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Post by pogoball on Jun 20, 2010 10:27:55 GMT -5
At Virginia beach, the draw is pretty much holding to form.
On the women's side, top seeds Kessy/Ross and May-T/Branagh both won their matches and are on opposite sides of the semifinals. Akers/Turner and Scott/Youngs won the loser's bracket to get another shot at the top two. Scott/Youngs were able to take a set off of Kessy/Ross, so the match against May/Branagh tomorrow might be interesting.
On the men's side, the top seeds Hyden/Scott and Fuerbringer/Lucena won out and await the loser's bracket champions tomorrow. Nygard/Olson pulled off the mild upset of Mariana/Ratledge to be the only non-top-6 team still left in the draw.
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Post by bigfan on Jun 20, 2010 15:23:38 GMT -5
Kessy/Ross are the NEW SHERRIFF"S IN TOWN!
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Post by pogoball on Jun 20, 2010 16:29:42 GMT -5
Barely today, though. Branagh/May gave them a serious run for the money in the finals. Kessy/Ross won 21-15, 18-21, 15-12 -- but it could have gone either way. Both teams were rubber-legged in the final set. Kessy/Ross went out to the early lead in the 3rd set, but Branagh/May kept plugging away and closed to 13-12 and looked to have the momentum, but a couple big swings finished the match for K/R.
On the men's side, Fuerbringer/Lucena (I almost typed Jennings) were on fire throughout against Hyden/Scott, painting the lines on their serves. I don't know how many aces, but their serving set the tone of the match. Furby was awesome in the second set with crazy digs.
You could see how much Lucena wanted to win his first title in 5 years and when it got to 19-14 in the second set, he got waaayy tight. Hyden/Scott mistakenly served Furby at 19-15, allowing him to swing the side-out. They served Lucena from 20-16 and closed to 20-19 before a F/L time out. Lucena was clearly overhitting the ball. They were thinking the same thing that I was -- since Lucena was being served a fairly easy floater, he could just pass it to the net and allow Furby to take a swing on 2. They did and they won the match 21-17, 21-19.
2 great matches between the top seeds.
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Post by ShaneM2005 on Jun 20, 2010 17:12:07 GMT -5
Misty & Nicole just don't cover cut shots well and I don't understand why. I guess Misty is still getting back in the game, but some easy shots fell. However, the big thing I see is that Misty/Nicole are going to keep improving, Jen & April are peaking, simple as that.
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Post by volleyfred on Jun 20, 2010 19:57:35 GMT -5
what's really happened with kessy/ross is their new coach since last year Jeff Conover. While Kessy/Ross were outstanding before, they needed to get over the hump with a new way of seeing the beach game. The beach game was full of purists and old school self made experts who tried to coach Kessy/Ross. Jeff, an indoor player from CSUN, younger than either Kessy/Ross, who had played some beach, sees the game different than many playing. He brought the "go for it" serving mentality to the beach game he was part of while playing at CSUN.
Kessy/Ross are no doubt great athletes, winners, experienced already and just going for it wouldn't have won for just any team, but rather that listen to all the old school rhetoric on how the beach game is to be played, they took what they already knew with what Jeff and the CSUN coaching staff figured out and have been extremely successful the past two seasons.
Of course, it also helps that May/Walsh has been away for a while... When all you see are tough serves, whether in or out, volleyball becomes a tough game for even two olympians in the new partnership of Branagh/May. Let's see how Kessy/Ross plays out when that new partnership gets stronger.
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Post by JB Southpaw on Jun 21, 2010 9:20:42 GMT -5
Very happy for Nick. This should help him relax in the upcoming tournaments during Semis and Finals.
On the women's side, who is getting the majority of the serves? Misty or Nicole? I had heard somewhere that Nicole has been struggling with her ball control.
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Post by bigfan on Jun 21, 2010 11:08:38 GMT -5
He brought the "go for it" serving mentality to the beach game he was part of while playing at CSUN. This is right up Ross's alley....................she was a "GREAT GO FOR IT" jump server when she was at USC. So happy to see her doing so well on the AVP and FIVB.
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Post by pogoball on Jun 21, 2010 12:53:26 GMT -5
Very happy for Nick. This should help him relax in the upcoming tournaments during Semis and Finals. On the women's side, who is getting the majority of the serves? Misty or Nicole? I had heard somewhere that Nicole has been struggling with her ball control. I've seen a couple matches and I went back through the match statistics and Nicole is getting more serves, around 70% (the exception being the Summer Ross match in which they primarily served Misty). It's not just Nicole's control. Misty's bump-setting has not been very precise, often leaving Nicole hitting pretty far off the net and out of rhythm. I posted a couple weeks ago wondering why Misty doesn't use her hands more often, and the question remains unanswered. In the last 2 sets in the finals, Nicole was in a much better rhythm, so perhaps it's just a matter of getting more used to each other.
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