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Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - FarmBoy - 12-15-2017

That 5th set was demoralizing to watch. I think the announcers had it right, though. Florida just seemed to have more energy and passion. Plus their hitters were phenomenal.

I disagree with Langdude that FL didn't deserve to win the match. They earned the win completely.

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - qwerty49 - 12-15-2017

This is too much - now we complain about pro-Stanford bias?! 🙄

Karch Kiraly is not just an announcer. He’s also head coach of the USA National WVB team.

The dude’s a legend in the sport. Only Olympic gold medalist in both indoor and beach VB. As in no other man or woman has done that. He can say whatever he wants as far as I’m concerned.

He’s seen Stanford play a lot this year and I think what we saw and heard reflected his expectations that we would play up to our potential and better than we actually did.

FL played great D and dug everything. But we gave them too many second chances and there was no room to recover in a 15-point 5th set.

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - Langdude - 12-15-2017

Perhaps I am too hard on FL? I'm trying to articulate what I was thinking while watching the match. It seemed that FL did not look like a NC-caliber team (to me, anyway), yet they won because they didn't make mistakes and Stanford did. I did not feel FL was overpowering, even with their defense. Maybe I should say that Stanford did not deserve to win, and FL did not deserve to lose. I dunno. Trying to make sense of it.

-m.

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - 81alum - 12-15-2017

This team gave me a lot of pleasure watching them over the year.  While we would all have liked another championship, I think they did well given their extreme youth.  In the end--the very very end as it turns out--I think their youth and lack of experience showed just a bit, with an otherwise outstanding freshman not playing up to her usual capacity.  But these kids are going to get better next year and better yet the next.  The future for Stanford WVB looks bright.

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - FarmBoy - 12-15-2017

(12-15-2017, 10:22 AM)Langdude link Wrote:Perhaps I am too hard on FL? I'm trying to articulate what I was thinking while watching the match. It seemed that FL did not look like a NC-caliber team (to me, anyway), yet they won because they didn't make mistakes and Stanford did. I did not feel FL was overpowering, even with their defense. Maybe I should say that Stanford did not deserve to win, and FL did not deserve to lose. I dunno. Trying to make sense of it.

-m.

My impression watching the match was that their defense was better than our offense and we weren't able to stop their attack at times. Perhaps we played below our potential in sets 1, 2 and 5, but I think a lot of that had to do with both their defense and offense.

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - Phogge - 12-15-2017

Somebody please go over to Bobbbbbb's house with some chicken soup. The low point of his year.

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - Viking_Guy - 12-15-2017

My opinion, watching:

(1) As always, passing.  Stanford was just off all night long, including Hentz.  Way too many times, Gray was setting a highball from about 12 feet off the net.  And it's not like all of them were forced - we overpassed on a freeball, for gosh sakes.

(2) Neither Gray nor Fitzmorris had a good match.  Normally, that's survivable - but Plummer was also mortal; don't know if she was hurt, but she was definitely off.  Gray's sets appeared low all night long, at least partly due to #1 above.  Merete had a really good match, McClure had 4 of 5 good sets, and Alade was fine when she got a set, which wasn't often, again because of #1.

(3) Rotation 4.  And to a certain extent 5.  The rotation with Gray, Fitzmorris, and McClure in the frontline absolutely killed Stanford in the fifth set.  It's WAY too limited offensively against a great team - the only options appear to be a high set to McClure at the pin and Fitzmorris on the slide - and Florida was sitting on both.  The Gators knew that they could cover the slide and still have their MB get over on McClure.  They also didn't seem to be willing to set Plummer in that set, and those 5 errors by McClure were the difference.

And with Plummer, Gray, and Fitz in the frontline, again, only two offensive options.  Stanford really needs to develop some more backrow attackers.  Heck, I even thought "Why doesn't Plummer set the Gray/Fitz/McClure rotation, and let Gray swing?"  Because only two offensive options are NOT going to win against elite competition.  Especially a senior-laden elite competitor.

The last and largest thing - the Inky-shaped hole.  I think it's always tough when you lose an emotional and talented leader like that, especially if the best players on your team are younger. I think to a certain extent that's what WBB is going through - their best players are younger, and the leadership roles haven't shaken out - Smith and Lutz being great players, but not the "fire folks up" kind of leaders.

A good season.  But Nebraska is going to be REALLY good next year as well.

VG

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - 76lsjumb - 12-15-2017

It wasn't our best match of the season, but, given that we were playing a higher-seeded team, coached by the National Coach of the Year, that had a block arguably as good as any we have faced, that had [started?] five seniors, at least one of whom is one of those highly inspirational "we're not losing this match" types [think Oganna, Inky, etc.], and that had already had at least one [maybe two?] post-season victories of the "destiny is on our side this year" variety,  our performance wasn't exactly mediocre, club-level volleyball, either.  We dropped the first two and, instead of folding, came back to play two pretty good sets.  Unfortunately, in Set 5, the weapons that had worked so well in Sets 3 and 4 -- Lutz and McClure  -- were largely neutralized, we got a bad rotation, and Florida put it away.

Kiraly and Sunderland thought that we were too loose in Sets 1 and 2.  Maybe, but it seemed to me that the two Kansans were, possibly, a little too wound up.  Those certainly were not Fitz's best two sets of the season, and a lot of her errors seemed relatively unforced.  Similarly, Gray's setting was not as crisp as it had been recently. Granted that our passing was not particularly good, but Jenna's often good enough to overcome that, but not so much last night.  And, as good as our serving had been over the course of the season, it seemed "just okay" last night.  And, as the commentators pointed out, Hentz was not much of a factor in Sets 1 and 2, but had some almost superhuman plays in Sets 3 and 4, and even in Set 5.

I think this team, as a whole, may have been one of the best Stanford has ever had.  There was really no weak link.  While we may not have had the best player ever at each position, the whole team [including the bench] was incredibly solid and consistent.  That is what allowed this team to be so successful over the course of the season and even last night after the first two sets. The only thing it looks to me that this team maybe didn't [doesn't yet] have is the "we're not going to lose this match!!" player that you need -- and that Florida appeared to have this year -- when things are going south at crunch time.  Last night, it looked like Merete, not surprisingly, was doing all she could to be that player, but that doesn't seem to be her natural demeanor [which is not at all meant as a criticism, particularly since, without her play in Sets 3 and 4, we likely would have been swept].  She's going to be hard to replace.

As young and talented as this team is, though, and as good as Hambly appears to be from the job he did this season, there's lots of reason for optimism, last night's Set 5 notwithstanding.

And, since Penn State lost as well, at least we don't have to worry about falling behind in WVB Nat'l Championships this year.  So there's that...



Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - FarmBoy - 12-15-2017

Plummer named player of the year by AVCA

https://twitter.com/StanfordWVB/status/941740084788940801

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - BobK - 12-15-2017

Congrats to Plummer.  So well deserved.

Great comments here.  I thought Florida served well made passing hard meant Gray slightly off on some sets and that was enough. 

Plus in the 5th set Florida passing was great most of the set which meant sets were at the net abd Florida was hitting straight down. 

We thought as we ran through Florida in sets 3 and 4 the 5th was ours.

Still an awesome season with 30 we bs just 4 losses abd 3 to Final 4 teams. 

I see incoming Frosh Campbell starting at MB and Fitzmorris moving to OPP.  We have a great Frosh coming in at OPP and a lefty.  So just my guess. 





Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - Mick - 12-16-2017

(12-15-2017, 10:10 AM)qwerty49 link Wrote:This is too much - now we complain about pro-Stanford bias?! 🙄

Karch Kiraly is not just an announcer. He’s also head coach of the USA National WVB team.

The dude’s a legend in the sport. Only Olympic gold medalist in both indoor and beach VB. As in no other man or woman has done that. He can say whatever he wants as far as I’m concerned.

He’s seen Stanford play a lot this year and I think what we saw and heard reflected his expectations that we would play up to our potential and better than we actually did.

FL played great D and dug everything. But we gave them too many second chances and there was no room to recover in a 15-point 5th set.

I may be the only person on this board who's played against Karch.  Even as a 20 year old, he was very businesslike on the court.  He knows the sport through and though and has a healthy attitude about it.  I'll defer to him on volleyball commentary 100 x out of 100.

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - oldalum - 12-16-2017

(12-15-2017, 12:24 PM)Viking_Guy link Wrote:(2) Neither Gray nor Fitzmorris had a good match. 
I wonder if playing in KC made them press a little too much to be good.

Seems like, bottom line, Florida's serving and passing were better than ours in the fifth set.

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - UltimateCard - 12-16-2017

(12-16-2017, 11:11 AM)oldalum link Wrote:[quote author=Viking_Guy link=topic=18281.msg218305#msg218305 date=1513365862](2) Neither Gray nor Fitzmorris had a good match. 
I wonder if playing in KC made them press a little too much to be good.
[/quote]

That, and it was Thursday of finals week (Stanford scholar-athletes will not use that as an excuse but it couldn't have helped, especially with a young team).

Re: WVB - on to the Sweet 16 - BobK - 12-16-2017

https://mobile.twitter.com/aauvolleyball/status/941785368663330816

Plummer accepts her award