Comments on: No. 13 UCLA 3 No. 20 Hawai’i 2

By: tako

tako — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 19:42:35 +0000

Someone recommended that Wahine recruit more pin hitters for next year. So far, we have a verbal from Trinity Castanenda, 6′ 1″ with an approach jump and touching 10′ 3″.

By: Maverick

Maverick — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 18:56:39 +0000

Poll:
https://www.avca.org/polls/di-women/8-28-2017.html

Stanford is the new #1, biggest movers up are Florida from 12 to 3, and USC from unranked (#26) to 18. Biggest drop but still in the poll is Nebraska from 5 to 12.

By: Maverick

Maverick — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 18:53:23 +0000

Confirmed…UH drops out of the poll for the first time in 25 years…received 30 votes, tied with upcoming opponent Baylor, for 30th place.

By: tako

tako — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 15:09:18 +0000

Attempting to gauge the height of the new players. Using Natasha as 6′ 5″, Emily as 6′ 3″ and Casey as 6′ 3″, watched them on the court during warm ups, Howling looks at least 6′ 3″, Shaney at 6′ 2″ and Skyler at 6′ 2″; can anyone help and verify? Didn’t see Shaney warming up, mostly shagged balls, so didn’t expect her to play. Howling looks like she is going to be a good player from what I observed during warm ups. Looks like Kirsten is not jumping as high as expected when compared with the others during warm ups. On the side lines the Wahine were very supportive of each other and amped up. Anyways, just additional information….

Great game and more to come. Go Wahine…

By: Bleachercoach

Bleachercoach — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 14:32:26 +0000

I definitely think Kendra should start. She might not possess the power like MG , but her energy, block, and the ability to be successful than not gives her that right IMO. Casey played one of her best matches tonite. When I saw her as a Freshman during scrimmage, she had alot of pop on her arm swing. As tonites match wore on Casey became more assertive. MG is a powerful hitter but Iosia IMO has to spread the ball more. I noticed more times than. not, everytime she goes back to MG she gets roofed by a double block….Her amazing kills gets offset by being blocked alot and her inability to pass well.
Is Shaney Lipscomb stil injured? I hope she plays soon. From what I saw at a sparse time at the scrimmage last week, she looks very athletic. She might add some depth at the RS. She has that same type of “swagger” like Williams and confidence.
Once we get our ball control and passing so Irene is not running a track meet out there , we will be very good. I hope the girls realize that every match in the Big West will be more competitive than previous years. Could you imagine if Torry Van Winden still played for UCLA? Well, thr bad news is Cal Poly will be the team to beat IMO…With her addition to an already very good team, Cal Poly and UC Irvine with LBSU will give Hawaii fits. Prayerfully, our freshman MB (Williams) injury isnt too severe. She has been a delightful surprise. She plays with so much enthusiasm and vocal leadership as a rookie. Our team played well compared to the last 2 matches and hope they continue to improve and find that right chemistry to have a successful season

By: warriorwahine

warriorwahine — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 10:31:52 +0000

lol i just read this text from my friend who said his neighbor said theres a silver lining to the game with ucla

not that it matters, but since wahine played horrendous the previous two matches and shoji is no longer really around. whatever mike sealy has as any special scouting privileges is denied.

thought that was funny.

anyway, great job ladies despite the loss. particularly awesome to skyler. magnum and kendras presence finally brought command and control. down 0-3, its time to extract some vengeance come next tourny..be it 3-3?

By: warriorwahine

warriorwahine — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 09:45:17 +0000

ah well. this tourny was painful for na wahine. i hope they unleash their pain and tear their opponents up next tourny weekend.

61. and they got company with utah. not only adora anae but also phoebe grace! hopefully skyler recovers and they also need the other two frosh sophia and shaney ready as necessary. they will also need kirsten and maybe kalei as well as try the new ds janelle ready (especially to reinforce savannahs passing)

By: AstroBoy

AstroBoy — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 09:38:38 +0000

From a strategic standpoint, I don’t think concentrating on the ranking or the RPI is very helpful. The truth is, to get to the post-season the Bows need to get the berth afforded the Big West champion, which they do by beating the Big West in regular season play. Even under better circumstances with a good RPI and a high rank, the NCAA always treats the Bows like dirt in terms of the seeding. Does anyone really think we would get an at-large berth this season? So why worry about it?

I’m just glad they came out and played like this. I was really depressed prior to tonight’s match that the Bows could be headed into a death spiral (poor performance -> bad recruiting -> bad performance, etc). But this convinces me that they can pick play up and still be contenders. After all, they did fight UCLA effectively to a standstill. I agree that the strategy of diversifying play given the hitter situation is the right thing to do, but I also think the emphasis on skills over plays in the last few weeks resulted in a team that didn’t know how to play with each other in those first couple games. Big turnaround in defense tonight with players diving for balls instead of just looking at each other, confused over who should be doing what.

By: Kahuna

Kahuna — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 08:11:44 +0000

I don’t think Howling went on primarily due to Skyler’s injury. I was sitting behind the Wahine bench and Angelica was talking to Sophia prior to the start of set 4. I think the coaches were contemplating putting Sophia because Sky was gassed. She is a very thin and fraile player and I doubt she played three nights in a row of high level volleyball before. Kind of too bad Howling didn’t start the 5th set. Fresh legs could have helped us. Sky just didn’t have anything in her gas tank and was toughing it out like a trooper.

If the team play like this regularly, we will be fine. I do hope this is the real Wahine team.

By: Maverick

Maverick — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 07:51:13 +0000

WF, that’s not how most athletes or humans’ performances trend. Nearly every time you see a spike, inevitably you see a fall back to the long-term average. Just review how Granato performed after her match against AZ last year. Wishful thinking to opine otherwise–this isn’t the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Granato, Castillo and Koelsch will have off nights. Btw, Williams did come back down to earth from here rarified air of the last two nights as I cautioned. It happens.

So if you believe this is all wishful thinking, then UH won’t be top 20 again this year and someone else will win the BW.

UH can get back into the top 20 and win the BW without having a monster match from Granato and career matches from two other players, night in and night out–the idea that UH needs to constantly replicate tonite’s performance is somewhat of a hyperbole, something I’ve see a lot of on this blog lately (in addition to a bad case of recency bias). To beat Utah, BYU, and Poly, maybe LBSU too, UH needs to play closer to tonite, but to beat everyone else, UH needs to play better than they did on Fri/Sat, but they won’t need career stats from multiple players to win those matches.