Nov 3-4 | K-State at Kansas | Fri 6:30p / Sat 3p CT | ESPN+

[bluepenquin]

Nov 3, 2023 21:41:27 GMT -5 austintatious said:

Nov 3, 2023 20:53:56 GMT -5 bluepenquin said:

K-State player was 2 feet past the center line and Cooper comes down on her foot while blocking. Yikes.

I am certainly not saying there was no violation, if you have body part over the center line and there is a player in the area which could be a safety issue, it should be called. No player in area in jeopardy, no violation.
I do think 2 ft may be a stretch. A player with a foot 2 feet over the line would be greatcat limbo to stay out if net. Also any blocker coming down 2 ft off the net isn't getting much penetration.
Also, even if ref called it,would not preclude her from being hurt.

Just looked at the replay.

Myers was given a backset that was a bit tight (but not that bad).  Myers turned her body to push the ball into the court and her right foot landed parallel to the center line - just past the center line (obviously not anything close to 2 feet).  Cooper seeing Myers coming into the net underneath her Only came down on her right foot and landed right on Myers foot with her full weight.

Looking at this - it looks rather bad.  If it is an upper ankle sprain (or any kind of break) - I suspect, she is done for the year.  If a lower sprain - she has a chance of coming back (and probably will).  Looking at how the ankle turned - it looks like an upper ankle sprain to me.

[bluepenquin]

Nov 3, 2023 21:40:04 GMT -5 buttery said:

Guess we’ll see Bien on the OH for the next few games, but not in the way I had wanted or envisioned.

K-State’s serve receive was impressive. Morris was insane tonight as well.

I am guessing Swanson will be a quick sub on the LS.  They tooled around with a 6-2 and Swanson on the RS a bit last night, but I think that is gone and probably more about getting Swanson some court time.  This does allow them to use the double sub more late in the set with Schneider.

Did you notice that when choosing between Dalton and Elnady on serve return - they went with Dalton?  This does help using Elnady from the back row, but then Elnady was great in the 1st two sets from the back row when in serve receive.  The box isn't out yet - it appeared to me that K-State targeted Dalton all night and with good success.  There was one serve that was right to Dalton (didn't have to move an inch) - and Burns ran over in front of her to take the serve.  Elnady and Dalton aren't bad at serve receieve - but if you are going to do that with Burns, you might sa well receive with two?

[buttery]

Nov 4, 2023 11:46:02 GMT -5 bluepenquin said:

Nov 3, 2023 21:40:04 GMT -5 buttery said:

Guess we’ll see Bien on the OH for the next few games, but not in the way I had wanted or envisioned.

K-State’s serve receive was impressive. Morris was insane tonight as well.

I am guessing Swanson will be a quick sub on the LS.  They tooled around with a 6-2 and Swanson on the RS a bit last night, but I think that is gone and probably more about getting Swanson some court time.  This does allow them to use the double sub more late in the set with Schneider.

Did you notice that when choosing between Dalton and Elnady on serve return - they went with Dalton?  This does help using Elnady from the back row, but then Elnady was great in the 1st two sets from the back row when in serve receive.  The box isn't out yet - it appeared to me that K-State targeted Dalton all night and with good success.  There was one serve that was right to Dalton (didn't have to move an inch) - and Burns ran over in front of her to take the serve.  Elnady and Dalton aren't bad at serve receieve - but if you are going to do that with Burns, you might sa well receive with two?

I think you’re right, they did have Dalton take more receptions purposely than Elnady. If Elnady is back-row, then Cooper is front-row and she was struggling from the get go last night. I have no evidence to back this up, but I thought Dalton’s serve receive had looked rock solid in the WVU and TCU series (generally Houston too), but in set 3 it really fell apart.

I really hope Cooper and make a quick recovery, but I do have to imagine with how she hit most of the night, KU was going to make a change anyway. K-State clearly was wanting her to go cross by setting up the block at the antenna, and then the assignment was for Morris to dig absolutely anything and everything. Coop doesn’t necessarily do a good job of tooling the block like Elnady (usually she just hits over it), so this was quite effective.

[devilhorns24]

Some incredible defense by Kansas in this first set

[bluepenquin]

Kansas is just way more consistent than K-State on serve receive. Kansas State's floor defense is great and has been every bit as good if not better than KU so far this weekend.

2nd night in a row that serve receive was poor for K-State in the 1st set. We will see if they correct that like they did last night.

[bluepenquin]

Cooper on the bench with a boot - announcers say that KU is hopeful to get her back this year. Reminiscent of Kelsy Payne in 2016. Kansas was w/o Payne for the final 2 weeks of the season with an ankle injury. Kansas was able to hang on and win their remaining matches and win conference outright that year. Payne was back for the tournament.

[bluepenquin]

Complete breakdown by K-State at the end of 2nd set to get the score 24-24. Then Kansas with some just tremendous defense to take the lead 25-24 and close out the set.

Mykayla Myers picking up the slack with her best friend out today. Very good to see that.

[bluepenquin]

Bien is very good covering hitters.

[buttery]

Really encouraging for KU to respond with a sweep of K-State. Serve receive I thought pretty much held up all match.

This back-to-back format is silly though. I don’t know, maybe just me, but it felt like you could feel the exhaustion from both teams; especially after last night’s 2 hour and 40 minute marathon.

Bien led the Jayhawks in kills tonight - hope the trend can continue into Iowa State.

[buttery]

Nov 4, 2023 16:11:08 GMT -5 bluepenquin said:

Bien is very good covering hitters.

It’s been mentioned a bit, but she was on the dive team in high school. I really enjoy watching the way she scoops under balls for digs or to cover, similar to as if she was diving…just goes to show the beauty of growing up as a multi-sport athlete.

[azvb]

Clinton and Carter were money last week against BYU. What happened?

[hornshouse23]

Happy to see Caroline have a positive influence on the offense with Reagan out. Glad Kansas was able to hold on!

[bluepenquin]

Nov 4, 2023 20:23:21 GMT -5 azvb said:

Clinton and Carter were money last week against BYU. What happened?

Carter was great on Friday.  Was okay on Sunday.  Clinton got off to a bad start on Friday, but was pretty good the last 3 sets.  She was very good on Saturday.  Bolding had a match for the ages on Friday and was completely shutdown on Saturday.  Morris put together one of the best Libero matches possible on Friday.

[bluepenquin]

Nov 4, 2023 17:03:50 GMT -5 buttery said:

Really encouraging for KU to respond with a sweep of K-State. Serve receive I thought pretty much held up all match.

This back-to-back format is silly though. I don’t know, maybe just me, but it felt like you could feel the exhaustion from both teams; especially after last night’s 2 hour and 40 minute marathon.

Bien led the Jayhawks in kills tonight - hope the trend can continue into Iowa State.

That 3rd set on Saturday was rough.  Same thing happened with Houston earlier in the year.  That 2nd day - the level of play is worse.  Both Houston and Kansas State looked like they just completely ran out of gas on Saturday and Kansas was able to win w/o a big performance.

The big thing with Bien - and frankly with all of their hitters - get in system and use the middles.  Turner connecting with Myers early opened up Bien with a lot of single blocks (or late double blocks).  Bien is going to destroy single blocks just about every time.  She just has too many shots and sees the floor to well.  Davis is also a load from the right side when going up against single blocking.  Elnady is probably the best bet against double blocking (or Cooper).  

[bluepenquin]

Nov 4, 2023 20:33:19 GMT -5 hornshouse23 said:

Happy to see Caroline have a positive influence on the offense with Reagan out. Glad Kansas was able to hold on!

Bien's defense has taken a step forward this year while playing DS.  We will see if this maintains while playing the front row.

Looking back - she would have been an outstanding D1 libero.