2025 Women’s Volleyball - Printable Version
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RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - BobK - 10-05-2025
17-14 now
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - BostonCard - 10-05-2025
Too little, too late. We tied it up at 20, but Louisville close out with another 5-0 run.
BC
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - Card10Fan - 10-05-2025
Hambly doesn’t seem to know what to do. Tried Blyshov now and subbed out Kurt. Taylor Yu comes in as setter now and Logan Parks is out. We are just so discombobulated when out of system. Who steps up other than Rubin? Louisville is good no doubt but we were not even competitive in all of set 2 and most of set 3 until a late rally.
Parks might have a bigger upside but Yu seems to have much better accuracy setting our hitters.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - BostonCard - 10-05-2025
23 all in the fourth set; Louisville takes a time out.
BC
Not meant to be; Louisville wins 26-24.
BC
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - Card10Fan - 10-05-2025
I'm a little sour on Hamblys strategy of mixing and matching combinations of IMPORTANT players mid game. I'm all for players battling out who deserves court time in practice and even if needed trying different combos in preseason winnable games but why in a top 6 matchup against the top team in the conference?
Bringing in Yu in the third set puts so much pressure on her to essentially turn the game around and lead the team to a comeback back victory. All the while Parks is slumped and dejected on the sidelines for getting subbed out. The only set this game we WON was the set Kurt played in and not Blyshov yet Kurt gets subbed out in set 2. Was the team in a better rhythm from that point on? No because set 2 and set 3 were not really very competitive for Stanford at all. I don't think Stanford is helping itself by using this strategy. We looked bad at Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, and pretty bad most of today against Louisville. At some point establishing a go-to rotation, chemistry on the court, and consistency has to happen to make a deep NCAA run and it isn't happening so far this season with the constant shuffling.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - paloalto - 10-05-2025
I agree for the most part Card10fan. The main problem is neither Kurt or Blyashov seem to be the answer. While Stanford won the first set with Kurt on the court, I believe she hit .000 for that set. Neither of the two jump particularly high and Kurt seems to have lost her "high hands" mojo.
I was high on Parks at first but not so much now. She will get better by next season but there isn't all that much time left in this season to improve on fundamentals.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - BostonCard - 10-05-2025
(10-05-2025, 04:47 PM)Card10Fan Wrote: I'm a little sour on Hamblys strategy of mixing and matching combinations of IMPORTANT players mid game. I'm all for players battling out who deserves court time in practice and even if needed trying different combos in preseason winnable games but why in a top 6 matchup against the top team in the conference?
Bringing in Yu in the third set puts so much pressure on her to essentially turn the game around and lead the team to a comeback back victory. All the while Parks is slumped and dejected on the sidelines for getting subbed out. The only set this game we WON was the set Kurt played in and not Blyshov yet Kurt gets subbed out in set 2. Was the team in a better rhythm from that point on? No because set 2 and set 3 were not really very competitive for Stanford at all. I don't think Stanford is helping itself by using this strategy. We looked bad at Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, and pretty bad most of today against Louisville. At some point establishing a go-to rotation, chemistry on the court, and consistency has to happen to make a deep NCAA run and it isn't happening so far this season with the constant shuffling.
Both Kurt and Parks were struggling today. I don't necessarily think it helped to sub them out, but given that the players who subbed in are not clearly a step down, it wasn't a crazy idea. Kurt had a Blutarsky-like hitting percentage of 0.000, and mustered only two kills in two sets. Blyashov wasn't much better (.059), but a change wasn't unjustified. Likewise, when Parks went out in the middle of the third set, we had really been struggling for a while (all of the second set and the first half of the third set). Yu helped stabilize things; we mounted a bit of a comeback to get the third set even before Louisville pulled away, and the fourth set was much more competitive.
Don't get me wrong; especially with a new setter, giving Parks more game-time experience so she can better connect with the hitters probably makes sense in the long run, but sometimes games like this present a no-win situation for the coach. What we had going on wasn't working. You spin your wheels hoping to come upon some combination that fixes the problems, but at the end of the day, this wasn't an issue with just a couple of players. Rubin had an uncharacteristic 2 receiving errors; Pringle, who had one job, also had two receiving errors. It wasn't anything clearly wrong, but we were just out of sorts.
BC
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - paloalto - 10-05-2025
I just got two PMs. Blutarsky says he thinks the comparison is unfair to his reputation. Parks says she can accept criticism as long as her name is spelled correctly
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - BostonCard - 10-05-2025
(10-05-2025, 05:37 PM)paloalto Wrote: I just got two PMs. Blutarsky says he thinks the comparison is unfair to his reputation. Parks says she can accept criticism as long as her name is spelled correctly
LOL. Now I'm re-reading to see where I misspelled her name.
BC
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - BobK - 10-05-2025
17-14 now
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - johnbar - 10-05-2025
It seems coaches (not just Hambly) get criticized for making substitutions and for not making substitutions when the team is struggling.
I wasn't surprised by Blyashov replacing Kurt, since they have been trading off anyway. They have to know their playing time depends on their performance. And they're both in their third year at Stanford (each with a red-shirt year). Kurt doesn't seem as productive this year, and Blyashov seems to have advanced. That Kurt came back as a serving sub in the fourth was a nice twist.
I was surprised by Parks (not "Parker") being pulled for Yu. But Yu seemed to be a steadying force and was placing the sets better. So I think it gave Stanford a better chance to win. Parks may feel wounded by this, but hopefully she's mature enough to accept it.
I hope this is just a temporary set-back for her.
A win over Louisville could have cemented Stanford's place as a top-4 team (many pundits think their current ranking in the poll was too high, and I guess this proves them right). There's still a little over half the season to go (15 matches completed, 16 left). Stanford finishes the season at Louisville - so if the team continues to progress and find their groove, they have a chance for revenge.
===
On another topic: anyone know who I should complain to about the Maples concessions? They seem understocked and understaffed. Long lines and sold out of multiple items. I thought the previous vendor was mediocre, but this one is worse.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - BobK - 10-05-2025
We have a new AD write to him. Good at football but maples is poor
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - johnbar - 10-05-2025
(10-05-2025, 07:54 PM)BobK Wrote: We have a new AD write to him. Good at football but maples is poorI believe Hambly said at the chalk talk today that the new AD was the honorary coach for this match, though he wouldn't be on the bench. If he was introduced between the first and second sets, I missed it because I was in line at the concession stand.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - CompSci87 - 10-05-2025
(10-05-2025, 05:59 PM)BostonCard Wrote:(10-05-2025, 05:37 PM)paloalto Wrote: I just got two PMs. Blutarsky says he thinks the comparison is unfair to his reputation. Parks says she can accept criticism as long as her name is spelled correctly
LOL. Now I'm re-reading to see where I misspelled her name.
BC
You spelled it Parker in 3 places. :-) I edited your post to fix it, after paloalto had already replied.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - CompSci87 - 10-05-2025
(10-05-2025, 09:55 PM)johnbar Wrote:(10-05-2025, 07:54 PM)BobK Wrote: We have a new AD write to him. Good at football but maples is poorI believe Hambly said at the chalk talk today that the new AD was the honorary coach for this match, though he wouldn't be on the bench. If he was introduced between the first and second sets, I missed it because I was in line at the concession stand.
Yes, he was introduced.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - Hieronymus - 10-06-2025
No surprise per an earlier post of mine, but I am in favor of in match subs at the other non-Rubin OH spot, at least for now. It didn’t work yesterday but:
1. Neither Kurt or Blyashov have clearly claimed the spot.
2. If the plan is to do this at some point in the tournament when it’s do or die, you better try it now in games that matter and see if it works.
Do it a few more times over the next 7-8 games, and if it doesn’t work at all shelve it and name a starter. If I had to pick right now though, I would go Blyashov just because I think she has more upside - better athlete, bigger and has been showing decent improvement through the first half of the season.
Setter is a whole other thing. Parks setting too close to the net is obvious, but on TV I don’t get a good enough sense of height. And tempo can be hard to compare. She has been very effective feeding the MBs, but here I guess I trust Hambly more than my brain. For now I assume this was a one off. We will see.
The truth is Harvey is a bit erratic and that second OH may not be good enough to be a contender no matter what the staff tries. Right now I expect rd16, realistically hope for rd8 and would consider the FF to be a major surprise. Nebraska’s ball control makes them unlikely to have a really off night. Not saying they are invincible, but they are a really bad match up for a serve dependent team like us.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - BostonCard - 10-06-2025
(10-05-2025, 11:56 PM)CompSci87 Wrote:(10-05-2025, 05:59 PM)BostonCard Wrote:(10-05-2025, 05:37 PM)paloalto Wrote: I just got two PMs. Blutarsky says he thinks the comparison is unfair to his reputation. Parks says she can accept criticism as long as her name is spelled correctly
LOL. Now I'm re-reading to see where I misspelled her name.
BC
You spelled it Parker in 3 places. :-) I edited your post to fix it, after paloalto had already replied.
Thanks for the assist.
BC
(10-06-2025, 01:36 PM)Hieronymus Wrote: 1. Neither Kurt or Blyashov have clearly claimed the spot.
2. If the plan is to do this at some point in the tournament when it’s do or die, you better try it now in games that matter and see if it works.
Do it a few more times over the next 7-8 games, and if it doesn’t work at all shelve it and name a starter. If I had to pick right now though, I would go Blyashov just because I think she has more upside - better athlete, bigger and has been showing decent improvement through the first half of the season.
Statistically, Blyashov is having the better season so far.
Blyashov: 94 kills, 31 errors, 231 attacks for a .273 hitting percentage and 2.85 kills/set
Kurt: 64 kills, 31 errors, 199 attacks for a .166 hitting percentage and 2.13 kills/set
Kurt is doing a little bit better on serve (10 aces to 15 errors vs. 4 aces to 16 errors for Blyashov); they are about even in digs and receiving errors. Blyashov has 10 block assists versus 6 for Kurt. Blyashov has played a couple more sets than Kurt but it is pretty even (33 vs. 30).
None of this takes opponent into account, but the stats favor Blyashov. Still, we will need both of them next year when Rubin graduates.
BC
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - cardfan77 - 10-06-2025
Parks has struggled with her set locations throughout the season. Oftentimes, her sets are too close to the net, leaving her hitters with very few options. Most of the time, it's a soft tip or a trap set. As a freshman setter, I expected Parks to have some struggles, but her location has been an issue. At the beginning of the season, Kevin Hambly said that Yu would be the setter if they were running 5-1. I guess her minor injury in Texas changed that. I like the substitution that Kevin Hambly made last night. I think Yu stabilized the team a little.
I think the biggest issue with this team is passing. Besides Rubin and Etzler, they don't have a 3rd reliable passer. As we saw last night, even Rubin had an off night passing the ball. Louisville went on runs when Stanford couldn't pass. If they are not passing well, the setter cannot set the middles, which they were unstoppable last night, especially Andrew. Since Blyashov, Kurt, and Harvey are not reliable hitters (yet), this team needs to run the middles in order to be successful. I don't know their stats, but I think Blyashov is a better passer than Kurt. I also wish Hambly would give Cawa or Kirsch a chance, especially when Pringle struggles.
I am not sure what happened to Kurt, she was playing so well last year. She was known for her high fingertips hits. She seems to have lost her mojo, maybe because of Blyashov. If Blyashov learns to hit high fingertips, then I think she will secure the second OH spot. She has the power shots, whether it's cross-court or line shot; she just needs to diversify her attacks instead of trying to challenge the block all the time. Maybe Hambly just needs to commit to whoever the 2nd OH is and only bring in the other OH if the 2nd OH is struggling. Stop alternating the 2nd OH starter.
This team also needs to run more back-row attacks, whether it's a pipe set, a bic, or a D set.
Obviously, Hambly is a great coach, and I trust he knows what he is doing. I will trust the process.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - paloalto - 10-06-2025
Thanks for all the detailed and knowledgeable comments on this page. It's a rarity for this thread.
That's a good presentation of the stats BC. A hitting percentage of .166 versus .273 is a massive difference. .166 is bad. .273 is good. However, based on the eye test I'm not satisfied with Kurt or Blyashov. For next year I'm praying for a transfer OH although the probability is near zero. Demaria is not the answer either. I've seen her play many times in club last season and she's not as good as Kurt or Blyashov.
Parks was very highly ranked coming out of high school. Before the season Hambly said Parks has to be on the court because she is so good. Way too much hype which I believed at first. Unfortunately Parks at this point is a mediocre setter. I like her but I have to be objective.
Having said that I expect Stanford to win the remainder of its home games with the possible exception of Pitt.
RE: 2025 Women’s Volleyball - Card10Fan - 10-06-2025
All really good insight from many different posters. I think Yu is the better setter and hope she keeps the spot going forward. The offense looked better against Louisville with her in control. Does that take Parks totally out of all rotations? For being halfway through the season, there is too much uncertainty still with this Stanford team and who needs to be on the court to help us win meaningful games. Here are many quotes from Hambly after the game with many mentions of the team lacking fight and competitive spirit.
“I mean, I thought at times we weren’t competing the way we wanted to and we certainly didn’t execute the way we wanted to,”
“But I thought there was times when we weren’t fighting. There was no fight in us and we were, they were making plays and we were surprised by it and we were a little distracted.”
“We can’t let a few plays that they make or us not having our perfect night affect the way that we’re competing. It’s gotta change.”
"The competitive thing, we’re gonna have to decide that we want to compete all the time. If we want to be a truly elite team, we’re gonna have to do that.”