MVB Update - Printable Version
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MVB Update - Mick - 03-07-2020
Just past the halfway point in the season, Stanford's men's volleyball team is 6-10, with a 2-4 record in league. Stanford opened the season with four wins in five matches against weak opponents (Menlo, UC Santa Cruz, George Mason and New Jersey Institute of something-beginning-with-the-letter-A) and a loss to St. Francis. Since then, Stanford MVB has won just two of nine, with wins over Concordia and an overrated (but ranked #7) UCLA.
Some lowlights:
- Four of the seven match losses were 3-0. Only once (vs. Pepperdine) did they go to five sets.
- They've played #1 Hawaii and lost 3-0 both times. Second match was a bit better than the first.
- Conference opponents have about 60% more aces than Stanford.
- Stanford is averaging 1.5 points less than conference opponents per set.
- Stanford has a slightly higher kill percentage than conference opponents (31% vs. 30%).
- Stanford has slightly fewer errors on offense than conference opponents, but considerably more defensive errors.
- Conf oppos block more than Stanford (47 vs. 40)
Summary: Passing is not very good, which is the heart of the team. If you can't pass well, you're doomed, basically. The team is very young. Setter, libero, starting OH are either freshmen or redshirt frosh. Jaylen Jasper's game has improved, he'll return as a senior next year. The middles are strong on offense, but if you can't pass, your middles suffer. And the team is doing about as well as a football team with a true frosh QB. The frosh setter has played a fair amount of club volleyball, but not much beach volleyball or high school volleyball (his school only added the sport in his senior year) is my lazy assessment. He played baseball while playing volleyball. Really?
Conclusion: They're pretty close. They'll need to replace their middles and one pin hitter in the next two years, but their libero and setter will have improved. I think the team will be strong in two years, but this year and next will be difficult.
BYU is the conference leader and the clear class of the conference at 6-0. The rest are pretty close in ability. Grand Canyon is 4-2, Pepperdine is 3-2, UCLA is 2-3, Stanford and Concordia are 2-4, USC is 1-5 with its sole win over Stanford. Stanford has matches remaining against each MPSF opponent and a non-league match against #5 Lewis today.
Bad news and good news is the same, you don't need to worry about buying tickets to the NCAA men's championships which are at George Mason and extremely difficult to get to from any Washington DC area airport.
RE: MVB Update - Hurlburt88 - 03-07-2020
Appreciate this update. Looking forward to a return to relevance.