6-2.
Well, even with an injured MB, OH and gimpy Opp, UH out-hit, out-blocked, out-dug, and out-scored a Top 10 UWteam. Just didn’t get the points that count and came up short. Also basically played Top 10 UCLA nearly dead even. If the Wahine can get back up to full strength and with a full season of experience for Norene, the NCAAs could still see the run we all expected.
Seemed like there were a lot of communication issues on the court. In particular, either too many, or no one, going after the ball. More than once saw someone cut in front of Norene to set, rather than letting her set when she was clearly going to. I guess we have a lot of new players on the court.
185. Sometimes Kahakai steps in to set even though Iosia is able to set the ball. Back off and let the setter do her job. Other than that Kahakai has amazing passing and defense.
That was a really exciting match. I hope Nikki Taylor recovers soon. She showed an outstanding commitment.
Washington was not that strong of team but they know how to win. The only possible All-Americans I see on our team are Kahakai and Iosia . Nikki is great but she has been playing just under what I would consider elite volleyball. I expect that many will disagree and wonder how I can kick her when she is down. I also cannot understand why Dave keeps Granato in the back row . Sibley should be playing more because Greeley will never recover enough to hit as well as Sibley. The simple reason we lost tonight is we lost concentration at critical moments. We need these lades to start demanding responsibility from each other. We need stronger leadership and someone needs to step up now!
1. Apparently, Shoji is not comfortable with the status quo. Is it the system or the players?
— Shoji has been replacing players every week but the same issues persist: hitting errors, passing errors, and tips dropping. Since he cannot trade-in his players for new ones it would seem the system should be changed to better complement the players.
2. How to fix the many hitting errors every week?
— Allow Iosia to quick set the way she did in high school. (i.e. Wisconsin game) That way the hitters will have a seam instead of trying to hit high hands every play.
3. How to fix the many passing errors every week?
— Personnel change is the only way. Make Emma Smith the libero and Savannah Kahakai the DS in the backcourt.
4. How to fix the many tips that drop in the middle?
— Change the positioning of the backcourt every so often. Change the responsibility for the tip every so often.
5. If these problems persist into conference play it will be too late to save the season; ditto, the post season (if there is one). Doing nothing and hoping all the problems go away is unrealistic.
I have not read any responses yet, but I have soooo much I want to say. But I need to calm down and not say anything if I have nothing nice to say.
Bottom line for me: we should have easily swept this WA team in three. Period.
Ok the only thing I can feel comfortable saying without having day after regret is that Dave needs to figure out the damn tip shots. I am SICK of seeing these shots hit the floor over and over and over again. And the players just look like they give up when a tip is done to us. Ok. I better stop.
honestly i get that many of us are filled with so many different emotions right now, that it’s literally frustrating. i was extremely frustrated at many points during the match that i kept slamming my hand to the ground, so sure i would hurt myself by the end of the night. set 3 was the most stressing for me because they could have easily been up 2-1, and have the game on their side. Washington, just like Ucla….i have never liked them and i never will, but they just knew how to gut it out and take advantage of the free gifts Hawaii was giving them. i will not talk though as if i could do it better than they can. we have to remember that we aren’t the ones on that court, we are just spectators. it’s so easy to get mad and pick apart a team because we aren’t the ones playing the actual game. this team has potential, it’s there and you can see it. the only question is: how long is it gonna take for this potential to come out?! i applaud the Wahine for not backing down, most would have just folded. my only concern now is Nikki. i am hoping she is okay. but we will probably all be on edge waiting to see just how bad her injury is
so how is nikkis status, anyone know?
1. im amazed that the broadcast pregame show talked about jump serving. i tried to get the BOOM in but couldnt get enough participants to make it any real effect in part because due to lack of students present and even the one that was present was concerned it might mess them up even though i explained that its upon the smack of the ball and it was understood. the students said they heckle them and use the clap for wahine serving but i didnt even hear neither when i sat right next to them.
that said wahine needs some real participants other than ‘lets go bows!’ or ‘roof’ for their 7th player. first off is the lack of student participation, and second is the fans participation (i tried to recruit some in the crowd to do it but it had minimal sound.) even the ROOF was loud enough which i think was totally unnecessary especially since they sound it off after the fact on the blocking replay! and btw fans ‘lets go bows!’ great it gave them the energy but then when its time for na wahine to continue play on the next rally, shut up already!
anyways what bothers me is that set 3 was incredibly disappointing. it wasnt coulda, woulda, shoulda; it was they should NOT have done. u-dub was not that good and wahine blew their chance to just simply win in 4 but to lose in 5. that was perhaps a cardinal sin i alluded to before this match that na wahine should NOT go toe to toe play with washington, its like they played to a lower level on par with them.
also shoji did some rather odd tactics that i dont know how to process to recap on them. this does not include greeley passing on serve receive. yeah i understand shoji wants to keep her in as perhaps their best passer and keep her warm so that she gets hot by the time shes 100%, but the problem is she is not 100% and shoji definitely should not put her in the heat of serve receive especially late in the set. yeah i know fans are exasperated that wahine loses that crucial set 3 pitifully including because of that. but thats shojis management. he should of put in a ds, emma not available? put in another ds (like claire marie) as he has plenty.
finally if passing is an issue for anybody, shoji should just coach them to shovel the ball up in the air vertically high enough as possible so that the setter can get to it easily rather than having to chase after it. forget passing, just dig it up into the air. let the setter set pass it instead.
Nikki Taylor, not an All-American? Are you kidding? The University of Washington fans watching the video stream were saying things on Volley Talk like: Taylor is the best opposite in the nation (and Washington has Chrissy Jones!) and is a one-woman wrecking crew for the Bows. When you have 29 kills against constant attention and double blocks on you and you hit above .250. That is a very good for an outside, especially for a go-to hitter. She’s has All-American stats for blocking and serving too. She’ll be first team All-American, easily, depending, of course on how her elbow and knee holds up. By the way, since I first brought up the singing of the National Anthem and Hawaii Pono’i, I must say it was a joy to hear comedian Frank DeLima sing it. Just great, no trills, just straight.
LanaiBoy, As good as her statistics go she is an All-American, I just feel that she has another plateau she has not reached yet. Elite players find a way to lead their team to victory.I think she is thinking too much in critical situations. When she gets into her natural rhythm she is unstoppable. Also, I really hate Frank DeLema” taxi adds but his singing was great and I see him in a new light.
184. Comments such as this are totally ridiculous and uncalled for “Maglio looking stonier than ever”. Really? Keep these personal attacks about how someone looks out of it (and especially implying simeone looks “stoned”?) These girls are all playing hard and doing their best. Keep the comments professional or don’t bother posting.
Hope to hear status on Nikki. Fingers crossed she’s okay!
I think Smith could give Kahakai a run for her money at the libero position. Granted, Smith has seen limited time thus far, but I like that she responds quickly, covers the tips (!) and just seems to pass better. I’d like to see a game where the two switch roles.
Sorry I missed this match, work again. Recording it on the DVR this morning to watch later. Did read some morning after articles, this blog, VT etc. Looked at the stat sheet, which may be telling. Team stats were very close, slight edge to Hawaii in most categories except serve receive, where they had 8 receive errors compared to UW’s 5. What stands out team wise is that the UW offense was more distributed. For Hawaii, Nikki dominates the stat lines with 29 kills, 33.5 points, 70 attacks, hitting .257. For UW, Crissy Jones had 22 kills, 25.5 points, 60 attacks, hitting .300.
Individually for Hawaii, Sibley appeared to have good night, hitting .348 and 9 kills and a block assist, but playing only 4 sets. KG must have been rotating through at OH at least one set, but hit only .100 and 3 kills and a block. Granato got a lot of work, contributing 45 attacks, 17 kills, hitting .200. She had no blocks and one blocking error. Room for her to improve there, at best just ok. Mags had 11 kills, 20 attacks, hit .500, and 5 blocks. Good numbers for Mags, but Castillo and Burns were a big drop off on the stat line, with 11 attacks between them and hitting .000. Five blocks for Casey and one block assist for Burns, so defensively they contributed, but were missing from the offense.
From the stats, it’s pretty clear that Hawaii can rely on it’s OPP and MH1, and they are searching for production/consistency everywhere else. Defensively their serve receive suggests their OH’s and occasionally their Libero can be targeted, and maybe they are under utilizing their better DS’s. The stat box doesn’t directly reveal passing issues, but if there are serve receive issues there are probably passing issues as well, so it’s inferred. Passing issues means fewer good sets for the MH, means more reliance on the OPP and OH’s. If the OH’s are inconsistent it means the setter will go to the go to girl +70x. Of course, that can’t continue.
Since hosting a regional isn’t realistic at this point, the rest of the season rides on performance in conference. The matches with Pepperdine should be viewed in that context. Winning them isn’t as important as coming out of them healthier, more offensively balanced, and doing better at serve receive and passing. Of course easy to say, harder to achieve.
One observation: the challenge system over the past three tournaments evidenced that our referees need to be upgraded. the high percentages of challenges won indicates the missed calls by the referees. i wish that that the system could be there permanently so we don’t have to grind our teeth over the calls by the referees that were clearly in error.
I can understand why so many challenges are won. Volleyball is a fast moving sport like tennis, except you have six teammates and a coaching staff to decide whether to challenge. Perhaps most importantly at UH, you get slow motion instant replay on the Jumbotron. When I was at a match and a replay was showing that a call in UH’s favor was clearly wrong, the opposing coaching staff looked up and challenged the call. My friends were all saying a little “homerism” by the technical staff to not show the replay would have been nice – but I don’t know if it just streams the telecast.
This year is very different from any that I can remember. It is not the typical well-oiled preseason team that fans are use to seeing. The injuries, the blending of players in new or temporary roles, as well as trying to work injured players back into the lineup has led to key lapses. We may not see the full potential of the team for another month as Mitchem and Greeley work their way in. I expect we will see a very good team come post season. Congrats to Sibley for coming up big and being so smart with her shots – great job. Both Anderson and Baby G served well, and Smith shows why she was so highly regarded in So. CA. Iosia is coming along nicely.
A couple of things before the poll comes out
They aren’t going to move Maglio to the right. If you watch Taylor when she hits left, she is not all that effective. Her money shot is the D or when she’s on the right.
someone questioned whether her teammates saw her crying. of course they did. and they came together during the challenge in what can only be called a group hug.
What Taylor told me afterwards is that she was fine. nothing she hadn’t had to deal with before. It was both her elbow (hurt on a block in Set 3) and her knee. (think she landed awkwardly in Set 5)
UH drops to 15.
https://www.avca.org/polls/di-women/9-12-2016.html
http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=39237
yup, see new thread