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Post by trollhunter on Mar 8, 2019 13:37:57 GMT -5
Thanks Travis, that answers a lot of the questions we had on VT about her competing in college/pro/Olympic simultaneously!
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Post by bayarea on Mar 8, 2019 15:56:20 GMT -5
VolleyballMag.com’s Rob Espero caught up with Pepperdine junior Heidi Dyer Heidi is a senior, in her 4th beach season, fwiw.
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Post by david38 on Mar 8, 2019 22:03:42 GMT -5
Delayed post as my account was being approved. I went to the Pac-12 South Invitational both days, mostly to see Sponcil, and UCLA. The team looked good , they won handily for the 2 matches I saw, ASU and Cal, I pretty much caught the 2nd, and 3rd games of the matches. I missed the Washington match. Actually my first college beach matches in person. The matches can go so fast, sometimes just by the way the match goes, the top players don’t get a chance to truly show what sets them apart. Sponcil did make some great plays, amazingly quick reflexes. And of course they never serve her. Eager to see how she develops as a pro. If anyone else was there or saw it on TV, please don’t tell me she if she reeled off like 5 incredible plays in a row in one of the first games, which I missed. Thanks!!
Interesting bit of story on the Cal match. After UCLA clinched at 3-0, the remaining 2 matches both went 3 games, incredibly exciting, hard fought matches. UCLA took both. Late in the 3rd game of Simo/Monkhouse they change ends, it was maybe 13-12. Stein walks with the players to their corner, about 3 feet away from where I’m standing. Before joining them in the corner, though, he walks over to straighten the endline tape, and after doing so looks really pissed off. He comes stalking over to the corner, where just off court, kneeling behind the ball stopper pads, is one of the referees who’s off rotation. I had a feeling she might have been the head referee, not sure. He skips the players and starts tearing into the ref. “Every time they do this!! 4-6 inches every time!!!” Implying that the Cal players were cheating by moving the tape in. I didn’t notice them doing it, but of course I wasn’t really watching for it so I can’t say.
Immediately after he finishes the tongue lashing, and it was pretty intense (the ref didn’t reply), Simo, who’s seated for the break, with her back to the ref turns her head, now sort of in profile but not directly facing the ref, and really fiercely adds to Stein’s sentence, “….AND swearing!! ANDDDD netting!!!” It had the ring of truth to it, but again I can’t say I witnessed this, although I could have missed anything said at the net. I will say, though, that the Cal players who had finished playing and were standing near me cheering their teammates for both of these last 2 matches, on adjacent courts; maybe 10 of them or so, were incredibly obnoxious. It was really off putting. So maybe Simo was right.
It was great to see them play in person after watching on TV last year. I’ve been following women’s pro beach for about 2 years; prior to that, like many, I always enjoyed watching it during the Olympics. Following college for 1. My ‘cred’ is limited, I was more of a basketball player, but as a bunch of Valley Boys in L.A. back in the day, we made the L.A. city schools championship match and took a game off of Pali, lol. Is Pali still a thing? Our best player was all set to go to Cal and play club since they didn’t, and it looks like they still don’t, have a men’s team, before playing on the beach after senior year and getting ‘discovered’ by UCLA assistant Denny Cline, who had been at the match with Pali and taken notes on both of us. My friend walked on and though he didn’t play much, played 4 years at UCLA as a back row sub.
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Post by trollhunter on Mar 9, 2019 1:49:04 GMT -5
Delayed post as my account was being approved. I went to the Pac-12 South Invitational both days, mostly to see Sponcil, and UCLA. The team looked good , they won handily for the 2 matches I saw, ASU and Cal, I pretty much caught the 2nd, and 3rd games of the matches. I missed the Washington match. Actually my first college beach matches in person. The matches can go so fast, sometimes just by the way the match goes, the top players don’t get a chance to truly show what sets them apart. Sponcil did make some great plays, amazingly quick reflexes. And of course they never serve her. Eager to see how she develops as a pro. If anyone else was there or saw it on TV, please don’t tell me she if she reeled off like 5 incredible plays in a row in one of the first games, which I missed. Thanks!! Interesting bit of story on the Cal match. After UCLA clinched at 3-0, the remaining 2 matches both went 3 games, incredibly exciting, hard fought matches. UCLA took both.” Thanks for sharing! Hope we get a similar report from someone this weekend.
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Post by sandball on Mar 9, 2019 5:52:54 GMT -5
No. 1 UCLA hosts the East Meets West Challenge this weekend at Manhattan Beach Pier Photo: @uclaathletics Photo: @uscbeach
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Post by sandball on Mar 9, 2019 10:25:10 GMT -5
Weekend Meetings - Top 20 matchups #11 meets #13 Mar 9 Cal-Stanford 3-2East Meets West ChallengeManhattan Beach Pier, CA Mar 9-10 West: #1 UCLA, #2 USC, #3 Pepperdine, #5 Hawaii. East: #4 Florida State, #6 LSU, #9 FIU, #19 TCU. Saturday 8:30am USC-FIU 3-29:30am Hawaii-TCU 4-110:30am UCLA-LSU 4-1 (+video) 11:30am FSU-Pepperdine 4-1 12:30pm UCLA-FIU 4-1 1:30pm USC-TCU 5-02:30pm FSU-Hawaii 3-23:30pm LSU-Pepperdine 3-2Sunday 9:00am Hawaii-FIU 3-210:00am USC-LSU 4-111:00am Pepperdine-TCU 4-112:00pm UCLA-FSU 4-11:00pm LSU-Hawaii 4-12:00pm Pepperdine-FIU 3-23:00pm USC-FSU 3-24:00pm UCLA-TCU 5-0#13 meets #20 Mar 10 St.Mary’s-Stanford 3-2TV: Pac-12 Networks
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Post by sandball on Mar 9, 2019 12:45:13 GMT -5
#2 USC def. #9 FIU 3-2 1. Abril Bustamante/Tina Graudina (USC) def. Ali Denney/Abbie Hughes (FIU) 21-12, 21-12 2. Terese Cannon/Sammy Slater (USC) def. Federica Frasca/Margherita Bianchin (FIU) 21-14, 21-23, 16-14 3. Haley Hallgren/Alexandra Poletto (USC) def. Dorina Klinger/Ronja Klinger (FIU) 23-25, 21-19, 15-13 4. Lina Bernier/Erika Zembyla (FIU) def. Joy Dennis/Maja Kaiser (USC) 21-10, 18-21, 15-10 5. Katie Friesen/Madison Besterfield (FIU) def. Cammie Dorn/Mollie Ebertin (USC) 22-20, 14-21, 15-10 Order of finish: 1, 4, 2, 5, 3* usctrojans.com/news/2019/3/9/womens-beach-volleyball-no-2-usc-fights-off-no-9-florida-international-for-3-2-win.aspxhttp://instagram.com/p/Buzr_ZkFz5x
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Post by sunger4222 on Mar 9, 2019 12:53:59 GMT -5
Thanks for the update Sand. USC is winning, but they have a huge problems it appears with the 4 pair. Last season I heard so much about the problems Joy had with her partners, but the few times I have watched them this season it appears Joy is the inconsistent one. She varies from very good, to hesitant, to slow.
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Post by badbunny on Mar 9, 2019 14:17:32 GMT -5
Thanks for the update Sand. USC is winning, but they have a huge problems it appears with the 4 pair. Last season I heard so much about the problems Joy had with her partners, but the few times I have watched them this season it appears Joy is the inconsistent one. She varies from very good, to hesitant, to slow. Also, doesn’t help that FIU put out an *illegal* line-up. Waiting for the day it bites Rita in the rear...
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Post by rainmaker on Mar 9, 2019 14:19:26 GMT -5
Ya I see she put the Italians in at 2, thinking she could get a split..
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Post by badbunny on Mar 9, 2019 14:22:40 GMT -5
And flipped 3’s and 4’s
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Post by sunger4222 on Mar 9, 2019 14:38:07 GMT -5
Thanks Bad, are you there? If so, can you update occasionally? Thanks
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Post by badbunny on Mar 9, 2019 14:39:36 GMT -5
I wish. Travel is hard to fit into the work schedule. Just keeping up with scores and updates via twitter
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Post by newbeach on Mar 9, 2019 14:53:18 GMT -5
Thanks for the update Sand. USC is winning, but they have a huge problems it appears with the 4 pair. Last season I heard so much about the problems Joy had with her partners, but the few times I have watched them this season it appears Joy is the inconsistent one. She varies from very good, to hesitant, to slow. Also, doesn’t help that FIU put out an *illegal* line-up. Waiting for the day it bites Rita in the rear... Not really illegal...Flipping #1's and #2's is within the rules. Same with the #3's and #4's. They still lost at #2 flight, so it didn't pay off anyway.
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Post by badbunny on Mar 9, 2019 14:56:38 GMT -5
That’s why I put the **. Legal within the rules set forth, agreed. How does Rita justify moving winning pairs down? That’s where it gets fuzzy.
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