[TonyLima]

Stanford at Duke today 3:30pm PT on ACCNX.  Duke is 9-18 overall and 5-11 in conference. 

One of Duke's better players is Kerry Keefe, #10 recruit in 2022 per Prepvolleyball.com.  She and Rubin played on the same high school team.  Her brother was on Stanford's basketball team last year.

Oh, and her mother is a Stanford WVB legend and her two older twin sisters played WVB at Stanford a few years back.

Keefe, Keefe ... name rings a bell.  Oh, yeah, Adam Keefe. Related?

---

I keep finding things I don't like about the ACC.  The "Stanford" announcer on ACCNx welcomed everyone to "another late night game".  Uh, since when is 7PM late night?   Can't get the East Coast bias out of the ACC....,

You get upset by the most trivial things.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  The announcer provided information equally about both teams and coaches.

It is an attitude thing.  If 7PM is a late night game to her, she's got her mind set on the Atlantic Coast, not Stanford.

I don't recall this announcer, who has announced 11 home matches, saying anything that indicates she's interviewed or even talked to any of the players on any team.  Nor the coaches.   She's reported on what the coaches have said, but no indication that I recall that she's said anything to indicate she talked with the coach.  Anyone notice something that indicates she's interacted with the players?

Has she been at the chalk talks?  Asked any good questions there?

Has she mentioned any recruits or current red-shirts?

I rarely watch the games live on ACCNx.  Have they ever interviewed a player after a match, or played an interview between sets?
The recording ends seconds after the last point (which is better than the last 3 basketball games I've seen in replay, where the
recording ends 3-4 minutes of playing time (5+ minutes wall clock end) before the end of the game).

You'd think, if she talked to someone, anyone (perhaps a player), knowledgable about VB who has seen her work, they'd correct her usage of "tool".  
You'd think, if she ever had a color commentator on the call, the'd teach her such a term.
You'd think there is some ACCNx boss for her that reviews her on-air work and would have seen enough VB to point this out to her.
You'd think if she were watching other broadcasts of VB, she'd realize that they use "tool" differently.
If none of that is happening, one has to wonder about the competence of ACCNx, or perhaps more, their inattention to WVB, at least on the West Coast.

A quick web search for a definition of "tool" led to many sites that describe "tool" as hitting (or wiping or swiping) the ball off the blocker's hands so it goes out of bounds.  I didn't see any that approximated her use of "tool".

It grates my ears to hear her say "Stanford's beginning to run away with this one" when it is 20-8. Or "Virginia Tech is still in this," when they side out on a Stanford set point at 24-11.

Anyone ever heard her giving scores of other games that day and talking about them with knowledge of the impact?  Perhaps live scores of whatever game is happening at Cal?
Tonight she stumbled trying to recount the teams that Stanford WVB has lost to this year..  You'd think that since she's the home announcer for Stanford, the losses would be something that framed every match she's called.

All that said, the announcer is trying.  She's quoting stats, and has info on the players.  She is calling the right players and, as best I can tell, pronouncing the names correctly.  She shows no particular bias in her call.  She is having to do it on her own, without a color commentator or a camera crew.

But, IMO, she's not a WVB fan, just a paid announcer.

The announcer is Jenna Becerra, former softball star at Stanford.  She did color on some baseball games and was the regular announcer for softball.  I have no idea why she appears to be the only announcer for WVB.  My guess is it has something to do with joining the ACC.  I'd welcome comments from those who know more about this.

I don’t have inside information, but I expect this is simply cost related. The PAC12 network put millions into production including announcers; so you had top people like McPeak and Sunderland (one of the Olympic announcers) before. The PAC was dumb at strategy, but it was a well produced product for sports beyond football and basketball.

Now with ESPN/ACC you have announcers like Becerra, and overall production quality at the high school level. And it’s not just volleyball - soccer for both sexes has been pretty poor. In fact, I think Becerra did a couple games solo for soccer as well. It wasn’t better then her volleyball announcing. She tries but doesn’t really know anything.

Good news now is you have streaming; so you can see almost everything. The other bad news though is most product is only streaming when before the multiple PAC channels showed a lot of broadcast product beyond just football in the fall.

I do wonder though if the schools have some control here? Maybe for a cost? Road soccer games have generally had stronger announcing teams for example, but in a limited sample Kal broadcasts have been dire.

Mirrors many of my thoughts.  Adds quite a few more.  Thanks, informed speculation is always welcome.

[TonyLima]

Stanford at Duke today 3:30pm PT on ACCNX.  Duke is 9-18 overall and 5-11 in conference. 

One of Duke's better players is Kerry Keefe, #10 recruit in 2022 per Prepvolleyball.com.  She and Rubin played on the same high school team.  Her brother was on Stanford's basketball team last year.

Oh, and her mother is a Stanford WVB legend and her two older twin sisters played WVB at Stanford a few years back.

Keefe, Keefe ... name rings a bell.  Oh, yeah, Adam Keefe. Related?

---

I keep finding things I don't like about the ACC.  The "Stanford" announcer on ACCNx welcomed everyone to "another late night game".  Uh, since when is 7PM late night?   Can't get the East Coast bias out of the ACC....,

You get upset by the most trivial things.  Don't sweat the small stuff.  The announcer provided information equally about both teams and coaches.

It is an attitude thing.  If 7PM is a late night game to her, she's got her mind set on the Atlantic Coast, not Stanford.

I don't recall this announcer, who has announced 11 home matches, saying anything that indicates she's interviewed or even talked to any of the players on any team.  Nor the coaches.   She's reported on what the coaches have said, but no indication that I recall that she's said anything to indicate she talked with the coach.  Anyone notice something that indicates she's interacted with the players?

Has she been at the chalk talks?  Asked any good questions there?

Has she mentioned any recruits or current red-shirts?

I rarely watch the games live on ACCNx.  Have they ever interviewed a player after a match, or played an interview between sets?
The recording ends seconds after the last point (which is better than the last 3 basketball games I've seen in replay, where the
recording ends 3-4 minutes of playing time (5+ minutes wall clock end) before the end of the game).

You'd think, if she talked to someone, anyone (perhaps a player), knowledgable about VB who has seen her work, they'd correct her usage of "tool".  
You'd think, if she ever had a color commentator on the call, the'd teach her such a term.
You'd think there is some ACCNx boss for her that reviews her on-air work and would have seen enough VB to point this out to her.
You'd think if she were watching other broadcasts of VB, she'd realize that they use "tool" differently.
If none of that is happening, one has to wonder about the competence of ACCNx, or perhaps more, their inattention to WVB, at least on the West Coast.

A quick web search for a definition of "tool" led to many sites that describe "tool" as hitting (or wiping or swiping) the ball off the blocker's hands so it goes out of bounds.  I didn't see any that approximated her use of "tool".

It grates my ears to hear her say "Stanford's beginning to run away with this one" when it is 20-8. Or "Virginia Tech is still in this," when they side out on a Stanford set point at 24-11.

Anyone ever heard her giving scores of other games that day and talking about them with knowledge of the impact?  Perhaps live scores of whatever game is happening at Cal?
Tonight she stumbled trying to recount the teams that Stanford WVB has lost to this year..  You'd think that since she's the home announcer for Stanford, the losses would be something that framed every match she's called.

All that said, the announcer is trying.  She's quoting stats, and has info on the players.  She is calling the right players and, as best I can tell, pronouncing the names correctly.  She shows no particular bias in her call.  She is having to do it on her own, without a color commentator or a camera crew.

But, IMO, she's not a WVB fan, just a paid announcer.

The announcer is Jenna Becerra, former softball star at Stanford.  She did color on some baseball games and was the regular announcer for softball.  I have no idea why she appears to be the only announcer for WVB.  My guess is it has something to do with joining the ACC.  I'd welcome comments from those who know more about this.

I don’t have inside information, but I expect this is simply cost related. The PAC12 network put millions into production including announcers; so you had top people like McPeak and Sunderland (one of the Olympic announcers) before. The PAC was dumb at strategy, but it was a well produced product for sports beyond football and basketball.

Now with ESPN/ACC you have announcers like Becerra, and overall production quality at the high school level. And it’s not just volleyball - soccer for both sexes has been pretty poor. In fact, I think Becerra did a couple games solo for soccer as well. It wasn’t better then her volleyball announcing. She tries but doesn’t really know anything.

Good news now is you have streaming; so you can see almost everything. The other bad news though is most product is only streaming when before the multiple PAC channels showed a lot of broadcast product beyond just football in the fall.

I do wonder though if the schools have some control here? Maybe for a cost? Road soccer games have generally had stronger announcing teams for example, but in a limited sample Kal broadcasts have been dire.

Mirrors many of my thoughts.  Adds quite a few more.  Thanks, informed speculation is always welcome.