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Post by ilalum92 on Aug 26, 2023 19:51:06 GMT -5
A win is a win right?? If we play like this in the Big Ten we are going to get crushed. We just don't have the firepower to compete
A win without your junior starting libero is pretty big. The team ball control should get even better when Caroline returns. Really liked how the Illini scrapped and fought through it after a first set loss and a big, early fourth set deficit. Looks like they're having fun out there and supporting each other- love to see it.
To be taken to 4 games by NIU is a a serious issue. Having Barnes would not have changed that much. Sets were off, hitting was not great. No way Raina should be getting stuffed that much even on mediocre sets. Hopefully Nunge will steady the OH 2 position and give us some consistency on who is on the floor. Burbage and Bingham can fight for the starting OPP position. We cleaned up the serving errors after game 1. Still, we are going to be in trouble this season.
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Post by cathy5 on Aug 26, 2023 20:12:09 GMT -5
A win without your junior starting libero is pretty big. The team ball control should get even better when Caroline returns. Really liked how the Illini scrapped and fought through it after a first set loss and a big, early fourth set deficit. Looks like they're having fun out there and supporting each other- love to see it.
To be taken to 4 games by NIU is a a serious issue. Having Barnes would not have changed that much. Sets were off, hitting was not great. No way Raina should be getting stuffed that much even on mediocre sets. Hopefully Nunge will steady the OH 2 position and give us some consistency on who is on the floor. Burbage and Bingham can fight for the starting OPP position. We cleaned up the serving errors after game 1. Still, we are going to be in trouble this season. NUNGE???
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Post by exit237a on Aug 26, 2023 20:13:43 GMT -5
A win without your junior starting libero is pretty big. The team ball control should get even better when Caroline returns. Really liked how the Illini scrapped and fought through it after a first set loss and a big, early fourth set deficit. Looks like they're having fun out there and supporting each other- love to see it.
To be taken to 4 games by NIU is a a serious issue. Having Barnes would not have changed that much. Sets were off, hitting was not great. No way Raina should be getting stuffed that much even on mediocre sets. Hopefully Nunge will steady the OH 2 position and give us some consistency on who is on the floor. Burbage and Bingham can fight for the starting OPP position. We cleaned up the serving errors after game 1. Still, we are going to be in trouble this season.
Sounds like we're just looking at this differently and that's fine. I'm good with disagreeing with you, though I prefer it when we're sharing virtual high-fives over an Illini W. Hopefully more of that to come soon.
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Post by ilalum92 on Aug 26, 2023 20:31:35 GMT -5
To be taken to 4 games by NIU is a a serious issue. Having Barnes would not have changed that much. Sets were off, hitting was not great. No way Raina should be getting stuffed that much even on mediocre sets. Hopefully Nunge will steady the OH 2 position and give us some consistency on who is on the floor. Burbage and Bingham can fight for the starting OPP position. We cleaned up the serving errors after game 1. Still, we are going to be in trouble this season. NUNGE??? She was listed on the roster for Live Stats. Fits with info inpaign gave us on the ILL 2023 Thread. Will give us some stability on the OH 2 spot.
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Post by fishbed on Aug 26, 2023 22:12:31 GMT -5
My observations from attending tonight:
Bianca May is better than advertised. Did not see a bad pass from her all night.
Lily Barry looked shaky early.....but made up for it later.
Sarah Bingham had some nice kills. The speed of her hits belies her slim physique.
It's a small sample size, but I see a tournament team barring injuries or sickness.
JMHO
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Post by oldmanvb on Aug 26, 2023 22:39:16 GMT -5
Only saw a small part of the end of the match live. Just finished watching it on the ESPN+ replay.
Bingham did a nice job tonight. She looked comfortable making the transition from middle to the right side. If Nunge moves Burbage from left to right is Bingham ready to compete for the starting opposite position? Keep in mind Bingham is our 3d middle and Dean is a long way from being ready to play at this level. Is Bingham able to learn to play the left side?
It will be interesting to see whether Nunge is ready to play after taking the spring and summer off. I thought Burbage showed flashes of being able to play the left side. Is it possible Tamas may have options at the pins?
Passing continues to be an issue. There are coaches whose offensive philosophy calls for first contact passes to go 6' to 8' off the net in order to give pin hitters better angles against a big block. Could Tamas be directing passes to just inside the 10' line even though it sends this board into fits?
Mosher running a faster offense is clearly a work in progress. Hopefully she and the pins develop a better rhythm than shown to this point. I am convinced the ability is there. They need to develop a better feel for each other.
The last half of the 4th set showed the potential of this team. They can be very good if they get their act together. They can be very bad if they don't.
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Post by ilalum92 on Aug 26, 2023 23:09:55 GMT -5
My observations from attending tonight: Bianca May is better than advertised. Did not see a bad pass from her all night. Lily Barry looked shaky early.....but made up for it later. Sarah Bingham had some nice kills. The speed of her hits belies her slim physique. It's a small sample size, but I see a tournament team barring injuries or sickness. JMHO Bianca got aced a few times and passing was mediocre. Barry was good and seemed to get in a groove as the match wore on. Bingham was decent on the Right for a converted MB. We will need to step it up several levels if we want to make the tourney. The level of play tonight is not Big Ten level of play.
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Post by bucky415 on Aug 26, 2023 23:35:48 GMT -5
My observations from attending tonight: Bianca May is better than advertised. Did not see a bad pass from her all night. Lily Barry looked shaky early.....but made up for it later. Sarah Bingham had some nice kills. The speed of her hits belies her slim physique. It's a small sample size, but I see a tournament team barring injuries or sickness. JMHO Bianca got aced a few times and passing was mediocre. Barry was good and seemed to get in a groove as the match wore on. Bingham was decent on the Right for a converted MB. We will need to step it up several levels if we want to make the tourney. The level of play tonight is not Big Ten level of play. To be fair, a lot of Big Ten teams have not been at Big Ten level of play in the opening weekend. Not a great start, outside The Pav in Minneapolis.
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Post by oldmanvb on Aug 27, 2023 8:10:23 GMT -5
I wondered how NIU lost to Chicago State the night before, as I’ve never known Chicago State to have much of a volleyball team. It made me think NIU and by extension the Illini are even worse than I thought. Then I looked at Chicago State’s roster. They only have 2 players who attended high school in the US. Their setter and their kills leader against NIU are both freshmen club players from Poland. Maybe we should cast our net a little wider?
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Post by vbkahuna on Aug 27, 2023 9:55:43 GMT -5
bucky415 wins the thread with the most salient observation. I happened to watch the Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Penn State matches and except for Wisconsin (congrats, bucky) there was a lot of sloppy, typical, opening preconference play. Even granting the fact they all played tougher opponents.
Here are a few of my observations on the Illini opening. Though they're going to take some lumps for a while with 2 freshmen in the starting lineup, I see this team getting much better as they get comfortable playing with one another. And one of those freshmen, Lily Barry, in my opinion is going to change the whole dynamic of this team. Despite a rough first couple of sets, once she settled in she showed a quickness, range, and toughness that the Illini haven't had in the back row for quite a while. She's a gamer and reminds me of a miniature Kendall White from PSU in the way her tenacity rubs off on the whole team when the going gets tough.
As for Mosher. yes, her location was inconsistent, but I see a lot more variety and mixing up of attacking points (Terry - 19, Burbage - 14, Bingham - 9 (!), Collins - 8, and herself - 4 on 11 attacks (!!)). She's a gunslinger who just happens to play setter. Could be quite a show once she gets another top OH to sling to. Would have loved to see what DeBoer could bring, but glad to hear that Nunge may be back soon to bring another option out there.
Which brings me to Terry. She continues to amaze. Contorts her body on impossible sets outside the foul pole to get kills. Takes OOS moonballs over her shoulder 10 feet off the net and slams them. Now also getting Quade-like BIC bombs out of the back row. And is also becoming one of the best blocking OHs in the country. The connection with Mosher is going to get even better on those quicker sets too.
Lastly, a tip of the hat to exit237A. Unlike the actual EXIT237A, dude/dudette/dundidit, you never seem to be down. Great job keeping the Illini portion of VT rolling and upbeat.
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