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Post by alt on Nov 23, 2023 15:14:07 GMT -5
So glad Terry is stay. Illinois needed her more than she needed Illinois. If she had decided to leave we would have dropped a lot in standing. We would have to rely on two newbies. This coaching staff needs to prepare us for longer term not short.
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Post by oldmanvb on Nov 23, 2023 23:01:37 GMT -5
Hard to tell watching video, but it doesn’t appear Ava has the hops one would expect from a smaller pin hitter. It makes me wonder if she is a scholarship recruit or what the football team would call a “preferred walk on.” On the other hand, club video for a high school sophomore isn’t going to tell us all that much. What is her backrow play like? We should also recall Tamas likes to redshirt his players.
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Post by exit237a on Nov 24, 2023 14:12:09 GMT -5
There's a great article from Scott Richey in the News Gazette on Raina and her decision to return for her fifth season at Illinois: Really appreciated Raina's comments including this response to people wondering if she was going to transfer somewhere else: "I had a lot of people asking me about it, but there was never a thought in my mind that I would leave. The people here are just too special. They care about me too much, and I care about them too much."
“I think a lot of people take for granted the people you have around you in these four years. That’s what really makes the experience so special. If you have great people surrounding you, it’s going to be a great experience.” |
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Post by vbkahuna on Nov 24, 2023 14:30:22 GMT -5
There's a great article from Scott Richey in the News Gazette on Raina and her decision to return for her fifth season at Illinois: Really appreciated Raina's comments including this response to people wondering if she was going to transfer somewhere else: "I had a lot of people asking me about it, but there was never a thought in my mind that I would leave. The people here are just too special. They care about me too much, and I care about them too much."
“I think a lot of people take for granted the people you have around you in these four years. That’s what really makes the experience so special. If you have great people surrounding you, it’s going to be a great experience.” Nice catch, exit237a. Raina is an exceptional young woman. As I mentioned on another thread about players taking their 5th year, where all the "transfer vultures" were salivating over the idea of getting her, I mentioned that they just don't get that she's "old school" in the best meaning of that term. Loyal, competitive, unselfish, and genuinely appreciative of those who have contributed to her journey. Enjoy her remaining year, Illini. She's special. And there's no telling how far her journey, and the Illini's, might go before it's over. |
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Post by jwvolley on Nov 24, 2023 14:30:57 GMT -5
Hopefully Tamas returns the favor and can get the personnel and the fundamentals under control so Terry can have a strong finish to her career.
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Post by notpriddy (COIF) on Nov 24, 2023 14:44:00 GMT -5
Hopefully Tamas returns the favor and can get the personnel and the fundamentals under control so Terry can have a strong finish to her career. More quotes from Scott Richey's article on Raina Terry in this morning's News-Gazette (RS/OH Kayla Burbage will again be called upon to share some of the point-scoring next season): "What struck Tamas this season, though, was how Terry stepped up to fill a leadership void. Last year’s team had a fifth-year senior in starting setter Diana Brown and several other older players. This year’s team did not. Terry’s teammates have leaned on her this season. Both as a go-to option offensively — her 508 kills on 1,423 attacks both lead the Big Ten and are in the top 10 nationally — and as a steadying presence on the court. Terry’s actions still speak loudly, but she’s found her voice, too. “A lot of girls look to her,” Illinois junior opposite Kayla Burbage said. “She’s really embraced that role. I think she’s just a natural leader, very simply put. She brings a lot of courage. She plays with a lot of passion. I think we all feed off of that.” Not that being a leader came easily to Terry. She was more comfortable leading by example. Much more. But the challenge to expand her leadership role was like any other challenge thrown her way and was tackled head on. “That was definitely something I had to work at,” Terry said. “I am not good with my words. Still challenged with my words. But I read a lot of books from (strength and conditioning coach Emily Schilling) about leadership and trying to learn how to be more of a vocal leader than just leading by example, which is what I always leaned on. I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge.”" |
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Post by ilalum92 on Nov 24, 2023 14:55:45 GMT -5
Hard to tell watching video, but it doesn’t appear Ava has the hops one would expect from a smaller pin hitter. It makes me wonder if she is a scholarship recruit or what the football team would call a “preferred walk on.” On the other hand, club video for a high school sophomore isn’t going to tell us all that much. What is her backrow play like? We should also recall Tamas likes to redshirt his players. If signs a NLI in the fall and they annnounce her in the fall, she’s on scholie. Walk ons come in the spring announcement. |
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Post by ilalum92 on Nov 24, 2023 15:37:39 GMT -5
When was the last time we had a Top 25 recruit? I didn’t like Hambly as a coach but he could recruit. I think DeBerg was the last Top 15 recruit.
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Post by exit237a on Nov 24, 2023 15:58:16 GMT -5
When was the last time we had a Top 25 recruit? I didn’t like Hambly as a coach but he could recruit. I think DeBerg was the last Top 15 recruit. We haven’t had a top 25 ranked recruit since I’ve been following Illinois. Here are the highest rankings I’ve been aware of: #36 - Brooke and Ellie (prepvolleyball) #40’s - Gabriella Pitcel (prepdig) and Ashlyn Philpot (prepvolleyball) #50’s - Maddie (prepvolleyball) Gabby Dean (final ranking I think from prepdig) |
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Post by maigrey on Nov 24, 2023 20:00:53 GMT -5
Also a few notes on roster construction in the coming future --- #3 is a DS/L to replace Pan and possibly jump Barry in the lineup. I fully expect this third one to become a reality. I will not be releasing any specific details from what I'm hearing, as the season is not over, but I believe we have connections on our roster to a current Big Ten defensive player that is interested in transferring here. Nothing official, just some premature talk. But the interest is there. Hmmm, we know Sydney Reed is graduating from Wisconsin and not coming back... If only inpaign could give us a hint. |
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Post by ilalum92 on Nov 24, 2023 22:45:39 GMT -5
So we got swept by Minn and dashed any hopes of making the tourney.
Sounded like we went back to our usual selves. Anyone who watched wanna give a recap??
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Post by exit237a on Nov 24, 2023 23:10:24 GMT -5
So we got swept by Minn and dashed any hopes of making the tourney. Sounded like we went back to our usual selves. Anyone who watched wanna give a recap?? I wouldn’t say usual selves or anything dramatic like that. Minnesota started to play well the past few weeks and had a real chance to secure a tournament berth with a win against Illinois. They played like it and got contributions from all their attackers. Passing tonight for Illinois wasn’t great. We didn’t get much output at all from opposite and one of our OH hit negative. Had we played a little better we could’ve won a set and possibly the match riding that momentum. Even if Illinois had won both matches this weekend, the RPI math wasn’t going to add up to a tournament berth, no matter how much we wanted to wish it into existence. However, none of that takes away from what turned out to be a positive conclusion to the season. Looking forward to one more match tomorrow and we’ll savor our last match getting to watch Kennedy, Jess, and Vanessa. Hope the team has a nice effort in Evanston. |
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Post by illinifan21 on Nov 24, 2023 23:11:39 GMT -5
So we got swept by Minn and dashed any hopes of making the tourney. Sounded like we went back to our usual selves. Anyone who watched wanna give a recap?? it was an absolutely abysmal performance on SR imo. our DS’s were getting blown up, with probably a very lackluster, small amount of 3-ball passes. everything was being passed at the ten foot line, so pins had to take uncomfy swings against Minny’s pretty big block. We played slow, almost erratic defense, lots of flinging bodies/arms. Some rallies just looked like we were lacking any ball control. I will say that to me, Barnes has been continually improving her game and impressing in the L role. Mosher’s sets weren’t ideal tonight, with pushes outside falling tight and inside. She wasn’t too offensive due to the off the net passing, and her serve wasn’t as hot (not many runs) tonight. Burbage wasn’t a threat, and service pressure wasn’t as great. All-around a bad night, they know and we know they’ve played much better matches. Raina did Raina things, Collins got kills when she could be set, and Nunge did what she could. Bohm/Burbage weren’t offensively a threat, at least they didn’t leave an impact on me after watching. Our block was fine, got some big stuffs, but not expecting a huge blocking game against a top-notch setter like Shaffmaster. Minny’s OHs also had one of their best passing/hitting games against us. Committed way less unforced errors than usual for this year. Just not a good night. Hopefully we can end on a good note and beat NW tmrw, but I’m sure they aren’t gonna let it be easy. To anyone else who watched, Lmk if I missed something! |
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Post by ilalum92 on Nov 24, 2023 23:39:53 GMT -5
So we got swept by Minn and dashed any hopes of making the tourney. Sounded like we went back to our usual selves. Anyone who watched wanna give a recap?? I wouldn’t say usual selves or anything dramatic like that. Minnesota started to play well the past few weeks and had a real chance to secure a tournament berth with a win against Illinois. They played like it and got contributions from all their attackers. Passing tonight for Illinois wasn’t great. We didn’t get much output at all from opposite and one of our OH hit negative. Had we played a little better we could’ve won a set and possibly the match riding that momentum. Even if Illinois had won both matches this weekend, the RPI math wasn’t going to add up to a tournament berth, no matter how much we wanted to wish it into existence. However, none of that takes away from what turned out to be a positive conclusion to the season. Looking forward to one more match tomorrow and we’ll savor our last match getting to watch Kennedy, Jess, and Vanessa. Hope the team has a nice effort in Evanston. Passing wasn’t good, a OH hitting negative and no production from an OPP. Yeah, that sounds like our usual selves. Sad to hear after a great run of great play. MINN played like their tourney hopes were based on this match. Whether or not our hopes were out of the question, we should have played like it too. We have been a huge run of playing great, sad to to see it fall off in this match. |
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Post by bucky415 on Nov 24, 2023 23:46:25 GMT -5
I wouldn’t say usual selves or anything dramatic like that. Minnesota started to play well the past few weeks and had a real chance to secure a tournament berth with a win against Illinois. They played like it and got contributions from all their attackers. Passing tonight for Illinois wasn’t great. We didn’t get much output at all from opposite and one of our OH hit negative. Had we played a little better we could’ve won a set and possibly the match riding that momentum. Even if Illinois had won both matches this weekend, the RPI math wasn’t going to add up to a tournament berth, no matter how much we wanted to wish it into existence. However, none of that takes away from what turned out to be a positive conclusion to the season. Looking forward to one more match tomorrow and we’ll savor our last match getting to watch Kennedy, Jess, and Vanessa. Hope the team has a nice effort in Evanston. Passing wasn’t good, a OH hitting negative and no production from an OPP. Yeah, that sounds like our usual selves. Sad to hear after a great run of great play. MINN played like their tourney hopes were based on this match. Whether or not our hopes were out of the question, we should have played like it too. We have been a huge run of playing great, sad to to see it fall off in this match. I know there is disappointment with Tamas among Illini fans, but, after a rough start, the team did gel and play better, getting a lot of wins, even though an NCAA Tournament bid was an uphill climb. That is good coaching! Minnesota had to win tonight, so that was going to be a hard match at any rate. I hope the Illini fare well in Evanston! |
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