Congrats to Danielson, COH inductee; no POWs from Big West
I was able to catch up with Kanani Danielson before dinner at the 2018 UH Sports Circle of Honor induction ceremony. (Pictured with Coach Chris McLachlin)
She is working and coaching JV volleyball at Punahou.
Also was at her table and got to reconnect with her family. Wonderful evening at the Stan Sheriff Center. She is now one of 12 volleyball players inducted. Said she was very humbled and surprised by her selection. Thought she hadn’t been away long enough.
Someone asked about ESPN3 replay. Here is the link for UH’s five-set comeback win over UC Irvine.
Big West weekly awards came out. UCSB’s Lindsey Ruddins POW (McKenna Granato nominated), UCSB’s Emilia Petrachi the DPOW (Tita Akiu again nominated)
Somewhat surprised that Granato didn’t receive the award. Ruddins pretty much the UCSB’s entire offense. IMHO Hawaii has a more varied attack and Granato was the most outstanding of that.
Nobody posting. OK, I will have a go. Congrats to Kanani Danielson on her COH recognition. Well deserved.
I think McKenna Ross is in the same mold as Kanani. Jumps high for their height (around 5′ 10″) and hits with power; very athletic. Hoping Ross gets more PT.
Is she still playing professionally? She is awesome!
Imho, only the top teams in the nation have most of the talented AND tall players. Many other teams have tall players, but with ok talent. Nothing wrong about either. So, would not hesitate for a second to play a talented, so called ” smaller” athlete and line them up against anyone. Let’s be real. There are also many ” smaller” players who are ok talent wise. Hitting ” over” blocks is overrated. It can be an advantage, obviously, but after watching games in general and conference games, it is not decisive. Who has not seen great teams fall to “lesser” ones before? Weren’t most of those matches the most memorable? So, unless you are a name school with huge budgets, keep it real. It’s called parity and athletes who appreciate the privilege of playing D1 volleyball.
2. Ross does not even come close to the vertical Danielson does. If she did, she’d be starting. Her problem isn’t her ability to hit, but not getting up high enough to compensate for being 5’10 as a hitter and blocker.
Danielson could soar.
Please show off improved overall blocking on this week games before the match ups against Santa Babara, Calpoly and Longbeach.
2,5…okay my take on McKenna Ross is she is obviously not a Kanani Danielson, but she is IMO one of our quickest hitters with a pretty explosive jump for her size.
It is hard to say because I am not the coach and at practice, but my feeling is she needs to be in the match more often than later because of the energy she brings added to the other McKenna (Granato)…. I know she caught UC Irvine off guard. They probably didn’t have enough to go off her from this years film. She brought the element of surprise which took away some of the pressure of McKenna Granato. I think when Gaskin is struggling they should insert Ross into lineup. Nothing against Angel but we need production. I think we could get more production offensively from her. Also when Granato rotates to the back, it would be nice to see Ross come in for her. It will give Granato some needed rest building Ross’s confidence in the back row. I know Ross can play back row if she has adequate repetitions to get a flow plus she can hit from beyond the 10 meter line. On the other hand Akiu and Okino is doing a very good job shoring up the back. Granato had a huge amount of kills this past match but it was the needed spark of Ross that helped the Bows pull this one out. Maybe, other teams will prepare for her now. Shucks
7. you said it about mckenna ross bringing the element of surprise as the wahine mobile reserves.
shes better as said ‘mobile reserves’ off the bench than starting though, her role 2 years ago versus arizona and 2 days irvine was more special than using her mainline like robyn did last year.
previous thread 57. i was asking for your remarks given the same coincidence 4 years ago at irvine. did wahine pretended to be weak as a showcase to ‘rise of the wahine’ given that they threw away the second set after being up like 7-8 points twice?
was that created by design and did red eyes have anything to do with it?
Blog still open!!! The come-from-behind win at Irvine has given me a lot of hope and excitement for the season. Fullerton and Riverside are up next this week, then its on the road the following week against UCSB and Cal Poly. Those latter two matches will determine whether the Wahine will have a chance for post season play. Really something to look forward to. Thanks Wahine !!!
During Kanani’s senior season my wife and I got to sit behind the Wahine bench during a match. I was so impressed by what a vocal and positive leader Kanani was, encouraging her teammates to bring out the best in themselves. She makes everyone around her better. Coaching may be her calling.
Sure do miss Kanani in the Wahine lineup. Congratulations!
thanks for the replay link cindy.
congrats to kanani danielson for her induction to the circle of honor and coaching position at punahou. as to the great win against uc irvine wanted to congratulate natasha burns for her defensive presence on the net. we as a team, need more of that this season. go bows!
Congratulations Kanani, you definitely earned it! When I moved back here from North Carolina, that’s when I started watching the Wahine and she was one of the main reasons I started following the Wahine Volleyball team. Her court sense and volleyball IQ was off the charts!
GO BOWS!
By the way, Cindy, what’s been going on with Kirsten Sibley? Robyn would put her in for a round here and there but not really give her a chance to perform much.
Mahalo for all you do!
Although the Wahine did not have as many blocks as UCI, they were often in the right place to dig the spike or attacks and seemed to be able to recover many balls that were blocked by UCI before the ball hit the floor.
with player defections and failure , it seems , to try to develop players (other than starters) starting from last season , shows in how matches are played. When the team responds (2nd match with Oregon–first set played very hard) then , replacing Natasha (who was on fire) with a very cold Sky (which resulted with a 25/10 laugher) was not a good move. Recently switching Casey to opposite should have been done long ago (stronger presence as a blocker)! Team has many missing parts (going with one and done players may have been a necessity , but it also fails to give recruits , much needy development and game experience and bonding)! Kirsten (OH1) , may not be terminator , but a better blocking presence! Granato will get her (needed) kills , but her defense, passing and serving can bring down the team. I hope the newbies (Trinity , Kamalei) can add firepower, soon! Mac Ross can do better with regular playing time , but is not a permanent answer. When UH picked up Faith , they possibly lost out on another Iolani setter (does anyone remember someone named Kanoe)? Wahine may not be out of it , but playing error free maybe just a dream—well , I’m hoping for the best———WAHINE , GO BOWS!
I agree with No 18 as to Granato. thru 11 matches she has 25 service errors! She has 13 aces but that is distorted by the 5 in her last match. Even Iosia who jump serves only has 18 service errors. Why does Ah Mow allow Granato to keep serving? Rightly or wrongly, in watching the matches it always seem like her errors occur at critical points of match. Her passing is just as bad. It is not just shanks but passes that force the setters to run to the ball or require the libero to make the second pass. So frustrating to watch her in her fourth year not improving at all in these areas.
Granato’s serving was pretty good vs UCI. Torrey Van Winden has 11 SA to 22 SE’s.
Granato has the same number of blocks as Castillo, so far, 7 for the season. Gaskin has 16. Norene has 21.
Granato had many key kills in the match vs UCI which included at least a couple of placed shots where nobody was around
Wahine got a commit from 6’3″ MB Tiffany Westerberg out of Canada. Originally a Class of 2018 committed to Oregon State but decommitted and will play for Hawaii next season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Buu3By3GmE&frags=pl%2Cwn
Wonder why 6’3” Casey has relatively fewer blocks compared to 6’ feet hitters? I think she is better as opposite hitter, and may contribute better in blocking too. What happened to Faith’s last season jump serve which was lethal? Angel and other hitters, when you whack along the side line, please aim at least 1-2 feet inside allowing margin of error. The same goes with the service. Like Ross, are there other triumph cards to show off this weekend? Please show some quick left-side setting to Angel & Ross. I wish these games start at least 6pm for the benefit of east-coast viewers.
The blocking stats for Castillo and Granato must be wrong. There’s no way both have only seven blocks this season with one solo and six assisted. Must be an error…
Wow with Tiffany and Amber Uh may have one of its best middle duos ever in a few years both are just filled with potential.
23. … The individual stats listed match by match come out to 7 blocks each.
Do any of the knowledgeable bloggers here know why Sibley isn’t seeing more court time? Has the size, experience and a scholarship player. Why would playing time diminish since seeing more playing time as a freshman under Shoji? So what gives?
4 kills, 7 errors in 21 attempts in 6 sets, hitting -.142
That’s why she’s not getting playing time.
3. no Kanani is done playing. mentioned she is teaching and coaching at Punahou.
9. your questions don’t make a lot of sense. Don’t understand the red eyes. or why going down 0-2 would be by design.
They flew out on Wednesday. Played Friday, flew down to UCI on Saturday morning. Played Sunday afternoon.
16. Sibley is down on the depth chart. pretty much explained by 27. Thanks Ki.
23. the stats are not wrong.