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Posted
Just now, SL Xpress said:

It starts with recruiting. We're not recruiting great servers. And we're not playing our most aggressive servers. Maybe they hit it out of play too much, but Miller has a top spin serve. Kahahawai has a top spin serve. Spears has a top spin serve although we didn't see it this year. Elliott just seems to hate top spin serves, to be honest.

We have juniors and seniors that suck at serving.   How are we not practicing that?

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Posted
5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Well, Elite 8 isn't really shitty.  This team exceeded expectations, most likely.

I'd say met expectations for me preseason. But it's a bummer earning the #1 seed and losing the regional finals on your home gym.

Wisconsin was simply the better team. No question about it. The thing is, I'm not quite sure how much better Texas is going to be next year. They need to be better at middle blocker and the serving line. Where is that coming from? Maybe we get better at server if they bring in someone from the portal, but they did that last year with Carlson, and that was a disaster IMO.

Last time we'll have Halter play for us. That probably makes me the most sad of all. I would have loved to have her play in Kansas City.

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Posted (edited)

We can always rely on the Cowboys….oh, wait.

aggy played a super game today, Horns…not so much, and when the chips are down….you must show up.

Edited by Cairn Horn88
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Posted

Just sloppy play tonight. Shit happens and Wisconsin is a hot team right now. We’re not going to win with our best player hitting in the negatives.

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Posted
1 minute ago, SL Xpress said:

I'd say met expectations for me preseason. But it's a bummer earning the #1 seed and losing the regional finals on your home gym.

Wisconsin was simply the better team. No question about it. The thing is, I'm not quite sure how much better Texas is going to be next year. They need to be better at middle blocker and the serving line. Where is that coming from? Maybe we get better at server if they bring in someone from the portal, but they did that last year with Carlson, and that was a disaster IMO.

Last time we'll have Halter play for us. That probably makes me the most sad of all. I would have loved to have her play in Kansas City.

Well, maybe some more reps and emphasis with the newbs.

And the connection between the newbs and Swindle will improve, including hopefully some middles, or just Harvey.

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Hornsbay22 said:

We have juniors and seniors that suck at serving.   How are we not practicing that?

I don't know. I don't go to practices. I just watch the matches. We had great serving in 2022 and 2023. Halter is a very good server. But she was a good server as a freshman. 

We brought in Gary. She was actually somewhat effective tonight, so it's hard to criticize her. But she didn't even serve as the libero last year at Indiana. Kujundjic was brought in with 60 career service aces, but I have no idea how she earned them. And for a backcourt serving specialist she was a big nothing burger on defense. 

Spears served some early in the season then was dropped. I've watched Vander Wal serve maybe once or twice this year. 

To me teams bring in great servers more so than develop them. At least for the most part.

The one thing I'll never get is why Lauenstein never served for us. I assume that was injury related, but if so, how was she playing regular rotations? When she was at Nebraska she was their best server. Did she completely lose it?

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Posted
5 minutes ago, mrhorn said:

Just sloppy play tonight. Shit happens and Wisconsin is a hot team right now. We’re not going to win with our best player hitting in the negatives.

…and she played a nearly perfect game on Friday.   So much for home field advantage.

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Posted
1 minute ago, Cairn Horn88 said:

…and she played a nearly perfect game on Friday.   So much for home field advantage.

Volleyball is such an interesting sport. Matchups are important and there is a lot of game to game variance. That's why it is so hard to win a championship. Just ask Nebraska (well, dont ask Harper).

Posted

I stopped watching in the 4th set when we fell behind by like 4-5. We were one of the weakest serving teams in the E8 imo. The same issue cost us the UK game too when we incurred multiple service errors when we had the chance to close out the game. Setting and defense were bad as well. Overall, the mental preparation was weak.

Posted (edited)
45 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

RIP Directors Cup

Yeah, we're likely not winning it this year. Women's soccer was terrible. A&M got further than us in both football and Volleyball.

Edited by MuellerHorn
Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, MuellerHorn said:

Yeah, we're likely not winning it this year. Women's soccer was terrible. A&M got farther than us in both football and Volleyball.

Stanford is the bigger threat and they lost before us, so all hope isnt lost

Edited by The_Great_Hornsby
Posted

Refrained from commenting last night.  But, suffice to say very disappointing.  Not so much for the loss.  It’s the “how” that bugged me, especially after the text book (my perception) Indiana match.

180 .. black and white .. wet and dry .. hot and cold .. pick one, pick all.  Credit to Wisconsin, they controlled every phase because they are very solid.  Unfortunately, the met little resistance …

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Posted

The “how” bugged me too because every bad habit from like the 2013-2021 era came back last night - ugly passing and slow footed defense 

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Posted
31 minutes ago, Js1 said:

The “how” bugged me too because every bad habit from like the 2013-2021 era came back last night - ugly passing and slow footed defense 

Yeah, as we learned back than, that's generally how it goes when you lose/get your ass kicked.  It was bad deja vu, though.

My sense of it, though, is that it was mostly getting abused on serve receive (and not returning the favor)  Also, did Emma not quite have enough help?

Posted
11 hours ago, perfectchaos007 said:

We would have lost to Kentucky for the third time this year in the next round, but still this sucks

Yeah, felt like our only hope there was the "lightning doesn't strike three times" theory.  

But it feels like Wiscy put a bigger beating on us than UK or eaTme that one time.

Posted

In retrospect, our improbable perfect record with a front-loaded schedule hid some issues that killed us last night. Wisconsin, A&M and some other teams got better late in the year, while we sputtered a bit even as we were winning SEC matches. The warts caught up with us and Stanford, who also looked pretty mortal in defeat. Penn State and Creighton were even less competitive. 

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Posted

I’m no volleyball expert by any means, but where did I miss that Kentucky got this good at volleyball? Maybe they have been and I wasn’t paying attention. Portal and NIL? The usual big dogs were down this year I see. 

Posted
1 minute ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

I’m no volleyball expert by any means, but where did I miss that Kentucky got this good at volleyball? Maybe they have been and I wasn’t paying attention. Portal and NIL? The usual big dogs were down this year I see. 

Stud OH, one recruited and developed and one taken from the portal

Really good recruited and developed L and S, both from Texas. O’Brien, the setter, could easily join Swindle in the “led their team to a title as a freshman setter” category 

Posted
13 hours ago, The_Great_Hornsby said:

Volleyball is such an interesting sport. Matchups are important and there is a lot of game to game variance. That's why it is so hard to win a championship. Just ask Nebraska (well, dont ask Harper).

Im thinking we play better away from home.  Getting reverse swept at home by KY convinced me.

Posted
1 minute ago, Cairn Horn88 said:

Im thinking we play better away from home.  Getting reverse swept at home by KY convinced me.

That happened in Savannah. We got straight up swept by Kentucky in Austin

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Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

I’m no volleyball expert by any means, but where did I miss that Kentucky got this good at volleyball? Maybe they have been and I wasn’t paying attention. Portal and NIL? The usual big dogs were down this year I see. 

Skinner is evidently a pretty good coach.  Although they tend not to be as perennially good as us, do recall that they put us down in the National Championship with Madi and her sister (and others) in 2021 before Elliott had his DS and serving epiphany.

Edited by TwiceHorn
Posted
1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

Yeah, as we learned back than, that's generally how it goes when you lose/get your ass kicked.  It was bad deja vu, though.

My sense of it, though, is that it was mostly getting abused on serve receive (and not returning the favor)  Also, did Emma not quite have enough help?

We probably would have been better off playing Wisconsin after having to play 5 sets to get by and surviving Indiana.   Going 3-0 just may have given Wisky the incentive to focus better on us and for us, just the opposite….thinking we were too awesome to lose to Wisky and being unfocused.

Posted
8 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Skinner is evidently a pretty good coach.  Although they tend not to be as perennially good as us, do recall that they put us down in the National Championship with Madi and her sister (and others) in 2021 before Elliott had his DS and serving epiphany.

Partly. We had Morgan O’Brien on that team. That he got lucky was on campus and he convinced to enter the portal while enrolled at Texas as a regular student. That UK title team had some studs, including Lilley and both Skinner sisters 

Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, Gut Wagon said:

Wonder what the portal will bring to Austin...or take from it. 

My guesses - 

Whitney will go elsewhere to find a full time role

With her leaving and Devin graduating, Addy can slot into the double sub OPP position. I assume Texas will continue running it

I wonder if Anja will portal again. Texas needs to find another DS, preferably more of a middle back defender. Gary is very good in left back, so you could run her as L in that position and a DS in middle back.

I’d love to upgrade at MB. Or add more depth 

Will be interesting to see if Henley and AVW have an open competition for the second OH spot 

Biggest ? is if Elliot will find another setter, which would likely force Ella or Binney out. Unlikely we have 4 of them on the roster 

Edited by Js1

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