I didn't watch this match at all, since it is on BTN+ and that's an automatic No for me on principle.
But in the matches I have seen this year, Myers is easily and clearly, head and shoulders the best middle we have.
Did you mean Rubright, here?
In what way is Myers the best middle we have?
Most # of attacks? yes
Not in hitting %
Myers 50 13 150 0.247
Rubright 27 8 61 0.311Best lateral movement to close a block? Don't know
Best % of block solos and block assists/set? don't know
Best vertical? Yes, but I think Rubright had a back slide sent her way vs IL and she got up pretty high.
Competitive Fire? No, Husemann was coming on and showing some attitude before she disappeared
Attitude? Yes, she doesn't seem to get down on herself when she does err. Keeps trying, smiling, and connecting with teammates
Ability to beat a block? Myers is better than Husemann, but our middle attack is so sporadic this metric is fairly meaningless.
Proactive vs reactive decisions? Maybe. None of our middles seem to grade high anticipating 'over on 2' or the impending set location.
If the middles were being targeted above 20% of attacks and opponent middles had to stay a bit closer to home then the hitting efficiency on quicks might have more meaning.
I was a #2 setter back in the '80s on the UofM men's VB club. I've never coached. I studied my hitters' favorite swing dynamic and where they liked to hit from. Some liked to come from off the court. Some liked to come inside (gap). We didn't scout or pay attention to the opponents. If the opponents were not block efficient we set closer to the net. I don't remember being coached to run an offense in any particular style. Now, as an ardent fan, I use a baseball analogy, wins against replacement to analyze our problematic middle situation.
Myers had 3 kills, a solo block, and 2 block assists for +5.
She made 1 hitting error and 2 service errors for -3
I don't know how many of her serves resulted in weak attacks or free balls for our transition offense = a minus
How many of her 12 attacks were from sets good enough that she could/should have put on the floor? = a minus
How many of her attacks after overpasses weren't kills but led to IL making an OOS third touch?
Myers induces a cringe response in me way too much. I don't chart all of this stuff. When she could have ended a point
but misses the opportunity only to see the opponent score a kill in system in transition it is SO FRUSTRATING
She has had some nice kills off gap sets. She doesn't get enough perfect sets to drive
But she needs to anticipate more and better.
WMegs55, who has been there and done that as a MB, said above:
Everything else being equal, it’s very much a connection that is either there or it’s not, and if it’s not it takes real time and effort to fix (if ever). For the set, the speed at which the ball comes out of the hands / tempo, and height of the set will make a huge difference. For the middle, where they jump relative to the net and setter (i.e., are they too tight to one or both if you think of it as a triangle), the timing of when they jump, arm swing, and for slides the angle of the approach, all make a difference. With middle sets there is less room for error on both ends because the middle is either jumping as the ball is in the setter’s hands or soon thereafter for sets behind the setter. As a former D1 middle (but not a Minnesota alumnae), all I can say is the extent to which this is a glaring issue is unusual for this program.
