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Post by 808 on Mar 16, 2007 4:00:14 GMT -5
Houston was spectacular with 24 kills in 3 games (8 average). She'll be first team All-America next season if she remains injury free. She is getting better and better on the off plays too, something she had a lots of problems with the past two seasons. If I recall correctly, she was even more spectacular in 2 games, with 21 kills before intermission. There were some pretty nice plays she made, she's sure getting a lot better, still. That's my recollection too, IB. 21 kills in 2 games! UA just couldn't stop her. On another note, Dosty for UA is huge!! Is she only 6-3? Big hitter, but she sent several serves about 5 feet long. I wonder if she served regularly last year as a freshman. She played all around and very well too. She's going to be a good one for UA. Resch also played well. I didn't realize until I checked their roster that she's listed at only 5-9! I thought she looked kind of on the shorter side but didn't think she was that short. Good job on the outside, though. We couldn't get the right blocking angle on that lefty Goodenough, either.
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Post by kolohekeiki on Mar 16, 2007 9:25:58 GMT -5
Hawai`i played a decent match tonight considering all that they were missing. Juliana Sanders and Tara Hittle were the main ones that the Wahine were missing in the line-up tonight.
Jamie Houston was spectacular on the outside, Hawai`i's lone bright spot on offense. Dani did a decent job as her first time running the Wahine offense, but you can hear some growns from the crowd on some of her sets as they were off the mark preventing her hitters from really terminating the ball. But Jamie did an excellent job in keeping the offsets in play.
It was actually pretty interesting as I sat in front of the girls from `Imi `Ike volleyball club (with future Wahine Liz Ka`aihue and Kanani Herring) and it was interesting to hear their constructive criticism of the Wahine, while they cheered them on.
Kari Gregory seemed to struggle tonight on both offense and defense and she never got into her form that she ended the season with.
I don't think there is anything to worry about going into next season because the Wahine have several great recruits coming in (Ferrell, Simmons, Brandt, and Ka`aihue), as well as all the injured girls coming back from injuries. And the off-season will definitely give Dani time to polish up her setting and connections with her hitters, while it will give the healthy girls a chance to improve even more on their games.
As another poster stated earlier I think Woolford, Lee, and Duggins are pretty much the only backrow players that will be sticking around for next season. No offense to Rayna Kitaguchi, but she doesn't look that confident in the back row as she looks really tentative on her passing as she doesn't follow through on her passes and honestly to me it doesn't look like she's improved. Same with Makana Recca, to her defense I haven't really seen much of her as she really hasn't gotten time to prove herself, but I think it will be hard for Dave to keep them on the team at this point. Of course I would love to see them stick around and grow and improve in their game, but Dave seriously needs to trim down his back row players so each player can get more reps and improve on their back row play.
But as I mentioned earlier I don't think tonight is a close indication what so ever on what to expect next season. The Wahine will be a great team next season with everyone back healthy (hopefully).
One last note, it was awesome to see Kanoe back in uniform tonight for the last time. She will surely be missed and it will definitely be different not seeing her on the court. But I have faith in Dani that she'll step right in and do a great job running the Wahine offense.
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Post by ladeda on Mar 16, 2007 13:06:44 GMT -5
Dani is going to be very good and she will get there quickly you can see the determination in her. Houston is just plain dope, ready to fly but we can't put it all on her.Right now it's just spring ball as IB would always say,we didn't expect much last year after all the bad luck injuries but we ended up doing very well .
Kudos to lazybones on your reporting. I got a better sense of what happened than I got from the Star or Advertiser,good job.
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Post by Mix Breed-TEXAS,HI,LBSU on Mar 16, 2007 14:33:35 GMT -5
I agree, Dani Mafua will do just fine this season running the offense....It will just take time for her to improve on her ball placements and connecting well with her MB's......
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Post by Cubicle No More ... on Mar 16, 2007 15:12:55 GMT -5
Went to the game last night... and well, the streak continues. Whenever my friends and I go, they lose (doesn't matter if it's women's or men's vball). ;D I was excited just to see the Wahine play again. (Haven't had much to be excited about so far w/the Hawaii men's team ... but that's another post for another part of this board.) Houston came ready to play. Set her from any part of the court, and she’s ready! But Hawaii needs more offense from everyone else. I also thought she passed better than nearly all the back-court players that were rotated in. And there, I suspect, is where many a Hawaii fan's discussion/frustration will again focus on this year -- the passing. So many defensive specialists, yet so streaky. And when the passing is streaky, the team's overall play is streaky. They can (and did) score points in bunches when it was on, but when it was off they gave up just as many in bunches. When you've got 3 players in the back row (Woolford, Kitaguchi, and Lee) whose sole job is to pass, one of them (hell all 3 of them!) has got to deliver. When Kitaguchi has to move over and take the pass away from Woolford b/c she has shanked the last two, well then something is wrong with that serve-receive formation, don’t ya think? And let’s not chalk it all up to just spring ball (and yes, I do realize it’s spring ball). A defensive specialist’s job is pass first, defense second. If you’re a DS that is something you’ve gotta be able to do no matter if it’s spring ball or final four ball. That said I think Lee did a good job passing. Recca who played in G3, I also thought was pretty solid. Duggins ok. Kitaguchi (eh…), then Woolford (who was the serving target last night). I mean, that says something, right? Being the DS, and yet you’re the serving target? Mafua looked good. The misconnects to the middles will smooth out. Needs to work on set location on her back-sets to the right pin. She said afterwards she had jitters, but there is a calmness to her as she plays (no doubt from watching KK). I loved the swing she took near the end of the match when KK set the final few points (6-2 possibility with Brandt coming in?) All in all, it was fun seeing the team play again…
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Post by Cubicle No More ... on Mar 16, 2007 15:15:56 GMT -5
If I recall correctly, she was even more spectacular in 2 games, with 21 kills before intermission. There were some pretty nice plays she made, she's sure getting a lot better, still. That's my recollection too, IB. 21 kills in 2 games! UA just couldn't stop her. On another note, Dosty for UA is huge!! Is she only 6-3? Big hitter, but she sent several serves about 5 feet long. I wonder if she served regularly last year as a freshman. She played all around and very well too. She's going to be a good one for UA. Dosty was impressive. I didn't realize she was only a freshman. She's got a lot of up side to her game.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 16, 2007 16:07:35 GMT -5
Went to the game last night... and well, the streak continues. Whenever my friends and I go, they lose (doesn't matter if it's women's or men's vball). ;D Back in 1978 or 1977 (I forget which), whenever I watched the UH Rainbow men's basketball team play, they lost. The only game I didn't watch that year, they won. That year, they went 1-26. I saw every single loss and missed their only victory. I blame myself for the team's misery that season. I've never gotten over it.
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Post by Mix Breed-TEXAS,HI,LBSU on Mar 16, 2007 16:14:31 GMT -5
the PASSING needs to get better, I'm not even sure why Woolford is still on the team, from what I've heard from posters on here, She sucks bad.....maybe not that much but we sure could have used Syndey Yogi...........Hawai'i missed that one......I seen her play during the summer when Punahou was in the Seattle area and they played the best team here in the state of Washington full of giants at the net....Yogi passed everything in front of the 10 footline and nothing in back.......
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Post by Sandy Toes on Mar 16, 2007 16:34:20 GMT -5
...As another poster stated earlier I think Woolford, Lee, and Duggins are pretty much the only backrow players that will be sticking around for next season. No offense to Rayna Kitaguchi, but she doesn't look that confident in the back row as she looks really tentative on her passing as she doesn't follow through on her passes and honestly to me it doesn't look like she's improved. Same with Makana Recca, to her defense I haven't really seen much of her as she really hasn't gotten time to prove herself, but I think it will be hard for Dave to keep them on the team at this point. Of course I would love to see them stick around and grow and improve in their game, but Dave seriously needs to trim down his back row players so each player can get more reps and improve on their back row play. . I aggree... 5 back row players, that's rediculous. 6 if you include Ong. Lee is the only one that looked like a starter. Definitely need to trim the fat to make room for Ka'aihue and Otineru (hopefully). Houston - Very very strong performance Gregory - what the !?! Was she even really there? I think it was a clone gone bad! Blood - pretty steady. Kaufman - Perfect set = wow, not perfect = ugh! Mason - Damn! Another bad clone! (hottie clone) Mafua. Maybe she's not Kanoe (rare talent), but she'll be at least as good as Cayley (if not better). Very impressed with Dosty. I was really looking forward to seeing her. She can execute. Impressive just to eyeball. Definitely looks taller than 6'3". Now the long agonizing wait...
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Post by CiM on Mar 16, 2007 17:46:54 GMT -5
Dosty ? Is she related to Chris Dosty that played for the UH Men team about 10 years back ?
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Post by kolohekeiki on Mar 16, 2007 18:05:03 GMT -5
Dosty ? Is she related to Chris Dosty that played for the UH Men team about 10 years back ? That was Chris Kosty that played for the men's team.
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Post by kolohekeiki on Mar 16, 2007 18:07:14 GMT -5
the PASSING needs to get better, I'm not even sure why Woolford is still on the team, from what I've heard from posters on here, She sucks bad.....maybe not that much but we sure could have used Syndey Yogi...........Hawai'i missed that one......I seen her play during the summer when Punahou was in the Seattle area and they played the best team here in the state of Washington full of giants at the net....Yogi passed everything in front of the 10 footline and nothing in back....... Raeceen Woolford does not suck bad...she is a decent back row player...Hawai`i fans are just use to seeing that awesome defensive player in the back row...like any other back row player Woolford has her share of shanks...she is steady when she needs to be and she has come up big in some games...I don't know why people keep ragging on her...behind Jamie Lee, I think she is the next best...she is more steady than Elise Duggins which makes her more steady than the rest.
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Post by Cubicle No More ... on Mar 16, 2007 18:38:44 GMT -5
the PASSING needs to get better, I'm not even sure why Woolford is still on the team, from what I've heard from posters on here, She sucks bad.....maybe not that much but we sure could have used Syndey Yogi...........Hawai'i missed that one......I seen her play during the summer when Punahou was in the Seattle area and they played the best team here in the state of Washington full of giants at the net....Yogi passed everything in front of the 10 footline and nothing in back....... Raeceen Woolford does not suck bad...she is a decent back row player...Hawai`i fans are just use to seeing that awesome defensive player in the back row...like any other back row player Woolford has her share of shanks...she is steady when she needs to be and she has come up big in some games...I don't know why people keep ragging on her...behind Jamie Lee, I think she is the next best...she is more steady than Elise Duggins which makes her more steady than the rest. I was a Woolford defender at times last season. I agree she's had her big moments (and she made improvements in her game during the course of last season), but she's also had some seriously low points. My frustration is this: Among the defensive specialists/liberos, she has spent the longest time developing with the UH program, and yet her consistency and her steadiness is not better than the others. It's certainly not on par with Lee's, and there is a good argument that she's not as consistent as Duggins (who beat Woolford out for playtime last year subbing in for Kaufman). At last night's exhibition, it was Lee & Duggins playing libero, and not Woolford. I will say this about Woolford's game: She can be spectacular on defense. But like I said earlier, defensive specialists need to be able to pass first, play defense second. And after the setter, the liberos/DS's need be the most steady out on the court. There was a play last night where Woolford put up an "ooh and aah" inducing dig of Dosty to keep the rally alive, and as the play continued, AZ sent an easy freeball over, which Woolford overpassed and Hawaii lost the point. In a nutshell, that's kinda been the story of Woolford's career so far ...
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Post by jr67 on Mar 16, 2007 18:53:55 GMT -5
Raeceen Woolford does not suck bad...she is a decent back row player...Hawai`i fans are just use to seeing that awesome defensive player in the back row...like any other back row player Woolford has her share of shanks...she is steady when she needs to be and she has come up big in some games...I don't know why people keep ragging on her...behind Jamie Lee, I think she is the next best...she is more steady than Elise Duggins which makes her more steady than the rest. I was a Woolford defender at times last season. I agree she's had her big moments (and she made improvements in her game during the course of last season), but she's also had some seriously low points. My frustration is this: Among the defensive specialists/liberos, she has spent the longest time developing with the UH program, and yet her consistency and her steadiness is not better than the others. It's certainly not on par with Lee's, and there is a good argument that she's not as consistent as Duggins (who beat Woolford out for playtime last year subbing in for Kaufman). At last night's exhibition, it was Lee & Duggins playing libero, and not Woolford. I will say this about Woolford's game: She can be spectacular on defense. But like I said earlier, defensive specialists need to be able to pass first, play defense second. And after the setter, the liberos/DS's need be the most steady out on the court. There was a play last night where Woolford put up an "ooh and aah" inducing dig of Dosty to keep the rally alive, and as the play continued, AZ sent an easy freeball over, which Woolford overpassed and Hawaii lost the point. In a nutshell, that's kinda been the story of Woolford's career so far ... I agree. I would order them Lee then Duggins then Woolford. I think both Lee and Diggins are better at reading the opposing hitters. Woolford doesn't seem to able to read tips that well. There were a couple times last season when everyone in the SSC knew a hitter was going tip the ball over the block except Woolford who was caught flat footed. Last night I was not impressed with any of the back row players. And you're right that Houston actually did the best job passing which is both good and bad at the same time--good sher passing as well as the rest of her game has progressed, bad that our defensive specialist underachieved. I've only seen Ka'aihue play once. Does anyone think she's good enough to take away the Libero spot from Lee?
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Post by roy on Mar 16, 2007 19:34:01 GMT -5
The passing should be better. Assuming Hittle is back in her freshman form, she will be the most solid all around outside for the Wahine. In fact, she is probably the best overall passer on the team including the liberos. She and Lee will be the primary passers for the Wahine. Houston has also shown that she can hold her own passing. She started shaky last year but by the end of the year, was able to hold her own. She is not as pin point as Hittle or Lee but she won't be a serving target. That leaves Kaufman in the back row and she isn't a huge liability either. She has shown to be a decent secondary passer. The concern is that there won't be a huge need for all the liberos on the team. 3 back row players will be needed at most, 1 at libero, 1 to possibly replace Kaufman, and 1 more as an extra in the event someone else starts to struggle.
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