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WVB: A strange night... - Viking_Guy - 11-13-2014

A strange night on the national women's volleyball scene.

There were three undefeated teams to start the night.

#3 Florida State lost in 4 at unranked (#27 RPI) Duke, 20-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-21, to fall to 24-1.

As the Stanford game started to crank up, I watched #22 (but #29 RPI) Colorado nearly blow two sets to none and then up 23-20 in set #4 leads. But I ended up watching the #2 University of Washington Huskies, who had been <ahem> woofing up a storm over Stanford's inability to sweep opponents, commit EIGHT hitting errors in the fifth set, including getting stuff-blocked five times in six points by All-American and player of the year candidate Krista Vansant to give the Buffs a 6-3 lead, and lose their undefeated season 27-25, 26-24, 17-25, 23-25, 15-11.

So as I settled in front of the computer screen to watch undefeated (but unsteady) #1 Stanford take on the #18 UCLA Bruins, playing their second match in 24 hours on the road in Los Angeles, on a Thursday night, in the small and packed Wooden Center, I was a bit uneasy.

They didn't make it pretty, but they did make it quick.

Stanford finished off a six-set sweep of Los Angeles in just over an hour and a half tonight, and I'm not quite sure how they did it.

You can point to particular stats.  Inky Ajanaku hitting .481 with 17 kills.  Lutz hitting .714 with 10 kills.  Brittany Howard having her best match of the year hitting .450 with 10 kills.

But Inky was still having trouble connecting with Bugg on anything other than the slide, until midway through the third set.  Lutz's hits were a smorgasbord of off-speed and angle, with only one having real terminating power.  And Howard at points did her typical "dink right to the defense" down the line.

Things were just never comfortable or clean.  Lots of scrambling plays, and very little rhythm.

And Boukather and Burgess were both struggling mightily, ending up hitting -.062 and .167 respectively.

Set 1 was over early.  Maybe Stanford was still warm from last night, but they raced out to an 11-5 lead behind strong serving from Boukather, Howard and Gilbert.  Then, with UCLA charging later to trim a 22-15 lead to 23-20, Lutz and Burgess got enough to side out and take the set.

Set 2 was a set of runs.  UCLA ran off five straight points to take an 8-3 lead as Stanford had its typical let-down after winning a set, with bad sets by Bugg putting Ajanaku in trouble, and bad serve reception not giving Madi much to work with.  But then Boukather served 5 straight to tie it up.  Late in the match, Brittany Howard served Stanford to another 5 point run, to lead 22-17, then promptly gave up a service ace as part of a 5 point Bruin run, again with Bugg's setting being a little all over the place.  An Inky slide stopped the run, then a kill by Merete and a block of Lowe by Lutz and Howard, and that quickly a tight 23-all set was Stanford's 26-24.

So of course I was expecting yet another Stanford "up two sets, let's come out of the locker room and open set 3 like we're sleepwalking" start.  And Stanford promptly dropped the first three points.  But good serving by the rotation of Boukather/Howard/Gilbert righted the ship, getting Stanford back to 7-7.  The set teetered back and forth, mostly on the Bruins' side, til 16-all, when a kill by UCLA's Reily Buechler was followed by back-to-back errors by Burgess, a clean miss on a big swing and missing the sideline on an attempted dink.  I was resigning myself to set 4.

Then Lutz had a kill.  A bad set off a driven ball was called on UCLA's Moenoa.  Boukather had a nice swing, then two straight Bruin misses (the second incredibly close by Karsta Lowe) gave Stanford a 21-20 lead.  McGehee served into the net to tie it at 21 coming out of a Bruin timeout, and Lowe terminated cross-court to give the Bruins a 22-21 lead.  Timeout Stanford.

I think during the timeout Dunning may have pointed out that Inky was in the front row to Madi.  Slide for a kill.  With Boukather serving a tough ball, front quick set for a kill.  Then Boukather drove one of her line drive serves right at Bruin Taylor Formico, standing on the right sideline.  Formico raised her hands to either (a) protect her face and/or (b) try to overhand dig the ball, but it deflected off her straight backwards, and that quickly, match point.  UCLA timeout.  Then Boukather served another tough short ball, UCLA dug, and they set Lowe.  Right into Inky Ajanaku and Brittany Howard on the left side.  Blocked straight down, point, set and match Stanford.

My goodness.

Have to give the game ball to Brittany Howard.  As much as I've wanted to see more from her this season, and as much trouble as she has had adapting to the quicker offense, tonight she was a difference maker - not only hitting .450, with more big swing kills than I've seen her hit in a long time, but also adding a "power dink" to her repertoire, pushing the ball deep into the corner over the block and not simply tipping over it short, forcing the defender to have to cover more ground.  But the big reason was what she's been consistent at all year - her serving was great.  As was Boukather's.  10 kills and only one error?  If she hits like that, Stanford's tough to beat.

Strong second consideration to Merete, who, while she may not hit hard, almost never hits wrong.  She has a grand total of 37 errors in 423 attacks this season, which is an astonishingly low rate.  Tonight?  10 kills, 0 errors on 14 attacks.  She needs to work on her footwork and blocking a bit, but when she does...

And it was definitely nice to see Bugg and Inky start to come more into alignment later in the match, after a weekend of "um" low and off sets.

In any case, November 26 in Seattle is getting closer and closer.  First things first, though; as Colorado showed tonight, their block is darned good.  And Stanford has sometimes played a bit tighter at home, only sweeping OSU and WSU in Pac-12 matches thus far.

Hurrah for a good start to the weekend early!

VG


Re: WVB: A strange night... - fullmetal - 11-13-2014

This is awesome...I don't think Stanford teams in recent history have been able to scrap points together outside of big runs (that "one point at a time" mentality).  I think it takes toughness to win ugly, and I think that's been the missing ingredient from the near-championship teams of the past few years.

Re: WVB: A strange night... - Viking_Guy - 11-14-2014

Glenn--

Yep, I did.  Mick Haley has been a great coach (only coach other than Dunning to win the NCAA title at two different schools, I think).  But he's definitely getting a bit bitter.  That interview after the second set was a new exemplar of throwing your own team under the bus.  For those who didn't see it, he essentially said "We know what they're going to do.  It would be nice if our players could follow the game plan.  We have a good plan.  We do."  about 4 different ways, not mentioning any strategy in particular.  And with a particularly acidic tone and expression.

Um, coach, if they're not following the game plan, shouldn't you be coaching them up?

More generally, the volleyball cognoscenti who I read have been saying for a few years that $C's offense is really antiquated.  They rely on high sets to the outside far too much, allowing the block and defense to adjust and making hitting that much harder.  I look at one of their current stars, Samantha Bricio, a smaller outside hitter, and think what she could do with her athleticism in a quicker system - not having to always try to hit over or around the block, but being able to hit before the middles could close.  And that's really on Mick Haley.  They have talent, especially now that their best second option Nwanebu is getting healthy again.

But again, the surprising result is Colorado beating UW, basically on the strength of their blocking.  The game at Maples next Saturday (in front of no band or a potentially anemic crowd because of the conflict with Big Game in Berkeley) could be more difficult than I thought.  Hoping the game ends up scheduled on the early end of the range of possibilities, so people will come out for Senior Night.

VG


Re: WVB: A strange night... - Spiny_Norman - 11-14-2014

I was at the UCLA match last night held in the intimate confines of Wooden Gym since Pauley is still being repaired following the recent flood (from a water main break).  Interesting coaching contrast between Stanford and UCLA.  During timeouts, the UCLA team immediately huddled around the coaches.  The Stanford coaches congregated separately for about half of the 90 second TO.  Then Coach Dunning would say a few words to the team and they were on the court well before the clock ran down to 0.

Stanford is a talented, resilient, mentally tough team.  It is a treat to be able to cheer for them.  I hope that fans will take the opportunity to come out for the final regular season home games this next weekend. 

Re: WVB: A strange night... - BobK - 11-14-2014

Maybe Mick is done? 

Great week after all the complaining about mid week games back to back and our first sweep in LA since 2009.  What a great team. 

Re: WVB: A strange night... - Viking_Guy - 11-14-2014

Spiny--

Next weekend.  That's why I'm concerned about the overlap with that other game up near a BART station.  :)

VG


Re: WVB: A strange night... - CrazedZooChimp - 11-14-2014

(11-14-2014, 02:00 PM)garvin link Wrote:Getting reacquainted with women's volleyball has been one of the greatest things about adding the Pac-12 Network. I'm looking forward to seeing Tara's team a lot more often this season, too.

Woah, is Garvin suddenly changing his tune on the existence of the Pac-12 network?  I thought you hated these days of being able to watch sports like volleyball on a regular basis  :P

Or maybe I'm mixing you up with someone else around here...

Re: WVB: A strange night... - Viking_Guy - 11-14-2014

Small update -

Bob, I'm starting to wonder.  $C just dropped a match to C.al, 3-2.  After winning two of the first three sets, the Toejams got stomped in the fourth set 25-15, then blew a 10-6 fifth set lead to lose 15-13.  At home in the Galen Center.

It was da Bares' first win in the Pac-12 this year.

Retire or be pushed, perhaps?

VG


Re: WVB: A strange night... - BobK - 11-16-2014

Hope pushed out VG.  No excuse for Mick's behavior and losing to cal may be the last straw. 

In other news both Florida State and udub lose again.  Stanford playing those 4 and 5 set wins help us far more than udub sweeps helped them.

Of course we play Utah and Colorado next after they each beat udub.Â