11-07-2014, 07:11 PM
The last three days have seen three heavily-favored Stanford women's teams have far too close matches, and really just silly mistakes played a large part in all of them.
Women's Volleyball
On Wednesday, volleyball steamrolled Arizona State for the first two sets. The Sun Devils were somewhat lucky to get into double digits in the first. But after the break, the Cardinal as usual came out with diminished fire, let ASU take the next two sets with late runs, and had to rally themselves in the fifth to stay undefeated 3-2. Brittany Howard continues to struggle mightily on offense, as she hit about .060 with multiple errors. More glaringly, you watched as ASU had no respect for her to hit anything but crosscourt deep and dinks - they had their backrow defender behind the block playing literally at the 10-foot line. And this time Morgan Boukather joined her; don't know if she was tired or not, but she hit around .085. And the connection between Bugg and the middles was again subpar - a lot of low sets and sets behind Inky and Merete. The most deadly set, to Inky's slide, also seems to be getting shorter and slower, not taking full advantage of Ajanaku's long stride and high reach to make setting blocks difficult.
In any case, they won 3-2.
Women's soccer
Yesterday, in Berkeley, the one thing I keep worrying about happened - Stanford, playing around with the ball at the back 3 minutes in, had Maddie Bauer under pressure hit a "hospital ball" pass forward to Andi Sullivan in the center of the pitch. Sullivan didn't come back hard to the ball, and her mark (C.al's attacking mid) stepped right around her to take the ball away. Bauer, compounding the problem, stepped forward - leaving the player she had been pressured by standing behind her and being held onside by Romine. A simple through pass from the mid to the forward, she was in alone on Campbell and calmly finished to the far post before the defense could get back.
Luckily in that game, Stanford equalized quickly, as a free kick deflected high into the air, and Taylor Uhl, who has been on a tear, headed it back across goal to the far post, where Alex Doll got a foot in for a deflection and tapped the ball in at around the 5 minute mark.
But throughout the game, there was a troubling lack of connection between the midfield, especially the defensive midfield, and the backline, as C.al got in against the center of the defense quite often. High balls into the box with defenders looking at one another. Jane Campbell made two spectacular saves on breakaways about 30 minutes in. First Laura Liedle made a half-hearted challenge on a ball at the half line, allowing the C.al midfielder to turn into the center of the pitch and feed a through ball that caught Stanford's center defense ball watching and allowed a forward to run diagonally in behind them. (One aside: I HATE watching games with the black unis with red numbers - it is IMPOSSIBLE to read them on the screen, especially in any kind of sunlight). Then Bauer made a similar challenge from behind in C.al's half of the field, leaving Romine out of position to the left and giving up the entire center of the pitch to Celeste Boureille, who had scored the first goal. Campbell made a beautiful diving stop to her right, got up and gave her defense a rather severe glare.
On both occasions, Bauer was up the field and Romine was wider than she should have been to the left, but also both outside backs, Liedle and Farr, were caught up the pitch. Also, both times the first pressure should have been applied by a midfielder, but neither Sullivan nor Doll was in the right spot.
The second half was a bit more Stanford's way, at least early. The game really turned when Lo LaBonta poached against a lacksadasical pass through the C.al backline, catching the center back in possession and tipping it off her and getting in on the left, then looking up and passing far post to an onrushing Uhl for an easy tap-in. Less than two minutes later, Uhl held off the same defender on a through ball, until the B.ear fullback grabbed and tugged on her jersey as she got to the six-yard box and sent her down. Easy PK call. Chi stepped up to take it, and in one of the few times I've ever seen it, was sent off the field because she had a stud earring in. So Lo took her place (as Chi couldn't reenter until after the attempt), and calmly buried it.
And that should have been it. Stanford led 3-1, had some good further chances and looked comfortable in possession. Until the midfield decided to try to hand it away. Couldn't tell if it was Amack or Rosen, but one of them got caught on the ball facing her own goal just in Stanford's half of the field. Not only lost the ball, but tumbled to the field, leaving her mark rushing in at the center of the defense alone. Bauer was 1v2, and C.al's player touched the ball across to a WIDE-OPEN forward (I want to say Comeau), who somehow managed to send the ball high against an open net from about 4 yards out.
But Stanford again played a lacksadasical set of passes, and another C.al rush was only broken up by Campbell tipping a rocket from about 8 yards over the bar. On the ensuing corner kick, the ball came out to the offense about 35 yards out on the right, and a long flighted ball to the far post was completely missed by both Bauer and Romine, and nicked into the corner by Boureille again.
The Cardinal buckled down and weathered the last 2+ minutes, but really, the game shouldn't have been in doubt at that point. They are definitely not quite on form heading into the tournament; don't know if Sullivan is in the flow, and with Farr replacing a dinged-up Amack in the back, rotations are a bit in flux. Things just look a bit disconnected.
That being said, Stanford is #2 in the RPI, and likely will be the #2 or #3 overall seed in the NCAA tournament field to be announced on Monday at 1:30 pm. UCLA, assuming they beat $C tonight, should be #1. The other top seeds should be Florida State and maybe Virginia, given that Penn State had a bad loss to Northwestern in the opening round of the B1G tourney. The only caveat is that neither FSU or UVa had a strong non-conference schedule, so they actually trail TAMU and North Carolina in the RPI. But it looks like they'll meet in the ACC final (FSU is in, UVa leads UNC 2-0 at half). The only other real potential contender was Florida, who also lost in the opening round of the SEC tourney.
More to come in a second,
VG
Women's Volleyball
On Wednesday, volleyball steamrolled Arizona State for the first two sets. The Sun Devils were somewhat lucky to get into double digits in the first. But after the break, the Cardinal as usual came out with diminished fire, let ASU take the next two sets with late runs, and had to rally themselves in the fifth to stay undefeated 3-2. Brittany Howard continues to struggle mightily on offense, as she hit about .060 with multiple errors. More glaringly, you watched as ASU had no respect for her to hit anything but crosscourt deep and dinks - they had their backrow defender behind the block playing literally at the 10-foot line. And this time Morgan Boukather joined her; don't know if she was tired or not, but she hit around .085. And the connection between Bugg and the middles was again subpar - a lot of low sets and sets behind Inky and Merete. The most deadly set, to Inky's slide, also seems to be getting shorter and slower, not taking full advantage of Ajanaku's long stride and high reach to make setting blocks difficult.
In any case, they won 3-2.
Women's soccer
Yesterday, in Berkeley, the one thing I keep worrying about happened - Stanford, playing around with the ball at the back 3 minutes in, had Maddie Bauer under pressure hit a "hospital ball" pass forward to Andi Sullivan in the center of the pitch. Sullivan didn't come back hard to the ball, and her mark (C.al's attacking mid) stepped right around her to take the ball away. Bauer, compounding the problem, stepped forward - leaving the player she had been pressured by standing behind her and being held onside by Romine. A simple through pass from the mid to the forward, she was in alone on Campbell and calmly finished to the far post before the defense could get back.
Luckily in that game, Stanford equalized quickly, as a free kick deflected high into the air, and Taylor Uhl, who has been on a tear, headed it back across goal to the far post, where Alex Doll got a foot in for a deflection and tapped the ball in at around the 5 minute mark.
But throughout the game, there was a troubling lack of connection between the midfield, especially the defensive midfield, and the backline, as C.al got in against the center of the defense quite often. High balls into the box with defenders looking at one another. Jane Campbell made two spectacular saves on breakaways about 30 minutes in. First Laura Liedle made a half-hearted challenge on a ball at the half line, allowing the C.al midfielder to turn into the center of the pitch and feed a through ball that caught Stanford's center defense ball watching and allowed a forward to run diagonally in behind them. (One aside: I HATE watching games with the black unis with red numbers - it is IMPOSSIBLE to read them on the screen, especially in any kind of sunlight). Then Bauer made a similar challenge from behind in C.al's half of the field, leaving Romine out of position to the left and giving up the entire center of the pitch to Celeste Boureille, who had scored the first goal. Campbell made a beautiful diving stop to her right, got up and gave her defense a rather severe glare.
On both occasions, Bauer was up the field and Romine was wider than she should have been to the left, but also both outside backs, Liedle and Farr, were caught up the pitch. Also, both times the first pressure should have been applied by a midfielder, but neither Sullivan nor Doll was in the right spot.
The second half was a bit more Stanford's way, at least early. The game really turned when Lo LaBonta poached against a lacksadasical pass through the C.al backline, catching the center back in possession and tipping it off her and getting in on the left, then looking up and passing far post to an onrushing Uhl for an easy tap-in. Less than two minutes later, Uhl held off the same defender on a through ball, until the B.ear fullback grabbed and tugged on her jersey as she got to the six-yard box and sent her down. Easy PK call. Chi stepped up to take it, and in one of the few times I've ever seen it, was sent off the field because she had a stud earring in. So Lo took her place (as Chi couldn't reenter until after the attempt), and calmly buried it.
And that should have been it. Stanford led 3-1, had some good further chances and looked comfortable in possession. Until the midfield decided to try to hand it away. Couldn't tell if it was Amack or Rosen, but one of them got caught on the ball facing her own goal just in Stanford's half of the field. Not only lost the ball, but tumbled to the field, leaving her mark rushing in at the center of the defense alone. Bauer was 1v2, and C.al's player touched the ball across to a WIDE-OPEN forward (I want to say Comeau), who somehow managed to send the ball high against an open net from about 4 yards out.
But Stanford again played a lacksadasical set of passes, and another C.al rush was only broken up by Campbell tipping a rocket from about 8 yards over the bar. On the ensuing corner kick, the ball came out to the offense about 35 yards out on the right, and a long flighted ball to the far post was completely missed by both Bauer and Romine, and nicked into the corner by Boureille again.
The Cardinal buckled down and weathered the last 2+ minutes, but really, the game shouldn't have been in doubt at that point. They are definitely not quite on form heading into the tournament; don't know if Sullivan is in the flow, and with Farr replacing a dinged-up Amack in the back, rotations are a bit in flux. Things just look a bit disconnected.
That being said, Stanford is #2 in the RPI, and likely will be the #2 or #3 overall seed in the NCAA tournament field to be announced on Monday at 1:30 pm. UCLA, assuming they beat $C tonight, should be #1. The other top seeds should be Florida State and maybe Virginia, given that Penn State had a bad loss to Northwestern in the opening round of the B1G tourney. The only caveat is that neither FSU or UVa had a strong non-conference schedule, so they actually trail TAMU and North Carolina in the RPI. But it looks like they'll meet in the ACC final (FSU is in, UVa leads UNC 2-0 at half). The only other real potential contender was Florida, who also lost in the opening round of the SEC tourney.
More to come in a second,
VG