Post by notpriddy (COIF) on Aug 27, 2014 5:31:12 GMT -5
It should be an exciting year for Illini fans:
ALL ABOUT QUICKNESS FOR HAMBLY (from the Champaign News-Gazette)
Tue, 08/26/2014 - 11:33pm | Scott Richey
CHAMPAIGN — The consensus is clear from the Illinois volleyball team.
The Illini have run fast-paced offenses before — in high school or club — but nothing in their past compares to the tempo they’re playing at this season.
It’s a 180-degree turn from their slower high-ball and something head coach Kevin Hambly called “a very drastic change.”
Quick passes. Quick sets. Quick hits. Quick everything.
It was a change Hambly said his team needed and one he started to implement this spring when he had essentially his entire 2014 team to work with.
“If we play like we did in the spring, we’ll be the fastest team, as far as tempo that we run, in the Big Ten,” Hambly said. “I thought we had the experience and the time to do it and felt like, at times, offensively we struggled, so we needed to look at making a change.”
Reactions to that drastic change, Hambly said, were mixed. Some of the veteran players, who were used to and successful under the old approach, were initially apprehensive.
“The other players — because they didn’t know any different — it absolutely suits them,” Hambly continued. “Michelle Strizak and Katie Roustio, we set them lightning balls out there. Ali Stark, of course, loves it because now she’s scoring.”
Stark has probably benefited the most from Illinois’ offseason changes. The redshirt junior is back playing in the front row as a second right-side hitter thanks to the switch to a 6-2 rotation. And, like Hambly said, she has adjusted well to the new up-tempo offense compared to the slower attack when she got time in the front row as a starter in the 2012 season.
“In the spring, I put in a lot of work, especially with the setters, trying to get footwork and tempo down. Just shaking all the rust off,” Stark said about moving from strictly being a back row player a year ago.
And the new offense?
“At first it was a little bit intimidating, just moving so much faster than we’re used to running, but now that we’ve kind of gotten the tempo down, it has proven to be extremely effective,” she said. “Especially in the spring when we played against other teams and it was working.”
Redshirt junior Jocelynn Birks had consecutive 500-kill seasons and earned AVCA Third Team All-American honors in the old offensive system. Getting set high balls was all she’d ever known, and Hambly said the switch probably hit her the hardest.
“It was hard for me just because I liked the high sets, but it has gotten a lot better,” Birks said. “It was hard to get used to for all the hitters, really, and the setters as well to find the right tempo for everyone. I think with all the work we put in in the spring and the summer, it has gotten a lot better, and it’s going really well.”
Senior opposite hitter Liz McMahon was just as successful in the old system.
A three-year starter, she topped 1,000 kills for her career in the Illini’s high-ball offense but she said she was excited about the change because she felt the team was ready for it. With experienced hitters and setters, she said the Illini were capable of adding a new element to their game — something they might not have been capable of in past seasons.
“At first it was a little ugly, but it’s really cool how comfortable we’ve gotten with it,” McMahon said. “I think it’s at a point where it’s more natural, and we don’t even realize how fast it is because we’re so used to it, but it’s worlds different. We used to set the ball as high as we could at times.
“It was definitely something out of my comfort zone, but I’m really happy with it and I feel like I’ve gotten there. It’s definitely a different element. Now you have a lot of seams in the block, and the block’s not set up, whereas before you had four full hands, and you had to see where that was and hit over or hit around.”
The two setters likely to see the bulk of starting time in Illinois’ 6-2 rotation approached the quick tempo offense differently.
For Arizona State transfer Allison Palmer, it wasn’t anything too new.
“This is faster than I’ve run before, but coming into it I wasn’t really attuned to running a high-ball offense, so this is more comfortable for me,” she said. “I wouldn’t call it easy, but it’s easier.”
But it was another change for last year’s starting setter, Alexis Viliunas. She ran a quicker tempo offense before Illinois, adapted to the Illini’s high-ball attack the past two seasons and had to make another change again this spring.
“I would say I struggled with it in the beginning,” Viliunas said. “I struggled with setting the ball high when I first learned that, I got better at that and then I thought I was pretty good at that. Then we moved to the quicker offense, and I had to go back to it. I would say I’m not the best at it right now, but working throughout the season and just reps and reps will get us where we want to be.”
ALL ABOUT QUICKNESS FOR HAMBLY (from the Champaign News-Gazette)
Tue, 08/26/2014 - 11:33pm | Scott Richey
CHAMPAIGN — The consensus is clear from the Illinois volleyball team.
The Illini have run fast-paced offenses before — in high school or club — but nothing in their past compares to the tempo they’re playing at this season.
It’s a 180-degree turn from their slower high-ball and something head coach Kevin Hambly called “a very drastic change.”
Quick passes. Quick sets. Quick hits. Quick everything.
It was a change Hambly said his team needed and one he started to implement this spring when he had essentially his entire 2014 team to work with.
“If we play like we did in the spring, we’ll be the fastest team, as far as tempo that we run, in the Big Ten,” Hambly said. “I thought we had the experience and the time to do it and felt like, at times, offensively we struggled, so we needed to look at making a change.”
Reactions to that drastic change, Hambly said, were mixed. Some of the veteran players, who were used to and successful under the old approach, were initially apprehensive.
“The other players — because they didn’t know any different — it absolutely suits them,” Hambly continued. “Michelle Strizak and Katie Roustio, we set them lightning balls out there. Ali Stark, of course, loves it because now she’s scoring.”
Stark has probably benefited the most from Illinois’ offseason changes. The redshirt junior is back playing in the front row as a second right-side hitter thanks to the switch to a 6-2 rotation. And, like Hambly said, she has adjusted well to the new up-tempo offense compared to the slower attack when she got time in the front row as a starter in the 2012 season.
“In the spring, I put in a lot of work, especially with the setters, trying to get footwork and tempo down. Just shaking all the rust off,” Stark said about moving from strictly being a back row player a year ago.
And the new offense?
“At first it was a little bit intimidating, just moving so much faster than we’re used to running, but now that we’ve kind of gotten the tempo down, it has proven to be extremely effective,” she said. “Especially in the spring when we played against other teams and it was working.”
Redshirt junior Jocelynn Birks had consecutive 500-kill seasons and earned AVCA Third Team All-American honors in the old offensive system. Getting set high balls was all she’d ever known, and Hambly said the switch probably hit her the hardest.
“It was hard for me just because I liked the high sets, but it has gotten a lot better,” Birks said. “It was hard to get used to for all the hitters, really, and the setters as well to find the right tempo for everyone. I think with all the work we put in in the spring and the summer, it has gotten a lot better, and it’s going really well.”
Senior opposite hitter Liz McMahon was just as successful in the old system.
A three-year starter, she topped 1,000 kills for her career in the Illini’s high-ball offense but she said she was excited about the change because she felt the team was ready for it. With experienced hitters and setters, she said the Illini were capable of adding a new element to their game — something they might not have been capable of in past seasons.
“At first it was a little ugly, but it’s really cool how comfortable we’ve gotten with it,” McMahon said. “I think it’s at a point where it’s more natural, and we don’t even realize how fast it is because we’re so used to it, but it’s worlds different. We used to set the ball as high as we could at times.
“It was definitely something out of my comfort zone, but I’m really happy with it and I feel like I’ve gotten there. It’s definitely a different element. Now you have a lot of seams in the block, and the block’s not set up, whereas before you had four full hands, and you had to see where that was and hit over or hit around.”
The two setters likely to see the bulk of starting time in Illinois’ 6-2 rotation approached the quick tempo offense differently.
For Arizona State transfer Allison Palmer, it wasn’t anything too new.
“This is faster than I’ve run before, but coming into it I wasn’t really attuned to running a high-ball offense, so this is more comfortable for me,” she said. “I wouldn’t call it easy, but it’s easier.”
But it was another change for last year’s starting setter, Alexis Viliunas. She ran a quicker tempo offense before Illinois, adapted to the Illini’s high-ball attack the past two seasons and had to make another change again this spring.
“I would say I struggled with it in the beginning,” Viliunas said. “I struggled with setting the ball high when I first learned that, I got better at that and then I thought I was pretty good at that. Then we moved to the quicker offense, and I had to go back to it. I would say I’m not the best at it right now, but working throughout the season and just reps and reps will get us where we want to be.”