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Post by gobears on Mar 24, 2004 11:30:56 GMT -5
The Cal Berkeley club team has gone to play at Hawaii twice, '96 and '01. Both times it was a super experience for the Bears and Wilton and team were great hosts. The '96 match was Yuval's last home match and the SS arena was hoppin'. Anywhere the Cal team went in Honolulu during the 5 days, locals welcomed them with smiles, press coverage was great, scrimmaged with Outrigger Club, local Cal alums hosted for a dinner..etc.
As an aside Patrick Aparicio has been playing pro vb in Sweden for the past 3 years, as has Drew Russell, both of whom enjoyed the Hawaii experience.
The Bears played Cal Baptist earlier this year, 0-3. Cal Baptist has very tall players in addition to being older and experienced/skilled.
Should they desire MPSF affifliation and thus have to abide by NCAA I/II rules, it would be interesting to see how they would do.
NAIA Hope Univ in Fullerton also pulls in good players altho not at the level of Cal Baptist.
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Post by just...theDH on Mar 24, 2004 13:43:31 GMT -5
Whoa! That guy looks older than my dad! yeesh.
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Post by socalbud on Mar 24, 2004 13:51:51 GMT -5
Wasn't at the game but talked to a couple of people who were. SB still struggling with setting. To still be having this kind of indecision or lack of clear setting leadership at this point in the season does not bode well for SB. One of the three needs to step up soon. Frustrating for the hitters, but they seem to continue to be patient and supportive of each other. Also neither of the two assistant coaches were at the game to help Preston. Rogers on tour and Gandara actually no longer on staff - moved on. Still, SB has so much potential, and if they're on, Pepp and USC will have there hands full later this week.
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Post by BarcelonaBob on Mar 24, 2004 19:51:53 GMT -5
Wasn't at the game but talked to a couple of people who were. SB still struggling with setting. To still be having this kind of indecision or lack of clear setting leadership at this point in the season does not bode well for SB. One of the three needs to step up soon. Frustrating for the hitters, but they seem to continue to be patient and supportive of each other. Also neither of the two assistant coaches were at the game to help Preston. Rogers on tour and Gandara actually no longer on staff - moved on. Still, SB has so much potential, and if they're on, Pepp and USC will have there hands full later this week. Gandara was about as useful to the UCSB coaching staff as Al Scates' sandwedge, although I found it funny that he always said the exact same thing to the blockers and moved his hands in the air doing the same exact blocking move everytime the Gauchos called a timeout. Rogers, you almost had to wake his ass up and check his pulse on the bench. If you took Kowalski's speed, quickness, desire, heart, serving, and defense and combined it with Jensen's height, setting hands, and set location....you might very well have the next Taliaferro. But, unfortunately, you can't. Jensen could be a really good setter if he wanted to be...too bad he displays the typical Gaucho men's volleyball player mentality.
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Post by BarcelonaBob on Mar 24, 2004 19:58:01 GMT -5
The Cal Berkeley club team has gone to play at Hawaii twice, '96 and '01. Both times it was a super experience for the Bears and Wilton and team were great hosts. The '96 match was Yuval's last home match and the SS arena was hoppin'. Anywhere the Cal team went in Honolulu during the 5 days, locals welcomed them with smiles, press coverage was great, scrimmaged with Outrigger Club, local Cal alums hosted for a dinner..etc. As an aside Patrick Aparicio has been playing pro vb in Sweden for the past 3 years, as has Drew Russell, both of whom enjoyed the Hawaii experience. The Bears played Cal Baptist earlier this year, 0-3. Cal Baptist has very tall players in addition to being older and experienced/skilled. Should they desire MPSF affifliation and thus have to abide by NCAA I/II rules, it would be interesting to see how they would do. NAIA Hope Univ in Fullerton also pulls in good players altho not at the level of Cal Baptist. Actually, Yuval played 2 more matches at the SSC after the Cal series - a first-round MPSF tournament victory over Pepperdine (Roumain's frosh year), and a second-round 5-game heartbreak loss to the red-hot UCSB Gauchos. The Cal series was a great series of matches. Cal had a setter by the name of Chris Hopkins who was a little bit chubby at the time, earning him the nickname "Rerun" (after the character from the TV show "What's Happening"). I saw him the next year (1997), when he transferred to USC and he had lost a ton of weight, and was backing up Suxho at setter.
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Post by My2Sense on Mar 25, 2004 1:43:38 GMT -5
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Post by banthony2 on Mar 25, 2004 3:12:14 GMT -5
I had dinner with Jake Wiens dad about 3 weeks ago and he said setting has been their concern all year. They just haven't been consistent. I enjoyed seeing Kowalski play when they were here in Provo. I had read about him when he was at Royal.
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