Stanford plays Cal Sunday February 14 at 5:00 pm PT in the second and final Big Spike of the season.
This is probably the one and only time I will make a thread for a WVB match because the sport is not closely followed on this forum. Stanford lost to Cal on Friday and as I expected looked pretty bad at times. Any evaluation of Stanford in the previous Cal match has to take into consideration Cal is arguably the weakest team in the PAC-12. If Cal doesn’t finish in the conference cellar it will probably be because the spot is occupied by Stanford; an unimaginable scenario prior to this season.
Positives in comparison to Arizona matches:
MBs Annabelle Smith and Vicini had much improved positioning and timing in their blocking. Hitting was better. Smith actually looked good on her slide shots.
Libero Elena Oglivie looked very good at times passing and digging although her serving was way off.
Setter Selina Xu had good location on many of her sets and was a surprisingly strong blocker.
Negatives:
OHs Berty and Baird are extremely bad at passing and digging. Berty is so bad I don’t have the words to describe it. Berty should be nowhere close to the court but Hambly has no choice other than to work with what is available.
While Kipp is a strong hitter, she makes way too many unforced errors.
Kipp is terrible at covering the tip. I counted eight tips that dropped to the floor in front of Kipp. She should have been able to handle all of them.
The under-performance of this team is perplexing to me. The 2019 class was ranked the #1 class in the nation. The collective prep ranking of the Stanford players on the court is the best in the PAC-12. It’s understandable they are not up to full potential with the lack of practice but IMO they should be doing much better even with limited practice.
This is probably the one and only time I will make a thread for a WVB match because the sport is not closely followed on this forum. Stanford lost to Cal on Friday and as I expected looked pretty bad at times. Any evaluation of Stanford in the previous Cal match has to take into consideration Cal is arguably the weakest team in the PAC-12. If Cal doesn’t finish in the conference cellar it will probably be because the spot is occupied by Stanford; an unimaginable scenario prior to this season.
Positives in comparison to Arizona matches:
MBs Annabelle Smith and Vicini had much improved positioning and timing in their blocking. Hitting was better. Smith actually looked good on her slide shots.
Libero Elena Oglivie looked very good at times passing and digging although her serving was way off.
Setter Selina Xu had good location on many of her sets and was a surprisingly strong blocker.
Negatives:
OHs Berty and Baird are extremely bad at passing and digging. Berty is so bad I don’t have the words to describe it. Berty should be nowhere close to the court but Hambly has no choice other than to work with what is available.
While Kipp is a strong hitter, she makes way too many unforced errors.
Kipp is terrible at covering the tip. I counted eight tips that dropped to the floor in front of Kipp. She should have been able to handle all of them.
The under-performance of this team is perplexing to me. The 2019 class was ranked the #1 class in the nation. The collective prep ranking of the Stanford players on the court is the best in the PAC-12. It’s understandable they are not up to full potential with the lack of practice but IMO they should be doing much better even with limited practice.