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Posted
13 hours ago, ATXbronco said:

Congratulations to Kentucky on a hell of a comeback. 

 

And congrats to the Lady Longhorns on a well fought game. Can't wait to see you play again in the 2025 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship!

Fuck Kenfucky and their skinhead coach. Why is the camera always on him and that fugly Hudson? She looks like a fucking crow. Texas just blew that. And, of course Texas got screwed by the ref's in the 5th. That overturn was BS. It clearly hit her finger and the finger moved back.

That serve where Bunton tried to knock the ball back to Texas changed the whole match.

Posted

When you are up 23-19 in a set, you should win that set. Doesn’t always happen that way, and Texas has been on both sides of it, but it hurts to have that score and not win the set and in this case the match.  
 

and having it happen to stave off the match generally gives the team that managed to do it a lot of confidence and momentum in the following set.  Which can be big when the talent difference is small. 
 

disappointed that it happened, but hopefully the team can learn from it and be better for it in the ncaa and the next few seasons for the young players.  Some lessons are best learned the hard way. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, Js1 said:

Have no fear - the internet pitchforks have come out for Swindle, again, as if she was the only reason we lost.

Texas setters get blamed for EVERYTHING

At volleytalk?  Those are some ruthless, catty mofos.  "We just want Lexi to be happy."

Posted
Just now, TwiceHorn said:

At volleytalk?  Those are some ruthless, catty mofos.  "We just want Lexi to be happy."

Yep. Any Texas “fan” who wants the drama that is Izzy Starck is a bad person. She quit on her team over an abusive boyfriend she’s still with. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, avidhornslurker said:

With how good and young this team is next year seems like one you go all in for a championship. What's the position you think they try to upgrade in the portal with? 

MB and/or libero/DS. 

Posted

Boy am I not sold on Gary as the libero. I want to be. I like her. But I am not. She makes the spectacular play but not the routine play. 

Grab Texan Molly Tuozzo from Kentucky. Really make it personal. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, SL Xpress said:

Boy am I not sold on Gary as the libero. I want to be. I like her. But I am not. She makes the spectacular play but not the routine play. 

Grab Texan Molly Tuozzo from Kentucky. Really make it personal. 

It's clear to me she's not Emma or Zoe. And sometimes she goes into a serving error funk, which I don't understand because it's a simple dink over serve. Whether it's Molly or another Zoe somewhere Texas better get her. I real difference maker at MB like Cas-Ogwalla would be great too, but I know she's a Sr so I don't know who it is.

Posted
1 hour ago, Hard Times said:

It's clear to me she's not Emma or Zoe. And sometimes she goes into a serving error funk, which I don't understand because it's a simple dink over serve. Whether it's Molly or another Zoe somewhere Texas better get her. I real difference maker at MB like Cas-Ogwalla would be great too, but I know she's a Sr so I don't know who it is.

Auguste from Florida. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, Hard Times said:

And sometimes she goes into a serving error funk, which I don't understand because it's a simple dink over serve. 

That's not really true, unless you mean the one time against Auburn where she had 5 serving errors. But the whole team was on a serving error funk, with 17 in total.

I honestly think the staff was trying to emphasize getting the ball lower towards the net. This was the second match after the back to back losses to A&M and Kentucky where I think they went into a bit of desperation mode regarding trying to make the serves more effective. Along with the 5 serving errors, she also had one that hit the tape and then fell for an ace. She had the 4 serving errors versus Georgia, and the 3 serving errors versus Kentucky, but only 32 serving errors overall. I don't have a complaint about her service errors. I just find her serves woefully ineffective.

The funny thing is, I think Binney's serves aren't that great and there are some numbers to back it up. Opponents are more adept at passing Binney's serves for optimal options for the setter more than any other server, but Texas scores more than 50% of the time when she's at the service line, which is by far best on the team. Elliott calls her the best server on the team. Which...I guess. The numbers matter. 

In any case, I don't really think we're getting Tuozzo. I just like fantasizing about it as a tweak to Kentucky. Plus she's really really good, and she's from Texas. 

Posted
4 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

In any case, I don't really think we're getting Tuozzo. I just like fantasizing about it as a tweak to Kentucky. Plus she's really really good, and she's from Texas. 

She’s been brainwashed now that Texas is evil and Elliot is basically Hitler, Satan and bin Laden all rolled into one person. That’s how Kentucky sees our program currently

 

Posted

The remarkable thing about both Emma and Zoe is that first, they reach damn near anything on or near the court.

But their ups are much more pass-like than, for example, Cat McCoy, who also reached most things on the court, but spewed the ball all over the damned place.

Emma's going to be tough to replace and we were lucky to get her after lucking into Zoe.

Posted
2 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Feels like just a couple of seasons ago this board lamented all the home grown liberos on the roster and pined for the midwestern girls that neb and wiscy have that seemed to dig everything. Now we want the Texan to come home?

A good libero or DS is a good libero or DS, regardless of location. Fleck is a California girl, Tuozzo is from Texas, Halter is from Indiana, Lexi Rodriguez was from Illinois, Lainey Choboy is from NC

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Posted
34 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Feels like just a couple of seasons ago this board lamented all the home grown liberos on the roster and pined for the midwestern girls that neb and wiscy have that seemed to dig everything. Now we want the Texan to come home?

Like Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, I don't know about this we shit white man. 

I can't speak for whoever was posting, but there was a time when it seemed like Elliott would garnish the roster with local players for DS positions instead of recruiting nationally, and it didn't go great. But that doesn't mean local players aren't any good. It just means there should be a high standard regardless of where they're from, and I'm not sure we've had that for our back row players on a consistent basis during Elliott's tenure. Amazing pins and middles. Not so great at the other positions. 

The rumor I heard - and I want to emphasize this is a rumor, not fact - is that Elliott's former wife was extremely active in the local club scene, and that impacted the roster choices somewhat. But that would have been a while ago, and wouldn't really be germane to what you seem to be talking about. 

I'm just being goofy anyway. Tuozzo isn't a realistic option. 

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Posted

The impression I got, sometimes similar to some positions for high school football, is that Texas doesn’t produce great liberos because Texas volleyball doesn’t emphasize it- so don’t take them but rather look elsewhere in places where they demonstrate excellence when they get to the D1 level.  And we did, with fleck and halter and Gary and others, and our defense did improve. So it was just funny to see a Texan and want her on the team. 

Posted
36 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Like Tonto said to the Lone Ranger, I don't know about this we shit white man. 

I can't speak for whoever was posting, but there was a time when it seemed like Elliott would garnish the roster with local players for DS positions instead of recruiting nationally, and it didn't go great. But that doesn't mean local players aren't any good. It just means there should be a high standard regardless of where they're from, and I'm not sure we've had that for our back row players on a consistent basis during Elliott's tenure. Amazing pins and middles. Not so great at the other positions. 

The rumor I heard - and I want to emphasize this is a rumor, not fact - is that Elliott's former wife was extremely active in the local club scene, and that impacted the roster choices somewhat. But that would have been a while ago, and wouldn't really be germane to what you seem to be talking about. 

I'm just being goofy anyway. Tuozzo isn't a realistic option. 

Yep, DS was an afterthought compared to front row hitters.  And yeah, that rumor was commonplace, whether true or not.

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Posted

Elliot really went all on in only needing so-so floor defense if your hitting efficiency was high and you had a good block. That got us through a weak Big 12 after Nebraska left, but outside of 2012, eluded us from the ultimate goal. I’m very glad he finally saw the light and realized you can have all 3 things and be successful

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Posted
Just now, Js1 said:

Elliot really went all on in only needing so-so floor defense if your hitting efficiency was high and you had a good block. That got us through a weak Big 12 after Nebraska left, but outside of 2012, eluded us from the ultimate goal. I’m very glad he finally saw the light and realized you can have all 3 things and be successful

And those losses against better-rounded teams were so, so demoralizing.  Generally much worse than what you're seeing now.

Losing a volleyball game usually means the system breaks down, passing deteriorates, and you look like dooky.  But it was so bad back then.

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Posted
5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

And those losses against better-rounded teams were so, so demoralizing.  Generally much worse than what you're seeing now.

Losing a volleyball game usually means the system breaks down, passing deteriorates, and you look like dooky.  But it was so bad back then.

I still have nightmares of those tournament losses to BYU and Louisville where we just got outclassed. Not to mention losing finals to Nebraska, Stanford, etc. 

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Posted
22 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

That's not really true, unless you mean the one time against Auburn where she had 5 serving errors. But the whole team was on a serving error funk, with 17 in total.

I honestly think the staff was trying to emphasize getting the ball lower towards the net. This was the second match after the back to back losses to A&M and Kentucky where I think they went into a bit of desperation mode regarding trying to make the serves more effective. Along with the 5 serving errors, she also had one that hit the tape and then fell for an ace. She had the 4 serving errors versus Georgia, and the 3 serving errors versus Kentucky, but only 32 serving errors overall. I don't have a complaint about her service errors. I just find her serves woefully ineffective.

The funny thing is, I think Binney's serves aren't that great and there are some numbers to back it up. Opponents are more adept at passing Binney's serves for optimal options for the setter more than any other server, but Texas scores more than 50% of the time when she's at the service line, which is by far best on the team. Elliott calls her the best server on the team. Which...I guess. The numbers matter. 

In any case, I don't really think we're getting Tuozzo. I just like fantasizing about it as a tweak to Kentucky. Plus she's really really good, and she's from Texas. 

Maybe I should have said inconsistent. She was inconsistent when everyone else was, everyone but Binney. Rella had only one match where she was inconsistent and despite it being an easy dink over serve she's gone on multiple runs just because she gets the serve in. Texas doesn't have a special server this year so it's more important to get it in to the right location rather than trying to get aces. Some are going to fall in the right location and sometimes the receiver just screws it up, but I think with this team getting it in is better than a SE. A SE is what changed to momentum against ousucks and let them come back and win set 3, it allowed aggy to come back and win a set and thus the match in CS, and allowed KY to come back and win set 3 and thus the match in the SEC champ game. SE's are a momentum killer. 

Posted
11 minutes ago, Hard Times said:

Maybe I should have said inconsistent. She was inconsistent when everyone else was, everyone but Binney. Rella had only one match where she was inconsistent and despite it being an easy dink over serve she's gone on multiple runs just because she gets the serve in. Texas doesn't have a special server this year so it's more important to get it in to the right location rather than trying to get aces. Some are going to fall in the right location and sometimes the receiver just screws it up, but I think with this team getting it in is better than a SE. A SE is what changed to momentum against ousucks and let them come back and win set 3, it allowed aggy to come back and win a set and thus the match in CS, and allowed KY to come back and win set 3 and thus the match in the SEC champ game. SE's are a momentum killer. 

I don't think she goes on runs because she gets the serve in. She goes on runs because we have a great rotation when she's on the court, and she has good enough placement on her serves the other team doesn't score on them. 

You talk about SEs being momentum killers, but not being able to put pressure with the serve loses matches. How many set points has Texas lost to Kentucky because they can't score from the service line, even when the serve goes in? When the match goes to extended points, the ONLY way to win is to win from the service rotation. We're not losing those extended sets because of service errors. We're losing those extended sets because of first ball side outs, which is a direct result of not putting any pressure on Kentucky's attack out of serve receive. 

I vehemently disagree with you it's only about getting the serve in when facing an Elite Eight type team and above. You have to score a little bit more than the opponent does from the service line, whatever that takes. If you're incredibly superior at receiving serve, and terminal on first ball side outs, or put so much pressure on the opponent with the attack from serve receive that you get the point in transition on the next rally or two, then there's less pressure to score on the serve because you're dominating on side out. But we're not incredibly superior. We're above average for sure, but guess what? So is every other team at that Elite Eight level. 

In any case, I hardly think Gary's issue is service errors anyway. It's that she has a lollipop for a serve. That's the problem. 

This team doesn't have a service error issue.

Here's 9 of the other top teams in the country. There's a high likelihood we'll be facing one of these teams in the regional final in Austin, assuming we make it that far, and a virtual guarantee the other Final Four teams will be in this group.

Texas at 2.29 errors per set

Louisville 1.85

Nebraska 2.0

Kentucky 2.08

Pitt 2.24

(Texas would go here)

Arizona State 2.36

SMU 2.83

Wisconsin 2.89

A&M 2.9

Stanford 2.98

______________________________________________

Literally smack dab in the middle in terms of rankings of the stat. Closer to Louisville's 1.85 than Stanford's 2.98 statistically. 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, SL Xpress said:

Texas just got a new Taraflex floor installed. Apparently it's permanent.

Isn’t it a requirement for hosting? 

CDC and Elliot must have given a lot to Rec Sports to agree to that 

image.thumb.jpeg.5351f7bc4a4dda4107b4ffe6f0e57781.jpeg

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Posted

Yeah, that's exactly my feeling.

And yes, it's a requirement for hosting regionals. Not the first two rounds. It's crazy it took this long to get it done. I wonder what the logistics ended up being?

Posted
1 hour ago, SL Xpress said:

I don't think she goes on runs because she gets the serve in. She goes on runs because we have a great rotation when she's on the court, and she has good enough placement on her serves the other team doesn't score on them. 

You talk about SEs being momentum killers, but not being able to put pressure with the serve loses matches. How many set points has Texas lost to Kentucky because they can't score from the service line, even when the serve goes in? When the match goes to extended points, the ONLY way to win is to win from the service rotation. We're not losing those extended sets because of service errors. We're losing those extended sets because of first ball side outs, which is a direct result of not putting any pressure on Kentucky's attack out of serve receive. 

I vehemently disagree with you it's only about getting the serve in when facing an Elite Eight type team and above. You have to score a little bit more than the opponent does from the service line, whatever that takes. If you're incredibly superior at receiving serve, and terminal on first ball side outs, or put so much pressure on the opponent with the attack from serve receive that you get the point in transition on the next rally or two, then there's less pressure to score on the serve because you're dominating on side out. But we're not incredibly superior. We're above average for sure, but guess what? So is every other team at that Elite Eight level. 

In any case, I hardly think Gary's issue is service errors anyway. It's that she has a lollipop for a serve. That's the problem. 

This team doesn't have a service error issue.

Here's 9 of the other top teams in the country. There's a high likelihood we'll be facing one of these teams in the regional final in Austin, assuming we make it that far, and a virtual guarantee the other Final Four teams will be in this group.

Texas at 2.29 errors per set

Louisville 1.85

Nebraska 2.0

Kentucky 2.08

Pitt 2.24

(Texas would go here)

Arizona State 2.36

SMU 2.83

Wisconsin 2.89

A&M 2.9

Stanford 2.98

______________________________________________

Literally smack dab in the middle in terms of rankings of the stat. Closer to Louisville's 1.85 than Stanford's 2.98 statistically. 

That sounds awfully contradictory. If you don't get the serve in you can't score from serving. The good teams never have any trouble passing any Texas server so who is going to put pressure on them serving? Melanie Parra is not on the team anymore, and even when she was her SE's hurt more than what befit the team got from an occasional ace. The good teams returned her serves like they were lollipops.

It's kinda like in FB on 3rd and long and the DB thinks he's beat and grabs a jersey and then the ball is overthrown and woulda never been caught anyway. First and ten when you had them stopped.

Posted
2 hours ago, Hard Times said:

That sounds awfully contradictory. If you don't get the serve in you can't score from serving. The good teams never have any trouble passing any Texas server so who is going to put pressure on them serving? Melanie Parra is not on the team anymore, and even when she was her SE's hurt more than what befit the team got from an occasional ace. The good teams returned her serves like they were lollipops.

It's kinda like in FB on 3rd and long and the DB thinks he's beat and grabs a jersey and then the ball is overthrown and woulda never been caught anyway. First and ten when you had them stopped.

That's a horrible analogy. 

Let's take those same ten teams again, and let's talk about how often they score in serve receive, in order:

Nebraska 70%

SMU 67.1%

Stanford 66.3%

Texas A&M 66.1%

Wisconsin 65.9%

Kentucky 65.8%

Pitt 65.4%

Texas 65.2%

Arizona State 63.8%

Louisville 62.4%

______________________________________________

What I'm trying to say is that getting it over the net isn't enough. You have to score. Now, you don't have to score a whole lot. You don't even have to score 50% of the time. You just have to score when you're at the service line more than the opponent does. But as I keep saying, by the time you get to the Elite Eight, all of these teams are really good at siding out, often times on the first ball over the net. Texas is excellent at this.

This is the most critical statistic in all of volleyball. This list makes up 8 of the top 10 teams in the country in this category. Arizona State is 14th, and Louisville is 28th. But Louisville is ranked 5th in points scored from the service line, so that helps them. Remember, it's not about preventing the other team from scoring on their serve. It's merely about scoring more from your serve than the opponent does.

________________________________________________

What this means is that not all points are equal. So if a server hits a serve that puts the opponent on their heels, and Texas scores, but the next serve goes directly into the net, that's a positive for Texas. 50% points scored on a service rotation means Texas will almost certainly advance. Frankly anything above 40% means good things. 

I will admit that if a server is consistently hitting their first serve out of play - like what Nya Bunton will do on a consistent basis - then that becomes harmful, it doesn't matter how much pressure her serve puts on the opponent. And she leads the team in that category, even if she's one of the worst in terms of the service rotation being productive i.e. scoring (it doesn't help that she's terrible in defense on the back row - literally if it's hit at her it's basically an automatic point for the other team). 

It is not difficult to make sure every serve makes it in the field of play. Simply serve underhanded. It might not be 100%, but it would be awfully close. But no one does that. At any level of the sport. Why is that? Are coaches at every level just stupid? No. They understand they have to score points during their service rotation, and that's very difficult. 

_________________________________________________

Melanie Parra wasn't even in the service rotation on the 2022 national championship team. Her greatest value came on the practice court where the team had to learn to receive her serves. She's a bad example, since she wasn't utilized. Both the 2022 and the 2023 teams were murderer's row from the service line. The national championship in 2023 came in large part from the dominance of the Texas serve.

I've also often said rating servers by their aces is not a great measurement. Servers should be rated based on the productivity of their service rotations. For example, Binney's serve doesn't do a lot for me, but we score more than 50% of the time when she's at the service line, and that does a whole lot for me. Aces can be very helpful, and it's certainly a leading indicator that a server has some oomph to their serve, but it's not an end all be all. The problem is that's the stat kept in the box score, and scoring percentage isn't, so that's what we focus on. 

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Posted

NCAA website says first 2 rounds are Dec 4 and 6

UT WBB plays UNC on Dec 4 at 6pm. So we are either playing early or late 

Posted
19 hours ago, SL Xpress said:

That's a horrible analogy. 

Let's take those same ten teams again, and let's talk about how often they score in serve receive, in order:

Nebraska 70%

SMU 67.1%

Stanford 66.3%

Texas A&M 66.1%

Wisconsin 65.9%

Kentucky 65.8%

Pitt 65.4%

Texas 65.2%

Arizona State 63.8%

Louisville 62.4%

______________________________________________

What I'm trying to say is that getting it over the net isn't enough. You have to score.

Melanie Parra wasn't even in the service rotation on the 2022 national championship team.

We duh. You just repeated what I said. Of course you have to score, but having MP or any other hard server doesn't mean you score. And her SE's always gave the opponent more points than anything her serving did positive. Duh. Agroid scored 6 points in a row in CS with a fresh server coming in who had the the biggest lollipop serve Texas has faced all season. It gave them the match. Total lack of focus after a SE. That was the match.

My whole point was Melanie's serving, or any other tough server never did contribute to winning. Duh! Damn, you think you're smarter than everyone else. Are your initials DT??

Posted
42 minutes ago, Hard Times said:

We duh. You just repeated what I said. Of course you have to score, but having MP or any other hard server doesn't mean you score. And her SE's always gave the opponent more points than anything her serving did positive. Duh. Agroid scored 6 points in a row in CS with a fresh server coming in who had the the biggest lollipop serve Texas has faced all season. It gave them the match. Total lack of focus after a SE. That was the match.

My whole point was Melanie's serving, or any other tough server never did contribute to winning. Duh! Damn, you think you're smarter than everyone else. Are your initials DT??

I have no idea what you mean by that.

You keep mentioning Parra, but she wasn't even part of the lineup for one of the best serving teams Texas ever had. I don't understand what your point of bringing her up is.

It's not enough to hit it over the net. You have to put pressure on serve receive. If that comes with some service errors, that's a good trade off. 

The A&M player you're referring to is Megan Fitch. Whether they were lollipops or not, our players were shanking first contact regularly. My guess is her serves have some movement on them, which is the reason Morrison brought her in in that scenario. And it worked. 

Tough servers are the difference between a championship team and a team that loses in the Elite Eight. Tough servers not only contribute to winning, they are the KEY difference, along with the ability to receive serve at an elite level. But tough serving is not merely about velocity. 

And I don't know about being smarter than everyone else, but I'm beginning to suspect I'm smarter than you. 

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