Sorry I haven't posted sooner about Saturday's match! Here are my observations. They played 4 or 5 sets. The first set was really close, 27-25 or something like that for the Gators after trailing the whole set and even being down 18-23. They lost the second set 25-15. They won the next 2 I believe. I think the 4th set was only played to 15 which the Gators won. If there was another real set in there, I don't remember it lol.
For the 1st and last sets, the starters were:
OH: Hall
OH: Hammons
MB: Kellum
MB: King
RS: Sokolowski
S: Monserez
L: Gregory
DS: Macy Phillips (for Sokolowski)/Hargreaves
For the second set:
OH: Greer
OH: Hall
MB: King
MB: Kramer
RS: Kellum (I think... she might have played in the 3rd)
S: Monserez
L: Gregory
DS: Phillips/Hargreaves
I don't remember what the 3rd set was, but I know Dooley played middle. Kellum may have been the RS that set.
Hall and Hammons played all the way around and I think Mia might have played back row a bit as well. I know she hit out of the D a few times throughout the match. I was actually pretty impressed with her on the RS. I felt way more confident with her there as opposed to the outside. She has such a high reach, they can just kind of throw the ball up to her and let her go over the block. It was nice! Later in the match, she made a few pretty bad hitting errors and got subbed out for a minute, but otherwise she did pretty well out there!
Thayer at times looked really impressive and at times like she just came out of high school and was surprised by the level of play from Georgia Tech. She would make an error and then you could tell she was determined to correct it. At times she did that really well, at times she got stuffed and looked frustrated. I was still impressed though. You could tell that when we really needed a point, the ball was going to her. Hopefully she can rise up under that kind of pressure. Her serve receive was pretty good. Got aced a few times, but again, she's a freshman. Her serving was not good lol.
Hammons was wonderful. Looks like she's out to prove that she belongs in the front row. Got a few big blocks, had some great kills. She's not gonna slam the ball and have the super impressive angles and power that Thayer will, but she does what she needs to do to score and not make mistakes. She had a few aces. Don't remember her passing much, so I think the other teams were serving away from her and toward Thayer and Allie.
Like I said before, Mia looked pretty good on the RS. They actually had her attack out of the middle on like a gap or maybe a 2 ball in one of the rotations. The connection there wasn't great though. Overall, I'd be happy with her out there.
Kramer was her normal self, I'd say. We ran the slide a toooooon and some weren't great, but some were impressive! Her blocking seemed to come in spurts. Overall, we didn't set her a ton. Hargreaves would serve for her.
King didn't do too much, I thought. She might also have missed every one of her serves. Maybe not, but she definitely didn't serve more than once at a time.
Kellum looked alright in the middle, but not great on the Right. Nothing that caught my eye, here.
Greer was also alright on the OH. She's not gonna beat out Paige though.
Gregory was fine for our Libero. She got served almost the whole match and I didn't leave too confident in her serve receive, but her defense is great! I think she's got a lot of confidence and good leadership of the back row, so I'm not worried about her. I just hope that her serve receive holds up. Don't think it's a great sign when you've got 2 freshmen OHs and a Libero and the Libero is the one getting served at. I think they'll be fine though once they get used to passing around each other and get more reps in!
I liked having Macy in there occasionally! She goes to my church and we have mutual friends, so it's fun knowing someone on the court! She's got a new jump topsin serve that the coaches were letting her go for. She missed it a bit, but when it was in, it was getting Tech out of system. Her defense was solid and serve receive was mostly good. She did get pushed out of the receiving pattern a couple of times, though.
Chanelle came in and served for Rachel with her normal float serve. She had a few really great plays defensively during her time on the court.
Dooley made an appearance sometime during the match, maybe for the 3rd set? Can't remember much about that one. She's pretty quick for 6'6"! Had a couple of kills and a couple of blocks I think. I would be surprised if she cracked the starting lineup, but I can definitely see why she was recruited!
Monserez was solid all day. I don't think she got called on any doubles. It's hard for me to analyze setters, honestly. She looked fine out there though! Did her best to not be a liability blocking and I don't think she was really. Good behind the service line, steady throughout the match.
I think that's everyone who played. Nieves and Bzoch weren't suited up.
Overall, my impression was that this year will be much different than last year. As of right now, no one is really a game-changer the way that Rhamat, Carli, or Shainah were. This is just a very different team with lots of youth and lots of potential. It may take a while for that to all come to fruition though! I will also say that this team will look very different in the fall with the additions of Warner and the younger Monserez who could find time in a 6-2 or maybe in that modified 5-1 we did last year. Who knows! I'm looking forward to seeing more over the next few weeks. Can't put much stock in this first match, I think!
