I was honestly wondering if fatigue was a factor. Not an excuse, but with 4 away matches in a row, they have likely been out of Austin for 8-10 days out of the past two weeks when their classes are probably picking up the intensity as well. Gabriel, O'Neal, Fields, and Phillips have not yet had the experience of constantly trying to keep up with school, practice, and playing multiple high caliber matches in a row. (I know Gabriel played in the post season last year, but I think school is more intense work-wise at the beginning of a semester and sitting the bench is less stressful). On the other hand, several schools have played more matches than we have (i.e. Rice and Pitt). Did not watch the game so I am going off stats/comments, but it seems everything kinda broke down - passing, setting, hitting, and serving. Because of that, I am more leaning toward concluding it was a baaaaaad day all around that hopefully we can overcome.
Since I havent been active in this thread yet this season, here are some of my overall observations/thoughts so far:
Blocking: with 2 freshman middles + 1 freshman and 1 undersized as opposites, blocking has not been our strength as in years past. I think it will improve as the season goes on with the freshman getting better at reading setters and adjusting to quicker sets (fingers crossed Butler is able to get healthy and bring some experience to the front line)
Passing: overall, until the Rice match, receiving and defense had seemed not to be as big a liability as in years past. Peterson and Hahn seem to have improved. I thought Eggleston passed very well against Stanford and BYU, and most the time I would almost rather her stay on over Rounsaville. (TBH I would feel more comfortable if we had more depth in the DS position, but that has been discussed here before).
Setting: As others have pointed out, Gabriel needs to spread the sets out more, but I think that is something that will get better during the season. I think we are currently too predicable for the blockers. Its not going to happen, but I wish we would run a cross play with the MB going for a slide and Fields going for quickish middle (with a backrow pipe option as well).
Hosting: I agree that the loss to Rice definitely hurt our chances at hosting, and we have to take care of business in conference play (+A&M). I am worried about Baylor, but glad we have them at home first. Looking at the schedule of the teams that could end up in top 4 ranking: (1) Nebraska, (4) Penn State, (7) Minnesota, and (9) Wisconsin all have at least one loss and all wont make it through conference play without another. Penn State also plays (6) Pitt two times. (10) Washington plays Wisconsin twice and Standford and Oregon in conference play. (5) Baylor plays undefeated (13) Hawai'i before conference play. So IMO the host sites may still be open with a few losses even though our loss was to a low ranked opponent.
Anyone else watch the Stanford v. Nebraska match...have any thoughts?