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Post by ajm on Mar 22, 2024 17:03:13 GMT -5
Zoe/Esmee advance in three sets. Agatha/Rebecca looked completely fatigued at the end. Rebecca blocking.
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Post by trianglevolleyball on Mar 22, 2024 17:19:12 GMT -5
Zoe/Esmee advance in three sets. Agatha/Rebecca looked completely fatigued at the end. Rebecca blocking. Rebecca blocking?? Omigod iconic I need to watch the replay. Maybe Rebecca should take the year off, see if she wants to keep playing and potentially find a better young blocker for next cycle.
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Post by dunninla3 on Mar 22, 2024 18:20:48 GMT -5
Zoe/Esmee advance in three sets. Agatha/Rebecca looked completely fatigued at the end. Rebecca blocking. Rebecca blocking?? Omigod iconic I need to watch the replay. Maybe Rebecca should take the year off, see if she wants to keep playing and potentially find a better young blocker for next cycle. Agatha is a decent blocker... but I never in a million years would have thought Rebecca had more gas in the tank than Agatha. Maybe Agatha isn't used to Brazilian weather.
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Post by dunninla3 on Mar 22, 2024 18:24:16 GMT -5
I have heard some rumors for a while that the mid tier women (and most all the men) are seeing the writing on the wall with where the AVP is going and domestically, and are starting to step away from the full time grind of playing to start looking for incorporating life and work more. I guess the players have been talking for quite some time and just don't really see a light at the end of the professional tunnel. It's been hard enough as it is for the last few years. If there is not much of a domestic tour to speak of I can't see any of them really putting in the financial grind of playing all these challenger/future tournaments knowing who's at the top of the food chain. Without a reasonably stable domestic tour we're probably just wasting the pipeline that is the NCAA game. Hard to imagine that the current generation of women's Olympians, Cheng, Sponcil, Hughes, Kloth, Nuss, etc. would be where they are today without cutting their teeth on the AVP. Even someone like Klineman likely doesn't come out to the beach without the AVP. Perhaps we'll see the next generation of US beach players committed to making an Olympic run moving to Europe or Brazil and training with top players there, minimizing travel costs. Much like indoor players do. Kind of a key year for the AVP and USAV. If they can't make something work domestically, the start of the LA Olympic cycle next year is going to look very bleak for the Americans. Two issues there:
1) how do you make a living playing only FIVB? If you look outside the top 2 teams, AVP earnings makes the difference between being pro and being amateur.
2) I haven't met many USA women who are open to living outside the US. Sponcil has said she didn't want to go pro in Europe indoor mostly because she likes living here. Her words "I heard too many horror stories about US players playing abroad".
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Post by ajm on Mar 22, 2024 20:22:03 GMT -5
Without a reasonably stable domestic tour we're probably just wasting the pipeline that is the NCAA game. Hard to imagine that the current generation of women's Olympians, Cheng, Sponcil, Hughes, Kloth, Nuss, etc. would be where they are today without cutting their teeth on the AVP. Even someone like Klineman likely doesn't come out to the beach without the AVP. Perhaps we'll see the next generation of US beach players committed to making an Olympic run moving to Europe or Brazil and training with top players there, minimizing travel costs. Much like indoor players do. Kind of a key year for the AVP and USAV. If they can't make something work domestically, the start of the LA Olympic cycle next year is going to look very bleak for the Americans. Two issues there:
1) how do you make a living playing only FIVB? If you look outside the top 2 teams, AVP earnings makes the difference between being pro and being amateur.
2) I haven't met many USA women who are open to living outside the US. Sponcil has said she didn't want to go pro in Europe indoor mostly because she likes living here. Her words "I heard too many horror stories about US players playing abroad".
I assume they’d still get the USAV stipend, just like the Canadian teams do while living in SoCal. They’d also have to play those countries’ national/continental tours. Might not be easy, but also not impossible. Dozens of Americans live overseas playing indoor. Many love it, but for sure it’s not for everyone. I would also hope that if the AVP folded, USAV would put on some events as they have in the past. Maybe p1440 would jump back into the mix. Either way, not having a strong domestic tour hurts our ability to compete at the international level, so those with Olympic aspirations would have to figure something else out.
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Post by ajm on Mar 22, 2024 20:23:51 GMT -5
Swiss teams are on opposite sides of the bracket, so we wouldn’t get a sister showdown unless they meet in the medal rounds Sunday.
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Post by dunninla3 on Mar 22, 2024 22:05:01 GMT -5
Of the 5 BRA women's teams in Pool play, 3 are 2 and Que, and a fourth has to win their Lucky Losers match to get into the Elimination rounds
I don't understand how playing at home can have such poor results.
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Post by guest2 on Mar 22, 2024 22:28:04 GMT -5
Rebecca blocking?? Omigod iconic I need to watch the replay. Maybe Rebecca should take the year off, see if she wants to keep playing and potentially find a better young blocker for next cycle. Agatha is a decent blocker... but I never in a million years would have thought Rebecca had more gas in the tank than Agatha. Maybe Agatha isn't used to Brazilian weather. Its just unacceptable for her to run out of gas in a match like this, but Agatha does take 2-5 steps for every one that Rebecca takes, so if one of them was going to wear out it wasn't going to be Rebecca
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Post by guest2 on Mar 23, 2024 7:38:56 GMT -5
Swiss teams are on opposite sides of the bracket, so we wouldn’t get a sister showdown unless they meet in the medal rounds Sunday. Zoe has a pretty sweet draw. Finland is fine but extremely beatable and they dont put a ton of pressure on opponents. After that they would probably get Lithuania, who they are 2-0 against. The Brazilians Joannouk have first are probably the toughest opponent either faces in their path to the semis. Extremely weak event
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Post by dunninla3 on Mar 23, 2024 7:44:36 GMT -5
and ... just one BRA women's team left.
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Post by guest2 on Mar 23, 2024 8:14:07 GMT -5
The dig and finish by Brazil at 3-1 in the Swiss match was pretty awesome. Absolute epitome of the troubles Joannouk have (and very funny also)
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Post by maizecrayons on Mar 23, 2024 8:23:26 GMT -5
The dig and finish by Brazil at 3-1 in the Swiss match was pretty awesome. Absolute epitome of the troubles Joannouk have (and very funny also) That whole set was riddled with pretty comical moments. Fun to watch in a very unexpected way.
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Post by guest2 on Mar 23, 2024 8:41:31 GMT -5
The dig and finish by Brazil at 3-1 in the Swiss match was pretty awesome. Absolute epitome of the troubles Joannouk have (and very funny also) That whole set was riddled with pretty comical moments. Fun to watch in a very unexpected way. Taina/Victoria, who are maybe 5'8 and 9, with 8 blocks on the giant Swiss ladies. Wow! And Zoe/Esmee go through. If they can get the next round too - they are favorites - could put some distance back between these teams.
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Post by maizecrayons on Mar 23, 2024 8:52:45 GMT -5
Watching the third between SLO and CAN. If Canada could just limit the errors they’d have it running away. At 9-8 more than half of SLO’s points are from CAN errors.
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Post by haze on Mar 23, 2024 10:47:18 GMT -5
I have heard some rumors for a while that the mid tier women (and most all the men) are seeing the writing on the wall with where the AVP is going and domestically, and are starting to step away from the full time grind of playing to start looking for incorporating life and work more. I guess the players have been talking for quite some time and just don't really see a light at the end of the professional tunnel. It's been hard enough as it is for the last few years. If there is not much of a domestic tour to speak of I can't see any of them really putting in the financial grind of playing all these challenger/future tournaments knowing who's at the top of the food chain. well, we're talking then about the end of 35 year run. I think by 1989 on the men's side, it was clear a good living could be make of playing just AVP. Hell, Karch and Kent make $400k each several times. which is over $1M dollars in today's money. $3M if you're talking about the cost of buying a home in west of the 405. So we've gone from annual earnings of the cost a 3/2 home in Pacific Palisades (where Randy lives), to annual earnings of the cost of a mobile home in Blythe (some of you will have to look that up) Maybe Sponcil ended up in the better place, but there's no guaranteed future there either.
It's really unfortunate. You look at the year money list in that era and you could go 10+ players who were making enough in a season to sustain a decent living. Those days are long gone with the lack of tournaments and country inflation. I think it's really sad on both sides. We are at a time where the women's tour depth-wise is so flush with talent because of the NCAA and there's nothing professional to sustain it. Can you imagine if money wasn't an issue how amazing the women's side would be competitively speaking? There would not really be a match on the entire women's tournament that wouldn't have potential to be exciting. On the flip side, the AVP potential is what kept the men's going. Well that isn't a thing anymore, and neither really is the men's side. The men's side is easily at an all time low for lack of talent.
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