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Big WVB win over UCLA - Game Report? - Leftcoast - 10-13-2012

I see the women's volleyball team won a big five set victory over UCLA.  Anybody see it who could provide a game report?

http://gostanford.mo2do.net/s/22291/61?itemPos=2

Re: Big WVB win over UCLA - Game Report? - Viking_Guy - 10-13-2012

Lefty--

Wasn't there in person, but watched it.  While I hate what the Pac-12 network has done to scheduling of live events (it's difficult for me to get to campus at 5:30 or 6:00 pm on a Friday night), it has greatly increased the availability of non-football/b-ball sports.

As for the team: I guess the best way to put it is that they start 4 extremely talented freshmen who occasionally play like freshmen.  They are all very good, but make freshmen mistakes at point.

Early in the season, the team was definitely in transition.  The losses at Hawai'i and at Penn State were both before the freshmen had really adapted to the pace of high-end college ball, and Coach Dunning had not settled on what system he wanted to run, a 5-1 or a 6-2. For the non-volleyball folks, the difference is the number of setters employed - 5-1 has a single setter, which means when she is in the front row there are only 2 front-row hitters.  The 6-2 uses 2 setters, so there are always 3 hitters at the net.  There are other variants, but if you have two quality setters, there are advantages to the 6-2, especially if one of them is a taller setter who can hit/block well when she's in the front row.

This uncertainty was exacerbated when starting senior setter Karissa Cook was hurt in the loss at Penn State.  Freshman Madi Bugg was being brought along slowly (I think Dunning was working toward a 6-2, but wanted to take it slowly), but the injury forced her into the deep end.  She's responded brilliantly, and her connection with her fellow freshmen is particularly good.  One exemplar - Inky Ajanaku, freshman middle, has the ability to be the best player at that position since Foluke Akinradewo, not just at Stanford but nationally.  But Cook hasn't had a really dominant middle (although Carly Wopat has really come into her own this season), so her setting tends to be biased toward the pins (setting the outside hitters), simply based on her experience.  Bugg seems more inclined to use the middle.

There's also been a transition at libero, with Hannah Benjamin and Mary Ellen Luck giving way to sophomore Kyle Gilbert.  Gilbert is an amazing defender, but her serve receive is a little unsteady.

Serve receive tends to be this side's issue; they have a tendency to give up runs of points being unable to get "in-system", with a solid initial pass giving the setter all of her options of offense.  Combine that with having no really amazing servers on their side (at least in power terms - they are getting really good at the short dying float serve), and they have to win games by hitting, defending and especially blocking well.

The biggest positive this year has been the improved blocking - Ajanaku at 6'3" and "long" provides a quick and athletic complement to the outsides, and Brittany Howard and Jordan Burgess at 6'3" and 6'1" add more size outside to Rachel Williams 6'0" and Morgan Boukather 6'1".  The influence can be seen in one statistic - Stanford currently leads the Pac-12 in opponents' hitting percentage - .163 (quick comparison is to batting average - .300 is a good average for an outside hitter, higher for a middle).  Stanford as a team is hitting .282 right now.

Freshmen starting has meant diminished roles for some players, especially Rachel Williams, but Dunning has done a good job.  It helps that Williams is returning from injury, and can be brought along slowly.

It has also helped that Stanford has played their toughest Pac-12 competition at home thus far - Oregon, USC and UCLA.  Each one of those teams has really strong outside hitters, but Stanford has a better middle attack.  Stanford travels to play undefeated Washington next week (although Oregon meets Washington in Eugene tonight).

Against Oregon, Stanford rallied late, in an incredible game 5.  Oregon led 6-2 and 8-4, but Rachel Williams substituted mid-game and completely changed the game with her blocking and hitting, as Stanford ran off 11 of the last 13 points to win 15-10.

SC was simply crushed by the Cardinal block.  It helps that the Trojans run an offense that is really staid - their coach Mick Haley wants the ball set outside and high almost all of the time.  He's got good outside hitters, especially freshman Samantha Bricio, who has started for the Mexican senior national team since she was 16 and has amazing hops and power.  But consistently setting high and outside gives a team with a good block the chance to get out there and camp out on the ball.  Stanford has a good block.

The Trojans hit .085 for the game.  Bricio hit -.038 (more errors and blocked shots than kills).  And Stanford won in 3 games.

More...

Re: Big WVB win over UCLA - Game Report? - Viking_Guy - 10-13-2012

Also, Karissa Cook has been coming back from injury, and Stanford appears to be settling into a rotation, allowing Dunning to run a 6-2.

Against the Bruins last night, both the good and the bad were on display.  UCLA is the defending champs, and they have a great experienced hitting rotation, especially 6'5" Tabi Love, along with Kidder and Reeves.  Love is especially important because she draws so much attention that it gives the other two better opportunities.

The bad tendency of Stanford to give up runs of points with poor serve receiving was counterbalanced by the ability of their block to generate runs of points itself.  This tendency is compounded by UCLA running a 5-1; when Stanford had their setter in the front row, they had a decided advantage, especially as the Bruins' setter is only 5'8" and isn't a great blocker.

The first game was a case in point.  Stanford ripped off 6 runs of 3 or more points in a row, while UCLA only had 3.  Stanford got ahead 9-4, then gave up 8 of the next 9 points to fall behind 12-10, then scored 5 in a row to make it 15-12.  In a game between equally matched teams, you don't expect those long runs.  But both teams also made lots of hitting errors, hitting wide and long in an effort to avoid the block.  The Bruins just had more of them, and fell 25-22.

However, Love was starting to get going.  At 6'5" she can often hit over the block, but her most devestating ability is her sharply angled cross-court attack; she often hits down inside the 10 foot line on the opposite sideline.  She did it for three consecutive points near the end of set 1, and that got the Bruins' attack going in set 2.  Also, there seemed to be a difference in attacking mentality between the two sides - UCLA took more chances, but also finished more points.  Stanford seemed content to hit the "safer" ball, perhaps counting on their block to bail them out.

It shows in the by-game hitting percentages: UCLA .089, .462, .127, .353, .130.  Stanford: .219, .256, .217, .189, .190.

In set 2, UCLA's "swing for the fences" worked, and they cruised to a 25-19 win as Stanford came apart late, giving up point after point on the Bruins' serve.

Set 3 was half set 1, and half set 2.  Early on both teams ripped off runs with good serving, to a tie at 16-all.  Then late, the teams traded sideouts.  But three kills by Ajanaku, Howard and Burgess gave Stanford a 28-26 win.

Set 4, again, Stanford's serve receive deserted them, and they let the Bruins run off two runs of 5 and 6 points without a countering run of their own.  Late in the set Dunning brought in Lydia Bai, who hadn't played much, looking for lightning in a bottle as Williams had provided against the Ducks, but it was too little, too late.

Set 5, Bai gave Dunning a couple of early kills, but UCLA got a dump kill from setter Moenoa and two spikes from Kelly Reeves to open up a 10-7 lead.  After a couple of more sets came the key run of the game. With Wopat serving her short ball, Stanford got two kills from Boukather and one from Ajanaku to get a 14-12 lead.  The Bruins set the middle to get one back, then Stanford tried to terminate the game with a set to Ajanaku in the middle, with UCLA waiting with a triple block.  14-all.  A big swing by Jordan Burgess got Stanford back to match point, and with Cook serving, Love hit the ball out and Stanford had the 16-14 win.

Whew.

Listen, Stanford is very good now, and they'll be getting better.  They need to improve their serve receive, but other than that they have all the tools.  As the freshmen get more comfortable, they'll be pretty darned good.  But they also have a harder schedule coming up, with road games against UW, Oregon and the LA schools counterbalanced by only the Huskies travelling to Palo Alto.  If they can finish with 3 losses or less in the conference (win out at home, and steal one of the big four matches on the road), they'll be in good shape for a #1 seed and a potential regional at Berkeley, which would be really nice.

The nice thing is that the veteran players seem to be ready to contribute, even having lost playing time to gifted freshmen.  Williams against the Ducks and Bai against UCLA have both come in ready to play, and have made good use of their chances.  Stanford is going to be deeper than just about any team out there.

Back to football,

VG
 

Re: Big WVB win over UCLA - Game Report? - Leftcoast - 10-13-2012

Great update, VG.  The report and context help immensely.  I've got to get to a game, especially since I have (sigh) Direct TV.

Re: Big WVB win over UCLA - Game Report? - 76lsjumb - 10-13-2012

I'll leave the expert analysis to VG, who obviously knows his stuff.  I was at the match, and I still learned stuff about it from reading VG's analysis.

As a long-time fan [since going to Albuquerque [sp?] for the '92 Final Four/Nat'l Championship win], my impressions are more...impressionistic.  ???

Inky Ajanaku looks like Foluke came back with four more years of eligibility.  She's great now, but, if she keeps improving, ...wow.  Foluke on a middle quick set and on the slide play were both virtually money in the bank.  Inky looks like she could be the same. 

VG is right about us playing somewhat inconsistently, the way you'd expect a really young team to play.  The really encouraging thing, though, is that the team does not seem to get flustered or pack it in when it really counts.  I was pretty sure we had lost both the UofO and UCLA Game 5's, but, both times, the team kept their collective cool and made plays.  Granted the matches were both at home, and we'll need to see whether they can handle hosrtile road pressure [see, UW this week], but the signs are certainly positive.

The other great thing about how the UCLA match ended was the "redemption" story of sorts for Morgan Boukather.  Before Game 5, she was having a ... how to put... oh, that's right... horrible! night.  She was hitting -.167 [more errors than kills on about 12 attempts] --kind of like repeatedly striking out, or hitting into double plays, with runners in scoring position, I guess -- when she rotated in late in Game 5.  Surprisingly [given the results to that point], she got two sets her way and converted both on great kills -- promptly raising her hitting average to .000 -- doesn't sound like much, but going up 167 points on two swings ain't bad...! -- and, without those kills, we lose that match.

VG is right that we've had the "easy" half of the conference schedule to this point.  But, with Karissa Cook and Rachel Williams apparently getting healthy from injuries that kept them out [but allowed the freshmen the opportunity to get lots of experience earlier than might otherwise have been the case], we should be in good shape for the "hard" half.

It may be too much to expect the team to win it all this year, but, even if they don't, they sure look like they're going to be fun to watch for the next few.

Re: Big WVB win over UCLA - Game Report? - BobK - 10-14-2012

Great reports.  I was there as usual and see things a but differently  :).  Carly Wopat is a returning All American and a great middle blocker.  Yes Indy is already very good but it's Carly that contra the middle.    8). To be clear we alternate setters in our 6-2 they don't okay together

Ucla is an excellent team and returned all 5 hitters from their NCAA championship team. They have lost 3 times in 5 sets this year.  Don't count them out.

Stanford was ranked #4 going into the week and #1 in RPI.  Oregon beat #2 Washinton last night so we will be at least 3 in the rankings.  Last year we had 2 hitters this year we always have 4 in the line up. A brobdingnagian diff. 

But as VC points out mow we have to play on the road.

Re: Big WVB win over UCLA - Game Report? - 81alum - 10-14-2012

I don't know a lot about volleyball, but if I keep reading Viking Guy's analyses I will become an expert in short order!

I did watch the game, and from a neophyte's viewpoint Inky's spikes were terribly satisfying!  They went down at such a steep angle and made such a satisfying thump.  Reminds me of dunking a basketball.  Plus her smile was so incredibly infectious.  Reminded me of Candice after shooting a three.

Re: Big WVB win over UCLA - Game Report? - Griffins78 - 10-14-2012

The personalities of this team are terrific and infectious - especially the freshmen. Inky is almost like the Chiney of the volleyball team. (almost because nobody is like Chiney)

Here's a video to see what I mean: http://www.gostanford.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/090712aaa.html

Have always thought volleyball teams are particularly bonded together. I think it's because they have to operate as one on the court, flowing, moving, and playing in sync with a lot of non-verbal communication, awareness, and familiarity.

Also - I think that Carly Wopat is our best player. She is amazingly athletic (she was a triple jumper in track) and was 2nd in the nation in blocks last year as a sophomore and led Stanford to be the #1 team in blocking even though we had a less effective second middle blocker and setter blocking.