UH-Idaho Wac Opener

[sideoutnow]

Congratulations to UH on a sweep over Idaho. Some thoughts:
1) Passing still needs improvement
2) Aneli hitting for .143, only 8 kills, five errors. This is dismal, especially against a mediocre WAC team.
3) Ferrell was put in the end of the 2nd game for only one rotation, but made a kill that looked impressive. Again, I say, put in Ferrell during WAC play. I don't know why Shoji is holding her back.
4) Glad to see Houston cutting down on errors. But Brandt's sets are still inconsistent and too low at times.
5) Loved the action in the middle. Kudos to Sanders especially. Gregory performed better than Kaufman last night. Credit Brandt for connecting better with her Middle hitters.
6) UH gets a grade "B" for their overall performance

[ACE]

sideoutnow said:

Congratulations to UH on a sweep over Idaho. Some thoughts:
1) Passing still needs improvement
2) Aneli hitting for .143, only 8 kills, five errors. This is dismal, especially against a mediocre WAC team.
3) Ferrell was put in the end of the 2nd game for only one rotation, but made a kill that looked impressive. Again, I say, put in Ferrell during WAC play. I don't know why Shoji is holding her back.
4) Glad to see Houston cutting down on errors. But Brandt's sets are still inconsistent and too low at times.
5) Loved the action in the middle. Kudos to Sanders especially. Gregory performed better than Kaufman last night. Credit Brandt for connecting better with her Middle hitters.
6) UH gets a grade "B" for their overall performance

Hawaii looked good at times, but not all the time, so I'd give them a C.

I wonder why Shoji didn't revamp his entire line-up for game 3. It only appeared that his starters where playing down to the competition, why not let some eager 2nd stringers play...I'm sure they'd try and put on a better showing than what most of the starters did.

[sideoutnow]

Ace, I agree with you. The third game should have been experimental i.e. Ferrell on the leftside.

[roy]

Idaho is young and that youth showed. They were intimidated by the SSC and Hawaii. Too many service errors and unforced hitting errors. Some of their shots were just sailing way out. Not much good to take from this match, aside from the fact that this will be their toughest challenge in the WAC. After this, other matches will be easier with the exception of NMSU.

Hawaii did well dispite the stats. The outsides didn't hit for a great percent, but it certainly wasn't as difficult as it may have seemed. A majority of the hitting errors came from bad sets or bad decisions in hitting. The outside hitters need to learn to take the smarter shot instead of going for the outright kill. Another note is that Hawaii is serving really tough. They didn't get a lot of aces, but they completely limited what Idaho could do and got a lot of free passes and over passes.

The concerns for Hawaii was the setting. One thing I noticed was that Brandt needs to adapt to each hitter a little better. Kaufman is faster than Sanders and Gregory, but when Gregory came in during game 3, Brandt was shooting the sets out to the pin to Gregory at the fast tempo she would to Kaufman. Hence, Gregory missed a couple of shots. The other concern was the let down in game 3, and while they blew out Idaho in games 1 & 2, they need to keep the pressure on for the entire time. Other teams can gain momentum from that and it could make an easy night for Hawaii turn into a more difficult one.

[pineapple]

That's, um, what I was going to say, Roy.

[5100]

Did Idaho make a lot of errors? Because the UH hitting stats, with the exception of Sanders and the reserves, are pretty low. I was expecting a higher percentage since this is the WAC and it was a sweep.

[2 cents]

Hawaii's floor defense was pretty good. 49 digs vs 37. UI made too many service and attack errors. Basically self-destructed.