Wahine-Beach rewind
Sorry for the delay. trying to help Ann Miller with quotes from Gimmillaro but not luck. It’s almost 10 p.m. and The Beach is still in the locker room.
Box not up yet at UHathletics.com
In Brief: UH hit 271 for the match, 143 in set 4. The Beach 128, 058 in Set 4. UH 15.5-9.5 edge in blocks, 65-54 edge in digs. 1 ace, 7 SEs. The beach 4 aces, 9 SEs
Taylor 12-1-25, Vorster 5-1-11, Manu-Olevao 11-3-25, Hartong 21-8-56, Adolpho 7-4-16, Kastl 1-1-3. 18 digs by Longo. Adolpho with 2 solo and 4 BA, Taylor 7 BA, Vorster 1 solo 7 BA.
Yes, Hartong used too much.
Yes, Gimmillaro has always been this way. Actually think he’s mellowed.
Yes, it should have been a sweep.
Yes, think that by not closing out Set 3 with the starters that they let The Beach back in the match. But I do think with leads of 21-9 and 24-12 Shoji didn’t think the subs couldn’t finish it.
Still for those who have a long-standing hatred of The Beach, the feeling is you can never beat them too badly, right?
I think Hartong willed the team not to lose in Set 4. Things did get dicey at 22-22. After going to the OHs so much, Uiato wisely set the middle. think the Beach was convinced the ball was only going to go OH so left the middle pretty open.
the road trip is going to be interesting. Cal Poly Friday, UCSB Saturday. Although I do think Hawaii will handle the Mustangs much as they handled them in Honolulu. The real test will be UCSB Saturday.
It will be the Gauchos’ lone match of the week.
Gotta wonder if Shoji isn’t rethinking his agreeing to being the lone wolf. We’ll see how the weekend goes then.
Standings
CSUN 9-1
UCSB 8-1
Hawaii 7-3
UC Davis 6-4
Long Beach 5-4
Cal Poly 4-5
UCI 2-7
Fullerton 2-8
UC R 0-10
At least tonight we finally got glimpses of how the team was playing before things fell apart a couple weeks ago.
I like the change up that Shoji did with Mendoza coming in for Manu Olevao instead of Taylor. He did it in the last game game on Friday but it looks like it’s the new game plan now. It helped that Mendoza was hot tonight.
It also helped that they started the match with a more diversified offense. If I recall correctly the Wahine had already scored 10/11 points before Hartong had her first set. Great start.
Good effort by the Wahine. Olevao did better; maybe it’s best to let her concentrate on offense and not do so much passing. Agree that the double sub sometimes disrupts the rhythm, but I’d like to see more of Goodman especially if one of the other hitters is struggling. Kawamura did well defensively, but she really needs to stop making serving errors if she wants to play. Longo and Mendoza were consistent, as always.
Seniors anchored effort, but Nikki and Tai definitely got some good licks in, too. Middles were used effectively after steady diet of high outside sets. Liked Jade’s energy and enthusiasm. Sarah at Tai’s backrow middle makes sense as it takes some pressure off of Tai and let’s her step back some and take a look at what other teams block is doing/taking away. It was painful to watch LBSU’s M2 trying to close on Hartong, Tai and Nikki. Okpala and Mackie did well but we started to dig their cross court and run some quicker offense. Yes, I’ve loved watching BG and won’t forget the times he’s come in and stopped Wahine seasons. The more pain the better for him. I wanted him carded more for all the whining and faces and pointing, but winning is better I think. Now road will tell extent of comeback, but agree it’s in team’s grasp and do hope they can keep the ship on a steady keel and keep stroke insync & coordinated and save season for 7 Seniors. Seems to be a lot of things out of Wahine’s hands right now, but do believe UCD or UCN can falter and one will have to beat other so only one other loss needed for Wahine to tie for first. Fingers crossed. Go Wahine!
Can someone explain what happened on the last two plays, was at the game and everything went by so fast
What time did LBSU finally come out of the locker room?
The reason our OH’s did well against the Beach is their MB was slow in closing the block. So our hitters were able to hit the seams or tool the blockers. Once the Beach started cheating to the outside, that opened up our Middle Attack which flourished towards the ending of set 4. UCSB & Northridge have better blockers who are quick to close the block against our outside hitters. If Hawaii is gonna find success against these teams, they are going to have to quicken the tempo to beat out the block, Mita be more offensive to keep the blockers honest, and practice blocking the slides. Northridge loves running the slide which was one of the reasons for their success. LBSU middles hit for a high percentage last night because Hawaii could NOT stop the slide. Other than that, hitters just need to play with heart and be resilient and everything will be alright.
Don’t know exactly. they didn’t come out into the arena but walked around the inner concourse.
It was around 1015 when one of the players yelled from the other end of the arena to the SID and assistant coach who were still with me courtside that they were in the van waiting for them.
5: Re: LBS middles … Okpala hit .409 9 0 22. UH didn’t block her but they did dig her. She was very athletic, looked more like a high jumper a la Amber Kaufman. Hampton hit 300 7-1-20. it wasn’t so much her on the slide as it was her being 6-6
UH did have trouble when they ran Mackie behind Hampton on the double, had to honor both.
2. Hot, Kawamura had 1 SE out of 9 attempts last night and 3 big digs at the end of Set 4.
#5 Don’t know that UCSB and Northridge have better blockers, Long Beach actually leads the Big West in blocking. I would say that Long Beach has more physical talent than any team in the conference other than Hawaii, they have just had so many injuries and are not the best TEAM in the conference.
I think it’s a matter of the passing was so bad that they knew where the ball was going so the block had time got set up. Long Beach beat UCSB at home, no reason why we can’t too as long as we play well.
LBS is big but as 5. mentioned slow and the team as a whole seemed like a poor digging and average blocking team.
na wahine will have their work cut out for them on the road. additionally, saw the replay when
in the crucial 2nd set LBS started to climb back being 7 points down bringing it to 20-18.
insertion of Kastl; her pass and kill turned it around again (check it out). BLUF she doesn’t get much credit. perhaps maybe she should come in rather than mendoza for olevao on defense. middles still not productive as they should be… mitt and kalei need to work some things out. na wahine have too many unforced errors having compared and watched the michigan state penn state match, i really don’t think na wahine can keep up with either team or a number of teams in the Big Ten. (IMHO).
#10 Hawaii can be competitive against anyone in the Big 10 IF they pass well.
The absolutely demolished Northwestern who is a middle of the pack Big 10 team this year. They almost beat Nebraska before losing in 5.
UCSB & Northridge may NOT have better blockers, but they out blocked Hawaii 17 to 11 & 16 to 14 respectively. True, most of it was due in part to the tough serving which led to the obvious set to the outside. My hope is that Hawaii DOES NOT get discouraged to the point where instead of playing to win, they play NOT TO LOSE. They need to go out there and play their hearts out, and know that whether win or lose, they KNOW they did their best and not have any regrets.
#10 even if passing comes around the middles are not in concert like the beginning of the season. they (na wahine) were playing with abandon then and as #12 states playing to win then. they look tentative now. hope they turn this around but you can see that on the court now. watching other teams in the middle of conference play now makes one seem how much they have regressed. hope they find their early season form.
Used to complain about hearing the refrain, “It was ugly but we’ll take it” as if you’ll give it back. But after those 3 conference losses, not pretty or what, a win is a win is a win.
Obvious that nose-bleed high of a No. 3 RPI in the first NCAA RPI of the season was too good to be true — and if it sounds too good to be true, you know the rest. But Stella is on the right path to getting her groove back. Coach says, UC Davis or LBSU needs to help Stella.
Week 6 of the Conference Season begins. Go Bows! And Go LBSU and UC Davis!
11. That was a different wahine team, the team that’s playing now would have lost 3-4 matches in pre season. They have looked extremely average for almost a month now.
The replay just started on OC 16. It’s 1-0 LBSU and bozo says Hawai`i not off to a good start.
I wonder if they have a mike by the net because when Hartong hits it’s like an explosion.
17. as mentioned before, when i watched the replay it sounded louded than the arena. and that the mic likely was moved.
15. or more easily scouted 20 matches in.
Last night’s match was amazing in a lot of ways. Despite the fact that the LB coach is “like that”, I wonder how he is really perceived by others. He may have mellowed but many were put off by his antics last night leaving me to wonder if he is the best for the team and school.
I cannot help but wonder how his antics affect the team. They didn’t seem to enjoy the game and how many players actually confront linesmen as their libero did?
On another vein…what happened to Kristina Kam and Elizabeth Blake?
20. Lizzie retired after the 2011 season
Kristina Kam was on the mainland, think Fresno Pacific, but was injured again and has been back in Hawaii for the past few months rehabbing. Not sure if she’ll ever play again. may have a medical redshirt left. not sure.
4. thought we had explained what happened.
23-22. Beach hits long. one linesman called a touch (linesman on the Beach side) but all other refs didn’t see it. Up ref over rules the one line call.. Beach protested. Up ref issued a yellow. which is a warning. if he had issued a Red it would have been a point and ended the game. Gimmillaro within his rights to ask for the refs to discuss and concur. they didn’t.
24-22. Beach setter hits the net. Up ref calls a net. game over.
So does Hawaii have a chance to still win the conference title?
I think it depends how this second round plays out as to whether we win the conference title or not. I THINK we have three losses while some teams have only one so it depends how those teams play and whether we win all of our games from this day forth…
24. Yes it depends on how the rest of the season goes. If Hawaii wins the rest and UCSB beats Northridge then there will be a three way tie for first at 13-3. I believe the winner is determined by the head-to-head matches with the three teams. But if Northridge only loses to Hawaii and beats UCSB then they win the conference. If Hawaii loses any more matches and we assume Northridge and UCSB do not lose to anyone else besides each other then Hawaii will be third at most.
9. Cindy, I agree Kawamura had a good night defensively, and I really like her serve. It just seems that every match, she makes at least one serving error; more if she plays full time. Fans have noticed that and perhaps Shoji as well, since Courtney Lelepali has won that job back the past several matches.
11. jake, disagree about Kastl subbing instead of Mendoza. If anyone is needed as a back row sub, it is Mendoza. She steadies the passing more than any of the other players other than Longo. Kastl brings some spark as a sub; but she had her chances last year and she was just as inconsistent as Olevao. She still is now.
On another note, Kalei Adolpho. She had a string of big matches early this season and seemed almost unstoppable. Agree that she has improved her speed compared to last year, but when you compare her to the opposing middles, she’s still a step too slow.
27. was just replying to your comment about her service errors, saying she had 1 SE in 9 attempts.
If anyone is curious how players do match to match, it’s available through the UH website and stat page.
here is the link to Kawamura’s. But you’d have to go back to the individual boxes to get the total attempts.
http://www.hawaiiathletics.com/custompages/Stats/Wvb/2013/plyr_16.htm
25. Sharene, this original post has the standings.
24. yes but they have to win out, have other teams beat UCSB & CSUN.
if it comes to a tie-break one tiebreaker is head-to-head Sets W-L … Example: UH ties with CSUN &* UCSB so if UH beat UCSB & CSUN second round in less than 5 sets UH has the tie-break. if it goes 5 sets, then it would go to point differential.
The schedule for the top 4
CSUN 9-1 at UCI, at Long Beach State hosts Cal Poly, UCSB, at Hawaii, at UCDavis
UCSB 8-1 hosts Hawaii, at UC Davis at CSUN, hosts Fullerton, hosts UCR, at Beach, at UCI
Hawaii 7-3 at Cal Poly, at UCSB, hosts UCD, hosts CSUN, at UCR, at Fullerton
Davis 6-4 hosts Beach, at UCI, hosts UCSB, host Cal Poly, at Hawaii, hosts CSUN
How I see things shaking out and I’m not going to sugar coat it.
The chance of Hawai`i winning the Big West is pretty slim, too much has to happen and this team may not be done losing Big West matches yet.
The RPI will probably fall below the magical #16 number today or in the very near future so forget about hosting.
Hawaii’s RPI will be good enough to be in the tournament but seeding won’t be in their favor.
We are at the point where only miracles will save this season.
After it is all over the conversation will turn to ….what happened ?
We need to win out and get help from LBS and/or UCDavis or both. We also need to improve our over-all game. Coach subbing for Tai in the back row and going with Niki for the full rotation was a good start. Innovative thinking on the coaching staffs part. Niki is an athlete!
Cindy, re #28…earlier in the year I was critical of the service specialists for their many service errors, especially Ginger Long and Kayla Kawamura. For awhile both have not been entering the games as service specialists with Lelepali, Mendoza, and occasionally Higgins taking up the slack. The last two matches Kawamura has been given another chance to serve regularly, mostly because she has a nice knuckle serve that dances and they are home games (she is not always on the travel roster). If she limits her errors to 1 in 9 serves, she should continue in this role. Just hope that she does not go back to her early days when service errors were frequent. Anyways, I am a fan of hers and hope she continues to do well.
Yup, what happened?
Did you vote today ?
http://www.seniorclassaward.com/vote/volleyball_2013/
strongly agreed with #32comment… i am loving the changes the coach did (Passing pattern) keeping Nikki in all rotations and hitting out of the back… now if they ran the quick two’s, more slides to Hartong, they would be ready and harder to scout come post season.
35. Not sure if you were asking if I voted today … No, I don’t vote because I am on the CLASS media selection committee. My voting is done through another process.
No I wasn’t asking you Cindy,just your followers.
UH has once again nominated Hartong for BW POW. When you nominate the same person every week that says a lot.
+1 in the poll.
I was thinking Ali Longo for her 36 digs in 7 sets for POW.
My guess would be Devon Damilo of Davis, Emily’s hitting pct would probably hold her back.
41. Longo would have been a good choice.