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Post by klazk on Jul 20, 2015 20:25:02 GMT -5
I think some context is needed when looking at that statistic. April Ross career partners (AVP, Cuervo and FIVB only and excluding KOB tournaments): Kessy 131 tournaments Walsh 27 tournaments Burdine 13 tournaments (all in her rookie season on AVP) Fopma 2 tournaments Pavlik 2 tournaments Reyonds 1 tournament (rookie season FIVB) Fontana 1 tournament (rookie season FIVB) So Ross has played 158 of 177 tournaments with Kessy & Walsh (89%). Excluding her rookie season, she has played 158 of 162 of her tournaments with Kessy and Walsh (97.5%). That is a pretty small sample size to say she can't win without Kessy or Walsh. Yeah looking at it like that it makes more sense. But when she plays with these pretty good players there losing to teams they should beat. I think this is recency bias. In 2013 she played with Fopma in Phuket. They went 3-0 in pool and then had to withdraw because one of them got food poisoning. In 2013 with Pavlik she took 4th at World Championships. In 2015 with Pavlik in St. Pete FIVB they went in 0-3 in pool. However, considering Pavlik is now out for the season, I'm wondering if Pavlik wasn't either already hurt or got hurt during St. Petersburg. The 4th event is last weekend in NYC. Her and Fopma did lose to teams you would think they should not have lost to. But it isn't like Kropp/Branagh are terrible. And Claes/Hughes gave Kessy/Day all they could handle, so they were playing high level volleyball. I still maintain the sample size is way too small. Especially since it isn't like she has had a lot of practice time with either player for either event this year.
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Post by volleyballjim on Jul 20, 2015 21:01:45 GMT -5
I just think when you look at Kerri, as opposed to April, there is a clear picture of how differently they play with a new partner. VERY FEW players at any level, can "carry a partner", so unless you get an upper tier player as your partner, you're toast. I don't feel that's the case with Kerri who CAN carry someone (this MAY just be an anecdotal story, but I like it!). Will they win? Possibly not, but will they reach the semi's, probably; sure the seeding will affect that, but anyway.....Beach is a strange animal from ANOTHER aspect than most other sports provide: You can try harder and get significantly better results, due to the fact that the ball is in control more than other sports and "trying harder" GETS better results. Give 5% more effort on your next block, dig, attack and you'll see a difference (No, nobody is giving 100%, my friend ; - ). You can't try harder in golf (I know, its not a sport, but go try it sometime!), baseball, good luck trying to hit the curve by "trying harder", etc. Beach is different, you can try and succeed better than any other sport that I can think of (anyone? Bueller?)...
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Post by guest2 on Jul 21, 2015 3:04:59 GMT -5
I think the biggest difference between Kerri and April playing with a new partner, in particular in the time frames I think you are referring to (back when Kerri would pick up a new partner whenever Misty was hurt and win anyway) was more about Kerri being the best player in the world by a mile at that time.
April now is one of the best players in the world, but when Kerri was winning with Rachel, Nicole, etc. she was as far ahead of the pack as anyone has ever been. (Maybe Jackie Silva in her prime is comparable).
What is even more amazing than picking up a decent, but far from great player like Rachel Wacholder and winning two of three FIVBs is that fact that Rachel/Kerri only lost two games in their wins. They dominated the field.
Rachel's other FIVB finishes that year? Lost in the Country Quota three times and got a 13th. Her AVP season? 11 tournaments, one top 4 finish (a third)
Thats how good Kerri was. She picked up a partner who was the 12th ranked AVP player and she dominated. Expecting that of April, or anyone, is not 100% fair.
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Post by bigfan on Jul 21, 2015 11:05:39 GMT -5
Alot of endorsement money will be left on the table if walsh does not play due to injury, Ross if she does not qualify.
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Post by klazk on Jul 21, 2015 11:10:37 GMT -5
Ross if she does not qualify. Ross will be in the main draw no matter what. Unless something extreme happens, Ross would get the wildcard if necessary to get her into the main draw even if her partners was someone with no points.
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Post by digdugg on Jul 21, 2015 11:31:44 GMT -5
Ross if she does not qualify. Ross will be in the main draw no matter what. Unless something extreme happens, Ross would get the wildcard if necessary to get her into the main draw even if her partners was someone with no points. What about Kropp? How do you think Ross/Kropp would look compared to Ross/Fopma (if Kerri cant go)?
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Post by donnyb on Jul 21, 2015 12:09:06 GMT -5
I think Kropp would be better. She more of a dominant Bocker and has way better results than Fompa. And I think if April called her up and she decided to do it April would push her to get in better shape and train more.
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Post by bigfan on Jul 22, 2015 12:52:41 GMT -5
Ross if she does not qualify. Ross will be in the main draw no matter what. Unless something extreme happens, Ross would get the wildcard if necessary to get her into the main draw even if her partners was someone with no points. Will other players want to play with her or can she choose any body and they will come running? Alot of NBA players do not want to play with Kobe (Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard) who took less money than what the lakers offered to go play for other teams {Bulls, Rockets}
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Post by klazk on Jul 22, 2015 13:11:48 GMT -5
Ross will be in the main draw no matter what. Unless something extreme happens, Ross would get the wildcard if necessary to get her into the main draw even if her partners was someone with no points. Will other players want to play with her or can she choose any body and they will come running? Alot of NBA players do not want to play with Kobe (Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard) who took less money than what the lakers offered to go play for other teams {Bulls, Rockets} Obviously I do not know for a fact, but short-term my guess would be that other than Fendrick/Sweat and Kessy/Day every other player would jump at the chance at automatic main draw status (more points and more money). The only reason those 4 wouldn't is because it could negatively impact their own Olympic chances.
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Post by guest2 on Jul 22, 2015 13:30:33 GMT -5
Ross will be in the main draw no matter what. Unless something extreme happens, Ross would get the wildcard if necessary to get her into the main draw even if her partners was someone with no points. Will other players want to play with her or can she choose any body and they will come running? Alot of NBA players do not want to play with Kobe (Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard) who took less money than what the lakers offered to go play for other teams {Bulls, Rockets} taking 20 million rather than 50 million is a lot different than taking 20k instead of 50k. Playing with April is the difference between doing well and a possible winter job.
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Post by tinman2 on Jul 25, 2015 22:35:29 GMT -5
Ross was two points away from taking Fopma to the gold medal match this weekend.....
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Post by guest2 on Jul 26, 2015 0:30:57 GMT -5
Ross was two points away from taking Fopma to the gold medal match this weekend..... She also got the softest draw possible. In pool they beat the 32 and 17th seeds and got beaten handily by no. 1. They came off pool second and in the first round got a 22nd seeded team with its best player breaking down physically (per GLM). How Kessey/Day even made it out of their pool with the two beatings they took is an embarassment for the FIVB. Also easier to play a team that you are very familiar with. From there, Fopross took on the 26 seed and barely squeaked by in 3. In the quarterfinals, they drew Brooke and Lauren, the 20 seed. Now they are in the semis not having played a team seeded in the top half of the draw. In the semis they narrowly lost to a team whose best previous finish this year was 4th. On paper this tournament is a good result for them, but they managed to make the semis without beating anyone remotely good (or even anyone in the top half of the tournament). To think this proves anything other than they had good luck this weekend, simply is not true.
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Post by guest2 on Jul 26, 2015 9:22:06 GMT -5
Given that the Germans went on to win the tournament and did beat the no.1 and 2 seeds along the way, it looks like you were right about Fopross' showing Tinman
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Post by tinman2 on Jul 26, 2015 23:26:17 GMT -5
Yes, I saw they had a pretty fortunate draw to finish fourth....a few points go their way and they could have finished 1-3rd. Rally scoring is such a crap shoot.
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