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Post by paloalto on Aug 29, 2014 23:00:07 GMT -5
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Post by WahineFan44 on Aug 29, 2014 23:02:50 GMT -5
Howard hit .364. Pretty impressive.
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Post by paloalto on Aug 29, 2014 23:36:22 GMT -5
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Post by sportsfun on Aug 30, 2014 0:22:03 GMT -5
Read some of the comments. Only ones that made any sense were Stanford's good defense and Inky being really good. I don't understand the ragging on Howard. She looked much more dynamic. She's never going to be a hard hitter, but delivered consistently the whole match. Burgess on the other hand needs to learn how to tool better. The faster the offense the better for Burgess. She was very impressive hitting lower threes, not so great on anything outside. The ISU left siders were tooling Maddie at will, and neither of them are that good. Maddie will be a liability blocking. The best news was that Stanford played very solidly on offense and defense. Nice to see this precision in the first game. McGehee, gee. She did things I haven't seen from many players. At one point, she passed a tip in the middle and moved quickly to hit a low outside set. Wow! Her blocking was a "project", and, as others have pointed out, she hasn't proven she can hit anything quick in front of her, kind of a problem for a middle. Maddie was in and out, sometimes in perfect sync with her hitters, sometimes on a different page of the playbook. Stanford's serving was meh, but they did serve some nice deep floaters. No question Dunning is still emphasizing position and location on serve, and I concur with that. BTW, Sidney Brown did have a nice serve. Oh year, Gilbert was a dream out there. She has the potential to be one of the best liberos in the country, pleasant since I don't think she's that quick. Don't forget that ISU is not likely to be a pushover this season, but they were clearly outclassed tonight. Bugg will be a blocking liability? She finished last year with .65 BPS, which was only slightly lower than Williams who was known for her blocking at .71 BPS and Howard also at .71 BPS. Burgess finished with a disappointing .46 BPS. Bugg had the second highest number of blocks on the team with five tonight and when she was next to McGhehee and often the only blocker up it took pressure off the hitter who more easily tooled her. For a setter, I have always thought her blocking was above average. Do others find her to have been a liability? Although Burgess struggles with blocking I was surprised to see that she didn't register a single block tonight. I'm not reading much into it this early but considering that the team registering 11 blocks, I thought she would chip in one or two. I find McGhehee to be the blocking liability because of the deer in the headlights hesitation and how often she is fooled by the opposing team's MB. This was an issue during her first two years and it was back throughout this match. It really stood out during Iowa State's seven point run during the second set, with their 18th point being painful to watch in regards to McGehee being nowhere to be found. I would expect her blocking to be far more advanced at this point, even with limited play during her first two years. Several of Iowa State's points were because they were able to exploit a considerable hole in the block and numerous times when there was only one blocker up. Stronger hitting teams would have a field day with that. I am eager to see what Lutz can do and I hope she heals quickly because teams like Nebraska and Penn State will use and abuse McGehee's glaring blocking weakness. On another note, has anyone else noticed the pattern of Dunning allowing the servers to serve more aggressively at the beginning of the season but then tone it down to what becomes a subpar serving team as the season progresses? Although the serving could hardly be defined as "aggressive" tonight it was more so than what I have seen in the past. I am hopeful that the criticism during the past few seasons of Stanford being a weak serving team will motivate him to adjust his coaching and allow some of his players to continue with the more aggressive serves they seem to come to Stanford with and demonstrate at the beginning of the season. I can't take another season of lollypop serving. I thought Howard had a nice game but I didn't find her to be more dynamic but I hope you saw something most of us missed. I think why people have grown frustrated is because it's no secret that Howard dislikes weight training and conditioning more than most players and it shows up in her hitting and her loss of stamina. Watching Penn State have a field day with her and then seeing her completely run out of gas during the last two sets sent many fans over the edge. I am hoping it was a painful enough lesson for her that it motivated her to spend the offseason in the dreaded weight room and she did much more overall conditioning but I didn't see that tonight. By the look on Dunning's face during the PSU match and the fact that Brown is knocking on the door, it would serve her well to have come back stronger and with more stamina. She is a considerable asset in the back row and a terrific athlete and it greatly benefits the team if she did indeed work harder on her two areas of weakness during the offseason. Inky was even better than I could have hoped. I found myself wishing we could have had just one more year of Carly and Inky. Those were two years of middle blocking wonder but it went by far too quickly. Who knows? Maybe we will see them together on the National Team someday.
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Post by volleylearner on Aug 30, 2014 0:52:14 GMT -5
Overall hitting numbers look fine but 48 attempts for Burgess seems like a lot--more than Ajanaku, McGehee, and Boukather combined. Weak ball control or was Bugg just more (too?) comfortable setting Burgess?
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Post by beachbomb on Aug 30, 2014 1:17:27 GMT -5
i think when jordan was in the front row they got in some rallies where they could only set the outside and there were some rallies that she took 4 or 5 swings... mainly in the second set...
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Post by paloalto on Aug 30, 2014 6:23:18 GMT -5
Good assessment sportsfun. I think Bugg has shown herself in past seasons to be above average in blocking and floor defense for a setter. Burgess with no block assists is what stuck out to me in the stats. While I agree with your take on McGehee's blocking, I would like to give her another chance to show she can do better at blocking. Last year McGehee did show an ability on offense to score points. I hope to see Lutz in the Penn State match. I was hoping Howard would come into camp in better shape than last year, particularly since she played with the Pac-12 team in China.
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Post by oldvbguy on Aug 30, 2014 7:33:56 GMT -5
Just looked at some still photos from the match. Inky with her head above the net on blocks! What a stud! Good luck to Nebraska trying to slow her down if Stanford is passing well.
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Post by volleylearner on Aug 30, 2014 10:33:37 GMT -5
It does not seem meaningful to compare individual blocking stats between outside blockers, let alone between the left and right side. The data depends heavily on the blocking partner and the opponent hitters. In this match, all of Bugg's BAs were with Ajanaku, 3 on Capezio and 2 on Hurtt, the two left-sides who together accounted for 60% of ISU's attack attempts. Their RSs were only blocked once, by Howard and Ajanaku, and Howard's other BA came with McGehee on a middle.
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Post by wonderwarthog79 on Aug 30, 2014 12:44:59 GMT -5
Read some of the comments. Only ones that made any sense were Stanford's good defense and Inky being really good. I don't understand the ragging on Howard. She looked much more dynamic. She's never going to be a hard hitter, but delivered consistently the whole match. Burgess on the other hand needs to learn how to tool better. The faster the offense the better for Burgess. She was very impressive hitting lower threes, not so great on anything outside. The ISU left siders were tooling Maddie at will, and neither of them are that good. Maddie will be a liability blocking. The best news was that Stanford played very solidly on offense and defense. Nice to see this precision in the first game. McGehee, gee. She did things I haven't seen from many players. At one point, she passed a tip in the middle and moved quickly to hit a low outside set. Wow! Her blocking was a "project", and, as others have pointed out, she hasn't proven she can hit anything quick in front of her, kind of a problem for a middle. Maddie was in and out, sometimes in perfect sync with her hitters, sometimes on a different page of the playbook. Stanford's serving was meh, but they did serve some nice deep floaters. No question Dunning is still emphasizing position and location on serve, and I concur with that. BTW, Sidney Brown did have a nice serve. Oh year, Gilbert was a dream out there. She has the potential to be one of the best liberos in the country, pleasant since I don't think she's that quick. Don't forget that ISU is not likely to be a pushover this season, but they were clearly outclassed tonight. Bugg will be a blocking liability? She finished last year with .65 BPS, which was only slightly lower than Williams who was known for her blocking at .71 BPS and Howard also at .71 BPS. Burgess finished with a disappointing .46 BPS. Bugg had the second highest number of blocks on the team with five tonight and when she was next to McGhehee and often the only blocker up it took pressure off the hitter who more easily tooled her. For a setter, I have always thought her blocking was above average. Do others find her to have been a liability? Although Burgess struggles with blocking I was surprised to see that she didn't register a single block tonight. I'm not reading much into it this early but considering that the team registering 11 blocks, I thought she would chip in one or two. I find McGhehee to be the blocking liability because of the deer in the headlights hesitation and how often she is fooled by the opposing team's MB. This was an issue during her first two years and it was back throughout this match. It really stood out during Iowa State's seven point run during the second set, with their 18th point being painful to watch in regards to McGehee being nowhere to be found. I would expect her blocking to be far more advanced at this point, even with limited play during her first two years. Several of Iowa State's points were because they were able to exploit a considerable hole in the block and numerous times when there was only one blocker up. Stronger hitting teams would have a field day with that. I am eager to see what Lutz can do and I hope she heals quickly because teams like Nebraska and Penn State will use and abuse McGehee's glaring blocking weakness. On another note, has anyone else noticed the pattern of Dunning allowing the servers to serve more aggressively at the beginning of the season but then tone it down to what becomes a subpar serving team as the season progresses? Although the serving could hardly be defined as "aggressive" tonight it was more so than what I have seen in the past. I am hopeful that the criticism during the past few seasons of Stanford being a weak serving team will motivate him to adjust his coaching and allow some of his players to continue with the more aggressive serves they seem to come to Stanford with and demonstrate at the beginning of the season. I can't take another season of lollypop serving. I thought Howard had a nice game but I didn't find her to be more dynamic but I hope you saw something most of us missed. I think why people have grown frustrated is because it's no secret that Howard dislikes weight training and conditioning more than most players and it shows up in her hitting and her loss of stamina. Watching Penn State have a field day with her and then seeing her completely run out of gas during the last two sets sent many fans over the edge. I am hoping it was a painful enough lesson for her that it motivated her to spend the offseason in the dreaded weight room and she did much more overall conditioning but I didn't see that tonight. By the look on Dunning's face during the PSU match and the fact that Brown is knocking on the door, it would serve her well to have come back stronger and with more stamina. She is a considerable asset in the back row and a terrific athlete and it greatly benefits the team if she did indeed work harder on her two areas of weakness during the offseason. Inky was even better than I could have hoped. I found myself wishing we could have had just one more year of Carly and Inky. Those were two years of middle blocking wonder but it went by far too quickly. Who knows? Maybe we will see them together on the National Team someday. Good Lord. Was all this necessary? I'll revise. Several times Bugg WAS a liability last night. As I said, she was tooled routinely by very ordinary hitters. You may like her as a blocker, but better teams will pressure her all season. Your comments on serving were strange. Has anyone else seen anything like more aggressive serving at the beginning of the season? Dunning has mentioned before that his players needed to serve better, and by "better" he means better location, not just aggressiveness. Howard's hitting was about as good as it's going to be. Live with it, but don't count on Sidney Brown taking her place unless Brittany just disappears. Is it really "no secret" about Howard's approach to weight training. Thanks. It was a secret to me, probably to Howard too.
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Post by hammer on Aug 30, 2014 13:56:35 GMT -5
It does not seem meaningful to compare individual blocking stats between outside blockers, let alone between the left and right side. The data depends heavily on the blocking partner and the opponent hitters. In this match, all of Bugg's BAs were with Ajanaku, 3 on Capezio and 2 on Hurtt, the two left-sides who together accounted for 60% of ISU's attack attempts. Their RSs were only blocked once, by Howard and Ajanaku, and Howard's other BA came with McGehee on a middle. BINGO ... lies, damn lies, and stats. That's why you need to chart and grade blocks. So much depends upon setter deception, MB reads, MB athleticism and size, the hitter's read, etc. And sometimes a block that doesn't touch the ball is a good block because it channels the ball right to a correctly positioned back row defensive player or forces a tip or roll shot that is easily picked up.
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Post by sportsfun on Aug 30, 2014 14:45:50 GMT -5
Bugg will be a blocking liability? She finished last year with .65 BPS, which was only slightly lower than Williams who was known for her blocking at .71 BPS and Howard also at .71 BPS. Burgess finished with a disappointing .46 BPS. Bugg had the second highest number of blocks on the team with five tonight and when she was next to McGhehee and often the only blocker up it took pressure off the hitter who more easily tooled her. For a setter, I have always thought her blocking was above average. Do others find her to have been a liability? Although Burgess struggles with blocking I was surprised to see that she didn't register a single block tonight. I'm not reading much into it this early but considering that the team registering 11 blocks, I thought she would chip in one or two. I find McGhehee to be the blocking liability because of the deer in the headlights hesitation and how often she is fooled by the opposing team's MB. This was an issue during her first two years and it was back throughout this match. It really stood out during Iowa State's seven point run during the second set, with their 18th point being painful to watch in regards to McGehee being nowhere to be found. I would expect her blocking to be far more advanced at this point, even with limited play during her first two years. Several of Iowa State's points were because they were able to exploit a considerable hole in the block and numerous times when there was only one blocker up. Stronger hitting teams would have a field day with that. I am eager to see what Lutz can do and I hope she heals quickly because teams like Nebraska and Penn State will use and abuse McGehee's glaring blocking weakness. On another note, has anyone else noticed the pattern of Dunning allowing the servers to serve more aggressively at the beginning of the season but then tone it down to what becomes a subpar serving team as the season progresses? Although the serving could hardly be defined as "aggressive" tonight it was more so than what I have seen in the past. I am hopeful that the criticism during the past few seasons of Stanford being a weak serving team will motivate him to adjust his coaching and allow some of his players to continue with the more aggressive serves they seem to come to Stanford with and demonstrate at the beginning of the season. I can't take another season of lollypop serving. I thought Howard had a nice game but I didn't find her to be more dynamic but I hope you saw something most of us missed. I think why people have grown frustrated is because it's no secret that Howard dislikes weight training and conditioning more than most players and it shows up in her hitting and her loss of stamina. Watching Penn State have a field day with her and then seeing her completely run out of gas during the last two sets sent many fans over the edge. I am hoping it was a painful enough lesson for her that it motivated her to spend the offseason in the dreaded weight room and she did much more overall conditioning but I didn't see that tonight. By the look on Dunning's face during the PSU match and the fact that Brown is knocking on the door, it would serve her well to have come back stronger and with more stamina. She is a considerable asset in the back row and a terrific athlete and it greatly benefits the team if she did indeed work harder on her two areas of weakness during the offseason. Inky was even better than I could have hoped. I found myself wishing we could have had just one more year of Carly and Inky. Those were two years of middle blocking wonder but it went by far too quickly. Who knows? Maybe we will see them together on the National Team someday. Good Lord. Was all this necessary? I'll revise. Several times Bugg WAS a liability last night. As I said, she was tooled routinely by very ordinary hitters. You may like her as a blocker, but better teams will pressure her all season. Your comments on serving were strange. Has anyone else seen anything like more aggressive serving at the beginning of the season? Dunning has mentioned before that his players needed to serve better, and by "better" he means better location, not just aggressiveness. Howard's hitting was about as good as it's going to be. Live with it, but don't count on Sidney Brown taking her place unless Brittany just disappears. Is it really "no secret" about Howard's approach to weight training. Thanks. It was a secret to me, probably to Howard too. I was speaking to the emphasis on location to the determent of all else. I very well may be incorrect and that is why I asked if others have noticed that the serving becomes much like real estate, location, location, location but there is rarely if ever a server that has the potential to get another team in trouble on serve receive. They continue to have the reputation as a subpar serving team each year and so I was asking if others have noticed that there are players who come in with stronger serves that quickly diminish as the season goes on. It was a question and if I am mistaken than I was interested in others opinions as to why Stanford continues to get criticized for their serving. We will see about Bugg but one match cannot determine that she is going to be a blocking liability as your original posts stated. I don't recall her being tooled often while play beside Inky and Carly. She had one game where she was tooled a few times but managed to still produce five BAs and so I don't know how you got to your conclusions from one match when she has shown for two years that she is an above average blocker. As for Howard, nope, no secret to her. She's one of my favorite players and I hope she worked hard during the off-season. I didn't see it last night but I can't tell you how much I hope you saw something the majority of us missed. Palo Alto, I agree with you. I would like to see what Meghehee can do after the opening day jitters. She seemed to second guess herself a great deal and maybe it's nerves. I like what she brings offensively. However, the same difficulties were something we saw the past two seasons. Lutz is an unknown and I think we're all eager to see what she brings to the team.
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Post by WahineFan44 on Aug 30, 2014 14:50:08 GMT -5
I've been a fan of Howard since she started playing on Stanford. I think she's an incredibly talented player who hasn't realized her potential. She needs to bulk up and get a little more heat on her swings and she should be even more of a great player. Her backrow defense is amazing as well
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Post by bigdawg4747 on Sept 2, 2014 12:14:44 GMT -5
my assessment of the players... . inky is amazing yes, and looks like she should after spending time in Anaheim. she reminds me of The Oden Sisters. morgan impressed me so much... she's hit the gym, gotten some meat on those bones and added some heat to her attack... i remember her hitting a flat attack and the balls that went straight down didn't have alot of velocity on them... well thats not the case here... and her hitting out of the backrow was stellar... great floor defense as well. jordan, well normally i praise jordan but i wanted alittle more out of her... as a player who's bread and butter is defense i thought she was out of position and alittle sloppy... attacking wise i thought she started hot, then cooled of and then exploded at the end... but iowa state is very scrappy. i don't know if i like the jump serve. brittany... she's starting to irritate me... you have all the goods and all the equipment and faculty to make you anything you want and i think she kinda attacks alittle lazy... i want her to impress not just by one amazing floor busting hit but by consistant heat... the world knows you can cut the ball back down the line... add some heat to it... megan... i never understood what people were ragging on her about... until today... she looked really really lost out there and that shouldn't happen either... you're in your 3rd year in the system playing in the best conference with the best coaches.... now if she was a RS i can see the potential... but i think morgan played solid today.... kyle... i think she went unnoticed... kinda like her career... which is fine... i think she was solid, but i think she gets her feet stuck in the mud sometimes and hesitates a half second which doesn't put her in a great position. madi... i thought she tried to hard today... and you know what... it's the first day... get the jitters out... i thought that she played amazing at times and then i think she was off alittle bit... i think this team showed signs of Domination and then i think it shows signs of weakness.... Sidney Brown looked pretty smooth although she got blocked out of the back row, she hit a great D ball with high velocity and it was WAY out of system.. can't wait to watch on Sunday Agree with much of this assessment. Inky was dominating, and there was a big drop-off with McGhee. Hopefully, Lutz will be ready soon. Morgan much improved indeed. Gilbert was outstanding--especially in the third set with 11 kills when ISU tried to make a match out of it. Thought she and Inky carried the team in 3rd set. Agree that Howard needs to keep heat on--seems like she did more of that her freshman year.
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Post by bigdawg4747 on Sept 2, 2014 12:25:42 GMT -5
Overall hitting numbers look fine but 48 attempts for Burgess seems like a lot--more than Ajanaku, McGehee, and Boukather combined. Weak ball control or was Bugg just more (too?) comfortable setting Burgess? That happened a lot last year too. Burgess is athletic and solid, but her attack percentage isn't that exceptional. Her all-around play is what makes her so valuable, but we shouldn't be setting her excessively as we have been for a long time now.
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