Think Pink Hawaii 3, CSUN 0
Preview of tonight’s jerseys. They’re still working on a way to auction them off.
Pestolesi had the polos made over summer for the staff
Match at 7 p.m.
TV: OCSports
Radio: 1420-AM
espn1420am.com
livestats
http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=140322
COMMENTS
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Nice. Oh, the unis too.
Some interesting scores: Indiana over OSU, TCU over Kansas St…
Shoji used a short bench last night letting Annie ad Mags serve. I thought both served fairly tough with movement on the ball. Both dug and passed okay in the back row. I have a feeling Dave is looking to see how effective Mags can hit out of the back. We already saw Annie can be another weapon back there, maybe Mags can be also..
UCSB up 2-0 at UCI…
I like when Taylor and Annie are in the back row we have 2 weapons who can pound the ball. I also like when Annie and Taylor are in the front row. Probably our best rotation.
1) Nebraska def. Rutgers 25-10, 25-14, 25-12
3) Wisconsin def. Purdue 25-22, 26-24, 22-25, 16-25, 15-10
4) Kansas def. Oklahoma 23-25, 25-23, 25-20, 27-25
7) San Diego def. Pacific 25-21, 25-23, 25-19
9) UCLA def. Arizona State 25-21, 25-22, 25-19
11) Penn State def. Iowa 25-11, 25-16, 25-17
13) Stanford def. 19) Utah 25-22, 25-20, 25-16
14) BYU def. Saint Mar’ys 25-21, 25-19, 25-23
16) Michigan State def. Illinois 25-16, 25-20, 25-22
17) Michigan def. Northwestern 25-17, 17-25, 25-19, 25-17
21) Western Kentucky def. Middle Tennessee 25-10, 25-21, 25-13
22) Ohio State lost to Indiana 22-25, 23-25, 25-17, 23-25
Big West
UC Santa Barbara def. UC Irvine, 25-22, 25-18, 25-21
Cal Poly at UC Davis going 5
Cal Poly def. UC Davis, 20-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 15-8
Some audience participation encouraged tonight Billy V went through the music and the hand gestures for block and match-ending kill.
CSUN brought 15 players, Big West limit for travel squads.
LBSU shows 17 on roster but prolly also brought 15.
same lineup for UH
Burns, Mitchem, Iosia, Greeley, Taylor, Kahakai, Maglio
9-10. not sure what your point is.
Beach used 12 players last night.
Shoji is only coach with 14 on travel squad.
Annie picking up right where she left off with three kills already
Iosia with an ace, it’s 11-4. TO CSUN
13. so? they choose to travel 14.
Maglio and then Mitchem put down overpasses of Kahakai’s serves. It’s 18-6. TO CSUN
Annie still w/error, and no netting so far!
Stroke challenging whether block was in on out. Original call was out.
Errata, “without” in previous.
Call stands. it’s 21-7. Higgings in to set and Koelsch in. for Taylor at Opp
UH wins 25-9
UH 14-1-24, only error was on Burns getting blocked on a trap set.
Smart move to rest NT, needed for post season.
UH up 15-9 at the TTO in Set 2.
24. they still have 4 more conference matches left. She isn’t resting. She’s still in Set 2.
UH on a 4-0 run. It’s 18-9. TO CSUN
double sub in again, Higgins and Koelsch.
Mitchem ends it 25-14
Castillo in for Burns.
It has gotten ugly.
Stork challenging whether ball hit the antenna off the block or not. And it wasn’t. UH up 6-5
Granato doing a nice job.
CSUN not waiting for the TTO, UH up 14-9. TO Matadors
Stork using his third challenge, questioning a no touch call
Stork 0 for 3. UH up 17-11
Ross in for Taylor. Higgins also in.
33. she had a good night last as well.
Mitchem ends it 25-16.
Dave just said that they are established. That this is the line up.
Love this lineup although Casey looked very good in the third set.
Emma is a gem and she will just get better and better.
Happy that Granato is playing well and even her passing is much improved.
Huge difference in seeing how bith of our setters run the offense. There is no comparison between Iosia and Higgins.
‘ekahi ‘elua aloha. dominate, crush and destroy. once again!
Love Kalei, really do hope she plays beach for the 2018 and 2019 beach seasons her skill set is perfect for the beach game.
#41. Granato handled a couple of serves badly. Her passing has not improved. As the match continued she became a little more erratic in her hitting. I do not know if sibley is healthy but would have liked to see her get some game experience.
I’d take .350 hitting from Mckenna and only a few shanks any day. She has played very well the past four matches.
Several things that have become clear this weekend. Annie is capable of playing 6 rotations well. Emma Smith is a great passer. Savannah is back. Emily does not like to lose. Casey can still be an important contributor down the stretch. Granato is a very valuable situational front row player with a decent serve but should never be left in to receive serve. Noreen is the best freshman setter in the Country. And when you need a great serve or to end a rally, Nikki is there to accommodate. Our front liners are so good because of the team depth and coaching staff that teaches and encourages all of the players.This is the year!
IMO, Granato is doing better because of the Mitchem effect and the improved passing. Improved passing allowed UH to run the middles effectively, which opened up opportunities for the outsides and diversified the offense. As a result, numerous times this weekend, UH’s hitters were facing one or no blockers. Having two outside terminators in Mitchem and Taylor also reduces pressure on Granato. In particular, everyone is seeing how Mitchem can impact a match from the left versus the middle. Her hitting efficiency is too good for her to be placed in the middle this year. Also, Greeley is replacing Granato in the back, so there are fewer opportunities for Granato to shank serves received. Finally, Northridge is not a great team, so Granato won’t be hitting .350 consistently from here on out, although I’d be ecstatic with a .250 average, including matches against taller teams.
47. Agree wholeheartedly. Now the team needs to gel and be consistently focused with the current lineup in place. Approach each match with a killer instinct so they have the momentum going into tournament. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
If Annie isn’t the Big West offensive player of the week, then she will have been robbed. This weekend, she was 25-2-47 for .489, 15 points each match, 3 aces, 7 digs, 4 BAs. Team leader both matches.
Maverick, I think you are on to something with your”Mitchem Effect” theory. Most of the recent positive changes are probably connected in some way to this.
47…….Spot on!!! We have got to have the same vision!!! A couple more things I would like to add: Annie is the secret underrated weapon for this much improving team…The lineup is set!…Start the BIGS, bring in Granato when Greenly rotates to front. Please don’t sneak her back to serve receive. The only time she cam go to the back is for serving. I still rather use a DS to serve, then get ready to make a pass….If we stick to the lineups vs. LBS and CSUN we could/should advance very far in postseason. I predicted a Hawaii Sweep vs. LBS. Now, I predict Hawaii going very deep into the postseason tournament. The best 2 nights of volleyball by far this year
Good passing which allows the wahines to set the middle is huge. It opens up the pin hitters against single blocks. Annie had her best weekend. Seemed like Nikki enjoyed not having to take all the swings.
It will be a grave mistake if Kalei plays beach volleyball as she needs to rest her shoulder….geez, Jeff should know that instead of encouraging her to play beach vb…how selfish can one get…geezus, he almost ruined NT during preseason scrimmage allowing her to be set over 58 times and really working her….you should already know what she can do …..i mean, she played with the U-19 team and then came home for the preseason…she should be resting but i can not get over how he overworked NT in the preseason scrimmage….fortunately, the injury wasn’t serious but can you imagine if she had pulled her shoulder or she had an injury requiring surgery…..if i was the HC, i would have gone ballistic but what do i know…..everything worked itself out although encouraging Kalei to play beach vb is really selfish on his part as her shoulder is still not 100%……
Mitchem’s effectiveness in on the left should help take the focus off of Taylor and Granato. The latter doesn’t need to finish every match with Mitchem-like hitting percentage. Nobody expects her to. She just needs to cut down on her errors and be smarter with the opposing block. Hitting .250 may be too much of an expectation. Perhaps .220 would suffice. It would be fantastic if they can keep her out of the passing formation permanently, but she needs to pass every rotation she’s in the front row since Taylor doesn’t pass either. Just take her out of the back row. I’m not sure why she still serves. Can’t Smith and Guinasso do that?
Taylor’s pretty banged up, so I’m not expecting perfection of any sort from her every time. But it’s confounding how she can hit out even when the set is perfect and against the worst teams in the conference. I don’t get it.
One thing folks seem to be missing. I like the lineup, because Granato is playing L2. When the other team is running a 5-1 (a lot of college teams do) and the L2 she is looking across the net at the opposing teams setting. And not the opposite, who will usually be a blocker/hitter. Think her confidence goes up and she can just play instead of worrying about the blockers.
55 – I find Taylor very admirable, and she’s had a fantastic career at UH. However, one frustrating thing about her this season is she doesn’t hit as smart as previous years. I used to be so impressed by her roll shots, tips, and placement previous seasons. This year, whether its a good set or not, whether there’s a clear block in front of her or not, she just hits hard. Obviously, she does that well too, but its led to some pretty head-scratching errors. I wonder if her injuries have influenced this at all, but I really appreciated what she *could* do on offense. She also doesn’t seem as energetic and passionate on the court as before. But again, with all she’s been through this year, I’m sure there’s a lot going on physically and emotionally.
Mckenna is already hitting .229 if she can get it close to .250 by the end of the ncaa tournament it will be a great sophomore year for her (Nikki hit .215 her sophomore year while TMO hit .227 last year)
Taylor is hitting about the same as last year just .005 points lower.
Actuallt Nikki is hitting .265 this year while last year she hit .271, still not too drastic of a drop off .
#56 To me, Nikki looks like she wants to savor the moment. She looks pretty happy and seems to be enjoying herself. And when it came to the matches that count like at the first Beach match at the Pyramid, it was clearly the fight in Nikki that kept us in the match at all. You could see it in the determination of her face as well as the kills. To me, Nikki is just picking the moments to step it up while she is recovering – and perhaps just relishing her final few matches at the Stanley.
Since losing to LBSU, UH is 18-1 in sets, allowing an opponent to reach 20 points only three times. Currently, UH has a streak of 9 sets in which the opponent has failed to score 20 pts., tied for the season’s high.
good efficient night for the wahine against csun. like many have pointed out now, i like how this lineup is coming along, with mitchem on the outside providing another significant offensive threat, and greeley/smith subbing in on a regular basis to shore up the passing. even the 2nd middle position looks like it can be handled by either burns or castillo.
it might be ok for greeley to participate in beach. that season doesn’t start for about 2 months after the indoor season is pau. her shoulder should be stronger by then, and it can ease her into more hitting reps … all this of course, if she’s medically cleared to play (and hit) on the beach…
In 35+years of watching the wahines, I can’t remember when the team made such major adjustments so late in the season that resulted in an exponential jump in actual results and new found upside potential. The move of Mitchem to OH seems to have been the catalyst along with the continue development of Burns/Castillo at MH and Smith at DS . Wow, its like getting a reset or redo late in the season. Just amazing – and just in time for the start of the “second season” where it really counts.
Not sure why anyone wants Kalei to play beach. Don’t we have some big time talent coming into the program this season? Why not try and develop them instead of wishing some player from indoor cross over.
I honestly don’t see Kalei being all that great a beach player. She doesn’t look all that athletic. Solid indoor player but does not have hops nor does she have a powerful arm. Yeah ball placement is more important but you develop that kind of ball placement IQ by playing beach all the time(like Katie Speiler).
Two indoor players who had much more going for them did not every come close to being good. Ginger Long and Tai Manu Olevao had more upside as beach players but never got to that next level.
Just because Nicki and Maglio can do it doesn’t mean anyone can. These two have special talent and are AA/All conference type players. Kalei not so much.
Sorry but u are way off and Long was an excellent beach player.
kalei mentioned in her interview after last nights game she will consider playing beach since Jeff Hall keeps begging her to play.
Beach players do not need hops or powerful armswings to be effective (although it helps to be the best like Kerri Walsh) they need to be smart players who can do it all, I guess you don’t watch much beach volleyball.
I don’t blame jeff for wanting Kalei to play for his beach team. Kalei has great size and plays defense like a ds/libero , and has all the shots. Jeff wants to win an ncaa title and I think Kalei could help.
Beach is also not as hard on the body since sand is obviously not as hard as court.
I think Kalei’s contributions and qualities sometimes get lost or are forgotten when you have AA Taylor, the emergent Mitchem, freshman quarterback Iosia, Maglio’s 2-sport reliability, and Granato’s power swing on display. IMO, Kalei is one of the two best passers on the team, and she helps stabilize what has been a major sore point for this team. Not sexy, not POW contributions, but without it, you have a poor middle attack, and resulting over-reliance on the outsides, and lots of out-of-system plays. There is good reason why she has that “Steady Eddy” nickname. And this team did miss her in the front row at the beginning of the season.
Link to updated Big West WVB Auto-Qualifier and tie-breaker spreadsheet: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AgoVY4MJP0wagnGTEuORoQZT37gT
Note: this spreadsheet comes with no assurance of accuracy, it is not official, it is just my personal tracker. Do not rely on it. If you find any mistakes, please let me know; however I offer no assurance I’ll be updating it.
Based on this possibly out-to-lunch spreadsheet and my possibly flawed interpretation of the Big West Conf. rules, here is my summary of where things stand among the Big West WVB teams (which I urge you not to rely on):
– Irvine, Davis, CSUN, Riverside, and Fullerton have all been eliminated from the NCAA Women’s VB tournament under the first Big West Conference Auto-Qualifier (AQ) rule (Conference Match Winning %).
– SB: one (1) more loss by SB, or one more win by either LBS or HI, will eliminate SB.
– CP: any combination of CP losses plus either LBS wins or HI wins, equaling two (2), will eliminate CP.
– LBS: any combination of LBS losses plus HI wins equaling three (3), will eliminate LBS.
– HI: any combination of HI losses plus LBS wins equaling five (5), will eliminate HI.
There are other levels of contender eliminators under the first AQ rule, but at this point they need not be considered. For instance, any combination of CP wins and HI losses equaling seven (7) will tie CP with HI. But that unlikely scenario requires CP win out plus HI lose the next three out of four, or HI lose the next four and CP win three of four. But even if CP ties HI, they still have LBS in front of them. Two conference wins by LBS going forward eliminates CP no matter how CP or HI finish, and LBS is very likely to win its next three matches.
Bottom line for HI: win out and all is good as it can be at this point. Win three of the remaining four, and they’ll still win the AQ with the best conference winning%, but blow up their RPI and their seeding. Lose two or more of the next four, and likely that lets LBS back in as the AQ winner.
Remaining Conf. matches:
HI: @Irvine; @Davis; Cal Poly@home; Santa Barbara@home. This is the toughest schedule of the remaining contenders. HI needs three out of four to win the AQ, and four out of four to not blow up its RPI and seeding chances.
LBS: @CSUN; @Fullerton: Riverside@home. LBS likely to win out, but their fate will be decided by HI. However with just two wins out of three, they can eliminate both CP and SB from the AQ and earn considerable schadenfreude for themselves.
CP: Riverside@home; Fullerton@home; @Hawaii; Davis@home. CP likely to win three out of four. Realistically, they need to win out to have any chance at the AQ. They have a slim chance, but more like a slim and none chance.
SB: Fullerton@home; Riverside@home; @Hawaii; Irvine@home. SB likely to win three out of four. But one more win by either LBS or HI, or one more SB loss, and they are out of contention for the AQ. They still can earn maximum schadenfreude for themselves by ruining HI’s RPI and Senior Night, so they’ve got that to look forward to.
#65…I watch beach volleyball quite a bit(been to a couple of matches at UH’s sand court and follows the Olympic games) and no I’m not any kind of expert like you but its just my opinion on Kalei not being suit for beach. The fact that Hall is “begging” her to play does not mean Hall thinks she is going to be all that great a player. Maybe Hall wants her to join the beach to cross train and bring leadership to a young beach team.
If she was really interested and is good at it, she should have been playing the sport on her own. The fact that someone is begging her to play indicates she either doesn’t think she is all that good at it or is not that interested in the game. If you want to be good at something you got to have passion for it.
We shall see but I have my doubts.
My read on Kalei and beach is that she’s not all that into it. She’s got height, defense, serving and passing, so she could be good at it. How good is debatable, but good enough for Hall to keep asking her to join a top-5 team, which is flattering. Her reluctance to accept could reflect disinterest, or perhaps rehabbing her repaired shoulder is on her mind and she prefers to rest during the spring. Maybe a bit of both.
I’d like to know more about the #1 beach recruit we landed who is a freshman this year. Been a while since I’ve seen any UH team land a top recruit, other than perhaps men’s vb, which I don’t follow all that closely.
BTW….Hall should not be begging players to join. You put out an offer and let the players decide. If you start to put pressure on the kid and then something happen(like she get hurt or her grades suffer), then its on the coach.
Student-athletes have enough pressure playing for a top level D1 indoor team, going to school to maintain your grade and trying to get healthy. Hall need to stop the begging and give full attention to who ever is on the team.
Interesting, with all the analysis in this blog today, I hadn’t seen one comment about Mitchem possibly playing a 6 rotation. It may have been in the previous thread and I missed it, but I believe Dave said he may be putting Mitchem on 6 rotation since she did well on the pipe sets and serve/receive. That would give another weapon from the back with Nikki. I also saw a formation for the first time against LBSU. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve not seen it before. Maybe I wasn’t looking for it. It starts with Maglio looking like she’s going to do a slide, Norene sets as Maglio jumps but here comes Nikki from the rear and Norene sets a “D” set to Nikki. All this happening in a matter of a couple of seconds. The first time I saw it, there was confusion on the LBSU side as to who was going to get the ball. Very impressive. Actually I saw LBSU do it @ LBSU and I was wondering if Hawaii could do it as well. And they did….very well! GO BOWS!
We can’t take everything said in informal interviews too serious. Greeley seemed a little coy/humorous going over the beach questions. I highly doubt Hall would grovel over a player joining the beach team. Given what Greeley brings to the table, she IS what you want out of a big on the beach. You don’t need velocity at D1 Beach Volleyball as of right now. Sure, it’s a bigger thing on the pro circuit or internationally, but if you watch College Beach Volleyball, the main two elements are passing/defense and setting/blocking.
73 – Shoji usually begins adding wrinkles in the offense IF there are players capable of the combo-plays. He’s pretty conservative, so very rarely will there be combo-plays unless he has the personnel for it.
Tano and Duggins used to run X-Plays. Same with Cubi-Otineru and Kaufman. We also saw Houston, Danielson, and especially Hartong run slides. Other than that, most plays have been quite basic.
What Maglio has been doing is a tight slide right behind the setter (aka Back 1). We haven’t seen the middles run many slides to the pin because Taylor is available on the 5 and D-set. But running Maglio on a tight slide right behind the setter could give her or Taylor a one-on-one.
I think Coach Hall motivation is as he said “beach help them develop their indoor game”. Not sure why all these he’s being selfish comments. Who would not want Kalei on a team. She seems like a wonderful team mate.
I’d like to see Annie hit from the backrow a lot this road trip as well as Mckenna when she is in there, she can be very effective from there as well as we saw in the Arizona match.
I know that beach helps with players indoor play, I’m only concerned about Kalei not healing up 100% or getting re-injured. Yup, there are risks involved for any sport in any season, but since she’s not 100% right now, and not sure if the remainder of the season will prevent her from being 100% OR not, we will have to see. If coach hall is willing to wait for Kalei possibly not being 100% beach season or get to 100% during the season and kalei wants to, then go for it.
Picture Maglio and Greeley as Beach partners. That would be awesome. As far as Kalei’s Health. I’m sure she would not play if she was not close to 100%.
couple of things. I have never heard Hall “beg” Greeley to play beach. She has said she doesn’t want to play and this spring will be a good time for her to rest the shoulder.
The SandBows continue to move more towards beach-only players but Hall (and Wong) previously) encourage anyone who wants to do both to do so. It gives UH an edge over some other programs that don’t allow their indoor players to cross over.
while I agree that Iosia is the better setter, I think Higgins should be giving a lot of credit. the coaches have said that her attitude has contributed to the mentality of the team where the goal is to have the best team on the court. She’s in a touch position coming in off the bench cold. it takes a while to adjust.
As for “this is the lineup” .. it is until they have to change it for whatever reason.
Sunday top 25
2) Minnesota def. Maryland 25-16, 25-19, 25-22
6) Florida def. Mississippi State 25-23, 25-18, 25-14
8) Washington def. Oregon State 25-20, 20-25, 25-19, 25-19
10) Florida State lost to North Carolina 25-13, 25-21, 11-25, 22-25, 13-15
12) North Carolina def. Florida State 13-25, 21-25, 25-11, 25-22, 15-13
18) Kentucky lost to Missouri 18-25, 21-25, 19-25
20) Oregon def. Washington State 25-16, 25-20, 21-25, 15-25, 15-8
23) Washington State lost to Oregon 16-25, 20-25, 25-21, 25-15, 8-15
24) Dayton def. La Salle 25-17, 25-22, 25-17
25) Creighton def. Xavier 25-16, 25-23, 25-21