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Post by internationalball on Jan 31, 2014 17:50:54 GMT -5
There is a big difference between Mendoza and Maeda. Mendoza is a much better passer, and she covers the court good. Maeda, wasn't a great passer, she wasn't even a decent passer, on the good side..she does get after the ball. Of all returning players this upcoming season, Mendoza is Hawaii's best passer! I think we will see more of Nikki Taylor playing all six rotations, Kalei Greeley is said to be a complete player. I am anxious to see Tayler Higgins run the offense full time. Does Passi play all six rotations? Tai Olevao, is awful in the backcourt, and it's a not secret...everybody knows that by now. Great that you're a Mendoza fan, I like her too. But no need to put Maeda down. Not a decent passer, really? She saved that 2011 season from going completely bonkers when Shoji just wouldn't quit with Blake at libero. And I took the OP's post as saying that Mendoza and Maeda are similar in court demeanor/personality, ie not the rah-rah noisy/aggressive type like a Hedder Ilustre or Ali Longo. And I don't think it matters all that much that a libero has to have a strong personality and needs to direct back row traffic and all that. Melissa Villaroman was an underrated libero, great at her job, won the position over the more "energetic" Ilustre, but I don't remember her directing Willoughby or Kahumoku or any of her teammates in the back row. I'm not a Mendoza fan. I'm a WAHINE fan. How did Maeda saved the 2011 season? Please enlighten me. Because I remember the 2011 season. She lost her starting spot to Blake, she got it back towards the end of the season, and I remember her shanking passes in the NCAA tournament. Please tell me where in that she season she saved the Wahine?
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Post by karrietfan on Jan 31, 2014 21:36:09 GMT -5
Great that you're a Mendoza fan, I like her too. But no need to put Maeda down. Not a decent passer, really? She saved that 2011 season from going completely bonkers when Shoji just wouldn't quit with Blake at libero. And I took the OP's post as saying that Mendoza and Maeda are similar in court demeanor/personality, ie not the rah-rah noisy/aggressive type like a Hedder Ilustre or Ali Longo. And I don't think it matters all that much that a libero has to have a strong personality and needs to direct back row traffic and all that. Melissa Villaroman was an underrated libero, great at her job, won the position over the more "energetic" Ilustre, but I don't remember her directing Willoughby or Kahumoku or any of her teammates in the back row. I'm not a Mendoza fan. I'm a WAHINE fan. How did Maeda saved the 2011 season? Please enlighten me. Because I remember the 2011 season. She lost her starting spot to Blake, she got it back towards the end of the season, and I remember her shanking passes in the NCAA tournament. Please tell me where in that she season she saved the Wahine? Maybe the saying saving the 2011 season was saying a lot for Maeda's play at 2011 season's end, but her backrow play from the third set on stabilized the Wahine's passing when they were down 2-0 to Fresno St in the WAC tournament semi's. Blake was the libero and wasn't doing too well so Shoji put Maeda in as the libero from the third set and the rest is history. Maybe you could say that Maeda's play as a libero saved that match and then the Wahine was able to win the WAC tournament title, then go on to beat Northern Colorado and Colorado St and finally lose to USC in that epic 5 set loss.
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Post by Victory At Hand on Jan 31, 2014 21:37:30 GMT -5
Let's be honest here, Mendoza is a better DS than Maeda ever was in her many years as a Wahine. When you lose your starting job to an incoming freshman (Blake) that says something. And Blake wasn't that great either.
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Post by 5100 on Jan 31, 2014 23:20:42 GMT -5
Great that you're a Mendoza fan, I like her too. But no need to put Maeda down. Not a decent passer, really? She saved that 2011 season from going completely bonkers when Shoji just wouldn't quit with Blake at libero. And I took the OP's post as saying that Mendoza and Maeda are similar in court demeanor/personality, ie not the rah-rah noisy/aggressive type like a Hedder Ilustre or Ali Longo. And I don't think it matters all that much that a libero has to have a strong personality and needs to direct back row traffic and all that. Melissa Villaroman was an underrated libero, great at her job, won the position over the more "energetic" Ilustre, but I don't remember her directing Willoughby or Kahumoku or any of her teammates in the back row. I'm not a Mendoza fan. I'm a WAHINE fan. How did Maeda saved the 2011 season? Please enlighten me. Because I remember the 2011 season. She lost her starting spot to Blake, she got it back towards the end of the season, and I remember her shanking passes in the NCAA tournament. Please tell me where in that she season she saved the Wahine? karrietfan said it in the above post. Don't take my post out of context. "Saved the 2011 season from going completely bonkers." I didn't mean she single-handedly led the team to the national title. I was saying the Wahine would have tanked earlier if Shoji decided to stay with Blake. I don't think she lost the spot to Blake because Blake was better. She struggled in a couple of matches (and yes, it was shanking passes) when Shoji decided to put in an athletic 5-8 freshman who was no. 3 at setter and decided she was the libero. IMHO, Blake was too slow on her feet and her passing wasn't really an upgrade from Maeda's. I think Shoji was thinking Blake had the potential to be another Ka'aihue (taller, athletic type).
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Post by 5100 on Jan 31, 2014 23:24:28 GMT -5
Let's be honest here, Mendoza is a better DS than Maeda ever was in her many years as a Wahine. When you lose your starting job to an incoming freshman (Blake) that says something. And Blake wasn't that great either. I think Mendoza is one of the best passers out of the crop of DSs the past several years. I also happen to think Maeda was the quicker defender. Eh, I never believed Blake was better at any point than Maeda. Wasn't that better a passer than Maeda (if she ever was), and was too slow on defense.
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Post by mavericks on Feb 1, 2014 0:18:40 GMT -5
I agree Maeda is slow on defense but she does have a decent platform.
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Post by karrietfan on Feb 1, 2014 0:27:44 GMT -5
Here's my views of this Mendoza/Blake/Maeda thing. On Mendoza, Shoji said that she was the best at serve/receive on the team after the two a days and before the first match with Texas. On Blake, it seems to me that Shoji has his favorites as he did with Blake. Maeda would shank a serve/receive and he would immediately yank her, and then Blake would shank more than one and never get pulled. Until that faithful third set with Fresno St. Last season I saw that with Olevao, until he finally gave Nikki a chance who showed she was a better passer with serve/receive and has the IQ to play backrow. Shoji must have his reasons and who are we to question his judgement with his success.
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Post by 5100 on Feb 1, 2014 10:12:11 GMT -5
I agree Maeda is slow on defense but she does have a decent platform. Maeda was quick on defense, if I remember correctly. It was Blake who was a little slower on defense.
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Post by 5100 on Feb 1, 2014 10:14:16 GMT -5
Here's my views of this Mendoza/Blake/Maeda thing. On Mendoza, Shoji said that she was the best at serve/receive on the team after the two a days and before the first match with Texas. On Blake, it seems to me that Shoji has his favorites as he did with Blake. Maeda would shank a serve/receive and he would immediately yank her, and then Blake would shank more than one and never get pulled. Until that faithful third set with Fresno St. Last season I saw that with Olevao, until he finally gave Nikki a chance who showed she was a better passer with serve/receive and has the IQ to play backrow. Shoji must have his reasons and who are we to question his judgement with his success. I agree with everything you said. I am not Maeda's brother/father/uncle, but I recognize what she has done for the program and at least for the 2011 season, I believe she should have played libero the whole season.
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Post by network155 on Feb 1, 2014 23:23:37 GMT -5
Let's be honest here, Mendoza is a better DS than Maeda ever was in her many years as a Wahine. When you lose your starting job to an incoming freshman (Blake) that says something. And Blake wasn't that great either. Sarah Mendoza is a very good defensive specialist. It was her emergence in the middle of the conference season that helped Hawaii's passing. I also agree that Maeda was a much better libero than Lizzie Blake. Sometimes, Dave tends to make some bad decisions and it almost cost them the match at New Mexico State in 2011. But knowing Dave, when he believes in someone he does it whole heartedly, that's just the type of person he is.
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Post by Victory At Hand on Feb 6, 2014 15:57:26 GMT -5
Let's be honest here, Mendoza is a better DS than Maeda ever was in her many years as a Wahine. When you lose your starting job to an incoming freshman (Blake) that says something. And Blake wasn't that great either. Sarah Mendoza is a very good defensive specialist. It was her emergence in the middle of the conference season that helped Hawaii's passing. I also agree that Maeda was a much better libero than Lizzie Blake. Sometimes, Dave tends to make some bad decisions and it almost cost them the match at New Mexico State in 2011. But knowing Dave, when he believes in someone he does it whole heartedly, that's just the type of person he is. Thanks Wiz!!!
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Post by WahineFan44 on Feb 10, 2014 16:40:22 GMT -5
I think the wahine will benefit from higgins serve. Losing hartong and longo (their best servers last season IMO) they will need more fire power from the service line and higgins can provide that
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Post by karrietfan on Feb 11, 2014 21:25:11 GMT -5
I think the wahine will benefit from higgins serve. Losing hartong and longo (their best servers last season IMO) they will need more fire power from the service line and higgins can provide that Jump Serving: Last season Hartong was the only jump server in the regular rotation, Higgins only in spots. This coming season Shoji has Higgins in the regular rotation and Keani Passi and Savannah Kahakai who both have effective jump serves. Passi and Kahakai will most probably be in the mix for starting, so I expect the serving to be more effective. I also really like Nikki Taylor's float, she knows when to bring the heat and is accurate targeting.
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Post by WahineFan44 on Feb 11, 2014 21:50:57 GMT -5
I think the wahine will benefit from higgins serve. Losing hartong and longo (their best servers last season IMO) they will need more fire power from the service line and higgins can provide that Jump Serving: Last season Hartong was the only jump server in the regular rotation, Higgins only in spots. This coming season Shoji has Higgins in the regular rotation and Keani Passi and Savannah Kahakai who both have effective jump serves. Passi and Kahakai will most probably be in the mix for starting, so I expect the serving to be more effective. I also really like Nikki Taylor's float, she knows when to bring the heat and is accurate targeting. I also really like Nikki's serve. She smart about it and doesn't go all flashy if she doesn't need too. I haven't seen passis serve so I am excited to see how it pans out.
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Post by WahineFan44 on Feb 11, 2014 21:52:28 GMT -5
I think the wahine will benefit from higgins serve. Losing hartong and longo (their best servers last season IMO) they will need more fire power from the service line and higgins can provide that Jump Serving: Last season Hartong was the only jump server in the regular rotation, Higgins only in spots. This coming season Shoji has Higgins in the regular rotation and Keani Passi and Savannah Kahakai who both have effective jump serves. Passi and Kahakai will most probably be in the mix for starting, so I expect the serving to be more effective. I also really like Nikki Taylor's float, she knows when to bring the heat and is accurate targeting. How is kalei greeley serve? Do you think she will be in the serving rotation if she starts?
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