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Post by paloalto on Sept 19, 2014 7:42:43 GMT -5
Sure, there is plenty of room for improvement in OH offense and the passing was off last night. I wasn't satisfied with the hitting of Howard or Burgess. However I don't get the extreme negativity of some comments. Stanford (or any team) is not going to dominate every point of every set. Here are two positives.
Stanford outscored a top 20 team by 25 points on the opponent's home court.
Stanford's sideout percentage in sets 1, 3, and 4 was 80%, 86%, and 80%.
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Post by SakiBomb25 on Sept 19, 2014 8:27:33 GMT -5
Stanford's sideout percentage in sets 1, 3, and 4 was 80%, 86%, and 80%. I'm surprised that Stanford had such great side out percentages, considering how atrocious Burgess and Howard's hitting percentages were. Howard just hasn't gotten into her offensive groove and I am hoping she gets out of her funk soon. She's always been a conservative hitter. I would love to just see her play with no fear and not tip at all for one match to see what happens. I wonder if Dunning has told her, 'For one match I don't want to see any tipping.' Stanford is still in good shape without a dominating leftside, but their margin for error is very thin if their passing goes south.
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Post by bballnut90 on Sept 19, 2014 10:25:22 GMT -5
USD is a shadow of the team they were a year ago. Without Oliveira (maybe the nation's most underrated libero last year), Hollins and both middles, USD no longer has top notch ball control or mobile middles that can beat the block every time. Brown is a heck of an athlete, and I think USD could be a good squad this year, but I don't see them as a top 20 team at this point in time.
Besides a major let down in game 2, Stanford looked very good. Bugg impressed me last night. I think the switch has gone off in her head that setting Inky/Lutz will produce points. The middles took 54 swings compared to the outsides who took 55. Great job to get the middles involved. Inky is such a good hitter and blocker, I would continue to use her even more than they are already. And Lutz has such a high contact point and attacks well from either pin, making her a major weapon on the frontline.
I thought Burgess did a decent job last night, she looked much better than Howard who rarely took a swing at the ball. Boukather was harassed by the crowd all night but did a good job swinging from the right. Stanford will be hard to beat if the middles are set as much as they were tonight.
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Post by volleyfan24 on Sept 19, 2014 12:14:35 GMT -5
The comments make it sound like Stanford lost. A lot of criticism and negativity directed towards the Outsides but in my opinion Burgess is fine. Howard needs to produce but something people don't realize is the amount of balls Stanford digs. This teams floor defense and blocking forces opponents into errors. Burgess, Howard and Gilbert all had 15 digs that is too good. They can beat any team in the country putting up balls like that. The middle is too good they can win a National Championship like this. They certainly look like the best team in the country if this is Stanford on an off night imagine if everything was on they should and could ruin teams.
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Post by hammer on Sept 19, 2014 12:24:16 GMT -5
Stanford has Sidney Brown who IMHO is a better hitter than Howard but is a little undersized. She can hit from the OH/RS and at the backrow. Here are Brown's stats from the Saturday morning match against Penn when she played primarily as a RS: 12K, 17TA, 0 Errors, .706 hitting % Humphreys was the setter in that match BTW. I know it is Penn, but those are impressive numbers -- impressive enough that I think JD gives Brown a try on the left side as a replacement for Howard. If nothing else it sends a message to Howard to up her game. You may recall last year in the middle of the season when Inky was having a bad match and appeared to be going through the motions, Dunning pulled her and put in McGehee. That move paid immediate dividends because the rest to the season Inky was the best MB in the nation. Stanford has a match against E. Washington tonight so I'm hoping JD gives Brown a try on the left side.
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Post by baywatcher on Sept 19, 2014 13:37:13 GMT -5
If they had to have a long term replacement OH due to injury or illness it might be Brown; if Brown gets an established position in the rotation, as it appears she has as a server, short term it might be Vanjak. Somebody said Stanford was an injury away from a plummet in the rankings; as #1 they can only go down anyway, but I believe there is a replacement ready for just about any position. Two injuries at the same position could really mess them up, of course, but you could say that about anyone. And Stanford has been relatively injury proof the last couple of years.
On another subject, Lutz will probably never be a real shutdown MB, she does not have the reaction time or twitch reflexes to close. But she can get better, and with her size I believe she can be a true intimidating force. San Diego hitters were missing quite a bit during Stanfords surges with Lutz in, and I have to believe in part it was due to her (and Inky other times,) looming over the net. It will be a sight when Arizona and their 6'8" OH Harris play Stanford. Burgess and others at 6'0 will look like midgets out there.
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Post by FTLOG on Sept 19, 2014 14:42:30 GMT -5
You know, it was interesting to watch in person compared to on TV. On TV Dunning can seem kind of passive sometimes, but in person you actually notice him coaching. There was a point, maybe in set 2 when San Diego went on a run with Lutz in, that she wasn't getting her hands over the net. At one point he made this sort of mimicking gesture of her with her hands by her ears instead of over the net when blocking, and then he spent at least a couple of moments directly talking to her during timeouts. Maybe it's just a coincidence that USD players started hitting directly at her in sets 3-4, but that's also when she started getting blocks.
Re: howard, i wonder if they're actually coaching her to be safe. You know, they have decent blocking and maybe the best scrambling defense of the top teams, so on junk sets maybe they're telling her just to keep the ball in so they can live to swing again at another point within the rally, so to speak. As to her tipping, at least twice, I think also in the third set, this also seemed like a suggestion from the coaches because it happened exactly the same way twice in a row. And it worked. The rest of her play--blocking, back row, passing except for the one shank, was good I thought.
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Post by OptimusPrime on Sept 19, 2014 16:01:55 GMT -5
howard has 15 digs. hope to see an offensive game from her.SOON! Howard's digs were almost all cupcake digs. Anyone could have dug them! She gets an F- perhaps time to give Brown a chance. Burgess on the other hand did ok. She had some sick angels. I give her a C+
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Post by wonderwarthog79 on Sept 19, 2014 16:07:35 GMT -5
howard has 15 digs. hope to see an offensive game from her.SOON! Howard's digs were almost all cupcake digs. Anyone could have dug them! She gets an F- perhaps time to give Brown a chance. Burgess on the other hand did ok. She had some sick angels. I give her a C+ Geez. 15 digs, but they're "almost all cupcake". I suppose Howard could cure cancer and end terrorism and still be dissed regularly!
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Post by OptimusPrime on Sept 19, 2014 16:09:09 GMT -5
Howard's digs were almost all cupcake digs. Anyone could have dug them! She gets an F- perhaps time to give Brown a chance. Burgess on the other hand did ok. She had some sick angels. I give her a C+ Geez. 15 digs, but they're "almost all cupcake". I suppose Howard could cure cancer and end terrorism and still be dissed regularly! No! Did you watch the match? None were impressive digs. I will credit her though with decent blocking.
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Post by FTLOG on Sept 19, 2014 16:21:01 GMT -5
Geez. 15 digs, but they're "almost all cupcake". I suppose Howard could cure cancer and end terrorism and still be dissed regularly! No! Did you watch the match? None were impressive digs. I will credit her though with decent blocking. A lot of them were from her knees. If that matters.
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Post by jgrout on Sept 19, 2014 16:25:17 GMT -5
I've used the same argument myself for Stanford when they had the big gun(s) on the LS.
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Post by surfvolleypolojock77 on Sept 19, 2014 18:19:22 GMT -5
I was at the game last night. Howard was digging nails from her knees. If she can do that and dig nails, so be it. I think that her offense will get better throughout the season. She knows that she needs to do that. Inky, Merete, Madi, Morgan, Jordan were all stars last night. They were impressive. Merete needs to work on her blocking. When that gels, her game will blossom. Sidney Brown has a very beautiful jump serve. That game should've been a sweep if there wasn't a lull on the 2nd game. This team can only get better.
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Post by surfvolleypolojock77 on Sept 19, 2014 18:25:41 GMT -5
Stanford needs fans like USD brought last night. The student section and fans were in all game long. Stanford did great to block out the crowd noise especially from the Bull Pits (USD student floor section) on opposite sides of the court. I hope that the student body at Stanford could be ecstatic like other college crowds are.
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