Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Your viewing guide for Week 7

Wednesday
Kentucky @ aggy, 6pm, SECN
Tennessee @ Texas, 6:30pm, SECN+
Baylor @ ASU, 8pm, ESPN+

Friday
Pitt @ Miami, 5pm, ACCNX
Wisconsin @ PSU, 6pm, BTN

Sunday
Nebraska @ Purdue, 12pm, B1G+
Kentucky @ LSU, 12pm, ESPN
SMU @ Miami, 12pm, ACCN
Texas @ Alabama, 2pm, SECN+
aggy @ MSST, 2pm, SECN+

Tennessee is 12-1 (3-0) - only played 2 ranked teams all season (1-3 loss to Purdue, 3-1 win against Georgia Tech).  So far in the SEC - 3-0 over Georgia, 3-0 over South Carolina, 3-2 over LSU
Alabama is 8-6 (0-4) and did not play a single ranked team in non-conf play.  So far in the SEC - 0-3 to Auburn, 1-3 to Florida, 1-3 to MSST, 0-3 to aggy.  They host LSU Friday before hosting us on Sunday. 

  • Hook 'Em 3
Posted

We lost a first place vote despite going 6-0 in sets. Bet Nebraska butt fucking Penn State made someone flip their vote

Posted
27 minutes ago, Js1 said:

We lost a first place vote despite going 6-0 in sets. Bet Nebraska butt fucking Penn State made someone flip their vote

Nebraska has been on a ridiculous tear. I don't think their last 4 opponents have even hit .100, and they haven't hit less than .300. The Big 10 still looks like a strong conference, but they don't have the powerhouses they used to have. Minnesota is in a free fall. This looks like a good but not great Wisconsin team. Penn State has imploded. Purdue is surprisingly good given all the talent they lost, but not great. None of the west coast teams are super impressive. The SEC has Texas and Kentucky. The ACC has Pitt, Louisville, and Stanford. 

Volleyball is always top heavy as a sport, but it feels even more so this year. 

Posted
8 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Nebraska has been on a ridiculous tear. I don't think their last 4 opponents have even hit .100, and they haven't hit less than .300.

Nebraska in B1G play - 4-0 (12-0 in sets)
Michigan (home) - .380 / .108
Maryland (home) - .360 / .090
ranked PSU (road) - .437 / -.114 (wow)
Rutgers (road) - .390 / .061

Texas in SEC play - 4-0 (12-0 in sets)
Vanderbilt (home) - .446 / .153
ranked Missouri (home) - .313 / .250
Georgia (road) - .358 / .218
MSST (road) - .327 / .065

Both teams have absolutely killed their competition so far in conference play. But Texas hasn't done to an opponent what Nebraska did to PSU.  That's like what a top 4 seed does to their first round opponent, let alone a ranked conference opponent (on the road!) 

Both will play a ranked team this week - Nebraska plays at #12 Purdue Sunday and Texas hosts #17 Tennessee midweek.

The SEC will be a tougher test for Texas than the B1G will be for Nebraska, but I wouldn't say it is by much. 

Posted

I don't really get too worked up about this stuff.

I enjoy watching this team. I want to see them continue to improve. I notice we're still trying to develop a slide attack with Ames and Harvey. It doesn't look very smooth, but you gotta start somewhere. I'd like to see AVW and Swindle get a better connection, and for AVW to be more consistently terminal, but I never feel the same way with her that I did with Wenaas. I watched AVW be a star in international play even when playing with older players. I feel like she has a tremendous upside. And it's not all on her. There are times when Swindle really does her a disservice with some of the sets. But it's mostly on her. 

Just keep improving. Keep improving the serve. Maybe develop more of the bic with Stafford. Keep working with Spears. I don't see how Spears can get better than what she's shown so far, but I'm sure it's possible. 

Stafford came back strong in serve receive against Mississippi State. More of that. Keep being the backcourt wonder duo with Halter/Gary. 

Nebraska can do their thing. We just need this team to be the best version of itself if and when that matchup transpires. At least it's not like OU in softball. We have plenty of Nebraska heads on pikes. No reason why we can't add this version of the team up there. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Posted
8 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Nebraska can do their thing. We just need this team to be the best version of itself if and when that matchup transpires. At least it's not like OU in softball. We have plenty of Nebraska heads on pikes. No reason why we can't add this version of the team up there. 

This is true

And DBK is a good coach, no doubt.  But she is 0-2 in the finals as a HC.  John Cook won 2 of his first 3 appearances (2000, 2006, with a 2005 runner up) 

She was handed a championship-caliber team in her first year, just like Cook was.  He did take his first Nebraska team to a title.  Can she do the same? 

Posted
4 minutes ago, Js1 said:

This is true

And DBK is a good coach, no doubt.  But she is 0-2 in the finals as a HC.  John Cook won 2 of his first 3 appearances (2000, 2006, with a 2005 runner up) 

She was handed a championship-caliber team in her first year, just like Cook was.  He did take his first Nebraska team to a title.  Can she do the same? 

There were a few years there where Nebraska was winning every head to head battle against Texas in high school recruiting and in the portal. It felt like they were fielding the U19 and U21 national team. But Elliott did a better job with roster management in 2022 and 2023 to bring home the titles. And then Penn State squeaked it out against last year's Cornhuskers. 

Both of Stanford's last two coaches won national titles with talent recruited by the previous coach - Dunning in 2001/2004 and then Hambly in 2018 and 2019. Elliott took a lot of flak from a lot of circles for being able to recruit but not being able to win championships prior to 2022/23, but as we all know the program was a dumpster fire when he took over. He's managed everything extremely well. Not just the roster, but staff hirings, the atmosphere at Gregory. Scheduling. I only wish he'd do more media availability, but with the press corps that covers the sport, it's hard to blame him for not wanting to see them more often. 

In any case, we'll see what happens with this Texas team. I'm excited about the journey. Someone posted on Volleytalk we're now more than halfway through the regular season, which doesn't even seem possible. 

Posted

Yet another SEC (co) FOW award

Texas’ Cari Spears, an outside hitter from Frisco, Texas, averaged 4.75 points and 4.17 kills per set and owned a .340 hitting percentage over a pair of road wins for the Longhorns. In Texas’ first sweep against Georgia, Spears hit .410 on a team-high 15 kills and also registered three digs, one block and one ace. In the sweep at Mississippi State, she recorded 10 kills, seven digs and a career-high two aces.

  • Hook 'Em 1

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...