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Post by pelagius on Aug 24, 2019 16:16:07 GMT -5
I think Miller looks good ... Nice back row swing a few seconds ago Assume she’s in a brace? Is Taylen still in a brace? Yes, both are using a brace.
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Post by pelagius on Aug 24, 2019 16:27:04 GMT -5
So in the 3rd and 4th sets BYU ran a 5-1 on both sides. More importantly I would say the white side had all the players -- if you combine the players in both sets together-- that are really competing for starting positions/playing time. Here is my memory of what it looked like: Set 3 (White Team) OH1: Miller-Ah Sue / Morgan Bower DS OH2: Robinson (six rotations) RS: Ballard-Nixon / Riley Lyman (backrow) MB1: Eschenberg MB2: Whitney Llarenas (Gneiting didn't play after the first set) S: Whitney Bower L: Lake Set 4 (White Team) OH1: Miller-Ah Sue / Morgan Bower DS OH2: Ballard-Nixon / Abbey Dayton (backrow) RS: Grimmer (six rotations) MB1: Eschenberg MB2: Whitney Llarenas (formely McEwan) S: Whitney Bower L: Lake - Based on this, it looks to me that (at least right now) Bower is winning the starting setter battle.
- As I mentioned above Gneiting did tweak her ankle. But it looked relatively minor.
- I like the idea of using Grimmer as a six rotation opposite. She is very talented, and she had a few really nice D-Ball kills.
- I worry Madi Robinson is just too undersized to be effective offensively out of the back row
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Post by azvb on Aug 24, 2019 16:35:39 GMT -5
So, we have no OH that can pass, except Robinson, and she’s too small to hit the BIC. Uh oh......
Did Grimmer pass ?
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Post by pelagius on Aug 24, 2019 16:49:46 GMT -5
So, we have no OH that can pass, except Robinson, and she’s too small to hit the BIC. Uh oh...... Did Grimmer pass ? Well, of course, I could easily be wrong about Robinson (she, as we all know, has a lot of pop when she hits). She didn't run the BIC that much today. So Lyman is probably your other six rotation outside potentially, but in the 3rd set when she was on the white team she only played backrow (she was a six rotation OH in the other sets). So she is a backrow offensive option. Same with Abby Dayton (she was a six rotation OH when she was on the Blue Team). I think she is a better passer than offensive option right now (at least relative speaking). But she played backrow in the 4th set. She could potentially run the BIC too. So Grimmer passed some in the backrow. But in some rotations Grimmer was behind the passers like an OPP in the men's game. They actually had Miller pass some in the 4th set.
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Post by pelagius on Aug 24, 2019 17:43:47 GMT -5
So here is a my of list of things I liked (in kind of order of importance): - Miller -> Probably the best way to summarize her performance: she looked like McKenna Miller to me. Is she as explosive off the floor as she was pre-injury? It looked similar to me. Maybe closer, more astute observers can tell a difference, but it was close enough that I couldn't.
- Bower -> I think she is going to be really good. Far from perfect, but I was encouraged. I didn't watch her blocking very closely though (too much other stuff to try to keep track of mentally) so I'm still concerned about that given her size. I think she is the starter based on the line-ups in the 3-4th sets, but I also thought she looked the best; not by a ton, but I was the most impressed by her
- Grimmer -> lots of potential. Heavy arm, and pretty explosive off the floor. Love the lefty swing on the RS. There was some inconsistency, but hopefully consistency will come with playing time. I just can't see keeping her off the floor when Ballard is the other option (although I do agree with others that Miller would be effective on the RS too)
- Dayton -> her passing. There a few times where she did get picked on: like Miller serving to her in the 3rd set. Still, overall I think she's in real competition with Lyman for backrow time.
- The middles -> Obviously lots of talent here. But BYU is thin at this position with only three. One of the male graduate assistant had to play middle.
- Mary Lake -> just for completeness. I'm taking her excellence for granted.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2019 18:16:27 GMT -5
Some of my observations:
* Grace Wee is to my eyes clearly better than Morgan Bower as a defensive specialist/libero right now. Whereas Grace plays very instinctively, Bower often appears to me to be thinking things through too much, and it messes up her timing. She is also a poor bump setter. It's true she improved in the later sets (when she was playing just as a defensive specialist alongside Mary Lake), but I would go with Wee first as a back-row sub.
* Abbey Dayton impressed me more than Kate Grimmer through the first two sets, although I didn't like the way either was set--too low most of the time. It's obviously early and I haven't seen her in an actual match, but Dayton seems to have the right mentality on the court. She didn't seem bothered by her mistakes at all, just kept going after it. She seemed very calm and matter-of-fact on the court. I hope that translates to actual match play. I think her passing is about as good as any other outside they have right now, but it's hard to say since I wasn't focusing on just her.
* I was underwhelmed by Kate Grimmer at first. I wasn't sure if it was the setting or just jitters at the time, but I think it may have been some of both. She really picked it up in the 3rd set though, with some impressive hits. I really like having her play all six rotations as she did in set 4. She seems much more involved and settled. In fact, my favorite rotation was set 4, except I would have had Grace Wee instead of Morgan Bower playing back row for Miller.
* Erin Anderson is a bit gangly and awkward. Not a ton, but she's a little slow at adjusting her body to make good swings. She's much more error-prone than Grimmer and Dayton. She'll need some time.
* Morgan Johnson, the other freshman pin, only played as a serving sub in sets 3 & 4, so I have no idea about her, other than her serve, which wasn't anything special.
* I agree that Whitney Bower has the edge as the starting setter. She was setting too low in the early sets, but got it higher after that. She's quick, does well to get her feet under her before contacting the ball, and has strong hands and a generally good contact with the ball. She's a bit weak in out of system sets, but so are Moea'i and Tausinga. Blocking seems okay from what I saw. None of the three setters set the slide well today. It needs some work. I thought all three setters started off poorly and all three got better by set 3. Also, I'm pretty sure they played a 6-2 with Moea'i and Tausinga in set three, not 5-1.
* The middles seemed underused today, and the connection with all three middles from all three setters seems so-so. As I said previously the slide was not good, but that's not unusual in preseason. They've got a lot of work to do in the middle, but it seems that way every year at this time. With just 3 middles this season, it could be an issue if they have injuries to any of them as they did last year. One other note--Whitney McEwan must have gotten married recently because she is now Whitney Llarenas.
* McKenna Miller looked strong today. I would never have known she was coming back from an injury if she wasn't wearing a brace. I thought she played just the same as she did before her injury. She didn't seem to be favoring her knee in any way or playing gingerly at all. She was hammering away as always and her blocking was as good as ever.
* Taylen Ballard-Nixon looked much better than last year. I like her swinging on the left side better than the right. She looks more comfortable there. It was hard to focus on her though with so many others I was trying to watch, so I don't think I got a really good idea of what she did. I kept mistaking her and Miller for each other when they were in the air swinging because they both have long blonde hair and knee braces.
* I'm not sure what to make of Madi Robinson. I liked her last spring game against Weber St., but today she was making too many errors again. Maybe it was just an off day for her. We'll see. When I first saw her, I didn't realize it was her at first because she seemed slimmer than I remember. I don't know if that's just my mind playing tricks with me though.
* Riley Lyman is a player that I have come to appreciate over the past year. She's never going to be a great player, but she works hard and has definitely improved. I think she is a solid option to play either front or back row as a possible starter or sub, a little bit like Danielle Stetler, though not quite the passer she was, and maybe not quite the firepower either. But she is a smart hitter, who has learned how to tool the block better than some of the other pin hitters.
* Mary Lake was a pleasure to watch; unfortunately I couldn't just watch her the whole time.
* Callie Whitney played back row in some sets, but she's obviously the #4 DS/L option.
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Post by pelagius on Aug 24, 2019 18:31:05 GMT -5
I liked Ballard-Nixon on the LS too. She is just seems a lot more comfortable on the left than the right. Everything about her attempts look better on the left: approach, swing, seeing the block, angles. I think she would be an effective starter on the left, but I don't think she would be on the right.
I also liked Dayton's serve the best of the freshman. I would really not surprise me if Dayton gets a lot of playing time.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2019 18:40:28 GMT -5
I liked Ballard-Nixon on the LS too. She is just seems a lot more comfortable on the left than the right. Everything about her attempts look better on the left: approach, swing, seeing the block, angles. I think she would be an effective starting on the left, but I don't think she would be on the right. She swings okay on the right if the ball is in front of her, but she's not good at varying her shot, and if she has to wait on the ball or it's behind her at all, she will just awkwardly bloop it over. She really gets a much better approach on the left and is able to really swing hard because she's not so worried about the timing. I was really delighted with how much better she is moving and jumping than last year. I didn't notice that slightly side-arm swing that she's had in the past either. I hope that means it's gone for good.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2019 18:50:53 GMT -5
I also liked Dayton's serve the best of the freshman. I would really not surprise me if Dayton gets a lot of playing time. I think so too. I was really curious about her, and she was a pleasant surprise. I am going to love watching her play for the next few years if she competes this way all the time.
I would like to see them play Miller and Ballard-Nixon front row, with Wee and Dayton playing back row, Grimmer at opposite for six rotations, Bower at setter, and of course Eschenberg and Gneiting at middle and Lake at libero. I don't know if the passing will work, but I'm not sure that Robinson or Lyman's passing is much better.
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Post by pelagius on Aug 24, 2019 18:54:58 GMT -5
I also liked Dayton's serve the best of the freshman. I would really not surprise me if Dayton gets a lot of playing time. I think so too. I was really curious about her, and she was a pleasant surprise. I am going to love watching her play for the next few years if she competes this way all the time. I would like to see them play Miller and Ballard-Nixon front row, with Wee and Dayton playing back row, Grimmer at opposite for six rotations, Bower at setter, and of course Eschenberg and Gneiting at middle and Lake at libero. I don't know if the passing will work, but I'm not sure that Robinson or Lyman's passing is much better.
Yeah, I think that's the line-up I would like to see too. With the exception of Wee versus M. Bower; I simply didn't watch Wee close enough to say one way or the other.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2019 19:11:28 GMT -5
I think so too. I was really curious about her, and she was a pleasant surprise. I am going to love watching her play for the next few years if she competes this way all the time. I would like to see them play Miller and Ballard-Nixon front row, with Wee and Dayton playing back row, Grimmer at opposite for six rotations, Bower at setter, and of course Eschenberg and Gneiting at middle and Lake at libero. I don't know if the passing will work, but I'm not sure that Robinson or Lyman's passing is much better.
Yeah, I think that's the line-up I would like to see too. With the exception of Wee versus M. Bower; I simply didn't watch Wee close enough to say one way or the other. My sister and I both thought Grace Wee was the better passer, digger, and bump setter, and it was pretty obvious to us. Maybe Morgan Bower is better in practice, though. I just know that I was more impressed by Wee in this one scrimmage than I have been by Bower in the three I've seen from her.
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Post by pelagius on Aug 24, 2019 19:46:07 GMT -5
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BYU 2019
Aug 24, 2019 19:47:10 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by azvb on Aug 24, 2019 19:47:10 GMT -5
Was there much of a crowd?
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Post by pelagius on Aug 24, 2019 19:54:14 GMT -5
Was there much of a crowd? Meh, my guess is 300-500.
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BYU 2019
Aug 24, 2019 21:45:41 GMT -5
via mobile
Post by psvbdad on Aug 24, 2019 21:45:41 GMT -5
Thanks for all the analysis! I Very much appreciate the comments.
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