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Post by JB Southpaw on Jan 6, 2021 13:53:13 GMT -5
Agreed, Guest2. There was so much discussion going around about Larissa's comeback, playing with her wife, and being coached by Ricardo that I am afraid they would have to be incredibly unaware of their surroundings (or just plain ill-informed) if they did not realize who Larissa is, but you never know. They did not appear to have a coach helping them, but they were very impressive otherwise. And a stark contrast with a big so tall and a defender so short. Was very cool to see so many young local players with so much talent - refreshes your faith in the future of US Women's beach volleyball with the college pipeline we now have, and makes you equally sad that the same opportunities are nowhere to be found for the men. One other interesting thing happened. Not sure if you all follow the college indoor game, but Geoff Carlson (let go by Ohio State) was there coaching up a few Colorado guys (which is where he now lives). I was always impressed with his coaching demeanor while watching him Coach Ohio U and then Ohio State (as they would come over and play Indiana and Purdue), and he was really interesting to chat with for a bit. What a dog-eat-dog college coaching must be for anyone other than the Russ Rose/John Cook/Hugh McCutcheon type coaches of the world (sorry for the totally Big 10-heavy reference). Anyway, he was very frank about his experiences, and seemed to be enjoying being semi-retired and helping one of his basketball players learn the fundamentals of beach volleyball. All in all, it was a fun tournament to be at, and pretty awesome to see 65 men's teams and 56 women's open teams signed up to give it a shot. By the way, why are there almost always more men's than women's teams signed up? Its seemingly been that way at every AVP Next-type tournament we have been lucky enough to attend in 2020! And where in the heck was JB Southpaw? :-) I'm Here! With the little one, we are just being more cautious. We don't attend any events. Hopefully by end of March.
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Post by beavis on Jan 6, 2021 18:49:00 GMT -5
Sounds good! Glad you made it back from Cape Cod safely, and that all is well, JB!
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Post by ajm on Jan 6, 2021 19:52:57 GMT -5
They won this tournament but I wasn't able to get the score. They played Kloth and Nuss in the final. Wondering if it was close? 21-15 11-21 17-15 On last week’s Sandcast I believe they were talking about Kloth being the next great American beach blocker and someone who should attract a top defender on the AVP this year. For those who’ve seen her play, is she the real deal?
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Post by beavis on Jan 6, 2021 23:37:18 GMT -5
Not yet, in my humble opinion. Could she get there? Sure! But how many of these bigs have been cast as the second coming of Kerri, only to have them become average. Her credentials are, of course, very impressive. She takes a nice chunk of the Court, but I watched her from the net vantage point a bunch, and for someone that tall, she does not press over very much. Good at siding out and moving, but nothing extra special. I did think that she was a really good passer, but again, I only watched a few of their matches. Let's hope for the best!
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Post by JB Southpaw on Jan 7, 2021 12:22:41 GMT -5
Sounds good! Glad you made it back from Cape Cod safely, and that all is well, JB! I was about 3-4 hours north of Cape Cod! Thanks, are you guys still in FL?-
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Post by COVAlove on Jan 7, 2021 17:01:05 GMT -5
Saw Cory/Webber were knocked out by Rafu/Ricardo. What was the score in that one? Think the former are planning a full time partnership in 2021.
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Post by beavis on Jan 7, 2021 22:30:37 GMT -5
Sounds good! Glad you made it back from Cape Cod safely, and that all is well, JB! I was about 3-4 hours north of Cape Cod! Thanks, are you guys still in FL?- Yes! We are exploring where we might want to retire to during this trip. We have a spent a week in Ft. Myers Beach, Sebring, Clearwater, and now Leesburg/Tavares area. Have some good friends who play at Siesta Key Beach during the week - the beach is gorgeous, but not sure that we would want to live there. Are you in the Tampa area?
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Post by beavis on Jan 7, 2021 22:52:00 GMT -5
21-16 both games. Rafu was awesome.
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Post by guest2 on Jan 8, 2021 0:33:23 GMT -5
Saw Cory/Webber were knocked out by Rafu/Ricardo. What was the score in that one? Think the former are planning a full time partnership in 2021. One of the troubles of the shortened season, and the short AVP season in general, is that in the old days Cory, once exposed to AVP level competition for 5-10 events, would probably be able to pick up a better partner after showing he could get the ball down against top blockers. With Ed picking up Skylar, there are clearly opportunities at the lower end of the main draw - not saying Cory is better than Skylar - and if there were more events, he might end the year with someone like Ed, Piotr or even a Field or Casebeer level player
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Post by COVAlove on Jan 8, 2021 1:41:14 GMT -5
Saw Cory/Webber were knocked out by Rafu/Ricardo. What was the score in that one? Think the former are planning a full time partnership in 2021. One of the troubles of the shortened season, and the short AVP season in general, is that in the old days Cory, once exposed to AVP level competition for 5-10 events, would probably be able to pick up a better partner after showing he could get the ball down against top blockers. With Ed picking up Skylar, there are clearly opportunities at the lower end of the main draw - not saying Cory is better than Skylar - and if there were more events, he might end the year with someone like Ed, Piotr or even a Field or Casebeer level player I don’t disagree with your logic but I think this case might be the exception. Cory transitioned to defense because of the shortened season. He had a season of lower level tournaments to toy with the transition, understand he can possibly be successful with it, and rep it. Webber is the perfect match for him right now. Logan will get better because he will get served and for the first time ever have to side out against better competition and Evan will grow as a defender without starting from scratch.
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Post by 33johnwayne on Jan 8, 2021 11:38:55 GMT -5
Caldwell/Vaught took them to 3 in the semis. 18-21 23-21 15-10Vaught looks way more intense and Caldwell looks really strong. Can this be a team that can climb the ladder? There game is on Rafu’s facebook www.facebook.com/rafulillo
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Post by southbay11 on Jan 9, 2021 18:03:32 GMT -5
I was about 3-4 hours north of Cape Cod! Thanks, are you guys still in FL?- Yes! We are exploring where we might want to retire to during this trip. We have a spent a week in Ft. Myers Beach, Sebring, Clearwater, and now Leesburg/Tavares area. Have some good friends who play at Siesta Key Beach during the week - the beach is gorgeous, but not sure that we would want to live there. Are you in the Tampa area? I lived on siesta key for years. Had a house on the gulf and one on the bay side. Great place to live if you don’t mind being bored to death lol I had to get out. Though my 20 year DL just expired this year. I continued to file taxes there for obvious reasons.
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Post by beavis on Jan 10, 2021 23:13:39 GMT -5
Yes! We are exploring where we might want to retire to during this trip. We have a spent a week in Ft. Myers Beach, Sebring, Clearwater, and now Leesburg/Tavares area. Have some good friends who play at Siesta Key Beach during the week - the beach is gorgeous, but not sure that we would want to live there. Are you in the Tampa area? I lived on siesta key for years. Had a house on the gulf and one on the bay side. Great place to live if you don’t mind being bored to death lol I had to get out. Though my 20 year DL just expired this year. I continued to file taxes there for obvious reasons. Don't blame you at all there. Our friends in Siesta Key really like the open play down on the beach - is there any open play where you are now? We really liked the Tavares/Leesburg because of the great inland lakes around there, and there is a perfect place to play at Hickory Point Beach (where they held the KOB tourney), but there does not seem to be any pick-up ball around there. At 60, we'd still like to play for the next few years as long as our health holds out, and the Tampa Bay Beach Bums seem to have a ton of play going on around there.
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Post by stephenasinjin on Jan 12, 2021 8:16:45 GMT -5
Saw Cory/Webber were knocked out by Rafu/Ricardo. What was the score in that one? Think the former are planning a full time partnership in 2021. One of the troubles of the shortened season, and the short AVP season in general, is that in the old days Cory, once exposed to AVP level competition for 5-10 events, would probably be able to pick up a better partner after showing he could get the ball down against top blockers. With Ed picking up Skylar, there are clearly opportunities at the lower end of the main draw - not saying Cory is better than Skylar - and if there were more events, he might end the year with someone like Ed, Piotr or even a Field or Casebeer level player I’m curious to see what Cory does in qualifiers next year. In my opinion east of Texas and outside of Florida, he’s 1/2 teams to really watch this upcoming year with a lot of potential to make some noise. Cory/Webber and Dache/Samuels could both qualify several times next year. I also hesitate to get super excited about Cory just yet because I don’t think he’s quite found his identity as a defender yet. He’s got elite athleticism and I believe an elite arm to go with it, but we don’t see a lot of aggressive jumpers from him, and he doesn’t strike me as a scheming defender or an instinctual defender. That being said he’s already achieved some very strong results this past season so when he does figure it out, I think most of the AVP will be on notice.
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Post by Winbabywin on Jan 12, 2021 14:24:24 GMT -5
Agree with you about Cory's defensive intuition; he's relied on his athleticism and pure talent up to now (both on the net and in defense). He'll have to start being a little more cerebral as the level of tournaments increase. BUT, I think he's headed in the right direction and definitely a strong future.
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