Rhode Island

BeckysTXA · #1 10-14-2018, 12:38 PM

Should be a sweep and an opportunity for the home crowd to see more than just the starting rotation players in action. I missed Friday night but saw Liz was back in the starting rotation. She was probably out for a couple matches due to an injury. That would have been our 107th injury this year. Glad to see her healthy. I did however think Jordan played well and she added a back row attack which we need. Jordan played OH in high school. The good news is Jordan is always an option if we have a team that is blocking well against us.

SLU beat RI for their 2nd A10 win.

BeckysTXA · #2 10-14-2018, 01:27 PM

Big change...we are in a different rotation...we are having the Libero sub in for our left OHs instead of our middles. This is highly unusual. 99%+ Of teams sub their MBs and Libero. That means one MB has to serve and play backrow defense for the half rotation they serve. That usually is not a great thing. Once MBs get to college they just don’t play backrow because they aren’t great at digging.

Kendyll was in that roll this year and teams went after her and usually won that point. My guess is TH looked at those sideout percentages and decided to make the subs order change to improve the backrow defense on that half rotation.

UD wins first set 25-12.

BeckysTXA · #3 10-14-2018, 01:51 PM

UD wins second by same score. UD Hitting over 400 As a team for the match. We hit 398 against Fordham on Friday. That’s EXACTLY what you should see from this team against teams with rpis in the 200s. We haven’t seen this for a long time. This team didn’t do it earlier in the year. Very, very good to see. It’s clear thiis team and the coaches are making the changes to prepare for Weds match against Cincy and the second VCU match. That’s exactly what needed to happen after the VCU loss.

BeckysTXA · #4 10-14-2018, 02:18 PM

UD wins 25-18 for the sweep. Saw Amelia walk thru hand shake line. She had a boot on but appeared to be walking pretty normally. Other than Amelia and Jamie, I didn’t see anyone else not dressed out to play. Someone on site might have seen someone else. If not it appears we are getting close to having everyone closer to healthy. Maybe not 100%, but at least participating in warm ups.

BeckysTXA · #5 10-14-2018, 02:35 PM

A couple things...our block is so-so. Sometimes when you play weaker teams you don’t get a lot of blocks because you don’t have a lot of opportunities to block because the other team sends you more free balls and roll shots, etc. that said, I’ve been watching it for a couple weeks. We have a higher than normal number of blocking errors (in the net). We have cut those down from earlier in the year. But in doing so, we aren’t penetrating over the net well. It appears for this year that’s the trade off. With Olivia in the rotation, our Rightside block on the opponents left side OHs is really tall most of the time. (Sierra, Brook and Olivia.)

We are not as tall on our left side and our middles aren’t as good at closing the block when they have to move left. We are also not as good with backrow defense when opponents attack with their Rightside OHs. VCU attacks really well from their Rightside. VCU middles can also run slides. RI had success today against us with a Rightside attack.more work to be done in this area.

Finally, Bridget made two unreal sets today and stayed out of the net doing so. I hope they both make the highlight reel.

Figgie123 · #6 10-14-2018, 09:06 PM

Originally Posted by BeckysTXA

Big change...we are in a different rotation...we are having the Libero sub in for our left OHs instead of our middles. This is highly unusual. 99%+ Of teams sub their MBs and Libero. That means one MB has to serve and play backrow defense for the half rotation they serve. That usually is not a great thing. Once MBs get to college they just don’t play backrow because they aren’t great at digging.

Kendyll was in that roll this year and teams went after her and usually won that point. My guess is TH looked at those sideout percentages and decided to make the subs order change to improve the backrow defense on that half rotation.

I noticed this too. Mentioned it to the person sitting next to me, and they mentioned that by subbing out the OHs, it helps since, as you say, the MBs don't do back row practice. Alli actually did a pretty good job getting to some digs too. I never did go and do that research, because I was thinking we needed to figure out a solution, since it seemed we had a very high sideout percentage when Kendyll was serving.

Figgie123 · #7 10-14-2018, 09:12 PM

Oh, and Kendyll Brown has moved into 10th place all time in block assists. She did it in the LaSalle game last weekend. She is at 285, working on hitting the 300 mark.

Chris R · #8 10-15-2018, 02:33 AM

Took care of business this weekend without a hint of drama, which has been a bit out of the ordinary -- even when the competition has softened. Should be fresh for Cincinnati. The UC match is as close to a must-win as it gets as we need a W to erase the VCU loss and potentially bolster our resume' if a 2nd place A10 finish comes our way. Beating VCU at VCU has to be put in the "hopeful but unlikely" bucket bin at this point considering the recent history. I think the UC game is more winnable since its at home. And, it will be a better win.

Somehow some way, we gotta grind the W out.

BeckysTXA · #9 10-15-2018, 09:36 AM

So grateful this team is kicking it into a higher level and has decided it will NOT play down to weaker teams’ levels. We are no longer being satisfied with getting a 3-1 win in the A10. The last four matches we have gone into these softer matches determined to sweep. We haven’t seen that in years.

Go Flyers.

BeckysTXA · #10 10-15-2018, 11:05 AM

Originally Posted by Figgie123

I noticed this too. Mentioned it to the person sitting next to me, and they mentioned that by subbing out the OHs, it helps since, as you say, the MBs don't do back row practice. Alli actually did a pretty good job getting to some digs too. I never did go and do that research, because I was thinking we needed to figure out a solution, since it seemed we had a very high sideout percentage when Kendyll was serving.

Both Allie and Mikaylah were hailed as 6-rotation OHs with good backrow skills.
It takes some time to get up to D1 speed when you are a freshman. In Jamie’s first year, she played Rightside OH at the beginning of the year. Then TH added swings on the left side instead of having the players switch at serve. Then he added backrow play about half way thru her first year. And when she struggled in the backrow, which happens to everyone, especially freshmen, he would sub in a DS. But he added assignments as the year went along. It looks like Allie might be working in that direction. I saw her take a couple swings from the back against RI which we need. It will help keep the VCU block from cheating over to the left OH when out of system.

Figgie123 · #11 10-15-2018, 11:38 AM

I'll add that I think Rhode Island just had a hard time receiving and placing digs for most of the match. The amount of times fans went "oof", because the ball just clubbed the player in the upper body with the inability to get a good return, was at least a hand and a half full.