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Post by ilalum92 on Mar 9, 2022 19:02:31 GMT -5
Watching now. Interesting to see that Ellie is not dressed or seemingly even in the gym. I see her but she is not dressed. Where is Kennedy Collins? Sarah Bingham looks good in the middle. |
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Post by ilalum92 on Mar 9, 2022 19:04:20 GMT -5
Gregus is dressed, Ellie is not. No Kennedy Collins??
Bingham looked good on the few swings I saw towards the end of the 2ns set.
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Post by ilalum92 on Mar 9, 2022 19:05:48 GMT -5
Wait - thats Rylee Hinton not Ellie. Im watching on my phone so the screen is small.
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Post by Friday on Mar 9, 2022 19:24:16 GMT -5
Watching now. Interesting to see that Ellie is not dressed or seemingly even in the gym. She wasn’t in the cooking video from the other day either. |
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Post by oldmanvb on Mar 9, 2022 19:54:58 GMT -5
Both Collins and Nunge left gym during after 3d set
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Post by oldmanvb on Mar 9, 2022 19:58:41 GMT -5
Collins and Nunge left around 3d set
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Post by exit237a on Mar 9, 2022 20:39:05 GMT -5
Watching now. Interesting to see that Ellie is not dressed or seemingly even in the gym. Ellie wasn't in the gym but she was at least announced at the start of the match along with the rest of the team. |
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Post by vball778 on Mar 9, 2022 21:44:10 GMT -5
Watched the full match. Our serve receive continues to look rough. Mosher was the impressive imo. She can do it all. Setting, hitting, serving, you name it. Easily our most athletic player in the gym. Barnes looked more comfortable in the libero jersey than Kuper did. Bingham was impressive. Our depth is concerning. Even with a few Freshmen coming in, I worry about if any of our pin vets go down.
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Post by oldmanvb on Mar 9, 2022 22:37:23 GMT -5
Some general impressions – the teams played four sets, each winning two. The first three sets were close, the fourth, won by Illinois, was not.
Everyone who dressed played. Hinton was there but did not dress. Holzman was not there. Collins and Nunge played early, both left sometime around the third set.
Mosher was the only player who did not leave the court. She set the second set, some 6-2 but also set across the front row one or two times. When she was setting her sets were not as precise as Brown ‘s, although the passing may have contributed to her setting issues. For whatever reason my impression was Brown was the beneficiary of better passing. My observation is without the benefit of passing statistics, so maybe it should be taken with a grain of salt. When not setting she played opposite and was reasonably effective hitting from the right side. During one serve rotation she hit left side, also effectively. If necessary she could play the left side.
Mosher is a good hitter, including several swings from the back row. Heavy arm. At first I thought she might have issues blocking because of her size, but that did not appear to be the case. Barring a transfer or Holzman coming back healthy I think Mosher will play opposite next year while Brown sets a 5-1. She will be ready to become the full-time setter after Brown leaves. In the first set Mosher was part of service receive and appeared to do well. After the first set she was hidden most of the time when she was in the back row service receive. I don’t know why as our six rotation players did not distinguish themselves in service receive.
Barnes played libero in the first and third sets, Kuper the second and fourth sets. Again, without the benefit of statistics it appeared Barnes’ serve receive was better than Kuper’s. I did not see a noticeable difference in their defense. Both seemed to cover comparable amounts of court. On balance, if I was the coach (and there is good reason why I don't coach) Barnes would be my libero based upon tonight and without the benefit of seeing any practices.
Raina Terry’s hitting is the real deal, even more so than last season. I think there was only one attack out of the back row, something I have never understood. Her passing still needs a lot of work. Even when her passes were accurate, they were high with lots of backspin. A challenge to set and in marked contrast to Sakoda and Gregus when they were on the court.
Swanson and Collins have really grown into their positions. Swanson in particular hit more effectively than last season. Bingham played more than Whittington and played well. Both are competent, effective middle substitutes, and the team’s play did not suffer when either of them were on the court. Bingham does not look strong until you watch her play. Good blocker and able to put the ball on the floor. I thought she was slightly ahead of Whittington.
Bruna played the last three sets, 6 rotations in the second set, front row in the third and fourth. Her hitting was shaky at the beginning but improved significantly after her first set. She likes to hit high hands. I don’t know if she will beat out Nunge, it will be an interesting competition.
Sakoda and Gregus played back row the third and fourth sets. Their receive was competent with a few but not many errors and certainly better than our six rotation players. I have no idea why they were not used last year when our six rotation players were struggling with service receive. Generally, their defense was good. One of them, probably Sakoda, should see playing time in the fall.
Thoroughly enjoyed some spring volleyball. I would love to hear disagreements with and criticisms of my observations from others who were there. There is no pride of authorship.
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Post by ilalum92 on Mar 9, 2022 23:37:03 GMT -5
Collins and Nunge left around 3d set Did Collins play? I only logged on towards the second half of the second set? |
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Post by ilalum92 on Mar 9, 2022 23:42:33 GMT -5
From the limited action I saw I was most impressed with Mosher & Bingham. Mosher set, passed, blocked and hit. She hits a heavy ball and isn’t afraid to take a rip. Bingham was great in the middle, blocking and attacking. We are loaded in the middle. I still think we need help on the OH, depending on how Ellie & Bruna play.
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Post by makman2987 on Mar 10, 2022 0:42:44 GMT -5
Not sure will see Holzman on court
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Post by alt on Mar 10, 2022 12:21:46 GMT -5
Mosher- was standout, not sure how we don't keep her on the court she is very athletic and she also is a utility player she can do pretty much everything. Her setting was great (not sure if she is ahead of Brown) but she looked very good on the RS hitting high hands.
Sarah also was a huge surprise. She was quick and was very good on the block and had a solo block.
I thought Bruna played well and I see her being on the court. It stinks that we have been down two OH these past few seasons. No Ellie or Bruna has made it difficult for this team to take the next step. I think Nunge is good, but I really do not think she will get us far. She just is not on that level that the B1G needs to be an OH. I dont see us going too far with Nunge as OH2.
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Post by ilalum92 on Mar 10, 2022 14:02:35 GMT -5
Not sure will see Holzman on court I'm not worried if she doesn't play in the spring matches. Let her fully recover and get strong over the summer months. As someone who had a major knee injury playing volleyball (torn ACL, meniscus), getting back on the court is half mental. You have to get over the fear of getting hurt again. You have to trust the surgery, the rehab & your training. It took awhile even though I was fully healed and given the green light to go full out. I hope she comes back and has a KILLER season. Ellie, if you read this know that the ILLINI faithful are all behind you and rooting for you to come back! |
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Post by exit237a on Mar 10, 2022 18:51:14 GMT -5
Good recaps, y'all. I got to watch in person and have a few additional notes:
Team serving looked really strong for the Illini. Especially cool to see the underclass(wo)men being aggressive from the service line. That should be a strength again in 2022. Everyone on the team got a chance to serve.
Great to finally see game action for the two redshirts. They did not disappoint. Mosher had a number of kills, including one on a D ball (if memory serves). She broke out a couple lefty rips on two and had two or three aces. Her blocking looked good, too. I thought her swings at opposite looked better than those from any of the other three pins last night. Without having seen Bohm or Stephenson in the gym, I'd agree that Brooke has the inside track on starting at opposite this fall in a Brown 5-1.
Bingham also impressed. She had a few kills, blocks, and lots of good block touches. Looks mobile and athletic with a good vertical. I don't think she was set on the slide at all but she ran that route a time or two. She drew the biggest cheers on the evening from the Illinois bench. We're so deep at MB and I wish there were more opportunities for all of them to see the court.
I'm not sure who Tamas will tab as our primary passers other than Barnes and Kuper. That is to say, I didn't see anyone else really separate themselves from the pack yesterday. In three weeks we'll get another look at serve-receive when the Illini host Purdue.
And hey we've got final confirmation that Kuper's returning for her fifth year!!! Looking forward to Taylor anchoring the back row again. She's now added to the 2022 roster in the OP of this thread- I couldn't add her until we had confirmation, to avoid any jinxes.
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