[MSG1716]

What a fabulous, fun day of VB with a mostly full house and the team playing great.  For me, MT noted the biggest stat of the game, the percentage of points we won on our serve (44.6%).  If you just looked at balls in play, eliminating our 13 service errors, we would be over 50%.  Incredible.  The Hambly approach to serving is working.  I didn't count but I would think that Texas was out of system on their first return at least half the serves returned giving us a decent chance of winning the point.  Another part of our great winning service point percentage is our good defense.  It's working having defensive specialists increasing the likelihood of digging opponents' kills.  Today Pringle and Beaven were the DS.  I think there will be a year long battle with Cawa and Kirsch in the mix.

Pre-game Hambly said they were trying a different tact against Skinner than their last home game, the elite 8 loss to Texas where Skinner killed us.  He was focusing on more back row defense and covering more of the backcourt than focusing on trying to block her at net as she often hits over the block.  Skinner ended up with 12 kills and 8 errors (.129 hitting%).  She averages 5 kills/set and likely close to a .300 hitting percentage.  Skinner was not the factor Rubin was with her 12 kills with only 3 errors (.310 hitting%).  Harvey ended with  10 kills, 2 errors, .400 hitting%.  Our MBs had 12 kills, 1 error on 22 attempts (.500 hitting %).

This was potentially our easiest victory of the season with only the third set competitive at the 20 point mark (20-13 before UT got 4 straight points to make it 20-17).   We are molding well as a team and, as Hambly noted pregame, we have more room to improve than many of the other top 10 teams with our young talent.  And we haven't seen Blyashov yet (still not dressed but not in a boot).

Let's have another packed house next Saturday night vs Kentucky.

[MSG1716]

What a fabulous, fun day of VB with a mostly full house and the team playing great.  For me, MT noted the biggest stat of the game, the percentage of points we won on our serve (44.6%).  If you just looked at balls in play, eliminating our 13 service errors, we would be over 50%.  Incredible.  The Hambly approach to serving is working.  I didn't count but I would think that Texas was out of system on their first return at least half the serves returned giving us a decent chance of winning the point.  Another part of our great winning service point percentage is our good defense.  It's working having defensive specialists increasing the likelihood of digging opponents' kills.  Today Pringle and Beaven were the DS.  I think there will be a year long battle with Cawa and Kirsch in the mix.

Pre-game Hambly said they were trying a different tact against Skinner than their last home game, the elite 8 loss to Texas where Skinner killed us.  He was focusing on more back row defense and covering more of the backcourt than focusing on trying to block her at net as she often hits over the block.  Skinner ended up with 12 kills and 8 errors (.129 hitting%).  She averages 5 kills/set and likely close to a .300 hitting percentage.  Skinner was not the factor Rubin was with her 12 kills with only 3 errors (.310 hitting%).  Harvey ended with  10 kills, 2 errors, .400 hitting%.  Our MBs had 12 kills, 1 error on 22 attempts (.500 hitting %).

This was potentially our easiest victory of the season with only the third set competitive at the 20 point mark (20-13 before UT got 4 straight points to make it 20-17).   We are molding well as a team and, as Hambly noted pregame, we have more room to improve than many of the other top 10 teams with our young talent.  And we haven't seen Blyashov yet (still not dressed but not in a boot).

Let's have another packed house next Saturday night vs Kentucky.