[Viking_Guy]

Game ball to Lutz, who only got a few sets, but made the most of them, with 9 kills and 1 error in 14 attacks for a .571 hitting percentage.  Oh, and 1 solo and 5 block assists.  All in the last two sets.

Inky was a close second, mostly because we expect it from her: 16 kills and 3 errors, hitting .500 with six block assists.

On the down side, Burgess hitting .087, Boukather .097.  A lot of that however can be attributed to trying to hit so-so sets off of bad passes.  Also a lot can be attributed to a really good Illini block - they had 28 block assists against only 2 errors, while Stanford had 1 solo and 26 assists but 5 errors.

One thing though: I'm not sure what's going on with Kyle Gilbert, but her serve receive is also much less certain than it has been.  Part of that may be trying to cover for Howard, but she also hasn't been making the spectacular digs we're used to from her.  Early season, but this weekend it was noticeable how much more often our hits ended up being converted into settable balls against the Nittany Lions and Illini than the converse.

All in all, a successful weekend: two wins over top-flight competition, and enough things to work on to help prevent complacency.

And a nice coming out party for the girl from Houston.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

Game ball to Lutz, who only got a few sets, but made the most of them, with 9 kills and 1 error in 14 attacks for a .571 hitting percentage.  Oh, and 1 solo and 5 block assists.  All in the last two sets.

Inky was a close second, mostly because we expect it from her: 16 kills and 3 errors, hitting .500 with six block assists.

On the down side, Burgess hitting .087, Boukather .097.  A lot of that however can be attributed to trying to hit so-so sets off of bad passes.  Also a lot can be attributed to a really good Illini block - they had 28 block assists against only 2 errors, while Stanford had 1 solo and 26 assists but 5 errors.

One thing though: I'm not sure what's going on with Kyle Gilbert, but her serve receive is also much less certain than it has been.  Part of that may be trying to cover for Howard, but she also hasn't been making the spectacular digs we're used to from her.  Early season, but this weekend it was noticeable how much more often our hits ended up being converted into settable balls against the Nittany Lions and Illini than the converse.

All in all, a successful weekend: two wins over top-flight competition, and enough things to work on to help prevent complacency.

And a nice coming out party for the girl from Houston.

VG