[76lsjumb]

If you want the glass half-full approach:  U.SC is 27-1.  Their one loss?  A straight set [0-3] loss to Washington @ Washington about two weeks ago.  At least we took one set from UW and did so WITHOUT our best hitter. 

Vanjak has been playing pretty well, all things considered, as has Howard recently.  Seems to me the game plan for UW after they adjusted for no Hodson was pretty simple: shut down Vanjak and Howard and see what the others could do.  Burgess' numbers actually improved from last week, which is encouraging, but also likely due to extra attention being paid to Howard; I just hope Burgess' body can stand up to the extra wear and tear.  Also, although I didn't see very much of the match, I saw a stretch in Game 3 where UW outscored us by something like 10-1 during a rotation where, with Hodson, we would have gone to her in the back row, but, without her, we just couldn't make anything work.  Then, from looking at the box score, in Game 4 I think we went from something like down 12-13 to losing 15-25, suggesting a similar meltdown.

I didn't expect us to win the match @ UW to begin with.  Without Hodson, I'm happy we managed to even get a set.

[76lsjumb]

If you want the glass half-full approach:  U.SC is 27-1.  Their one loss?  A straight set [0-3] loss to Washington @ Washington about two weeks ago.  At least we took one set from UW and did so WITHOUT our best hitter. 

Vanjak has been playing pretty well, all things considered, as has Howard recently.  Seems to me the game plan for UW after they adjusted for no Hodson was pretty simple: shut down Vanjak and Howard and see what the others could do.  Burgess' numbers actually improved from last week, which is encouraging, but also likely due to extra attention being paid to Howard; I just hope Burgess' body can stand up to the extra wear and tear.  Also, although I didn't see very much of the match, I saw a stretch in Game 3 where UW outscored us by something like 10-1 during a rotation where, with Hodson, we would have gone to her in the back row, but, without her, we just couldn't make anything work.  Then, from looking at the box score, in Game 4 I think we went from something like down 12-13 to losing 15-25, suggesting a similar meltdown.

I didn't expect us to win the match @ UW to begin with.  Without Hodson, I'm happy we managed to even get a set.