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Post by exit237a on Sept 20, 2021 18:52:16 GMT -5
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Post by exit237a on Sept 20, 2021 18:58:44 GMT -5
Another early match thread since this week is looking busy. There are a few hyperlinks in the original post: if you click on the teams' W/L records it takes you to their season schedule and records on the teams' official websites and if you click either NORTHWESTERN or ILLINOIS it takes you to the official roster websites for each team.
I've made guesses with the starting lineup predictions, so feel free to sound off if you've got different ones!
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Post by oldmanvb on Sept 21, 2021 14:26:15 GMT -5
Interested to see who Tamas starts at middle. I thought Whittington had secured the spot. Now I have no idea if she or Swanson plays. Each has done good work but with lapses. Also interested to see if Tamas changes service receive when Barnes is in the back row. The fact that he played with a two person receive rather than sub Cooney indicates to me he does not have a lot of confidence in his bench. Last weekend was a terrific opportunity to give some of the DSs enough playing time to see what they could do. While a couple played, it wasn't enough to tell us anything.
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Post by exit237a on Sept 21, 2021 16:18:55 GMT -5
Interested to see who Tamas starts at middle. I thought Whittington had secured the spot. Now I have no idea if she or Swanson plays. Each has done good work but with lapses. Also interested to see if Tamas changes service receive when Barnes is in the back row. The fact that he played with a two person receive rather than sub Cooney indicates to me he does not have a lot of confidence in his bench. Last weekend was a terrific opportunity to give some of the DSs enough playing time to see what they could do. While a couple played, it wasn't enough to tell us anything. Yeah, that spot at the second middle seems like the only one that's up in the air, currently. I'm glad both Maddie and Kyla got extended looks there in the preseason. What's interesting to me is how Tamas has gone about changing them up within and between matches. I think they've each only subbed for the other mid-set once and each time it felt more like a team shakeup move than a reflection of how they were doing individually. Maddie subbed in for Kyla down 17-8 in set two against Colorado and Kyla subbed in for Maddie in set two against North Texas down 7-0. Both those substitutions coincided with good responses from the team, with the Illini coming back to win that set and the match against North Texas and coming back to push Colorado to five sets. I suspect that if we weren't so thin at the pins, we would have seen some similar "team spark" substitutions at those positions. The cool thing is that you see both Maddie and Kyla pumping up each other up regardless of who's playing and they've both come in and made an impact as subs. |
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Post by vball778 on Sept 21, 2021 18:35:42 GMT -5
My vote is for Kyla. I love Maddie's energy but I don't see her reading the block as well as Kyla. I think Kyla has a ton more upside and moves laterally so much quicker. It is so nice to see our Middles running slides, regardless.
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Post by oldmanvb on Sept 21, 2021 23:28:47 GMT -5
Hinton went through warmups last weekend against Missouri when I was there and may have warmed up in the other two matches. She was obviously protecting one of her ankles and seemed to show a little bit of a limp towards the end of warmups. While she is not the offensive threat presented by either Whittington or Swanson, she is far and away the best blocker of the three. Maybe she will prove all of us wrong and play against Northwestern. Given our passing, the best blocking middle probably helps us the most.
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Post by bigfan on Sept 22, 2021 9:23:10 GMT -5
Northwestern for the win
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Post by jaypak on Sept 22, 2021 9:36:33 GMT -5
What is the postseason ceiling for this Illini team? And, where do they fit in the B1G picture?
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Post by exit237a on Sept 24, 2021 12:42:19 GMT -5
Just noticed this nugget from the Illini match preview for tomorrow's "Stuff Huff" match against Northwestern and am really psyched:
"...the Marching Illini Drumline will also be performing between the first and second sets to bring the energy."
They're awesome:
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Post by BuckysHeat on Sept 24, 2021 13:00:56 GMT -5
If northwestern can take a set off of Nebraska and score 20+ in the 2 of the other 3 sets against them, I see a rough night for the Illini. Hoping Temi is good to go and ready.
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Post by volleyaudience on Sept 24, 2021 15:38:15 GMT -5
This early match should help us begin to sort out where people are likely going to be in the standings. Everyone is trying to improve. IMO Could easily go either way, but the limited chalk seems to indicate the Illinois should have an edge.
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Post by ilalum92 on Sept 24, 2021 15:49:32 GMT -5
Hinton went through warmups last weekend against Missouri when I was there and may have warmed up in the other two matches. She was obviously protecting one of her ankles and seemed to show a little bit of a limp towards the end of warmups. While she is not the offensive threat presented by either Whittington or Swanson, she is far and away the best blocker of the three. Maybe she will prove all of us wrong and play against Northwestern. Given our passing, the best blocking middle probably helps us the most. I think Swanson has the second spot, Her blocking has improved and she is a much better offensive threat. |
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Post by exit237a on Sept 24, 2021 15:59:37 GMT -5
Hinton went through warmups last weekend against Missouri when I was there and may have warmed up in the other two matches. She was obviously protecting one of her ankles and seemed to show a little bit of a limp towards the end of warmups. While she is not the offensive threat presented by either Whittington or Swanson, she is far and away the best blocker of the three. Maybe she will prove all of us wrong and play against Northwestern. Given our passing, the best blocking middle probably helps us the most. I think Swanson has the second spot, Her blocking has improved and she is a much better offensive threat. I hope Maddie hasn't had an injury setback- it was worrying to see her on the sideline at Iowa without kneepads on. |
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Post by ilalum92 on Sept 24, 2021 16:34:44 GMT -5
I think Swanson has the second spot, Her blocking has improved and she is a much better offensive threat. I hope Maddie hasn't had an injury setback- it was worrying to see her on the sideline at Iowa without kneepads on. . I was wondering the same thing. She had some pretty serious injuries in HS and was out last year too. We seem to have more than our fair share of the injury bug hit our team. |
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Post by notpriddy (COIF) on Sept 25, 2021 5:38:08 GMT -5
I hope Brown has ironed out her sets to the middles. There were several misconnections during the Iowa match.
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