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Post by dunninla3 on Mar 27, 2024 19:36:51 GMT -5
Sarah is actually balling out there at this point. I haven’t focused on her serve receive or second ball setting much lately, but she’s surely a top player in the league, if not the best, at digging hard driven swings. Just concluded watching tonights match. Khat Bell could not find any kind of shot to hit the floor against Sarah. Textbook “ate her up” type situation. She just sat back and scooped up everything. I’m happy for her, but all these plays just make me want to see her do it on the beach again. We need to start a Sponcalix LA28 fan club. TBH if Karch doesn't scoop her up after her game last night, he's got rocks for brains. And if I'm Sponcil, I'd choose that rather than Beach just for the different kind of experience. Two sport Olympian, like Karch. If it wasn't obvious before, she is a legit generational talent.
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Post by katita on Apr 13, 2024 19:23:31 GMT -5
Sponcil has been benched for the past two matches and I don’t think anyone has ever said why. She’s wasted talent just playing libero, but now to have her talents wasted on the bench? I say she goes back to beach after this season
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Post by genisvel on Apr 14, 2024 8:23:14 GMT -5
Cathy has been wanting to rotate court time since the beginning of the season, but Camilla had nagging knee problems.
Sponcil was not interviewed after last night's game, but I suggest this video.
Particularly, Gomez @ 40 sec. in and George @ 5:05
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Post by katita on Apr 14, 2024 12:16:56 GMT -5
Cathy has been wanting to rotate court time since the beginning of the season, but Camilla had nagging knee problems. Sponcil was not interviewed after last night's game, but I suggest this video. Particularly, Gomez @ 40 sec. in and George @ 5:05 Thanks for that. Glad it was addressed. But I still think she’s too talented to be benched and should go back to beach. (She’s been my favorite player for years in case you couldn’t tell lol)
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Post by c4ndlelight on Apr 14, 2024 13:10:10 GMT -5
Y'all realize Khat Bell is hitting .160 on the season and had her best matches against Grand Rapids, right?
Digging her a few times is not an Olympic ticket.
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Post by houdini on Apr 14, 2024 13:14:04 GMT -5
The partner is the real question, idk maybe she can find an indoor player who wants to transition. She’s got the time given she has to be planning for 2028 at this point and it might be easier to find a big on the indoor circuit than the outdoor one at this point. Julia Scoles has made a very rapid rise in her transition from indoor to beach...she improves every time I see her. If she decides to stick with Flint, maybe there is a Scoles 2.0 about to graduate from a top program. 😊 Or Scoles herself. As Betsi isn't the youngest player.
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Post by ajm on Apr 14, 2024 15:14:53 GMT -5
Cathy has been wanting to rotate court time since the beginning of the season, but Camilla had nagging knee problems. Sponcil was not interviewed after last night's game, but I suggest this video. Particularly, Gomez @ 40 sec. in and George @ 5:05 Just wanted to point out how terrific these post-match interviews are. AVP are you paying attention?
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Post by genisvel on Apr 14, 2024 17:59:46 GMT -5
According to her blog she seems to love it here despite not being used to something called "winter".
My prediction is she'll resign with the Rise for 2025 at one of the higher salary tiers. She might even move to the Opposite position to replace Dimitrova.
That's not to say she won't participate in apv this year. The Rise coaching staff are encouraging talent to do anything in the off-season to maintain match readiness.
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Post by dunninla3 on Apr 14, 2024 18:40:56 GMT -5
Sponcil has been benched for the past two matches and I don’t think anyone has ever said why. She’s wasted talent just playing libero, but now to have her talents wasted on the bench? I say she goes back to beach after this season I am going to listen to the interview to get details, but before I do, I want to share my impressions from watching Gomez the past two games, as contrasted to watching Sponcil for .. what, 12 games?
1. Expressiveness on Court: Gomez is like on crack. She's moving, talking, hugging, patting butts, talking to people like 8" from their faces, like 100% of the time. She is never idle. Very verbal. Very touchy, very social. That is SOOO not Sponcil's style.
2. Leadership on Court: Gomez seems to press into the center of each huddle. seems to be in charge of the huddle. After the huddle, for about 5-10 seconds, Gomez is talking, barking orders, to her OH and blockers and pointing and telling them things. Cheerleading too. Sponcil, not as much of any of that.
I'm mostly a Beach guy and don't understand a lot of Indoor stuff. It's hard for me to even watch Indoor and see players who totally suck at some fundamental volleyball skills. That is a prejudice, I know. But it seems to me most indoor players are very poor all around volleyball players. That about half of Indoor players aren't *real* volleyball players.
All that to say, I am sure there is a role the Libero plays on a team that goes far beyond the fundamental skills of serve passing, attack digging, reaching tips, and setting 2nd balls. Is the libero the floor leader in Coach George's system? Is the Libero the team leader? Is Sponcil in fact a rookie slowly learning all those intangibles of being a Libero that Gomez has been doing for years?
There was a play about four games ago where coach George took Sponcil aside at the time out and was gesturing and pointing... body language was "Sponcil, that court is yours. move people around. Move people out of the way. That block tip should never have hit the ground. Take charge!"
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Post by ajm on Apr 14, 2024 19:14:50 GMT -5
According to her blog she seems to love it here despite not being used to something called "winter". My prediction is she'll resign with the Rise for 2025 at one of the higher salary tiers. She might even move to the Opposite position to replace Dimitrova. That's not to say she won't participate in apv this year. The Rise coaching staff are encouraging talent to do anything in the off-season to maintain match readiness. I’m skeptical that she could be a successful attacker at the PVF level or above. I know she hit outside at LMU/UCLA, but that was seven years ago. She would be undersized for sure and a liability blocking. And she was never the most powerful attacker on the beach, relying more on shots and placements that wouldn’t necessarily translate to the indoor game. That said, I think she’s already proven herself as one of the better liberos in the PVF and don’t think she’ll have any problem finding a roster spot next year if that’s what she wants to do. I’d love to see her get a shot at setting, too.
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Post by dunninla3 on Apr 14, 2024 20:06:57 GMT -5
According to her blog she seems to love it here despite not being used to something called "winter". My prediction is she'll resign with the Rise for 2025 at one of the higher salary tiers. She might even move to the Opposite position to replace Dimitrova. That's not to say she won't participate in apv this year. The Rise coaching staff are encouraging talent to do anything in the off-season to maintain match readiness. That said, I think she’s already proven herself as one of the better liberos in the PVF and don’t think she’ll have any problem finding a roster spot next year if that’s what she wants to do. I’d love to see her get a shot at setting, too. OK, listened to the interview. I didn't pick up anything to indicate that Sponcil is benched. Coach George said what I had suspected... try different looks for different teams, "see what we've got to work with" I think was her phrase, across all positions, and she hadn't seen Gomez one set all season. Still, per my post above, Gomez can teach Sponcil a lot about the word Gomez used at least twice in her interview: Communication, (verbal and physical). I would like Sponcil to treat the huddle like she owns it, as Gomez seems to do. I also think Sponcil is better at digging hard hit balls, and at court coverage... she covers ground really well. Sponcil is probably better at serve receive but we really can't know that until Gomez has at least 4-5 games worth of stats.
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Post by dunninla3 on Apr 14, 2024 20:12:06 GMT -5
According to her blog she seems to love it here despite not being used to something called "winter". My prediction is she'll resign with the Rise for 2025 at one of the higher salary tiers. She might even move to the Opposite position to replace Dimitrova. That's not to say she won't participate in apv this year. The Rise coaching staff are encouraging talent to do anything in the off-season to maintain match readiness. I’m skeptical that she could be a successful attacker at the PVF level or above. I know she hit outside at LMU/UCLA, but that was seven years ago. She would be undersized for sure and a liability blocking. And she was never the most powerful attacker on the beach, relying more on shots and placements that wouldn’t necessarily translate to the indoor game. Agree with all of this. There is a world of difference between being HM All-America as a ball control OH, and being a pro level attacker against pro level blocks. Sponcil could be a Nuneviller type attacker, maybe. Shore up the back line and hit high hands, seams, tips, but not with power. BTW, Sponcil never played a minute of OH in her year of UCLA Indoor. On Day 1, when Coach whose name I don't even want to remember saw her setting, he realized she was the best setter he'd seen in Westwood in years. She set the entire year from that moment. Coach Black had already said she can play any position other than Middle, and she went into UCLA Indoor with the idea she could Set, DS, Libero, or OH. And setting is what UCLA needed that year.
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Post by c4ndlelight on Apr 14, 2024 21:11:00 GMT -5
I'm mostly a Beach guy and don't understand a lot of Indoor stuff. It's hard for me to even watch Indoor and see players who totally suck at some fundamental volleyball skills. That is a prejudice, I know. But it seems to me most indoor players are very poor all around volleyball players. That about half of Indoor players aren't *real* volleyball players.
this is mostly hilarious due to the degree that poor all-around indoor volleyball players (who suck at fundamental skills) dominate the current beach game. Like, Klineman was almost unplayable in serve receive, she was by far the worst receiver in professional volleyball while she was active. And now on the beach teams serve April freaking Ross over her. Pavan was a baby giraffe in the back row, and also one of the very worst blockers around (made worse by her size just expanding the target for tools). She just spent the better part of two quads terrorizing the rest of the hitters on tour. Kloth couldn't pass either; Creighton hid her in favor of a meh passing outside. And don't get me started on these players setting. These are all players who aren't *real* volleyball players to you because of basic volleyball skills, when the fact is the beach just demands a lot less precision in execution of these core skills. The level of serving, passing, blocking, setting is just way way higher outdoors.
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Post by dunninla3 on Apr 14, 2024 21:58:33 GMT -5
I'm mostly a Beach guy and don't understand a lot of Indoor stuff. It's hard for me to even watch Indoor and see players who totally suck at some fundamental volleyball skills. That is a prejudice, I know. But it seems to me most indoor players are very poor all around volleyball players. That about half of Indoor players aren't *real* volleyball players.
this is mostly hilarious due to the degree that poor all-around indoor volleyball players (who suck at fundamental skills) dominate the current beach game. Like, Klineman was almost unplayable in serve receive, she was by far the worst receiver in professional volleyball while she was active. And now on the beach teams serve April freaking Ross over her. Pavan was a baby giraffe in the back row, and also one of the very worst blockers around (made worse by her size just expanding the target for tools). She just spent the better part of two quads terrorizing the rest of the hitters on tour. Kloth couldn't pass either; Creighton hid her in favor of a meh passing outside. And don't get me started on these players setting. These are all players who aren't *real* volleyball players to you because of basic volleyball skills, when the fact is the beach just demands a lot less precision in execution of these core skills. The level of serving, passing, blocking, setting is just way way higher outdoors. I had/have trouble watching Klineman and Pavan. Esp. Pavan. These are two of several dozen players on the Pro Tour. You are pointing out players (I also feel that way about Tillman, and Reznick on the men's side) that many of us cite as being a reason why we lament the reduction of the court from 30' to 27'.
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Post by maizecrayons on Apr 15, 2024 8:11:49 GMT -5
According to her blog she seems to love it here despite not being used to something called "winter". My prediction is she'll resign with the Rise for 2025 at one of the higher salary tiers. She might even move to the Opposite position to replace Dimitrova. That's not to say she won't participate in apv this year. The Rise coaching staff are encouraging talent to do anything in the off-season to maintain match readiness. “Resign” what a confusing word! Had to read that through a couple times 😂
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