Fordham Thread

[BeckysTXA]

Should be a 3-0 sweep tonight -- and I would expect to see a lot of players getting court time. Can't overlook anyone, or you get beat. We need to focus and take care of business, getting in and out of the gym quickly and healthy. But bottom-line is we have more talent than Fordham deep into our bench.

[Figgie123]

BeckysTXA, I agree. That should have happened on Tuesday, yet 2 of the 3 sets were taken to the limit, with one past the limit. I wanted to see second-stringers in the for the entire 3rd set, and we just didn't have it.

Beating Fordham will still most likely drop our RPI, unfortunately.

[BeckysTXA]

Sadly I agree on the RPI even with a sweep. It doesn't matter this year because we have to win the A-10 tourney to get into the NCAAs and I think we are moving towards that goal as long as we don't have anymore performances like Morehead State. What I like about tracking the RPI almost every week herein is that it starts to show fans what it takes to be in the Top 30-40 to ensure you get a wild card invite if you need it some year. And it highlights how important it is to schedule good teams. One thing I do like about our schedule this year is the mid-week matches. If we can get some teams that are in the top half of the RPI and maybe one or two in the Top 60 or so (like a Northern IA most years -- or even an Iowa State) into those mid-week matches -- even if we have to travel -- it can move us up the RPI very quickly. It's basically an education post this year. Learning how wins can move you up or down...sadly.

[BeckysTXA]

Dayton up 2-0 at intermission. First set was kind of ugly. I think we won it 25-18. When we had 12 points we had only scored 3 of those off of our own kills. Second set much better. We jumped out to a 7-1 lead. Won it 25-10.

We have 9 blocks for the night and team is hitting .274. But remember, Fordham has only won a single match this year. Our numbers should be big. We'll see if we jump on them in the 3rd set. Hope so.

Also have some interesting comments from TH in pre-match interview I'll post later.

[BeckysTXA]

UD wins 3-0 (25-8). Everyone played, most as serving specialists, but they also pulled out some aces. Freshman Hubacek comes in to serve the last two points and delivers two aces. Gotta love that!

[Figgie123]

Very good job by the ladies today.

Career highs for Gresham with 1 ace, and Hubacek with 2 aces.

Isolde Hannan moves upto 5th in career block assists with 416 passing Megan Campbell. 10 more moves her upto 4th place.

Jendryk served twice in the game in the 3rd set, and got one error. Her first serves since the 6th game of the year.

In regards to Amber's high hitting percentage, I think there is some kind of connection between Emmenecker and Erhahon for that middle kill. Emmenecker and Hannan look to be slightly off for whatever reason, but the 2 E's seem to make it work well. Nothing definitive, but I noticed it tonight, and once or twice on Tuesday.

The 8 points allowed is the least points allowed since last years sweep against La Salle where we went 11, 7 and 11. First game where we had 2 or more sets at 10 or less since the 2011 sweep against La Salle where we went 8, 9 and 9. (BTW, that was the rare perfect sideout defense game.)

[Figgie123]

Originally Posted by BeckysTXA Sadly I agree on the RPI even with a sweep. It doesn't matter this year because we have to win the A-10 tourney to get into the NCAAs and I think we are moving towards that goal as long as we don't have anymore performances like Morehead State. What I like about tracking the RPI almost every week herein is that it starts to show fans what it takes to be in the Top 30-40 to ensure you get a wild card invite if you need it some year. And it highlights how important it is to schedule good teams. One thing I do like about our schedule this year is the mid-week matches. If we can get some teams that are in the top half of the RPI and maybe one or two in the Top 60 or so (like a Northern IA most years -- or even an Iowa State) into those mid-week matches -- even if we have to travel -- it can move us up the RPI very quickly. It's basically an education post this year. Learning how wins can move you up or down...sadly.

So, with about 25 games accounted for in Friday's action, we only slid 4 RPI spots to 136. Thankfully, we only have 2 RPI-killer games left with La Salle at 7-15 and Davidson at 3-13. We have left: a top50 RPI game at home, top100 on the road, 3 100-150 (2 home, 1 away) and then a high 150-200 at home. Beat the teams we need to, lose to the best teams we play, and we will probably stay where we are. Upset, or get upset, and that will most likely move us.

[BeckysTXA]

We also hopefully have 2 matches (wins) in the A-10 Tourney which should be against the likes of SLU, VCU, GW and possible RI -- 2 of those 4 -- which will also help our RPI. We WANT to play GW in the Tourney. It's about playing the best teams you can and right now they are the highest RPI in the A-10. Besides, we want to beat them to advance to the NCAAs. Then finish the reg season by knocking off Ohio and we will be ready for the first round of the NCAAs. The first and second rounds are set up by "location" not seed or RPI. We would probably draw some Big 10 team for the 2nd round, if we knock off Ohio, we should draw a winnable first round opponent. You never know. Gotta win the rest of the A-10 matches, then the Tourney, then Ohio -- in that order. Stay focused on Rhode Island right now.

[BeckysTXA]

Comments from Horsmon & the announcer before the match:

Said we worked on offense all week -- the first set did not look like it. At 12 points, we had only scored 3 off of kills. We did get it rolling in sets 2 and 3.

Said we do well when we are in system but not so much out of system. Need to get better at terminating balls out of system.

Blocking - said two things here. First that we have some "kids" that have really high ceilings (meaning skills to be great blockers) and we need to get them going. Our block should be better.

Second thing about blocking that is actually an OFFENSIVE comment. TH said we are not transitioning out of the block. This means a pair of players goes up for the block and then they run back fast to get ready to hit offensively. He said we are not doing that well. My first thought was, "Maybe this is contributing to Alaina getting so many sets." Your left OH position gets the least amount of block attempts. It's because that position is across from the opponents right side -- and the weak side for the MBs. If you have an opponent who runs the MB slide a lot, your left OHs get more block attempts + they get whatever you set to the right side OH. So first, Alaina doesn't have to transition as much as the right side hitter and the MBs. But maybe she is doing it well and therefore "always" ready to hit. Where as maybe the MBs and right OH aren't not ready -- so Jane goes to Alaina because she is the only one ready to attack???? I'm going to try to watch that against Rhode Island on Sunday.

And TH also said we need to "clean up our side of the net" - meaning do a better job at things like limiting errors and making better decisions who to go to.

Also, I thought Jane was off during the first set on her PLACEMENT of the ball on her sets. Even when she had a good pass, she didn't seem to place the ball well for the hitters. I noticed it all across the net - left side, middle and right side. But she got much better in the 2nd and 3rd. It happens. Overall I have seen her set much better. She is a freshman. Consistency needs work. That's the case for most freshmen. What I did see her do really well last night was chase balls down. I remember the first weekend -- and she didn't get to any of those balls like she did last night. Huge improvement in that area and nice job! Also noticed when TH comes off the bench, it's usually to give Jane some instructions. Audrey and Evan get up more and seem to be talking to other players. My GUESS is TH is covering setting, Audrey back row play and Evan hitting. Just a guess.

Finally, Figgie mentioned this before -- and he was correct, but missed a detail. When the front row is Jill Loiars, an MB and the setter -- and we are serving: the setter lines up and STAYS in the left OH position and Jill lines up and STAYS in the right OH position. I have NEVER seen a setter intentionally line up and STAY in the left OH slot. They traditionally always move to the right OH slot (or in-between the right OH and MB if there are 3 hitters in the front row.) I'm going to study this some more. Like I said, I've never seen it before. I've seen OHs play BOTH left and right side. UD has done that as far back as when Yvonon Marten was a freshman in 2007, as well as others over the years. But never the setter intentionally setting from the left OH slot.

[Figgie123]

And a humorous moment at the end of the match. So, we get the point to go to 23, and Hubacek is subbed in to serve, and finishes it off with 2 aces.

At the same time, Kelsey Osgood, who subbed in 3 rotations earlier, is now in the Left OH slot. She instintively goes to the sub line and either it was after Osgood got the ball and wasn't allowed, was waved off by the official, or waved off by Horsmon. After the first ace, Osgood goes instintively again to the substitution area, and is waved off, I assume this time by Horsmon, and goes back to Left OH. Now, it turns out they were 2 aces, but it would have been interesting to watch a back row player play the front row. She's giving up between 4-6 inches on the rest of the front row players. (8 inches if we are talking Loiars)

[UDBrian]

Great discussion. I expected we would have a problem regarding out of system offense. We really relied on Rachel in previous years to provide offense when the passing was mediocre or bad. If she was in the back row she could terminate but she could also take on a double block with some success. Neither Alaina or Jessica has the experience at hitting in the back row which Rachel had and Rachel was also 6'4". I remember Sheff making the same comments about needing to improve their out of system offense. I'm sure that they chart what their termination percentage is out of sytem, I'll ask Tim and company that question in a future article.

Regarding the mixups with setting middle hitters, I think that is a two way street. The middle blocker usually knows what type of set to expect depending upon the pass. The middle blocker needs to be in the right position to hit a short set and that is usually a given distance from the setter although you will at times see a great setter shoot the ball to a middle that is a long distance from them. That is a set which I love seeing

It is also possible that the hitter might not interpret the pass the same way the setter would. The hitter might think "that isn't a real good pass so I won't expect a quick set" while the setter is thinking "that pass is good enough for a quick set". I don't think it is happening but one thing the middle hitter cannot think is "she has been setting the left outside hitter all night, I know I'm not getting the set".

Transitioning out of blocking to offense is really a great skill, you cannot watch the ball. When your feet hit the ground you need to get back into position and expect the set. This is something that Becky Novacek was absolutely tremendous at! I agree with Beckystxa that if the only person transitioning quickly out of blocking is the left outside hitter it would force the setter to give them a high percentage of the sets.

[BeckysTXA]

Also forgot the announcer said we had a 31-1 record against Fordham. Now it's 32-1.

I saw that with Kelsey and wondered if we were out of subs -- since we had sent so many players in for the 3rd set. Or TH just thought Kelsey should get a couple shots at swinging in the front row.