Comments on: 10-24 CSUN 3, Wahine 2

By: grace

grace — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 20:20:59 +0000

Great observation 195. San Diego (Olivera), UCSB (Santi), Northrige (Haina) all coming from the private high schools here played a major parts in their teams wins. What can you say about our local talent? Hawaii No Kai Oi!!! I hate losing but good to see people we know and familar with get those wins over us. Some part of Hawaii is still winning. At least, there was something positive in a negative outcome .

By: poorboy

poorboy — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 00:00:30 +0000

Cindy: The 3 losses for UH this year, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Northridge, I think , correct me if I am wrong, that all 3 of those teams had former Hawaii prep VB stars. Add Mahina Haina to the list of prep stars, ILH player of the year, to get victory against Dave Shoji and gals.

I think, the 4 national championships that Dave Shoji and Wahine were part of, none of those teams went undefeated correct? Dave has to go back to drawing board, I don’t know, work the middles more, the middles and setter, as long with serve receive game has to be spot on.

Whole thing, now, play for best position for BWC tournament, Hawaii needs help now.
Very hard thing to do, win a national championship, so much parity, WVB and MVB, so many good athletes!

By: oldtimer808

oldtimer808 — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 22:22:02 +0000

You win or lose the fickle fans come out with all their knowledge on how to coach a team please give me a break….I’m sorry our team lost but it happens to the best of them. Support the Wahines no matter what. The team is in good hands.

By: man eating apple

man eating apple — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 21:22:20 +0000

UH has ALWAYS overused their outside hitter. A coach could look at tape of UH from 1990 and get a complete scouting report. Nothing’s changed. UH out in 2nd round of NCAA.

By: jcvolcano

jcvolcano — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 19:48:19 +0000

(189) (190) I agree. Our team is a great team. Nothing against Uiato but when I saw those well formed blocks by UCSB on both sides of the court
one has to wonder. Targeting the strongest hitter, as (190) said, is standard
defense. Ranked teams did this against Hartong, yet Hawaii beat them with
a OPP and middle attack. UCSB, an unranked team, shutdown Hartong AND
Taylor. If you watch the UCSB match you will see Hartong and Taylor hitting
into well formed blocks every time they were set. Difficult enough to target
one side well, almost impossible both sides well. UCSB was doing it, and
well. Only one possible answer for UCSB’s blocking success – their blockers KNEW where the ball was being set on serve/receive. Knowing early the
direction of the set is an advantage for the defense as it allows the micro
time to close a block. UCSB’ MB could only be reading Uiato’s setting motion
and leaning, even moving in the right direction, BEFORE Uiato’s fingers
touched the ball. A good setter disguises her intended set in order to hold the opposing MB in position for as long as possible. In order to disguise her
intended set she plans her approach such that she is moving forward and
under the ball. This forward movement under the ball gives her options –
set the hitter in front of her as she approaches; set the middle as she passes
under, or backset the hitter behind her. In the UCSB match, Uiato would
set herself early under the ball, then move to set. UCSB coaches in scouting
found this flaw, and exploited it. Ever try backsetting from a static position
without letting the whole world know what you intend to do?
As said earlier, love this team, the girls, and their spirit.

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 19:10:31 +0000

BTW,
for several minutes of the Matadors webcast, I thought one of the announcers was a girl (woman)…just sayin…

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 18:24:06 +0000

Agree that the middles are needed to be more of the offense, even if the pass isn’t perfect. Just some comments/observations IMHO of course…

1) All the OH’s are not good dinkers, with Kanani as a gold standard comparison. Seems like Emily and Tai in particular seem to think too often the only solution to being blocked is to hit harder…of course sometimes you’ll get it off the block. But if the opponent has your hitting timing in synch with a well formed block. What about changing up hitting speed, hitting contact point, even just a little?

2) Ali has done a good job as any in picking up dinks.

3) Why does Emily go to the hard top-spin jump serve 100% of the time? Especially when she is tiring out? A top-spin jump serve with not much juice on it is just the same as a lollipop slow serve with little or no float to it. Why not work on the standing floater for her as well?

By: LanaiBoy

LanaiBoy — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 16:23:23 +0000

Interesting to hear what Nebraska Coach John Cook had to say about its loss to Purdue. Sounds very familiar. He said that “it was not rocket science” to figure out how teams will attack his team. They will attack the left-side hitters, Kelsey Robinson and Kadie Rolfzen, who receives almost 50 percent of Nebraska’s attack. Of course, the solution is better offensive production from the middles and right side. What John Cook could have added is that teams will target Robinson on serves like UC Irvine coach, Paula Weishoff, instructed her team to target Hartong [“We served her every ball for God’s sakes” (37 of them)]. Hartong and Manu-Olevao represented over 60% of Hawaii’s attack against CSUN. That is very common this year. This is the reason why Shoji said that Hawaii is “very easy to scout.” In fact ALL teams will have the same strategy. 1st target Hartong on serves. Second, to quote CSUN’s Mahina Haina, “We tried to make sure we were going to block her….We made sure that we always knew where she was and where her attacking line was.” As John Cook said, “this is not rocket science.”

By: 'ohanaInBellingham

'ohanaInBellingham — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 15:57:38 +0000

Ho, that was a hard match to watch. It’s easy to get upset and coach from the couch. However, if we are truly supporting the girls and the coaches, we would see how UH adjusted by tightening their blocking and receiving better on the tough serving. (Notice the trend of UH’s losses to tough-serving teams?) As Cindy said, all of UH’s losses came in five sets. Not four. No sweeps. UH is a good team. Finally, although it has come at our expense, it’s good to see competition in the BWC. That can only help UH better prepare for the playoffs this year and going forward. How UH responds when they play UCSB and CSUN in a few weeks will show me whether UH has what it takes.

By: jcvolcano

jcvolcano — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 12:12:44 +0000

Said it twice before,saying it again, Uiato is telegraphing her set to the
outside. Why the coaches aren’t picking it up? Who knows? Will they
nominate Uiato for POW like last week? UCSB coaches played the “tell”
last week, now the everybody knows, except………….