Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted
4 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

23 matches in, which aspects are they elite at?  

Well, they have one of the best outside hitters in the country. It's easy to take that for granted after Eggleston and Skinner, but Stafford is right at their level. I don't think she's quite as terminal as those two at their peak, but she's pretty darn close. It's like wondering if Bijan Robinson is as good as Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams. Not completely analogous, but the point is the same. At some level it doesn't matter any more. She's also better defensively in the back row, and I think she could be a really good back row attacker if we'd just use her more. 

Spears has fallen off in production on the right side, but a big part of that is she's not serving any more. She barely plays in the back row. I felt like one of our X factors was having Spears coming out of the back row on that D ball attack. She'd take that flying leap with her big swing, and it was really tough to defend. But we've gone away from hit. We haven't been good at featuring attacks from the right side consistently forever, and I don't think we're particularly good now.

We're pretty freaking elite in the back row defense with Halter and Gary when we're on, but we're not as consistent as some of the best back row defenses. But we're still really good. 

We have a tall setter and an established double sub, so we're not going to have a short setter taken advantage of in the front row like other teams. I don't know that I'd call that elite, but it's a strength. 

I think our biggest strength is that they just don't quit. It's easy to take for granted those two come backs from down 5 late in the 5th set against both Stanford and Louisville, but that was elite. We did something similar to Tennessee in the 2nd set. We came back against Kentucky when it looked like we were going to get blown out on our home floor 2 sets in a row with a 10-1 run. We even made a run with Gary at the service line in the set we lost to South Carolina. 

I feel confident that's not going to be enough to win a national championship. Certainly not against Nebraska. But we could still host a regional. Almost definitely will if we can beat A&M in the SEC tournament. For what it's worth I feel like we have a better team than A&M, and they're really good this year. I feel like we have basically a 50/50 shot against whoever we match up with in the regional finals, if we can make it that far. There's a remote chance it's SMU. Or A&M. 

Then we'll have a puncher's chance in the Final Four if we can get there. 

I just wish our serve was better.

The middle blockers were more productive today, but I guess they were selling out to the pins and that's what allowed them to close the block better than they have all season long, because the South Carolina middles feasted in that 3rd set. That was disheartening. 

It was senior day, and even though we have a good shot at 4 more home games, I'm going to miss Halter terribly, and I'm very grateful for both Kenna Miller and Kahahawai for spending their careers here, when they could have been starters elsewhere. I'm hopeful Miller goes on to get a graduate degree somewhere where she can play. 

Miller sang the national anthem before this game, btw. Apparently was amazing. I know she's done that at least once before.

  • Hook 'Em 4

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...