Nebraska at Texas

[foreignball]

texas22 said:

Well I am not unfamilar with volleyball. It's just the right answer. Either use a setter that can block, or run a 6-2

Not quite right because the setter's 1st job is to set. If she sets a good ball most likely she won't have to block next play. The setter's blocking is a bonus that she can add to her "resume" but this is not what she is hired for.
Even internationally where big guns are 6'3"-6'5" most of the setters are 5'7"-5'8" and nobody besides Cuba runs 6-2 (note that 90% of NCAA teams who use 6-2 are using a "Beta version" i.e. S is getting sub while FR)

[texas22]

well thats another part of her problem...she under sets her hitter and throws her middles to far out on her slides...she makes her OH swing into the block, besides Darium b/c she is shorter

[bucky415]

I thought Moriarty did a pretty good job of running the offense in the AVCA. I don't know what has happened to Texas since then; they looked like a really strong team even after Magee got hurt. If they can get things together, they have the talent to beat Nebraska. They were in position to beat PSU, after all, so they can hang with good teams. They just have to close them out. I am not sure that Engle will be the setter until Moriarty graduates. It is tempting to have an athletic, tall player at right side who can also step in and set if Moriarty digs the ball.

[sportswriterhawk]

I don't see where the hate comes from for Moriarty. When she was benched at Missouri, albeit briefly, I knew that Texas had no chance to win the match. Moriarty gives the Longhorns their best chance to win.

[FatsDom69]

texas22 take on UT setters is similar to gw's policy decisions:
simplistic and not to be derailed by facts

Thankfully texas22 has no hatchet men to put his misguided directives into place

[OverAndUnder]

Well as I more or less said in my previous post, I personally don't like where Michelle puts the ball. In my opinion her hitters would have better numbers if the left side sets were more of a lob - following a flatter arc but ending up in a slightly higher position, especially for Destinee; and if her slides weren't slung out in almost a straight line to the antenna.

But the thing is, I'M NOT ONE OF HER HITTERS OR HER COACH.
The first time I saw her play was on scouting tape for their 2004 match at Nebraska, and then the subregional in Wisconsin. I remember thinking "My word! That girl needs to slow down the speed of the ball if she's going to make it just barely clear the top of the tape!"
But then last year I saw them play a couple more times and realized that her speed and location must be exactly what she is supposed to do, otherwise a school like Texas would have had no difficulty recruiting a replacement.

So while I agree with some of the criticisms of Moriarty's setting from the point of view of my personal preferences I also see that the team has had more success with her in the position than in the few years before she arrived.

And for the record, I don't in any way support texas22's implication that Moriarty is to blame for Magee's knees. I do think those slingshot slides require a lot of sudden start/stop motion, but so do a lot of other motions that are run hundreds of times in practice. Blaming an injury on one specific motion is just stupid. Did Bryn Kehoe cause Barboza's ACL tear last year?

Every aspect of volleyball is hard on the knees and ankles. Magee could have torn her ACL jumping for a simple 2-ball in front of the setter or even landing flat after a block. That doesn't mean we stop running the sets or stop asking players to block. Injuries will happen; blaming the set gets in the way of what the player needs to do, which is keep their mental state strong and put all their physical energy into rehab.