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2018 Texas Volleyball


texasstrong12

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I hope they get challenged in Big 12 play...and figure things out soon with their serving.

Passing was better, but broke down in the last set....don't know if that's going to improve. 

I'd rather have Butler play MB1 and get her more hitting attempts than what she is getting at MB2 with two other hitters in the front row with her.   Johnson isn't getting it done offensively in Chiaka's old position. 

 

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5 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

And, I'm going to go ahead and say it, I'm concerned with Shook as setter for the next few years.  The passing was good enough today and she made a bunch of mistakes.

Agreed.  Shook is too slow getting to balls and ends up bump-setting a lot of balls that she should be hand setting. 

And when she does get a good ball, her location is still suspect to the left pin. 

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If Elliott ever decides to emphasize his coaching on the OTHER aspects of volleyball, I think it would make life a lot easier for the team.  We have the players, so it comes down to coaching IMO.

Emphasis needs to be placed on Good, Consistent 1st contact - whether that be individual serving or receiving serve from the opponent.  

Last night, Texas actually passed the best that I've seen on serve-receive this season.  That's something that needs to improve and become more consistent with each match.  

Serving is a different story because it's just getting worse. Whether each player needs individual coaching in practice to correct her mechanics or needs to come in on her off-time and work on that skill on her own...or if it's the way they go about serving in practice - something needs to change!

And this has been a main criticism of mine since Elliott's tenure...Digging a ball up with control TO THE SETTER to stay in-system and run a diverse offense.  Yes, it may look cool and athletic when a player throws her body across the floor and dives to save a ball and get it up, but in reality, all that really tells me that the player is out-of-position, can't read the hitter, and is late getting to the ball.

Now the setter has to chase the ball down and can only get it to the outside pin where the opposing blockers are camping out.  How many times did we see Stanford dig a ball up and it go straight to the setter where she had all her options to set the ball and spread out our block?  That's the type of ball control Texas will need to develop if it ever wants to get over the hump and win multiple National Championships.  That's a skill that needs to be coached and emphasized to the players....and should be a team philosophy.  

If Elliott can't coach these aspects of the game, then he needs assistants that will.  And if they can't, then he needs to hire coaches that can.  If this is his own philosophy that he just wants to get big hitters/jumpers and hope to out-athlete teams, then it's time for him to go. 

 

 

Edited by TexasDPT
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Anyone else notice that Butler seems a little slow to the block.  Athleticism isn't the problem,  I think she just has a hard time reading the setters.  When she does get there she puts up a formidable block.  She is just a bit raw, which explains the red-shirt. Against good setters (Stanford, Wiscy) the block is just not effective at all. And it's not just Butler, they didn't slow down or take away any of the hitters against Tree or Wiscy. If this team can't put up a good block against the elite teams they are in trouble because, as has been mentioned several times, the setting, serving and out of system defense is far inferior to the better teams they've faced.

On the plus side, Peterson looks like the real deal and if Shook can get some consistency setting Butler in the middle, that looks unstoppable and should free up the pins.

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39 minutes ago, sunset87 said:

Anyone else notice that Butler seems a little slow to the block.  Athleticism isn't the problem,  I think she just has a hard time reading the setters.  When she does get there she puts up a formidable block.  She is just a bit raw, which explains the red-shirt. Against good setters (Stanford, Wiscy) the block is just not effective at all. And it's not just Butler, they didn't slow down or take away any of the hitters against Tree or Wiscy. If this team can't put up a good block against the elite teams they are in trouble because, as has been mentioned several times, the setting, serving and out of system defense is far inferior to the better teams they've faced.

On the plus side, Peterson looks like the real deal and if Shook can get some consistency setting Butler in the middle, that looks unstoppable and should free up the pins.

Yes,  "a bit raw" is a good way to put it.  She will probably be unreal in another season.  How much are redshirts allowed to practice?

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6 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

Yes,  "a bit raw" is a good way to put it.  She will probably be unreal in another season.  How much are redshirts allowed to practice?

Brionne came in as an offensive weapon.  It was her defense that needed catching up (and the area where she needs to continue to improve) because as others have pointed out, she's still a step slow reading the setter when the opposing team is in-system.

Redshirts have unlimited practice time once they are with the team, so she scrimmaged against the 1's all last season.  Her 'real' experience will be this year playing against live competition.

On a side note, it's pretty frustrating to see Logan still not being allowed to play all 6 rotations yet.  She was a 6-rotation starter in all the USA Youth ('16 & '17) and Junior ('18) National Teams matches, while playing with the international Mikasa ball (it's harder to control) and her passing/ball control was fine.  I guess I can see Jerritt wanting more ball control from the DS's for the tough, non-conference matches but I also think it's hindering her development...and probably harder for her to develop any kind of rhythm coming in and out of the line-up every 3 rotations.  Having Logan in the back row will also open up a hitting outlet for both in-and out-of-system sets.

 

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16 hours ago, TexasDPT said:

Brionne came in as an offensive weapon.  It was her defense that needed catching up (and the area where she needs to continue to improve) because as others have pointed out, she's still a step slow reading the setter when the opposing team is in-system.

Redshirts have unlimited practice time once they are with the team, so she scrimmaged against the 1's all last season.  Her 'real' experience will be this year playing against live competition.

On a side note, it's pretty frustrating to see Logan still not being allowed to play all 6 rotations yet.  She was a 6-rotation starter in all the USA Youth ('16 & '17) and Junior ('18) National Teams matches, while playing with the international Mikasa ball (it's harder to control) and her passing/ball control was fine.  I guess I can see Jerritt wanting more ball control from the DS's for the tough, non-conference matches but I also think it's hindering her development...and probably harder for her to develop any kind of rhythm coming in and out of the line-up every 3 rotations.  Having Logan in the back row will also open up a hitting outlet for both in-and out-of-system sets.

 

Didn't Lexi get 6-rotations last year for a bit or most of non-conference?

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Yep, Lexi played all 6 rotations until conference started...then she was front row only and served (similar to what Logan is doing now). Again, I think Jerritt wanted better ball control at the time, but Autumn wasn’t much of an upgrade IMO. 

But if anyone has watched Nebraska’s last two matches where Lexi was in the lineup as a 6 rotation player, she and the team are actually dominating.  They do have a freshman setter, but she’s getting great passes from Foecke and their Libero & DS, so she is running a pretty diverse offense. They are hiding Lexi in serve-receive,  and in the rotations she is passing, she isn’t covering much space. But NU has the passers that can do that. And it’s pretty ridiculous to see what Lexi does with consistent setting...

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9 minutes ago, TexasDPT said:

Yep, Lexi played all 6 rotations until conference started...then she was front row only and served (similar to what Logan is doing now). Again, I think Jerritt wanted better ball control at the time, but Autumn wasn’t much of an upgrade IMO. 

But if anyone has watched Nebraska’s last two matches where Lexi was in the lineup as a 6 rotation player, she and the team are actually dominating.  They do have a freshman setter, but she’s getting great passes from Foecke and their Libero & DS, so she is running a pretty diverse offense. They are hiding Lexi in serve-receive,  and in the rotations she is passing, she isn’t covering much space. But NU has the passers that can do that. And it’s pretty ridiculous to see what Lexi does with consistent setting...

Geez (being a shithead).

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