I, and presumably many GopherVBRocks readers entered the Pav for the Home Opener vs Cal Poly with high expectations of our ‘25 Gophs – only to see them get drubbed 17-25 in Set 1. A set in which our defense looked decent, especially Myers blocking, wall-like at times, and the great digging of our triple-Libero defense. But our pin-offense (Hanson, Acevedo & Crowl) was barely visible. Acevedo recorded zero kills on 5 swings, Crowl recorded 1 kill and 1 error on 11 swings, half of them dinks ( a combined .000 for the pair of them). And even Hanson with 3 kills got one of the from the back row and one on a dink (easier for Hanson to score on a dink than Crowl because the opponent fears her power), so almost nothing from our pins.
As expected, and as he had done in the season opener vs Texas A & M, Coach Cook started the match with Acevedo at Leftside and Crowl at Opposite. But it didn’t take him long to plug the freshmen in to stop the bleeding, Gilk for Crowl and Kinney for Acevedo. WOW, what a difference! Gophs in four, 17-25, 25-12, 25-21, 25-17.
The highly rated Kinney came in at the tail-end of Set 1 and went on to record 9 kills and 1 error on 20 swings, for a solid .300, but it was Gilk, starting Set 2, who stole the show with 11 kills and 3 errors on 18 swings, for a very impressive .444! Hanson picked up the pace, finishing with 21 kills and 5 errors on 47 swings, for a strong .340. Maybe Hanson wasn’t fully warm to begin the match, or maybe she had some tough luck in Set 1. But the obvious explanation for her turn-around was Hanson feeding off the freshman energy, plus not needing to carry the team by herself.
We shall see how this plays out in non-conference matches to come, freshmen are freshmen, and Cal-Poly’s isn’t ranked (be interesting to see how they do vs St. Thomas & Ball State these next 2 days). But it seems like the question of which of our pins can produce has been answered: Hanson, Kinney and Gilk The thought goes through my mind, did Cook wait too long? Should he have pulled the trigger early in the Texas A & M match? But then I remember Hanson not getting the opportunity to play front row during her entire freshman and sophomore years, National Player of the Year Sara Wilhite riding the bench her entire freshman year, and #1 recruit in the country Landfair struggling and benched repeatedly during her freshman year – all under Coach McCutcheon. Cook displayed a much quicker trigger than I can imagine from McCutcheon.
Remember that Stella is also a freshman, as is Garr, playing the role of second-DS, so our 9-woman lineup that dominated Cal Poly in Set 2 through 4 included 4 freshmen and only 2 seniors (Hanson & Myers). And that doesn’t included Jordan Taylor, who impressed the heck out of me during the recent 19-U World Games. Could this be a freshman-dominated squad that gets better and better as the season progresses?
Okay, take a breath John, it will be a season of ups and downs. But I left the Pav flying high.
Speaking of Middles, I expected, and clearly implied in previous postings, that Taylor would, of our 4 true freshmen, be the first to crack the line-up. But she didn’t step on the court during tonight’s match. Neither Minatee, with 10 kills, zero errors on 15 swings (.667) plus 1 block, and Myers, with 9 kills, 2 errors on 23 swings (.304) and 2 blocks, opened the door for the freshman Taylor. I still expect, before the season ends, that Taylor will have her own burst into the starting lineup moment (likely for Minatee), because of Taylor’s blocking prowess. But Taylor may have to work harder at it than Gilk & KInney did tonight.
And one more thing about Myers’ performance. Myers recorded 2 official “blocks” over 4 sets, which probably doesn’t sound amazing. But remember that an official “block” in V-Ball is only awarded when it results directly in a kill. It doesn’t count the times (I’d swear it was twenty) that Myers negated Cal Poly’s kill attempts. There was a volley in Set 1, where Myers stuffed the ball back in a Cal Poly hitter’s face on 3 consecutive swings. Cal Poly was able to keep the play alive each time, but take it from me, 3 consecutive stuffs can get in a hitter’s head. I think Myers is a keeper, productive on offense and defense. That’s why I see Taylor replacing the undersized and less productive-on-defense, Minatee.
And last but not least, let’s talk about Stella. I had suggested, in my pre-season postings, that we would miss Shaffmaster’s offense, her blocking,and her leadership, but Stella recorded 7 kills & zero errors on 17 attempts (along with 48 assists). 7 kills would have been a better than average match for Shaffmaster, and I strongly doubt that Shaffmaster ever finished a match with 17 attempts. Stella, in the second D1 match of her career, was very attack-minded. And I think the leadership will come.
Stella also played a huge role in the production of our Middles; 19 kills on 38 swings in 4 sets might be more than any match in Shaffmaster’s 5 seasons as our Setter. In fairness to Shaffmaster, the first passes Stella was getting from our 3-Libero receive was much better than what Shaffmaster was working with, but either way, I think it is safe to say that Stella is going to engage our Middles much more frequently than what we’ve seen in recent years.
THE UGLY: It was far from a perfect night, even Sets 2 through 4:
- Our serving was terrible, 12 errors vs 2 kills, Hanson and Myers were particularly bad. If you’ve been a reader for a while, you know that I favor aggressive serving, but a 2 to 11 ace-to-error ratio will kill us against good teams. The bright spots tonight were Thibault, with 1 of the 2 aces and a long serving-run in Set 4, and Garr with the other ace and multiple serves that kept Cal Poly “out of system.”
- We continue to be inept on putting away opponent’s “over-passes” (the play where the opponent accidentally plays the first or second ball over the net where we can attack it). The Gopher web-site doesn’t track this sort of detail, nor can I while watching live, but our effectiveness on over-passes is pitiful.
- Although Stella is off to a great start setting quicks and slides to our Middles, her connection with Hanson on back row sets continues to need work.
All in all, an exciting and encouraging Home Opener.
NEXT UP : Tomorrow (Sat) we host
- Ball State at 5:00, and
- St. Thomas on Sunday at 3:00
:
REVERSAL OF FORTUNES
I, and presumably many GopherVBRocks readers entered the Pav for the Home Opener vs Cal Poly with high expectations of our ‘25 Gophs – only to see them get drubbed 17-25 in Set 1. A set in which our defense looked decent, especially Myers blocking, wall-like at times, and the great digging of our triple-Libero defense. But our pin-offense (Hanson, Acevedo & Crowl) was barely visible. Acevedo recorded zero kills on 5 swings, Crowl recorded 1 kill and 1 error on11 swings, half of them dinks ( a combined .000 for the pair of them), and even Hanson with 3 kills got one of the from the back row and one on a dink (easier for Hanson to score on a dink than Crowl because the opponent fears her power).
As expected, and as he had done in the season opener vs Texas A & M, Coach Cook started the match with Acevedo at Leftside and Crowl at Opposite. But it didn’t take him long to plug the freshmen in to stop the bleeding, Gilk for Crowl and Kinney for Acevedo. WOW, what a difference! Gophs in four, 17-25, 25-12, 25-21, 25-17.
The highly rated Kinney came in at the tail-end of Set 1 and went on to record 9 kills and 1 error on 20 swings, for a solid .300, but it was Gilk, starting Set 2, who stole the show with 11 kills and 3 errors on 18 swings, for a very impressive .444! Hanson picked up the pace, finishing with 21 kills and 5 errors on 47 swings, for a strong .340. Maybe Hanson wasn’t fully warm to begin the match, or maybe she had some tough luck in Set 1. But the obvious explanation for her turn-around was Hanson feeding off the freshman energy, plus not needing to carry the team by herself.
We shall see how this plays out in non-conference matches to come, freshmen are freshmen, and Cal-Poly’s isn’t ranked (be interesting to see how they do vs St. Thomas & Ball State these next 2 days). But it seems like the question of which of our pins can produce has been answered: Hanson, Kinney and Gilk The thought goes through my mind, did Cook wait too long? Should he have pulled the trigger early in the Texas A & M match? But then I remember Hanson not getting the opportunity to play front row during her entire freshman and sophomore years, National Player of the Year Sara Wilhite riding the bench her entire freshman year, and #1 recruit in the country Landfair struggling and benched repeatedly during her freshman year – all under Coach McCutcheon. Cook displayed a much quicker trigger than I can imagine from McCutcheon.
Remember that Stella is also a freshman, as is Garr, playing the role of second-DS, so our 9-woman lineup that dominated Cal Poly in Set 2 through 4 included 4 freshmen and only 2 seniors (Hanson & Myers). And that doesn’t included Jordan Taylor, who impressed the heck out of me during the recent 19-U World Games. Could this be a freshman-dominated squad that gets better and better as the season progresses?
Okay, take a breath John, it will be a season of ups and downs. But I left the Pav flying high.
Speaking of Middles, I expected, and clearly implied in previous postings, that Taylor would, of our 4 true freshmen, be the first to crack the line-up. But she didn’t step on the court during tonight’s match. Neither Minatee, with 10 kills, zero errors on 15 swings (.667) plus 1 block, and Myers, with 9 kills, 2 errors on 23 swings (.304) and 2 blocks, opened the door for the freshman Taylor. I still expect, before the season ends, that Taylor having her own burst into the starting lineup moment (likely for Minatee), because of Taylor’s blocking prowess. But Taylor may have to work harder at it than Gilk & KInney did tonight.
And one more thing about Myers’ performance. Myers recorded 2 official “blocks” over 4 sets, which probably doesn’t sound amazing. But remember that an official “block” in V-Ball is only awarded when it results directly in a kill. It doesn’t count the times (I’d swear it was twenty) that Myers negated Cal Poly’s kill attempts. There was a volley in Set 1, where Myers stuffed the ball back in a Cal Poly hitter’s face on 3 consecutive swings. Cal Poly was able to keep the play alive each time, but take it from me, 3 consecutive stuffs can get in a hitter’s head. I think Myers is a keeper, productive on offense and defense. That’s why I see Taylor replacing the undersized and less productive-on-defense, Minatee.
And last but not least, let’s talk about Stella. I had suggested, in my pre-season postings, that we would miss Shaffmaster’s offense, her blocking,and her leadership, but Stella recorded 7 kills & zero errors on 17 attempts (along with 48 assists). 7 kills would have been a better than average match for Shaffmaster, and I strongly doubt that Shaffmaster ever finished a match with 17 attempts. Stella, in the second D1 match of her career, was very attack-minded. And I think the leadership will come.
Stella also played a huge role in the production of our Middles; 19 kills on 38 swings in 4 sets might be more than any match in Shaffmaster’s 5 seasons as our Setter. In fairness to Shaffmaster, the first passes Stella was getting from our 3-Libero receive was much better than what Shaffmaster was working with, but either way, I think it is safe to say that Stella is going to engage our Middles much more frequently than what we’ve seen in recent years.
THE UGLY: It was far from a perfect night, even Sets 2 through 4:
- Our serving was terrible, 12 errors vs 2 kills, Hanson and Myers were particularly bad. If you’ve been a reader for a while, you know that I favor aggressive serving, but a 2 to 11 ace-to-error ratio will kill us against good teams. The bright spots tonight were Thibault, with 1 of the 2 aces and a long serving-run in Set 4, and Garr with the other ace and multiple serves that kept Cal Poly “out of system.”
- We continue to be inept on putting away opponent’s “over-passes” (the play where the opponent accidentally plays the first or second ball over the net where we can attack it). The Gopher web-site doesn’t track this sort of detail, nor can I while watching live, but our effectiveness on over-passes is pitiful.
- Although Stella is off to a great start setting quicks and slides to our Middles, her connection with Hanson on back row sets continues to need work.
All in all, an exciting and encouraging Home Opener.
NEXT UP : Tomorrow (Sat) we host
- Ball State at 5:00, and
- St. Thomas on Sunday at 3:00
: