[fullmetal]

The Nike Big Four volleyball tournament was held in Austin this weekend, starring #2-ranked Stanford vs. #1 Penn St., #6 Texas, and #8 Florida.  After losing to both Florida and Texas, those rankings will see a reshuffle.  (I didn't get back from Dallas in time for today's game, sigh.)

The sets against Florida resulted in these scores: 26-28, 17-25, 25-18, 22-25.

The game against Texas looked like this: 27-29, 25-18, 16-25, 25-27.

If I had to venture a guess, the unhappy balance of errors (service, attack, blocking) working against Stanford played a big part in the losses.  But a second glance at the stats might also suggest that Stanford was partially outplayed as well.

While Texas beat both Penn State and Stanford, Florida beat Stanford and lost to Penn State.

[fullmetal]

The Nike Big Four volleyball tournament was held in Austin this weekend, starring #2-ranked Stanford vs. #1 Penn St., #6 Texas, and #8 Florida.  After losing to both Florida and Texas, those rankings will see a reshuffle.  (I didn't get back from Dallas in time for today's game, sigh.)

The sets against Florida resulted in these scores: 26-28, 17-25, 25-18, 22-25.

The game against Texas looked like this: 27-29, 25-18, 16-25, 25-27.

If I had to venture a guess, the unhappy balance of errors (service, attack, blocking) working against Stanford played a big part in the losses.  But a second glance at the stats might also suggest that Stanford was partially outplayed as well.

While Texas beat both Penn State and Stanford, Florida beat Stanford and lost to Penn State.

[76lsjumb]

After watching them handily dispatch UOP last Wednesday, it sure looked like they were already in mid-season form.  After this weekend, however, perhaps not so much...

It did appear that UOP is something of a shadow of its former self [there really wasn't even a semblance of a block put up against us].  But still,...

In any event, it's a long season, and this is a talented team.  There is bound to be some shuffling in the rankings now, but it is still the case that WVB in the Pa-12 is not like WBB.  That is, we're going to get tested on a regular basis throughout the conference season by 5-6 ranked teams, and, given how young the team is, there's good prospects that will make us improve.  Thus, we play the top OOC teams early in the season in volleyball to get a sense of what we need to work on now, and we get a chance to keep improving on those things in conference by facing pretty good competition.  In WBB, we play the top OOC teams early because, once we get into conference, with few exceptions, we just don't get tested much until post-season.

Plus, even though we lost both matches, they were not blow-outs, by any means.  We just need to figure out how to close out the matches that go down to the wire [or into OT].  Of course, that's not always easy to figure out [at least if you don't have someone named Oganna on your team...]

[76lsjumb]

After watching them handily dispatch UOP last Wednesday, it sure looked like they were already in mid-season form.  After this weekend, however, perhaps not so much...

It did appear that UOP is something of a shadow of its former self [there really wasn't even a semblance of a block put up against us].  But still,...

In any event, it's a long season, and this is a talented team.  There is bound to be some shuffling in the rankings now, but it is still the case that WVB in the Pa-12 is not like WBB.  That is, we're going to get tested on a regular basis throughout the conference season by 5-6 ranked teams, and, given how young the team is, there's good prospects that will make us improve.  Thus, we play the top OOC teams early in the season in volleyball to get a sense of what we need to work on now, and we get a chance to keep improving on those things in conference by facing pretty good competition.  In WBB, we play the top OOC teams early because, once we get into conference, with few exceptions, we just don't get tested much until post-season.

Plus, even though we lost both matches, they were not blow-outs, by any means.  We just need to figure out how to close out the matches that go down to the wire [or into OT].  Of course, that's not always easy to figure out [at least if you don't have someone named Oganna on your team...]

[fullmetal]

I do think those 25-18 type sets are caused by mental lapses, and the early tourney exits of recent history could suggest that as well.  This team has the talent--they just need to focus on one point at a time. 

[fullmetal]

I do think those 25-18 type sets are caused by mental lapses, and the early tourney exits of recent history could suggest that as well.  This team has the talent--they just need to focus on one point at a time.