Tuesday check-in
Monday thread getting a bit long and hard to follow.
Some talking points:
Rich Kern poll 24, Rich Kern RPI 6, Pablo 17, AVCA poll 25
The choice of Ponce and Anderson for the road trip over Guinasso.
First road trip of the year
Went to practice this morning, one of four straight days they’ll have a practice day. They’ll have the last at home Wednesday, fly over night, have a practice at UC Davis Thursday
When looking at the box from last year’s match at Davis (link below) you’ll see that only Higgins, Taylor, Manu-Olevao, Mendoza and Adolpho played, all but Higgins played in all five sets. That’s 5 of the 14 that will be on this trip.
It was a tough match for the Wahine, had lost in 5 at CSUN two nights earlier.
When speaking with Manu-Olevao this morning, she said that the atmosphere was a little intimidating at Davis, the fans hostile. So it will be a rude awakening for all the new players used to the SSC environment.
http://www.hawaiiathletics.com/boxscore.aspx?path=wvball&id=17503
Like Mr. Miyagi said, “Focus Daniel-san”…
Use the crowd as motivation.
GO WAHINE!
wow … looking back at that uc davis box score from last year, it was all emily hartong. 29 kills, hit .458, 21 digs, 3 blocks.
hawaii’s current rkpi at 6 says a lot about the strength about hawaii’s non-conference schedule. not a lot of top tier teams (although ucla and oregon look like they’re back to form), but overall it ends up being a solid rpi schedule, top to bottom.
if they start out that high, they will be safely in the tournament whether they win or lose the big west. but at this point — with a seed squarely out of reach — it’s time to settle down with the potential-filled lineup that they currently have, and work some magic in the big west.
its looking like it’s coming down to a 3 horse race (hawaii with csun and lbsu). lbsu might be the most motivated, because the rpi projections on VT have them on the bubble to get in the tournament. but win the big west, and the beach is in. csun and hawaii will get into the tournament safely no matter what, so long as they have a respectable showing in conference.
Geez. For somebody who claims that this whole thing is merely about work, you sure do know how to feed the wolves; I’ll say, work must be that boring for a vast majority who know how to “play” their labor systems with the boss not over da shoulders. 😉
I was at last year’s UC Davis match.
First and so far only Wahine volleyball match I ever saw IN PERSON.
Yes, there were times when the Davis student section was very vocal, but it couldn’t have been any worse than visiting other venues with a similar sized crowd.
Hostile crowds are just one of the environmental conditions along with unfamiliar gyms with bad lighting (UC Davis facility is excellent BTW) that a visiting team needs to have the mental toughness to overcome.
There were a very large number of Wahine fans in attendance (could have been half the house, around 1100 total as I remember).
They just didn’t seem to make much noise.
With this year’s match on a Friday night, the crowd will likely be a little smaller.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend since I have to work that night.
Hopefully this time around, the Hawaii fans will again have a large presence and WILL make lots of noise.
Hopefully this time they WILL make a difference.
2. Manu-Olevao had a decent match. Hartong took a lot of swings at the end.
Do think it’s pretty early to read too much into the RKPI, although I think Rich gave a lot of value to the preseason schedule.
And way too early to talk about being on the bubble. Conference hasn’t begun and who knows how the standings will end up. Did anyone foresee it being a 3-way tie last year?
4. just passing along what Manu-Olevao said about last year’s match at Davis.
cindy — i think it’s a good thing to track what’s going on with the RPI. for some, of course, it won’t interest them. but i like tracking it, b/c in part, it helps me in understanding it. where hawaii is in the RPI today helps to give a projection for how things will play out. i think it shows the relative RPI strength of the teams that hawaii faced so far, even if on paper, many thought it’d be a generally weaker schedule going in (regardless of it being appropriate for a rebuilding hawaii team). it’s not the strongest schedule that hawaii has had in the preseason, but it still puts them in a relatively good RPI position.
yes, it’s way to early to think teams (like lbsu) are on the ‘bubble.” haha! everything’s fair game right now. the projections on VT are based on results today, but of course, there will be changes (both slight and major) that will force the projections to adjust as the season goes on. but i bring up the possibility of lbsu of being on the bubble to get in the tournament just to show that they might have some extra motivation as we move into conference play. i’m sure they will play their hearts out regardless.
i agree … i wouldn’t have thought it’d be a 3-way tie last year for the conference title. but this year, i’m very aware of that kind of possibility, or even of the wahine being toppled. i think it’ll be interesting/exciting to see if this year’s wahine has what it takes to keep up the streak of league titles.
Cindy. “Rich Kern poll 24, Rich Kern RPI 6, Pablo 17, AVCA poll 25” and “Am surprised that there is such a gap between his and Pablo. 6 vs. 17”
Oh, *now* I understand: The RK Poll attempts to forecasts the AVCA coaches poll, while RKPI and Pablo do so for the NCAA RPI.
I figured that I would state my understanding in case others were still confused.
Thank you for the illumination, Cindy!
ohanaInBellingham — one correction. the Pablo rating does not try to recreate the RPI. it’s its own rating, with its own formula. it’s a predictive tool. it attempts to predict the outcomes of matches between two teams, taking into consideration past results and home court advantage. RPI is usually synonymous with a measure for “strength of schedule” (defining that term in its own unique way, of course).
one additional way that Pablo is different is that it looks at more than just who won, and who lost (like the RPI does). Pablo looks at the way a team won (such as the total points it scored in a match or whether it was a sweep or a 5-setter).
Pablo also generally doesn’t have the regional biases that are inherent to the RPI.
8. never said anything about which attempts to do what. just observing that Rich and Pablo were further apart than usual.
well hawai’i is back up at 25 so they need to make their stand. they need to prevent things that as though make it an achilles heel for them. for example besides the receiving/digging/passing and even setting, they need to like the first match vs ohio which adolpho recognized and along the way greeley and magill noticed it…prevent the ball from being dumped right over especially during overpasses/tight to the net plays. didnt byu last year toyed with the wahine and some of it was the dump? na wahine let dumps go by almost totally unnoticed with nau last match. mendoza, higgins and/or somebody else needs to step up and prevent that.
now onto davis. they maybe 2nd last on the conference but because they beat the wahine last year in their place (and theres no all hartong this time), they need sunder davis and keep them at bay at all costs.
UC Davis doesn’t officially start fall quarter until October 2. Students likely will move in beginning on Monday. So maybe not such a home court advantage. Hawaii played at UC Davis in late October last season.
At this point in the season I am very optimistic about the season and the future. Taylor being out the first few games turned out to be a plus, allowed development of manu-oleavao, greeley and magill. Nikki is behind but when she catches up UH could have the most divers offense that we have seen for years, we may not have terminators but we do have solid hitters in four to five positions. Taylor Higgins to me is improving every match, both her serve and setting. We are developing outstanding depth and we are young with size. Some of our tall players need weight training to get stronger.
UCLA just swept USC. Karsta Lowe had an outstanding match, with 22 kills at a .357 hitting average. Bricio as usual was impressive at the service line. She gets a lots of her points off her aces. If UCLA continues to be successful and Oregon too, Hawaii’s preseason schedule will be looking better and better for RPI purposes.
just noticed the Sunday match on Oct 26, will be a doubleheader with wahine basketball green & white scrimmage.
WBB Green and White scrimmage is scheduled for October 10, SSC, 7 p.m. per WBB season ticket package. No mention of a scrimmage on October 26 per bowsfan.
25-23, 25-13, 27-25
Good win for UCLA, which will help UH’s RPI. That match originally scheduled for UCLA but switched to USC because of the water damage at the Bruins home courts.
Sealy’s 100th win at UCLA. Not that it matters but Hawaii did score more points against UCLA than USC. SC has lost four of last five. ASU at SC Friday.
15. If you look @ the uh website it has the 2 games on the same day. I really don’t know if Oct 10 or 26.
bowsfan you are correct in that the UH athletic site WBB schedule does reflect a Green and White scrimmage on the 26th of October, my WBB season ticket package included a schedule that is different from the UH web. Only time will tell. Regardless, come on out and support WBB no matter what date and time they play at the SSC.
UH website says Oct 26, women’s volleyball UCSB vs. UH 5:00pm followed by women’s basketball UH green and white scrimmage 7:00pm.
18. the website schedule does say 7 p.m. Oct. 26. But if you look at the release about the season’s schedule it says Oct. 10. If they stick with Oct. 26, no guarantee that the game will start at 7 p.m. with the 5 p.m. volleyball match prior. if it goes four sets, you’ll be at 2 house.
UH has tended not to play late on Sundays so I’m thinking the 10th is more likely.
9. Cubicle1126: Thank you for the correction and insight!
WBB staff originally planned the scrimmage for 10/10. Now in the process of moving it to 10/26. So the ticket package info and the release are dated and the website is more current info. They mentioned the reason for changing the dates but I don’t recall what it was.
Someone remind Shoji that this is a Sunday match 🙂
24. he knows. The problem was he was trying to change it to the 23rd at one point (Thurs) and had that date in his mind.
23. still surprised WBB would go with the late start on a Sunday. Doesn’t usually happen. This means that they’ll have to take up the Teraflex after Friday match and use the hardwood for both VB and BKB. Wonder if WBB took that into consideration. a bit of an inconvenience.
OFF TOPIC
1. Happened to notice online that Michelle Waber is now at Cal Baptist and doing well. Good for her.
2. Saw the Virginia-Liberty game online yesterday. Liberty won and snapped Virginia’s 30 consecutive game win streak against them since 1979 (???). Better yet, I got to see Jade Vorster have an outstanding blocking game that impacted the 5 set game.
Also saw that Jade is living her wish to play with her frosh sister, Sirena, who has beaten out the incumbent MB. Fantastic stuff! Ironically, the Liberty setter struggled setting Jade and Sirena high enough!
I think I remember that Jade Vorster is highly religious and she mentioned that in her interviews when attending UH. Her move to Liberty is understandable as it is a well-known Christian private university. Glad to know that she can fulfill both her volleyball interests as well as religious ones and, of course, playing with her sister.
25. I’m thinking that the WBB team would like to showcase their team in front of more fans. What better way than after a vb game? Although, hard to say how many fans would stay for a late start time?
26. mentioned weeks ago that Waber was at Cal Baptist, around the time SDSU came to Hawaii. It was her only option since she had transferred too many times to still have a year of eligibility at DI. DII was her option and Deitre Collins helped her find a place as a grad student since SDSU didn’t offer her major at the graduate level.
27. thanks for the update.
had posted a picture of the sisters a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, we also had instances of people with very disparaging remarks about her transfer that led to a few bans as well as helped create the new disclaimer about ‘good taste’ in posting comments.
Makings of an upset. West Virginia is ahead of Texas two sets to none. Penn State looks to be much superior to Wisconsin. Won the first set easily and leading the second.
Thanks LB. there’s a new thread up for Wednesday
hmmm … the new thread is still not showing for me.
Yup…no new thread.
sorry, don’t know what to say or how to fix it.
Spoke too soon. Go to the main Staradvertiser site. Scroll down under Hawaii Warrior World.
34, 36. Hope my solution helped. Would be nice if all links worked at the same time. I guess the site is still young.
Even Apple has problems!
Thanks. Since I am signed in as an administrator, I don’t see the site as others do.
Texas beats West Virginia in 5.