Top 25 scores, Hawaii 3, SDSU 0
2) Florida def. Eastern Washington 25-9, 25-17, 22-25, 25-16
6) USC def. Utah State 25-22, 25-9, 25-14
6) USC def. Pepperdine.
8) Washington def. Cal State Northridge 25-15, 25-11, 25-10
11) Wisconsin def. Georgia 25-11, 25-6, 25-14
27) North Carolina def. 3) Stanford 25-17, 27-25, 25-22
COMMENTS
Comments are closed.
I am surprised UNC swept Stanford. USC handled them rather easily.
Stanford was without arguably their two best players in burgess and inly, and bugg did not play well. Neither did hodson. Suprised they got swept, but not suprised they lost.
Wahine starting lineup introductions done — no changes. I am a little surprised.
the usual suspects are starting for the wahine.
Stanford pretty banged up right now.
UH up 11-4. TO SDSU. Wahine with 3 blocks.
3. actually was a change since Granato started the past 2 matches. Agree, a little surprised but I’m expecting different looks for Set 2.
TMO starting poorly as usual. Very unfortunately for her and for the team.
Don’t think Shoji too happy with the sloppy play. SDSU has closed to 13-10. TO UH.
Cindy, yup, I forgot about Granato. Wahine making the same mistakes – service errors (3) and overpasses (3). Looking a bit ragged.
UH wins 25-17. yes, you saw Maglio run the slide.
Big West scores
Cal State Northridge lost to Saint Marys 17-25, 15-25, 25-22, 25-20, 12-15
Cal State Northridge lost to Washington 15-25, 11-25, 10-25
SDSU not very good. Wahine pretty much the same.
Mitchem in lined up against her former setter Jones in the front row.
Hawaii 5-1. SDSU 1-5. Collins’ mom died a few weeks ago and think it’s affected things.
UH up 9-3. TO Aztecs. UH with 6.5 blocks. Mitchem on the slide. didn’t go down.
Good connections with Magill. It’s 18-8. TO Aztecs
Wahine close it out 25-11.
SDSU not enough to push the Wahine. Will have to wait till tomorrow night to see if this is really the lineup that can take the Wahine into the NCAA super regionals.
I agree that this match really won’t tell us how good UH is. Tomorrow night will show us if UH has improved since the UCLA match.
agree with both of you. Higgins with an ace, the fifth of the night for UH. it’s 2-2
Tai needs to stay with that serve.
and I agree it’s a surprise that there hasn’t been more subs. UH up 7=3. but perhaps with Florida still scouting they don’t want to show too much for tomorrow.
Finally a kill from a slide.
Taylor then Greeley blocked. SDSU close to 19-15. TO UH
As in the UCLA match, the outsides are having a very poor match. Combined they are hitting .060 Magill continues to shine.
23. they’ve been practicing it.
Koelsch with the dump. it’s 22-18. TO SDSU
Taylor with her 9th kill. UH wins 25-
The outsides (Taylor, TMO, Greeley) combined to hit for .075. That won’t do it tomorrow night.
In the last rotation Magill needs to hit the slide or they will always have to rely on Nikki.
Same old shoji.
Greeley and TMO combined hit for 0.00. In this sweep Taylor played the whole time. After Megan Huff’s performance against UCLA I am speechless as to how she could not get even one minute of playing time. Maybe as Cindy stated, Shoji does not want to show too much. However Florida has to have tapes of Hawaii’s matches.
If I am Megan Huff I have got to be thinking that I should just concentrate on basketball, cause I seem to have no future with this coach and this team.
Huff could end up being one of the best BB players in the BW.
A lot of players got some time on the court, but you can chalk this one up to Hawaii looking forward to tomorrow night’s game. Shoji left the starters in too long, they coasted this game out. I think if there were more changes, a more inspired second lineup would given more on the court with something to prove for playing time.
More surprising was TMO’s struggles as OH continued tonight, but her back row hits were special, it just shows me that it is more a mental obsticle than physical, when she is swinging from the outside. Last season she had great vision finding seams. This year she can’t find those lanes…maybe just trying to push through with her power.
31. I wouldn’t say no future. TMO will graduate this year and Nikki Taylor next year. Plenty of opportunity for Huff to get significant playing time if she continues to improve. Just difficult for her as RS backup to Taylor. How many positions (i.e., LS) do you want her to learn?
Another missed opportunity to get other players in for development and evaluation. You can only do so much in practice.
Yep …again it’s the Nikki Taylor show…Without her in the lineup we would be a really average team. Greeley is still doing a wonderful job backrow and is steady regardless of her hitting pct. Where is that next player that can take the load off Nikki and Co. We truly have them but they are just cheering the players on the court from the side. All this height and accolades coming from high school does no good wilting on the side. The chemistry and movement on the court is subpar. Again there is not enough communication going on. Why are we so reluctant to play Huff (6’2″)opposite Nikki ? I would like to see a different lineup that is legitimate to finish teams. How long are we going to stick to inconsistent players? This is nothing against any starter but are we “really ” playing our best athletes at the same time…Different match same story, but with better athletes on this team… Well okay we are 6-1….but we have not really elevated our game except Nikki this year from last….where is everybody else?
To 34 with respect. I am not a volleyball coach or an expert on positions in volleyball. However, after her performance against Ucla and the continued poor performance of left side hitters( granted Greeley has been pretty consistent except for tonite) I would be trying to find a way to get that girl on to the floor to develop her skill in actual games. Tonite was a blowout, how can she not play?
Very disappointed in tonights match. It was boring and embarrassing to watch the same people make the same mistakes that they have made all year. Dave’s speech about taking another look at everyone was apparently just a ploy to get the kids to play harder in practice. I know he knows 100 times more about volleyball than most of the rest of us but his inflexibility will be the down-fall of this program.
37. I agree he should try to get Huff more reps. What I disagree with is the idea that Huff seemingly has no future with the team. It’s a bit extreme to think that. We are 7 matches into the season and Huff was a volleyball project coming out of high school–with upside.
good win for the beach
35) Long Beach State def. Loyola Marymount 20-25, 21-25, 25-22, 26-24, 15-12
38. I think the “downfall” may show up next year. That’s when the team will have senior and junior depth, and significant height. If the team improves, I believe it is a final four caliber roster. But you have to fix the setting, the passing and develop more options outside other than Taylor. If not, then we will be complaining louder and have no patience. It will be a missed opportunity for the tallest team in UH history. I hope that does not happen. I have hopes that this team will be a sweet 16 (maybe even elite 8 with a favorable bracket), but we will learn a lot more tomorrow night. After than, we won’t learn much other than if the team loses, because it should be favored in every single match thereafter.
#36 TV Announcer and local volleyball guru Chris McLaughlin did say he was at the practices this week and it was a very heated battle, and coaches were taking notes on who was winning. Is it possible that at the end of the day, the starters are actually the best players? With the match against Florida looming, it would be very hard to make big changes to the lineup. Glad that they were starting to do the step out as we are going to need it tomorrow.
Re: Stanford, it is a shame that it has injuries. I think its #1 recruiting class from four years ago (Bugg, Ajanaku, Burgess, McGehee, and Howard) will go down as one of the bigger disappointments in NCAA Div I volleyball history for not having won a single championship (I doubt they will do it this year).
42. I think what you mention is true. But I also think that absent a remarkably awesome performance in practice this week by a non-starter, the coach was not going to tinker significantly with the starting line up. He mainly wanted to get everyone re-focused. IMHO.
I think our biggest problem is with our passing. Really shaky tonight. With better ball control the teams hitting % would be much better no matter who played outside.
Tomorrow, I think we’ll see a lot more of Huff, Koelsch, Granato and Castillo. The only way Dave sticks with his starters is if they’re successful against Florida. Should we fall behind, he will be forced to go to his bench.
to 39. I think that I am over reacting when I said no future. I am just very disappointed in her not playing in a game like this, that we are winning easily. I watched her in basketball last year and this young girl is a tough competitor. I did not see the ucla match but from accounts on this board it seems she played pretty well against the toughest team so far. She looks more physically fit and athletic than last year, a sign she has really worked hard in the off season. I just think that she has ouystanding upside and hope to see her develop.
46. We are in agreement on those points.
Well it was disappointing that a lot of the sloppiness from UCLA carried over to tonight. Bad passing and hitting, TMO( hit negative again) and Greeley struggled. Setting is getting slow and predictable as well. Not a good sign heading into the biggest match of the preseason.
same ol’, same ol’…difficult to understand Shoji.
Hopefully this will be his final year.
I watched a couple practices and expected to see different faces in the lineup. Didn’t happen.
Surprised? A bit. Disappointed? No. Why didn’t it happen? Beats me.
Dave’s the coach. That gives him the right to keep the same lineup. He doesn’t need any advice from a retired accountant.
Cindy, keep up the great work-In the paper and on the blog. It’s fun to read about the Wahine and it’s interesting to hear a little bit about how you do your job.
I was at every practice this week (all two of them). it was a surprise to me but they kept stats that I (and Chris) and a couple of others) saw them taking but we weren’t given the final numbers.
I did ask if he was trying not to show his hand (I.e. Huff, more Koelsch) with Florida scouting, he said no.
Said they did a lot of stat-ing during practice and the players who had the best stats were the ones who played
He said it just worked out that it was the starting lineup from two weeks ago.
The thing is Manu-Olevao looked very good in practice but … she’s always been hot and cold but used to play herself out of it. Haven’t seen that this season.
#38 Yeah, it wasn’t a roaring come back match. To me, they looked determined but something is clearly off. Considering that they have been through a fierce two-days throw down challenge by their own coach, it would not shock me if some were still upset by it all. Nevertheless, it is often through these painful steps that players learn what doesn’t work and evolve. We are all believing that a stronger team emerges tomorrow.
Did sound like from Kahakai that they are taking responsibility as a ‘team’ and not pointing fingers at individuals.
Shoji said there were issues that still need to be resolved.
said they passed poorly again and you could see the setters did get a little frustrated. In some ways, they allowed SDSU to dictate the game instead of them taking control.
I think Huff has a future. Agree with the ‘she was project out of high school.’
She is still learning to play the game. She changed positions last year and now is changing again as they try to get her into the mix on the left. Think because she’s always been good that not playing much last year did affect her but she regained that confidence during basketball, which reminded her that she was good.
Then she took it upon herself to get into volleyball shape over the summer and it shows.
If Dave is relying on practice stats to decide who will play in the game and continues to ignore what he is seeing on the court, we are in big trouble.
Really, tonight it was just more of the same from the Wahine. Disappointingly the overall quality of play hasn’t changed, there was just a weaker opponent across the net tonight. The good news was that they didn’t need to overuse Nikki tonight and they didn’t the give the Gators much to scout (at least nothing useful or nothing they haven’t already seen).
We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I’m hoping the Wahine play out of their minds tomorrow and take the Gators down.
35. it was a missed opportunity but the match was moving along so quickly that sometime that window isn’t open long enough. They also wanted to get out quickly and not be extended to four. which sometimes happens with too many changes.
Shoji is losing it. What counts more on the stat sheet, practice or game performance? TMO was hitting in the negative–AGAIN. Coach is shooting himself in the foot. As the ol’ saying goes, ” you cant make chicken salad out of chicken S__”
49. I dont think it will be but if it is, Dan Fisher is my choice.
In two shorts years has turned Pitt around completely, coached US national B team to some success as well. Only downside with Fisher might be recruiting on the west coach. but I think the Hawaii program recruits itself sometimes.
#42 Supposedly so if you measure stats in practice. I would just have loved to see a different lineup like: Nikki, Huff, Maglio,Olivia, or Mitchem, Koelsch, Greenley, and Anderson or Kahakai(L) play together as a unit….My eyes looks for athleticism and chemistry, and not always stats…But it would be interesting to see if they played a set together and not just a point or two…..Maybe that would add a spark or not…Coming off the bench doesn’t make you any less…I still feel that Higgins serving/setting and TMO adding an explosive kill coming off the bench is okay too. S. Kuehu (women’s basketball) came off the bench and still was acknowledged as a star….Granato, Guiannaso, and Ponce can still come in to help shore up the backrow or serving. when needed..Again that’s just my dream, but the coach knows best…..Let’s Go Girls, Beat Florida!!!
@59. Good choice but that is not how things work at Manoa. They will find a way to screw it up. Look what happened to our baseball and football programs. They ran those programs into the ground.
53. That’s good to hear from Kahakai. There is plenty of blame to go around. Even Taylor has had an off night, and she is the team’s best player. What’s important is the changes that the team makes to really improve.
Tomorrow the posts will follow one of two general themes: (a) if UH wins, then they will have really improved and look like a serious post season contender, the team finally showed what it is capable of, awesome team, etc. etc., or (b) if UH loses, what the hell is Shoji doing, this team is in big trouble, there goes any seeding chance, start A, B, C instead of D, E, F, when is Shoji going to retire, etc. etc.
#62 So funny – and so true! It is fun to read how bloggers react once you see their bent in life.
We know what’s gonna happen tomorrow: Florida will clobber Hawai’i. Same starters. The sad thing is, this is probably the best lineup that Shoji can put out. There’s clamor for Mitchem, but whenever she gets the opportunity, she doesn’t do any better than Maglio.
I’ll be happy just to see overall improvement from the team. Maybe find an effective lineup that has chemistry. I’m more worried that if they don’t fix some issues, then they’ll have problems in the BWC.
On the positive side, no one expects UH to win. All the pressure will be on Florida. Some teams don’t handle that pressure well.
Some players do well in practice however in games a different player emerges. Also true inversely. Tonight was a night to have experiment starting a reserve in the OH and a setter position in the first match. If they did good continue in match 2.
Maybe just maybe if that was to have taken place the scores would have been 25-15, 25-16, 25-20. The 3rd set putting back the past 2 starters in those position.
UH won but not by truly dominating a team that they should of. Playing against Florida like they played against San Diego State will not create a win for the Wahine.
Ahhhhhh, the Beach crawled and fought out of an 0-2 deficit to beat LMU in five. Wahine needs to start worrying about their “automatic” NCAA. Wahine not showing improvement in passing to set up their attack. And struggling a little with their left side attack.
Anyone can second guess Coach Shoji which is the right of any arm chair quarterback coach but I put my trust in Shoji. Don’t you think he knows that the team is struggling and continues to work with his players on their faults. Everyone thinks Huff might be the answer but she is still a work in progress. In time Mitchem will get up to speed with Div 1.
38 I don’t know beans about coaching, but i have to agree with you. Actually i didn’t watch the entire match.
41 Don’t think this team will get far into the NCAA although the talent is there.
I feel that Dave decided a long time ago who his starting lineup would be and nothing is going to change his mind regardless of the evidence. He has been lucky in that Nikki and Olivia have been good enough to overcome our shortcomings in other areas. This is a talent laden team that will go no where in the post season if he continues down this path. I would like nothing more than to have to eat my words.
TMO has hit -.062 and -.167 in the last two matches. What is Dave seeing that makes him persist in playing her? If she plays tonight, it will be evidence that Dave will not allow other players an opportunity. In all sports, you have players who excel in practice but cannot bring it to a regular game. Right now, I am convinced that TMO is one of those players. Dave can play her against weaker opponents and get away with it, but he is not going beyond the second round of the NCAA with her starting.
Something is missing from this team, practice was reportedly intense with players fighting for their spots. Why didn’t this transfer onto the court last night. Maybe it will take tonights opponent to draw that intensity out, or maybe overcoming an obstacle during the game. Right now the Bow’s need a to find the spark from within to bring all the potential to the next step.
I am by no means an expert at volleyball but love the Wahine and the passion people feel for the team and the sport, but just like everyone else, just expressing my opinion. Very impressed with Anderson in the short time she is in, good server, good passer (usually right to where the setter needs it) great demeanor,
not too high, not too low, what do you all think? I think, obviously, that passing is very, very, important. everything revolves around a good pass. A great libero,
is worth several victories in itself, i.e. the loss to USC several years ago. Not suggesting current libero should be replaced, but just a observation.
A couple of things that came to mind this morning after thinking about it overnight.
Bottom line they won. True it wasn’t pretty but if you had seen how ugly the Florida-EWU match, people wouldn’t be so quick to judge. But ugly is in the eye of the beholder.
Ragged play in both matches yesterday by all four teams. EWU scrambled and think took Florida by surprise by their defense. At the end of set 4, it was close until about 14 then Gators began winning a lot of long rallies and that wore on the Eagles.. Coach Wise continued to give credit to EWU for creating problems for them. She said after winning so easily in Set 1 they didn’t keep up the intensity but that EWU also upped their game.
second observation. That no matter what coaches do fans will always grumble. so they say they’ll open up the positions. gave everyone chance to prove themselves in practice. in the end the stats (basically a box score) showed which individuals/combinations won.
for example, in two sets the other day. they only players that changed sides were the setters. So Higgins set the ‘A’ side, Koelsch the ‘B’ then Higgins the B and Koelsch the A. In both those instances, the side that Higgins set won.
38. Ron, I miss seeing you in the stands. think a little harsh to say boring and embarrassing. SDSU is not a very good team. As often happens, when you’re playing that type of team that doesn’t hit as hard as what you see in practice, takes awhile for players to adjust the block or the passing to compensate for less heat.
do disagree with you about him not being flexible. Seven matches into the season they’re still looking for the right combinations. And they’ve been doing that in practice.
I am by no means an expert on volleyball. I go because I enjoy watching the game and seeing everyone. I don’t want to blame anyone but the passes need to be faster and higher esp. for Tai, Kalei, Olivia, and Emily. Those are go to people but the passes are so slow…we watch it arch, the players are hitting them, but the block is already formed. It’s hard to hit a ball up and over and down. Nikki has height and the ability to move around.
Go Rainbow Wahine. Behind you 100%
Cindy, thank you. The first thing I do every morning is read any article you have written about the Wahine and then I read Volleyshots. I miss being part of the crowd. I should probably up my meds. and lay off Dave who I admire and respect a great deal. I as far as I am concerned about tonight is that we don’t embarrass ourselves and show that we at least a top twenty team win or lose.
Shar, think you mean the sets need to get to the hitters quicker. True. The passing also needs to be better to let the setter have options.
Ron, if VS is your morning entertainment, some new hobbies might be in order. have you considered volunteer work ‘-)
But thanks for reading. As for upping the meds .. I do miss the 60s-70s.
Guess we’ll just have to see what happens tonight.
The only change I would make is make is giving Claire Marie Anderson a chance at libero. She’s earned it.
http://hawaiiwarriorworld.com/?p=33101
new thread up for Friday
78. still feel that Kahakai has more range. something that has hurt Anderson is her class schedule. she is taking 4 science classes with 2 afternoon labs, which causes her to be late 2 days for practice. They’ve tried to adjust when moving some practices to 4 p.m. but even then she’s a little late.