wisconsin game
- Thread starter Brickhouse
- Start date
Seems to me when Ciara is good, this team is excellent, when she is not doing well, the team doesn't do well. But the whole team had a lot of errors tonight, and seemed WI got every break and lucky shot, and a few questionable no-calls and calls as well.
Great effort in the third just couldn't string them together. Uw was better tonight defensively. Need a stronger block and better setting for next year
Thanks for the updates CG. Was afraid to thumbs or post after a while at the b-ball game in case it drained my phone battery, was running near empty.
Sounds like they fought hard that last set.
Sounds like they fought hard that last set.
Next year, I hope we come out of the blocks to have a good enough regular season to be seeded and host the 1st-2nd rounds at Hilton. As the announcer said, we beat just one top 25 team - Texas A&M - all year.
Tough year to have a "down" year. If we could had a good enough year to have home court in first round likely would have meant a placement in Des Moines regional. Now I realize why they weren't put there.
Pretty good though that a "down" year is a second round ncaa tourney exit. Wisconsin is legit.
Pretty good though that a "down" year is a second round ncaa tourney exit. Wisconsin is legit.
16 errors in the first 2 games isn't going to beat anyone! Until our blocking and setting improves vastly, this is the level we will stay at.
A few random thoughts. We suffer by playing in a weaker volleyball league; teams in the Big 10 play tougher teams all year long; we only get 4 games against elite teams in league play. That hurts us when we go up against a team like Wisconsin. The Big 12 has 4 teams in the top 10 and 7 in the top 25. The Big 12 has only 2.
I take nothing away from Wisconsin; they are a good team (top 10) but the BTN Network announcers were nauseating. They talked about ISU like they were a DII program. Worse still, I see some of the comments by the BTN announcers being parroted here.
I don't see the criticism of Harris and of her setting. It may not have been elite, but it was solid. And if Monique got better passes, she would have had even better sets. Please remember she was up against one of the best setters in the nation; Carlini was All American last year as a sophomore and in her freshman year, she made the NCAA All Tournament Team and trained with the US National Team. And while I hear some criticize Harris for her size, please note that both Kansas and Texas ended the season in the top ten nationally with setters about the same height as Monique.
Yes, we have to get better at blocking; there is no doubt about that. But we also have to get better at passing; set 3 was as good as I have seen all season, so we know this team is capable of doing better than they typically do.
We need more of the women to play angry (controlled) like Schaben. That woman is hard on the other team, but even harder on herself. Having said that, I like that we have Conaway, West, Vondrak, Capezio and Kuhrt back next year. Plus I expect Lazard to be in the mix as well.
Finally, Wisconsin takes full advantage of the transfer route. They have 4 transfers on their roster, two of whom played a very big role in their win last night. Kriskova hit over .700 and had 8 kills and Gillis had 7 kills. I am not criticizing them at all, but getting those transfers is a big reason why they are ranked 10th and their play could have been the difference against us. From the Badgers point of view, they only lose 1 player to graduation, so they will be very strong next year as well.
I take nothing away from Wisconsin; they are a good team (top 10) but the BTN Network announcers were nauseating. They talked about ISU like they were a DII program. Worse still, I see some of the comments by the BTN announcers being parroted here.
I don't see the criticism of Harris and of her setting. It may not have been elite, but it was solid. And if Monique got better passes, she would have had even better sets. Please remember she was up against one of the best setters in the nation; Carlini was All American last year as a sophomore and in her freshman year, she made the NCAA All Tournament Team and trained with the US National Team. And while I hear some criticize Harris for her size, please note that both Kansas and Texas ended the season in the top ten nationally with setters about the same height as Monique.
Yes, we have to get better at blocking; there is no doubt about that. But we also have to get better at passing; set 3 was as good as I have seen all season, so we know this team is capable of doing better than they typically do.
We need more of the women to play angry (controlled) like Schaben. That woman is hard on the other team, but even harder on herself. Having said that, I like that we have Conaway, West, Vondrak, Capezio and Kuhrt back next year. Plus I expect Lazard to be in the mix as well.
Finally, Wisconsin takes full advantage of the transfer route. They have 4 transfers on their roster, two of whom played a very big role in their win last night. Kriskova hit over .700 and had 8 kills and Gillis had 7 kills. I am not criticizing them at all, but getting those transfers is a big reason why they are ranked 10th and their play could have been the difference against us. From the Badgers point of view, they only lose 1 player to graduation, so they will be very strong next year as well.
We beat Miami by limiting our errors. Errors plagued us all year. They were certainly a key factor in the Wisconsin match. I'm sure some of that is due to trying to out-play a top team, but some still seemed unforced. Our best teams did not beat themselves. They played more like Wisconsin did, digging everything, flying all over, keeping balls in play, etc.
I give a lot of credit to our team for holding up as well as they did given that Wisconsin was relentless and somehow got balls back in play that should have been a point for us. We worked hard, but Wisconsin worked harder (or appeared so). Earlier this season, the BTN had a special on the training regiments for BT VB programs. Wisconsin does some impressive work (including on the football field), and it shows in how they play.
While the team was starting to execute better at the end of the season, it's a little frustrating that the slow start to the season hung on and kind of kept them from making a big jump to being a more elite team.
Next year!!
I saw the game(s) live so my comments are my own and based on what I've seen over the season as well. Better blocking would give us better passing. Twice Nolan had digs that turned into out overpasses - which is where I think some of the comments about Nolan not looking good came from. Both times those hits went right through the arms of our blockers - we didn't even touch it. We have to get more touches and slow balls down to give our backrow a better chance at controlling the ball well. Right now our block is slow to get into position on hits where we've got the time to watch them set up. Our back row is pretty great but they need that help! Teams like Texas are getting at least 3 Bl/s and touching quite a few more. Blocking has been a weak spot for us for as long as I've been watching.
Harris is solid but not elite. That is correct. She is called for the double more than we want to see. Even in Nov CJL would play with the 6-2. There is a reason we went after Remi - Horner and Harris are both nice, but we need an elite setter to play at the level we did with Manns and Landwehr. I wonder with Remi likely gone if we'll go after another transfer like Horner or just wait for Mauck to get here in a couple years.
