Taylor POW in Big West
No surprise.
Hawaii freshman Nikki Taylor (Kaiser HS) led the offensive charge in a pair of conference home wins, earning Big West Women’s Volleyball Player of the Week accolades.
The 6-3 outside hitter hit a resounding .444 in straight set wins over UC Davis and Cal State Northridge, combining for 26 kills on 45 swings with only six errors.
Taylor had 11 kills, six digs and a block in UH’s 25-19, 25-17, 25-19 win over the Aggies. She also compiled a match-high 15 kills with a .565 hitting percentage against the Matadors, helping the Rainbow Wahine storm to a 25-19, 25-20, 25-21 triumph.
For the week, she averaged 4.33 kills, 2.00 digs and 0.50 blocks per set.
The win improved Hawai‘i to 22-4 overall and 11-3 in the Big West. The Rainbow Wahine are still within range of a Big West title with two conference matches left to play on their schedule.
Wonderful. Congrats to Nikki!
The first of many for Nikki! Such sweet icing on the weekend.
I defanitly think Nikki deserves big west freshman of the year. Ali is good but honestly Nikki is better
You beat me to it, Brandon. I was going to say the same thing, but first I went to the Big West site to research if any other freshman won Big West player of the week and saw that Ali Spindt won it last week for helping UCSB beat Northridge and secure the Big West title (provided they win this coming weekend). So it might be a toss-up between these two girls. I don’t know their overall comparative stats, but a conference champion might get priority if all else is equal or close.
congrats to nikki … it was a tremendous weekend for her, for sure!
Oh, by the way, I just found out that ESPN3 will broadcast the UCSB-Long Beach match on Friday at 5 PM. This should interest Hawaii fans as for one time we will be rooting for Long Beach to win this one. I’m glad that we’ll be able to view a clear video and simultaneous commentary. Looking forward to watch this one and then switch over periodically to watch Hawaii vs. Riverside during timeouts and intermissions.
some conference stats to consider in the FOY race, for nikki taylor and ali spindt. keep in mind they play different positions, for the most part.
spindt — 3.34 kills/set, .275 hitting %, 3.3 digs/set, 0.51 blocks/set
taylor — 3.10 kills/set, .310 hitting %, 1.02 digs/set, 0.90 blocks/set
based on stats alone, neither really has the edge over the other. what might clinch it for spindt is that no one on her team really stands out as a leading player of the year candidate for the conference. their success this year is largely due to a balanced team effort. the coaches voting might want to reward ucsb by awarding FOY to spindt, as it looks like ucsb is on their way to winning the conference.
are there other frosh in contention? i can’t think of ’em off the top of my head.
ucsb’s head coach, nicole welch, is the overwhelming favorite for COY.
As far as the selection for the BW player of the year and freshman of the year, I see that the BW is more objective that the WAC was on these selections. Jennifer Keddy won BW POY on a six place Cal Poly team two years back. As far as stats, Ali Spindt and Nikki are pretty close in all totals and averages, except in three. Spindt in digs, obviously Nikki hasn’t been playing backrow until the last 2/3 matches. Nikki separates herself significantly in blocks and hitting pct. Ali Spindt is good but Nikki can take over matches, which is greater.
The coaches do the voting for these awards. Ask the coaches from Beach, Davis, Fullerton and Northridge especially who did the most damage to them.
So what is the deal with some of the SA blogs today , slow as a pig in a poke to access and no it isn’t my computer not have this problem anywhere else.
Well deserved recognition for Nikki. Her best week at critical point in Wahine season. Don’t see her falling off this week or through NCAA, but coaches will have to honor her threat in all rotations. Go Wahine!
Does anyone have any comments regarding the canceling of all of the upper level season ticket seats and redoing all of the reseating according to seniority for the Men’s Volleyball this coming season? I went from sitting at center court to sitting at the end of the court for the same price. Seating at center court is $200 per season ticket with a $25 discount they are giving for the inconvenience. I hear that many are not renewing their season tickets. This is going to greatly affect the ticket sales for the men.
10. i know. have been having the same problem trying to get my threads posted.
To follow up on what hollycow said, Ask the coaches who they would pick to play for them if they had a choice. Nikki will be and All-American next year as a 6 rotation player IMHO. I don’t think Spindt has that potential. I do think she is a good player, just not in Nikki’s class. 10 and 12 me too.
I’m just hoping they have more balance and don’t over user her like Hartong. I was surprised with all of the leaping/jumping (fingers crossed.. no bachi) emily stayed, for the most part, injury free for her 4 years.
12. Me too. Loss my center court view now I’m sitting next to the student section. Well, at least I’m closer to the beer stand now.
I understand the reasons for shutting down the top section. They’ll probably save a little bit of money and manpower if they don’t have to watch and clean up the top section and having everyone in the lower section may make for a louder and hopefully a more intimidating crowd. I’m sure in the short run they’re going to lose some season ticket holders because of the change but they probably think it will payoff in the long run. Besides the only thing that’s going to increase attendance is if they start winning more.
I have a good feeling about the upcoming season. I think they’re going to be good, very good.
Agreed, I think Sedore has improved so much, that he will be in contention for mpsf player of the year. Hope freshmen Franciskovic is ready to start at setter.
I’ve been a lot good things about Mol. He’s the real deal. I think Sedore, Zarkovic and Mol may turn out to be turn out to be the best trio pin hitters in the conference. I wonder if they’re going to move Sedore to the left or keep him on the right.
Hell they may have the best trio of pins with Sedore, Zarkovic and Averill.
My only real worry is setter and libero. I am not high on Ramos ( he makes way too many mistakes with his location) so I hope the freshmen wins the starting spot. and Not sold on any of the returning liberos.
Congrats to Nikki Taylor.
Averill is listed as a MB. He’ll probably stay at MB with possibly Mol as the other hitter.
Don’t forget that the PSC is tax-deductible.
Having everyone in the Lower Bowl will look better on tv, make for a louder crowd and save on expenses.
Sedore and Zarkovic will most likely be two of the best pins this year. Ramos will be the starting setter and Kanetake showed some promise last season and looks to have improved IMHO.
looking forward to the men’s season. sedore and siki will anchor this team. i hoping that averill would be moved permanently to opposite, but if mol is as good as being advertised, then perhaps averill (along with holt) providing stability in the middle is the way to go. maybe mckellar, keckin or timmer can also challenge for pt at one of the OH spots (there seems to be an overabundance of opposites on the roster this year). nice to see that the team has some options.
Totally unrelated question but this is for Cindy. Does nebraska really charge 84 dollars for a standing seat at their matches? Is volleyball tickets that hard to get their
Okay, is it just me, but I am just totally lost in what’s being discussed here.
Why are we talking about the Men’s team when Nikki Taylor just won a Big West POW award.
Lina, we just got our men’s volleyball ticket renewals in the mail. I assume that is what has stimulated the comments about the men’s program.
My 2013 All Big West selections:
COY—–Welch
POY—–Hartong
FOY—–Taylor
Sully, Thompson, Spindt—————UCSB
Hartong, Uiato, Taylor——————UH
Hinger, Gedryn, Allen——————-Northridge
Lee, Damelio—————————-Davis
Okpala, Aigner-Swesey—————–Beach
Moreland——————————–Fullerton
McConnell——————————-Poly
Bubica———————————–Irvine
Coaches meet yesterday in a conference call for the All Big West selections. Release coming next week.
22. you can find all ticket prices at huskers.com
Nebraska is hosting a regional. That is sold out.
there is a waitlist for 2014 season tickets. Those are sold out as well for next season.
26. all-Big West team, originally set for release next Tuesday, has been moved to Monday, Dec. 2 to get in line with the AVCA’s all-region voting. according to the BWC email I got yesterday.
Have they always been like that Cindy? I always assumed hawaii was the most popular place for volleyball
~~ From the Who Cares! Department ~~
~~ Speaking of the Upcoming Awards ~~
All NCAA D-1 conferences with more than 6 teams have been split into two regions. Thus, there are now 10 — instead of 8 — regional alignments, and each region cannot have more than 40 teams. Hawai’i is now in the PACIFIC NORTH region.
The process for selecting and naming the AVCA All-Region Teams has changed this year.
(1) All member head coaches now vote for the players they feel are most deserving of the award, but cannot vote for their own players and must vote for a total of 14 players specialized by values listed below.
(2) The team itself will be specialized by position due to the growing specialization of the game in which many student-athletes play exclusively in the front row or back row.
The amount of each position will include:
5 Outside/Opposite Hitters
3 Middle Blockers
2 Setters
1 Libero/Defensive Specialist
3 At-Large Selections
Important Dates:
Dec. 10 (Tue) = Region Awards Announced
Dec. 18 (Wed) = All-America Teams Announced
Dec. 19 (Thu) = D1 NCOY Announced (at Honors Luncheon)
Dec. 20 (Fri) = D1 NPOY and NFOY Announced (at Awards Banquet)
As far as the discussion for FOY, like last season for COY, the coaches may settle for a tie between Spindt and Taylor. Makes sense yes?
My take on the attendance averages between Nebraska and UH, pretty simple, the population of Omaha and surrounding area versus the isolation of Oahu with its population. Lot of fans that would attend the matches are outer island. We have three players from outer islands, Maui, Molokai and Hilo HI and their family and friends would attend and support their girls and increase attendance average.
Brandon — nebraska has always sold out, for as long as i can remember.
it’s just that this year, their average attendance is way up, because they’re playing in a new arena with a larger seating capacity (about 8,000, as opposed to their old gym, which only had about a 4,000 capacity).
i could be slightly off on numbers for nebraska’s seating capacities.
33 thanks I never knew that! It’s great to see other programs who do good and have such great fans! Really makes the sport so much better!
cindy, as 10 (LC) mentioned… i would take this up with your IT folks. the site is very very sluggish..
it may either be a network problem (noticed staradevertiser’s main site is also slow) or, if this is a separate
instance of a web server, it may help if someone reboots it.
just a suggestion…