85. yes i mean ginger long since its pretty obvious shes your favorite player. consistently struggled? not really. she was still used for where needed/it counts. she was a whole lot better digging bullets than mendoza and kahakai (ucsb at home match). at least her reaction was impressive, she gave that ‘panic’ look on her face when the ball was coming down meaning the ball got her attention and she made a priority to get it back into the air. contrast that with mendoza who althoughs gotten better but she did sometimes notably flinch to get/receive the ball meaning she hesitated and that could definitely be costly. as for offense, long still has a high velocity gun. she just needs to utilize it better by sundering off the block instead of trying to penetrate it.

86. kahakai less consistent than mendoza? ok whatever you win. one is good at the beginning pass as to one is good at the ending pass. and btw im not making repeated attacks on mendoza but since she is the current libero i will site her performance as such compared to what a libero should be, at least expected competitively in contrast to a regular ds. calm down and quit reacting as though im always picking on mendoza. hell even that example i gave about vs irvine at irvine, i had sited before in previous blogs mendoza actually wasnt at fault and was more like the hitters got in her way when she was trying to dig/receive the ball and shoji after down 2 sets to none decided to swap liberos to provide a spark like he said. in essence however, it is the libero got relieved here unfortunately. and you said a time kahakai couldnt pass a decent ball, where? oh you talking about when kahakai was relieved as libero vs the beach at home. that was because of a couple off the net serves (lucky) by the beach which i still say the front row should of simply attacked it back instead but thats another story. kahakai did get relieved as libero here yes, but putting mendoza back in still eventually got the outcome was a defeat. compare that with mendoza got relieved at irvine and got kahakai in, eventually the outcome was a victory. number of times mendoza relieved as libero 2, kahakai 1. the first of course was vs asu and kahakai got nearly twice more digs done than mendoza in half the amount of sets played (thats bragging points alone). additionally do not forget mendoza is a senior and as a captain gets to be treated with higher standards than kahakai as a frosh.

those criteria i gave were meant as a mini-gauge on a liberos competitiveness (im talking about lets say what libero is competitive enough to make the usa volleyball team). your examples of where a hitter has significantly more digs than a libero means those liberos didnt do a ‘good job’ that match expected of a libero. hell even longo a ‘champion’ libero didnt make the usa volleyball team especially if it was somebody outdug her. bottom line: if a hitter or setter has more digs than the libero, that libero is not doing a very good job because that hitter could of been hitting offense and of course the setter needs to set for the offense not dig (holes deeper), thats how it is on paper anyways.

Your “criteria” is ridiculous. I can tell you right now that Longo and all the other liberos in UH history has had matches in which someone else on the team had more digs, the combined team digs were significantly more than the libero digs (this criteria is stupid and has zero merit), and that the opponent libero had more digs. Let me enlighten you why. I already explained to you about the first point. Examples: Kim Willoughby, Lily Kahumoku, Kanani Danielson, and all those other star hitters for UH had matches in which they had significantly more digs than the libero. Second criteria: Stupid and pointless because OF COURSE THE COMBINED TEAM DIGS will be better than the liberos total digs. I mean, what the heck?! Third criteria: If your hitters are struggling and the opposing blockers are doing a good job of getting touches on the ball, then obviously the opposing libero is going to get more digs. If your blockers are struggling and not getting touches on the ball, you can’t expect your libero or any of your back row players to dig up every single full-velocity spike.

on paper yeah nikki taylor did most of the work. note i said ‘most’ of the work. i could of said more like ‘all’ the work. also to your ignorance, i was analyzing mendozas performance as a libero in her competitiveness. and its not only because one teammate got more digs than her. liberos have a tough job as is with immense competition. what causes a libero to lose out in competition i take by short a few select criteria: of significance, did a teammate lead in digs other than the libero? did teammates combined have significantly more digs than the libero? number of digs of the libero compared to opponent libero. and if the libero lost the most passes (ie got aced)

again this is just a short criteria but if at least 3 of the above is true, then that libero didnt do too good a job. i didnt base mendoza didnt do too good a job as libero only because she got outdug by a hitter. your example of longo was also false as she never had 3 of the 4 criteria i mentioned above. others too. note that this is just a comparison, the libero doesnt have to have lots of digs just as long she is not perceptibly outdug. and no i wasnt suggesting kahakai replace mendoza at the time. i even suggested it was too late for that. kahakai less stable and consistent than mendoza? what about the vs irvine match at irvine?

and again no i wasnt suggesting kahakai replace mendoza in that match. for your sake, i would have no libero and have long in instead. 😀

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