Michigan Thread

[cicvi17]

Just a quick note to start this off - the online archives go back to 2004, and there hasn't been a time since then that this team has lost three straight matches at home - until now. There were a couple of times they lost back-to-backs or three-of-four, but never three in a row. Time to turn up the head in that building that make it miserable for Michigan - and after Dayton, the team I root for next is Michigan. So tonight, I'll root for the Wolverines in football and hope they get their doors blown off in volleyball!

[ud69]

Michigan over Pepperdine - 20-18 in the fifth. This was a long long match. First set went to 32.

[ud69]

Down to the Wolverines 2-0 at the break. Way too many mistakes. This team is a work in progress.

Flyers get swept 3-0. Yuch.

[Chris R]

I think UD tried to set to the left side 97% of the time and the right side 3% of the time. I saw nothing to the right except for maybe one or two slides, and we never set anything with the quick set/hit. To me, this lack of diversity allows Top-25 defenses to telegraph everything we do. Im no volleyball expert, but thats what my eyes tell me. The offense was predictable on almost every point.

Still a lot of mistakes out there. Poor receives, sets that are 8 feet away from the net, and we do seem to take nearly enough of an angle on our kill attempts. They are too shallow and get dug too easy. We need to kill those balls close to the 10 foot line so teams cannot get under the ball. Obviously that means jumping higher on kills, but I dont know any other way around solving this long-term against the non A10 programs.

As I said in another thread, you gotta stop losing before you start winning. Right now we're still beating ourselves with mistakes the other Top-35 teams have ironed out. Its only 3-4 points a game, but thats all its taking between winning 3-1 and losing 3-1. Case in point there were 2-3 times when Michigan had a poor receive that sailed just over the net. In the past, Fletemier would have pounded each of those into the ground for easy points. Tonight, we did not put those chances away without making it far more difficult than needed.

As I also said however this is a totally different team than the past 2-3 years. Sheff is asking players to do things and take on responsibilities that are new roles. They've never done it before. There will be more bumps in the road. The hope is this rugged schedule will prepare us for St. Louis and Xavier.

[UDBrian]

We did not play well in any aspect of the game.

It did seem like we set the ball mostly to Yvonne and Rachel on the left side an awful lot but when you look at the stats there were 62 sets to Yvonne and Rachel and then 24 to Megan and Shayne. So Yvonne and Rachel received 72% of the sets which is definitely a little heavy but not as much as it seemed. When you look at Michigan they had five players sharing the sets with 26, 28, 24, 18, 21 chances. That is truely great balance.

Rachel and Yvonne are definitely our two heavy hitters. But, where the sets go is also caused by mediocre passing. When the pass is off the net the setter is usally moving when they set the ball. They don't have much choice in this instance, they either set the back row attacker or the left outside. Backsetting when you are running after a ball is DIFFICULT but the further you are off the net the harder it is for the right side hitter. If you set the right side hitter from far off the net the ball is actually coming in over their head toward their right hand. Imagine trying to hit that ball and not get blocked. Low percentage play by the setter.

I was actually impressed with Sam's play. I thought she was pretty accurate, especialy when she wasn't running after the ball. I also think that she is a very good defensive player.

There are a couple of things that really show up in the stats:

1) Michigan had 53 kills to our 34 which is a concern. It is a big concern that they they had 120 attempts to our 96. This makes me believe that they were in their offense a lot more than we were. We were in scrample mode too often.

2) Michigan had side out percentages 68%, 73% and 69%. I didn't think that we served the ball as well as we can and Michigan passed the ball really well. If you allow the other team to side out at 70% you had better be almost perfect to have a chance at winning a close set.

3) We had one ace and seven service errors. And we had four service return errors. That is a negative ten points by itself. Those points are tough to make up when the other team is siding out at 70%

4) Their 6'4" middle blocker Courtney Fletcher killed us. She had 17 kills in only 21 attempts and hit .667 for the match. We cannot be that soft in the middle.

5) I think our passing needs to improve, it is spotty imho. I do think it will get better as players get more comfortable.

This team will improve and let's enjoy watching that happen. I expected some bumps in the road and think that this level of competition was needed to raise the bar for the rest of the season.

[UDBrian]

I missed adding a couple of positive things that happened in yesterday's match. Megan Campbell was 7 out of 13 in kill chances yesterday. She also blocked the ball well with 6 block assists. Shayne Brown hit the ball well toward the end of the match, she has pretty good power. Rachel K blocked the ball well and had six block assists.

The team will be out for bear this upcoming weekend.

[UDBrian]

I have mentioned mediocre passes. Not every pass is going to be three feet from the net. When you are playing defense it is very tough to dig a spike and pass that ball three feet from the net where the setter is positioned. I do understand the difficulty for the passers because I have played both positions (not at this level either). But, when the pass is way off the net it is very easy for the other team to set their blockers and defense.