[76lsjumb]

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.

[76lsjumb]

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.