Wahine up to No. 17 in poll, Taylor earns POW
rather than make you go down to the bottom …
http://www.avca.org/divisions/division-one-women/poll-8-31-2015/
Helped by its first 3-0 start since 2012, the Hawaii women’s volleyball team moved up a spot to No. 17 in Monday’s AVCA Coaches Top 25, the first poll of the regular season.
The Rainbow Wahine were preseason No. 18, the lowest ranking ever in the program’s history prior to the start of play. The poll began in 1982 and Hawaii has been ranked in 469 of the 480 weeks, third most and behind Nebraska and Stanford, the only programs to be ranked every week.
Hawaii hosts the Hawaiian Airlines Classic Friday through Sunday. In the field are No. 25 UCLA, American and Iowa.
The Bruins (1-1) dropped five spots from their preseason ranking after being swept by Loyola Marymount over the weekend.
The top five remained the same, led by No. 1 Penn State (3-0) with 54 first-place votes. The Nittany Lions are followed by Stanford (2-0, 8 votes), Texas (3-0, 1), Florida (2-0) and Nebraska (3-0, 1).
Making the biggest move was USC (3-0), jump from 22nd to No. 8 after wins over then-No. 7 North Carolina and then-No. 11 BYU.
Two of Hawaii’s opponents over the weekend continued to receive votes: Wichita State (12) and Oregon State. Long Beach State (2-1) remained just outside the poll with 79 votes, leaving the 49ers again at 26th.
BWC honors should be out soon.
Taylor nominated for both POW and defensive POW. I would think she’d be under consideration for national honors, which come out Tuesday, but wouldn’t be surprised if it were someone from USC.
Good discussion on previous thread post-match. Check it out.
As IVC coach Tom Pestolesi said, Hawaii is going to love Annie Mitchem. think it’s already started.
Wade on Bobby’s show now (750 a.m.)
so it’s Cookie Jam until there’s some news.
I am so pleased that McKenna began to live up to her potential last weekend. Her passing is a joy.
I hope that Jeff Hall encourages McKenna to play for the SandBows, as she would be very good from the start.
I was happy with team’s performance this weekend. Nikki was terrific. Greeley really held her own. Dave’s decision after a couple of missed passes on Sunday to use Granato in the backcourt really helped Tai to focus on front row and she did well. Dave has indicated that this is not permanent but Tai really responded better being relieved of defensive duties. Don’t change the formula. The reserves looked good, especially Baby G who has some good defensive covers. Kahakai missed too many serves so she has to relax and concentrate.
For those who were asking about Mitchem’s post match interview. Links are available through UH on the match recap
http://www.hawaiiathletics.com/news/2015/8/31/WVB_0831153921.aspx?path=wvball
Interview with Shoji is shown. Unfortunately, not Annie.
1. how the beach thing works (no longer called sand) players will be asked if they’re interested. Indoor does some crossover beach training as part of spring anyway.
What people forget is that to play both is to play TWO sports and, if you’re an indoor player, you also have spring training. It’s a lot to ask of student-athletes.
Kahakai is an excellent sand player, did very well at the AAU level in high school. but think her knee issue from last year kept her from thinking about it.
Hall has given me permission to be the first to call them the BeachBows now that SandBows has been retired.
4. thanks had assumed it was. sorry for the misinformation. I hadn’t watched
In answer to whether she tried spam musubi, Annie said she doesn’t like spam but she likes poke and mac salad.
She said D1 volleyball is faster than in JC and is harder than she thought plus she missed the first part of training camp but she is adjusting to it .
7. thanks with the exception of the food, pretty much what she had been saying. But she seems to be adjusting very quickly and is a big presence at the net.
Know she got introduced to Rainbow Drive-Inn very early after arriving.
In answer a question about rice, she said she noticed that we have rice at every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner.
In answer to something about her aha moment so far or something like that, she said in the first game watching from the sidelines she saw the big crowd and excitement and realized she was here. As mentioned before, she said she wanted to come to Hawaii a long time ago due to the fan base and the beach.
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Glad that everyone got to play, including Castillo who had never played in a D1 match before. Might have been mentioned before, but Reardon wrote that this year’s team is the tallest in Dave’s 41 years, with six players at 6-3 or over.
yes it has been mentioned this is his tallest team.
Hawaii is #17th in this weeks AVCA Poll and Southern California is #8.
http://www.avca.org/divisions/division-one-women/poll-8-31-2015/
Was great for Hawaii to win a pre-season tournament this year after not winning one in 2014! Lets go Bows!
Helped by its first 3-0 start since 2012, the Hawaii women’s volleyball team moved up a spot to No. 17 in Monday’s AVCA Coaches Top 25, the first poll of the regular season.
The Rainbow Wahine were preseason No. 18, the lowest ranking ever in the program’s history prior to the start of play. The poll began in 1982 and Hawaii has been ranked in 469 of the 480 weeks, third most and behind Nebraska and Stanford, the only programs to be ranked every week.
After the Annie interview , they had an interesting one with Charlie Brande who was an assistant to Dave (around 1980-82). He still is a club coach in California. They asked him what keeps Dave going. He said the competition, the girls, the coaching fraternity, etc.
Way back , he recruited Lisa Strand whose twin had committed to another school. He said Lisa had never been on a plane before and the team went on a 17 day trip to Japan shortly after.
He also recruited Marcie Wurts and Chris and Kori Polaski some of who were in the 5-8 range. I don’t know what positions they played but he said the would be liberos in this day and age.
He mentioned that Oregon State reached the sweet 16 last year.
Mentioned Brande being here when camp opened. Stand’s twin Kelly played at Cal Poly.
Lisa and Kelly are Katie Spieler’s aunts.
BTW the twins are Kris and Kori Pulaski.
How North Carolina is 1-2 and still ranked #18 is baffling.
15. they weren’t going to drop them from 7 to out of the poll. not with the ACC love.
11. thanks for the help. think we were seconds apart and had been posting on our breaking news site.
16.
Not out of the poll but at least somewhere 21-25
It’s 60 people voting. and the points fall where they fall. If they had gone winless than maybe out of the poll. Guess the win over power Chicago State was impressive enough.
19.
hah
shoji is voting again in the coaches’ poll this year, it seems. he had taken the last couple of seasons off. he voted hawaii #15.
Surprised he went back only because there had been an issue with the AVCA when they dropped him from the voters. a little fault on both sides that caused that to happen.
Think that’s where i would have put them as well.
where would you folks have put them?
I’d agree with you Cindy. Maybe a little higher. Somewhere between 13 and 15.
23.
agree
from the Big west
Hawai‘i junior Nikki Taylor (Honolulu, O’ahu, Hawai‘i/Kaiser HS), named Most Outstanding Player of the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational, earned Big West Women’s Volleyball Player of the Week honors after posting three straight stellar performances.
Taylor led the Rainbow Wahine to a 3-0 record after notching a tourney-high 52 kills with a team-high 15 blocks and 27 digs. Taylor hit .330 (52-19-100) as UH recorded sweeps of Idaho and Oregon State while winning in four sets versus Wichita State.
The 6-4 outside hitter picked up 12 kills on .500 hitting to go along with eight digs and four blocks in the season-opening three-set win over the Vandals.
Taylor then slammed a career-high 25 kills and hit .300 against the Shockers, adding 11 digs for her first double-double of the season. Taylor also had five blocks in the match.
She concluded the tournament with 15 kills, eight digs and six blocks versus the Beavers. Taylor hit at a .281 (15-6-32) clip.
For the week, Taylor averaged 5.20 kills, 2.70 digs and 1.50 blocks per set.
And of course Penn State encamped at the top with wins over Shuffle Off to Buffalo, Stoney Brook (wasn’t the TV show that Jack Lord starred in before 5-0?) and Whatsamatter U.
I was at the Stanley for the first two games. My first impression was Nikki and Kalei have raised their overall game from last year. My second impression was we have more firepower than we’ve had in a long time. We didn’t have a bad rotation where we struggled to put the ball down. My biggest takeaway from this weekend is the ceiling for this team is higher than it’s been in a long time.
We played well against two good teams and one average team. I tend to agree with most of what’s been posted here about improving passing, specifically serve receive, and improving the connections between Higgins and the middles. We’ll need to improve with each practice and game in order to compete with the elite teams at the end.
One thing I’m hoping for is either Mags or Annie perfect the side. It’s a play that was a regular feature of the Wahine middle attack but was used sparingly this past weekend. Just the threat of having it in their arsenal with add another dimension to their offense.
Continuing the discussion about Lisa and Kelly Strand. … Kelly’s daughter Adlee Van Winden, freshman at her mother’s alma mater Cal Poly earned the BWC’sffreshman honors after posting back-to-back 14-kill efforts in a pair of wins.
Apparently Toby Rens, of University of Md Eastern Shore, doesn’t think Hawaii should be ranked at all but Duke, Lipscomb, Marquette, San Diego, Ohio St. and Texas A & M should be ranked ahead.
And Joshua Steinbach of Villanova agrees that Hawaii should not be ranked but Lipscomb, Wyoming, and Mich St. should be.
Sigh.
Craig Skinners ballot is ridiculous. There must be a mistake. Penn st. is 19th and Texas is 18th. Ohio St and Texas A & M (both of whom lost) are 2 and 3.
Hesitant to rank Hawaii higher until their passing is consistently good (every night). Ultimately, their RPI will determine UH’s entry and seeding in the NCAAs.
first poll. does it really matter?
When’s the last time Md-ES or Villanova was ranked?
30. the poll is also part of the formula. No one gives style points for passing the bottom line is they are 3-0.
Technically this is my day off as the Wahine are taking one too. So after 5 hours here, I’m taking a break.
Of course it doesn’t matter. My mistake for thinking it was worthy of note. Obviously I was wrong. (rolls eyes)
I take the polls, with a grain of salt. We’ll see who’s still playing in the second week of December.
#29. Unless I am mistaken, Duke and Michigan St. also lost this past weekend. Guess you gain votes if you lose. Strange voting.
LOL at Cindy at #31…. first comment regarding the poll: “first poll. Does it really matter?”…. Second comment regarding the poll: “The poll is part of the formula”….LOL…..
people are acting a bit too dramatic about the poll.
whining and complaining, it’s kind of embarrassing.
1st poll no biggie, technically none of the polls are a big deal. last man standing is what I’m most concerned about. you could be ranked #1 but it won’t mean sh*t if you lose in the first or second round of the playoffs.
Mitchem will soon replace Maglio at the M1 position (the Middle Hitter that is followed by the setter in the line-up). Mags has been doing well blocking, but as an M1 she would have to be more of an offensive presence at the net to take a load off of the Outside Hitter when Higgins is in the front row.
The offense that Taylor provides out of the D set helps negate that, however you would still want your M1 to be the versatile/mobile (hitting slides) as well as terminal. With that being said, Magil has to be one of the top M2s in the country! One could have a case for Lutz at Stanford being up there, but I believe she has been injured(?), havent really paid too much attention to Stanford in the opening weekend. With Ajanaku out, not sure if she would stay at M2 or move to M1, depending how versatile the freshman MBs are. Anywho, back to UH…as a coach, Dave must feel really blessed to be able to start such an imposing middle such as Magil in the front row.
I would’ve liked to see Koelsch set the remainder of the match. That would have been an opportune time for her to get game time experience setting in (backrow) rotations 1, 2, & 3 if it came to that. I believe we have only seen her come in while Higgins was in the front row (4, 5, 6). In essence, she Dave has been utilizing more of a modified 5-1 a la Carey/Vakasausau than the usual (6-2) double-sub.
lol @ (she)* Dave. whoops!
32. think you read too much into the ‘Does it really matter?”
if it didn’t I wouldn’t have posted it, done a breaking news story and would have a story in tomorrow’s paper.
it’s so early in the season so hard to put too much weight into it. but i’m glad you posted how some people voted. it shows who might not be paying attention to the realities. And who knows if they really voted or asked their assistant or SID to do so.
35. that was in response to blunite’s “the RPI will determine UH’s seeding’ The poll is now part of the formula. not sure what is so amusing.
#37 WaWa, I also would like to see Koelsch be given the opportunity to play whole sets. Wanna see what she can do.
new thread up for Tuesday.
http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=32895