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Post by notfromaroundhere on Apr 4, 2023 19:41:11 GMT -5
For sure. This TAV team has always had bangers but never decent ball control. But they are playing VERY well right now. They were really good against Dynasty. And their block was dominant. A literal wall, I think Livings had like 5 or 6 blocks on Pierce. Looking at Hudl highlights for Dynasty 17 Black, Pierce still put down 8 kills. On a team of straight studs, I'd say that's still a pretty good showing considering the ball movement. Mullen's was wide open on the RS with 11. I'd love to watch this whole match and wish more top teams used Hudl. Not sure who stood out for TAV but I'm sure Favor and Spears put on a show.
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Post by blackiechan1999 on Apr 4, 2023 20:57:54 GMT -5
A literal wall, I think Livings had like 5 or 6 blocks on Pierce. Looking at Hudl highlights for Dynasty 17 Black, Pierce still put down 8 kills. On a team of straight studs, I'd say that's still a pretty good showing considering the ball movement. Mullen's was wide open on the RS with 11. I'd love to watch this whole match and wish more top teams used Hudl. Not sure who stood out for TAV but I'm sure Favor and Spears put on a show. She had some good kills but still got blocked quite a bit. Mullen and Cisernos (?) were the stars of the show for Dynasty. For TAV, Spears was outstanding as well as Anyanwu. Livings was a nice surprise because she was playing 6 rotations as an opposite which I don’t think she’s done before.
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Post by blackiechan1999 on Apr 4, 2023 20:58:42 GMT -5
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Post by vbfan999 on Apr 4, 2023 21:33:50 GMT -5
Really? I thought they would have at least better ball control than TAV… Gillian Pitts (a 2025) is the libero and I stan. And I'm guessing Cari Spears can pass bc I think she filled in as libero at one of their earlier tourneys according to pics. She passes fine but that’s not why she was libero. Cari, Mkayla, and Jaidyn all switched being libero every game because Gillian hurt her shoulder.
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Post by notvballdad on Apr 5, 2023 7:47:44 GMT -5
I was at Show Me and am more familiar with the North Texas teams and watched them all quite a bit at 17s so happy to answer any specific questions but if you want to simplify what happened this weekend with those teams: TAV changed from a 6/2 to a 5/1 but still played both setters. In a 5/1 in previous tournaments they had a couple of rotations where scoring became an issue. With some serve receive unsteadiness they it forced them out of system a lot and in the 5/1 with leaving Livings on court for 6 rotations, it gives them another hitter out of the back row and Jayden is an outstanding back row hitter. Keeping her on the floor was the missing piece for them. She's played OH and RS in their offense before and can pass in serve receive and play defense. Having that extra option was huge. Spears and Favor played their best ball all season this weekend. Spears terminated at a really high level and Favor just raised hell at the net blocking and was ALWAYS available in transition. TAV looked better than they have looked in a couple of years and they look scary.
Drive was the exact opposite. After a really successful run in a 5/1 (due to Bethany Wu's finger injury), they switched back to a 6/2 this weekend for the first time in quite a few months and the change showed in little areas throughout the whole tournament. Ball control was not great and that played a big part. In my opinion, the switch to the 6/2 minimizes their biggest weapon and has a waterfall effect in other areas. Ayden Ames running a slide is about the most unstoppable play there is at this level. It's pretty much a sure thing and is as close to unstoppable as I've seen. When she was on the front row and had free run of the middle and right it paralyzed the other teams middle having to chase her across the net and trying to guess where she was going to be. Additionally, she's almost always available to attack from either the middle or right because of her athleticism and that availability helped cover when ball control got wobbly with this team. By limiting her slide availability and confining her more to the middle the opposing middles aren't having to move as far or guess as much and that impacted the pins which were having to hit more 1 on 2 and out of system than in other tournaments I've seen. It also limited Aydens availability for passes that weren't 3s just because she didn't have as much real estate to work with and that limited side outs for Drive which is huge because they tend to score in chunks when they are on serve and they were in serve receive a lot more this tournament than the past where they've had more success.
I'd say those big adjustments by both teams were the story for them. Be interesting to see where it goes for Lone Star in few weeks and then headed to Nationals. Again, i'm happy to answer any other questions as I watched the Big 3 North Texas teams at Show Me a lot this past weekend.
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Post by winesalot on Apr 5, 2023 10:42:00 GMT -5
Gillian Pitts (a 2025) is the libero and I stan. And I'm guessing Cari Spears can pass bc I think she filled in as libero at one of their earlier tourneys according to pics. She passes fine but that’s not why she was libero. Cari, Mkayla, and Jaidyn all switched being libero every game because Gillian hurt her shoulder. I assumed it was because Gillian was injured (not because she beat her out), but I didn't realize they all switched out. That's a lot of versatility on one team
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Post by dogmomx3 on Apr 5, 2023 14:05:33 GMT -5
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Post by moneysonny on Apr 5, 2023 21:30:08 GMT -5
Does anybody have any advice for someone staying at the Hyatt whether it's better to uber or rental car? I've never been to Windy City but the neighbors are going. I don't know anyone that's been.
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Post by westie13 on Apr 6, 2023 9:35:44 GMT -5
Does anybody have any advice for someone staying at the Hyatt whether it's better to uber or rental car? I've never been to Windy City but the neighbors are going. I don't know anyone that's been. I would Uber. Parking is a nightmare.
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Post by westie13 on Apr 6, 2023 9:38:40 GMT -5
I’ve never seen a qualifier before where a couple of the teams are forced to play 4 matches on DAY 1. That’s insane. And even more insane is that theres a potential for 5 matches on Day 3. 5. Matches. In. One. Day. Why?! So unnecessary on these players and their bodies, especially for anyone that JUST finished a three day qualifier last weekend or has a 3 day qualifier the weekend after. Either don’t put the qualifiers back to back to back, or be smarter about how the qualifier is organized. SMH
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Post by VBallLife on Apr 6, 2023 10:06:52 GMT -5
I’ve never seen a qualifier before where a couple of the teams are forced to play 4 matches on DAY 1. That’s insane. And even more insane is that theres a potential for 5 matches on Day 3. 5. Matches. In. One. Day. Why?! So unnecessary on these players and their bodies, especially for anyone that JUST finished a three day qualifier last weekend or has a 3 day qualifier the weekend after. Either don’t put the qualifiers back to back to back, or be smarter about how the qualifier is organized. SMH It’s three games. The teams that have a pool of three teams have a crossover between the pools of three.
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Post by itsallrelative on Apr 6, 2023 10:26:55 GMT -5
I’ve never seen a qualifier before where a couple of the teams are forced to play 4 matches on DAY 1. That’s insane. And even more insane is that theres a potential for 5 matches on Day 3. 5. Matches. In. One. Day. Why?! So unnecessary on these players and their bodies, especially for anyone that JUST finished a three day qualifier last weekend or has a 3 day qualifier the weekend after. Either don’t put the qualifiers back to back to back, or be smarter about how the qualifier is organized. SMH I beleive qualifiers are scheduled by the organization running them (when they can get the convention center, etc), not by USAV. USAV does "approve" the dates, I believe......but I don't know if they have ever not approved dates. Also, with 12 qualifiers spread over an 8-10 week period...there will always be back to back weekends. teams can choose to play in them, or not....that is up to the clubs.
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Post by cardinalvolleyball on Apr 6, 2023 10:32:13 GMT -5
I’ve never seen a qualifier before where a couple of the teams are forced to play 4 matches on DAY 1. That’s insane. And even more insane is that theres a potential for 5 matches on Day 3. 5. Matches. In. One. Day. Why?! So unnecessary on these players and their bodies, especially for anyone that JUST finished a three day qualifier last weekend or has a 3 day qualifier the weekend after. Either don’t put the qualifiers back to back to back, or be smarter about how the qualifier is organized. SMH It’s three games. The teams that have a pool of three teams have a crossover between the pools of three. Looks like the winner of the first crossover has to play again, so that would be four matches if you are playing in match on of the crossover. Honestly its 3 teams that this would happen too. To bad they couldn't find three more open teams. I'm not sure how he's getting 5 matches on last day. The winner will play four for sure though. on a sidenote, all this is normal and also part of the reason JVA was formed. Don't like, don't play in qualifiers
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Post by jcvball22 on Apr 6, 2023 10:39:29 GMT -5
It’s three games. The teams that have a pool of three teams have a crossover between the pools of three. Looks like the winner of the first crossover has to play again, so that would be four matches if you are playing in match on of the crossover. Honestly its 3 teams that this would happen too. To bad they couldn't find three more open teams. I'm not sure how he's getting 5 matches on last day. The winner will play four for sure though. on a sidenote, all this is normal and also part of the reason JVA was formed. Don't like, don't play in qualifiers We really have to stop perpetuating the lie that JVA was formed for this reason. It's just dumb. They may have originally stated that as part of the mission (and stuck to it for like 2 years, tops), but it certainly wasn't the reason behind it's creation.
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Post by westie13 on Apr 6, 2023 10:41:08 GMT -5
They changed it since last night. The 7th place team was going to have to play 5 matches on day 3 but now I see they’ve eliminated the 7th place bracket all together but added a 9th place bracket. Last night, the top pools on day 3 had 4 teams. Now they have 3 teams and redid the final day.
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