How's it looking this year? Are we are top 16 team? We have everyone back basically. Will be tough starting tomorrow against Stanford.

NOT Good

Time for a new v ball coach, seems since I was enrolled the team has been very meh....we need some new energy!

We bounced back from a loss to #2 Stanford with a 5 set win over a solid Minnesota team. I watched the match against Stanford and didn't see much in terms of positives other than we got some points from the outside. Passing was horrid against Stanford...to the point that if it continues a major shift of defensive/passing resources would be necessary but I will give them some time to gel, and look forward to the tourney here this coming weekend to make a better assessment.

Minnesota...
I didn't see but the stats indicate a much more balanced attack, but passing continued to be troublesome according to another message board thread. We were able to capitalize out of the middle and Lowak and McGee had some early success on the outside before an ankle injury to Lowak may have stopped a career night. Hardesty on the outside came in to finish out the match

Passing will be the key to this team and without it we will have difficulty this season giving up large runs of points in certain rotations.

Kaitlyn Blake, a freshman, shows a spark and can play multiple positions this season and hit a great ball against Stanford which was dug but you could see the potential.

I saw a 1-1 record coming out of Palo Alto (which is what we got against 2 top 25 teams, however I don't think we played well against Stanford and gave away too many points early on to the outside hitters in the seam of the block. I would have rather committed more to stopping the outside and giving them more out of the middle with both middles out due to injury. Add that to the passing woes and the score indicated we were never in the match. Never found a rhythm with our middles even with a good pass (which wasn't often) and the middles are going to open up our pin attackers. I would like to see us run an occasional 31 set for our middles to open up the gap for our right side hitter (Reasor/Blake) to get more seams to attack. We tend to run the middle in front of the setter with Babers and behind the setter with Sullivan. An occasional attack from a zone closer to the outside that is effective will help our percentage attacking from the right half of the court.

Team lost 1-3 to both Iowa and Iowa state this past weekend. Looks to be a long year because the team is not very good.

^bs

My assessment through first three weeks of the season.

First contact issues still plague this team on serve receive. We looked bad against Stanford in this area, to the point the match really wasn't as competitive as I thought it would be...I expected a loss but we didn't look fluid at all. Didn't get to see the Minnesota match on TV but box score shows a lot of positives.

On the flip side, we looked like an Sweet 16 maybe even elite 8 team against a solid Wichita State team a week later.

Stronger depth for higher level D1 play at multiple positions should help weather the injury storm was seemingly avoided last year for the most part.

Blocking has been much improved not only on termination of points but solid touches allowing our defenders to get a balls the previous years would not. Emily Hardesty on the outside has really stepped up her game in this area and has been able to terminate a bit more effectively recently. She would have a lot of neutral swings early in her career and still does but has made strides to terminate the play in the past few matches.

Angela Lowak was having a career day against Minnesota until an injury caused her to miss a week plus. Enter Kierra McGee a hard hitting outside who can hit a heavy ball and has improved tremendously in serve receive and back row defense from past year. Passing of serve still needs improvement but that can be said for all passers at any given time. Her serve probably had the most aces per attempt of the team but would also bury a few into middle of net.

Freshman middle/RS Kaitlyn Blake is as good as advertised. Playing RS she took over for Reasor for a couple of matches and filled in for Sullivan in the middle during her injury. She is hard hitting from both middle and right side. She had an off night last night but a couple of the hitting errors were tough balls to get a quality swings out of and as she progresses she will make the necessary adjustments to keep ball in play much like Sullivan and Babers do from the middle. Ashlie Reasor came in last night and hit .529 with no errors and nine kills.

Jazzmin Babers has been a blocking machine for the past two years and has been connecting on the slide attack much better this season, and she has been solid in front of the setter during that same span. Shelby Sullivan missed a couple of matches but always gives us points and will likely hit over .300 every match provided set location is there.

Stephanie Aiple has been solid for the season and improved blocking as a sophomore makes her one of the best setters in her class in the nation. Don't know the extent of her injury to her foot last night and how long she may be out. Her serve short can be deadly of the opponent doesn't prepare for it but I see SEC opponents being ready as film is looked at. Hopefully a secondary serve can be created for points when her primary serve is not as effective. Kaysie Shebeneck filled in after her injury. Love her enthusiasm, and her serve as well. Set more to the pins then middle but that was likely due to not having as much of a connection with middles in practice. She will get much needed reps over the next few days in this area.

Amy Nettles has settled in as our libero and honestly has improved her performance each outing. Without looking at stats it seems that whenever we go on a poor passing run, (which is our main concern) she is the one who has the pass to get us out of a bad rotation. She is getting to balls with quality touches more than we have gotten previously from left back position. Her serve doesn't get as much aces but I think keeps the opponent OOS more than any other with maybe the exception of Aiple short serve to their OH.

My two favorite moments this season in watching the team was when Blake hit a middle attack against Stanford which somehow was dug but you could see her speed of her armswing and a heavy hitting ball. Also last night Shebeneck set a back one to Babers while going to the floor.


This is the toughest preseason schedule I can ever remember, with still Florida State and a pretty decent NCAA tourney Florida A&M team to play. Assessments

Stanford match: below expectations, not expecting a win but not expecting that performance ball control wise
Minnesota: above expectations (didn't see match) but made adjustments with injury to beat a top 25 team
Wichita State: way above expectations, this was a sweet 16 type of performance
Abilene Christian: slightly below, injury and players getting reps who don't play as much makes non issue
New Mexico State: their ball control is what I want ours to be, beat them due to size in 5
Iowa State, Milwaukee, and Iowa didn't see any play but would say a 1-2 record is below expectations. We beat Iowa handily last season but I really like the way that team has competed under a new coach
Colorado State: above expectations


Things we have to improve on:
1. Passing
2. Passing
3. Passing
4. Finishing freeballs for points
5. Closing out sets (but we are 3-0 in five set matches)

Thanks, Wicked Ag. I love watching all Aggie sports, but I don't know a lot about the technicalities of volleyball. I very much appreciate your insight. Please keep posting as time permits for you.

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Team lost 1-3 to both Iowa and Iowa state this past weekend. Looks to be a long year because the team is not very good.

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A " not very good " team beat a Top 15 team last night !

We are good and have issues just like every other team does...we just beat a Top 15 team who will likely have a strong RPI at season's end

That said...they are not a top 15 team in my opinion

When we are on we are a Top 15 team and could host, when off we are regulated to a first round date in Austin

A future RPI has a predictive record of 11-7 for us in the SEC based upon PABLO current rankings.

If we go 11-7 in the SEC I will see that as a massive conference failure this season

^ Pessimism wins !

What would be a realistic record for us in the SEC based on how we have played so far this season?

Assuming everyone is healthy, which with Aiple out and now Lowak injured during the Florida State loss maybe be something difficult to actual have happen, I would say a 14-4 or 13-5 record in conference. We have one of the more difficult non conference and conference schedules in the SEC. Conference is unbalanced and we play the tougher teams twice.

with the injuries to 1/3 of our starters along with Sullivan for a brief time period, we may drop a match or two and end up 11-7. Alabama is more injured then us currently. Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas haven't played anyone worthy to make an accurate assessment of their teams. Kentucky is down this year. Florida will be hard to stop and see two of our conference losses to them.

We cant pass serve receive to the point that many times we had to go to a 2 person serve receive. We cant run middle without a pass on serve and if we are out of system then the opponent has better opportunities to transition kill. We block pretty well this season compared to previous ones but taller teams with forceful right sides will hurt us (1 of the Florida State RS had a field day tonight in our 3-1 loss)

I think we are when fully healthy the second best team in conference and our non conference schedule prepared us for playing against top quality teams but injuries could make me have to assess our situation. The stronger depth we have for high level play just took a major hit over the past two matches

How serious are the injuries to Aiple and Lowak? Are they expected back this season?

post lost during edit.

Second best team? In addition to us. at times, FL, KY, MO, & AR have shown strong teams. Should be a tight race.

Excellent come from behind victory by MO over FL tonight.

Rewriting the original post from a couple of days ago...

The loss to Arkansas although not a complete surprise was one I thought going into the season and conference play we would win. Injuries to Aiple and Lowak have taken away much needed depth to the point when someone has a below average match, a substitute is likely not prepared to come in at the level necessary.

I think that is what happened against Arkansas. Emily Hardesty has been one of our better if not the best passer for the team the past two years and she had an off night passing which flowed into her hitting percentage. Passing like we had Sunday only allowed the outside to swing and Emily needs a seam to hit off speed shots or corner shots in her game. The only way that seam is there is if passing is solid, something we have not had consistent all season. Our other outside McGee tends to tip when the situation is not ideal and I would like to see her be aware of the opponent's setter position to make her take first contact if possible when she tips over the block. Lowak who will miss quite of bit of time, maybe even the season was hitting wise our best outside having a great year in that area hitting nearly .300. Passing like in set two against Arkansas will cause us to hit only about .150 from outside, not near enough to win consistently.

Kaysie Shebeneck has played great subbing in at setter for Stephanie Aiple. She set the first set which we won and set the second set before passing broke down and a change was made. I think we got caught in some bad rotations for poor passing. When running a 5-1 system and having the setter in the front row we had to go outside way to much and not use our middle attack which is our mainstay. I am not advocating a 6-2, I prefer the 5-1 system however one main limitation is when the setter is in front row and a pass 10-15 feet off net we only have one option to attack from without a solid back row attack presence we haven't had since Kelsey Black a few years back IMO. Something that Arkansas had from back row against us in Pilar Victoria, SEC player of the week.

The key point in the match was at end of set three when up set point and Arkansas out of subs we had a chance to win the point and end the set OR have their 5'5'' player rotate to front row by playing the side out game. We gave 3 points up in a row to lose the set.

I said in a earlier post that we have three fundamental issues...passing, closing out sets (not matches as we are undefeated in five set matches) and winning freeball points at a high percentage.

1. We have got to find a DS on the roster between Houser, Arenas, Painter, Litwin, Labhart to pass as the third passer and potentially the fourth passer playing RB especially when say Hardesty or McGee have an off night. We haven't had consistently someone to fill that role of 1st DS/primary passer

2. Blocking...we were so solid early in the season especially improved Hardesty but we do our best (like most teams) when the other team is out of system. We either got a block, a solid touch on the block, or funneled the attack towards our best defender in LB and I didn't see that against Arkansas where we were outblocked nor against Florida State where off speed shots to Zone 1 killed us. Jazzmin Babers is having an All-SEC type season likely even HM All American hitting and blocking this year with 1.33 blocks per set but lately our block totals are down.

3. I would like to see Kaitlyn Blake at RS. Her block is better and she hits for a higher percentage along with the ability to run a quick temp attack from the middle in serve receive and freeballs that are much more difficult for a lefty to do. She will likely be our middle next season replacing Shelby Sullivan but could use her at RS this season maybe even as the back up outside hitter as well.

4. I like this team and think when playing with everyone and in system we can play at Sweet 16 level(we did against a solid Wichita State team) Our non conference schedule was one of the best we have had in years but injuries have not allowed cohesiveness they way we need entering conference play.

we should sweep Auburn at their place, and they are on TV so hope to see the first conference win

Swept Auburn on road. Didn't see as much of match due to Oklahoma Iowa State game going over TV time and Criminal Minds season premier but what I saw we looked better. Passes much better than against Arkansas, and heard while flipping channels that Babers was hitting 1.000 still in the third set WOW is true

Florida lost to Mizzouri in five and watch the end of that when we got a decent lead in set three.

Looking at box score we hit .481 to their .231. Wow also because Auburn usually has a solid defense just not the attacking ability.

Hitting percentage and opponents hitting percentage are directly will be highly correlated to conference wins and losses....we hit .207 to Arkansas .276 in our four set loss...passing must have been very good with all our hitters beside one hitting over .350 for the night. Maybe get a chance to see replay of first two sets later.

Good win Ladies

Passing was the key to this win looking very EASY, we had it Ole Miss didn't. We have struggled in spurts with our passing game but never looked as bad as Ole Miss did in this facet of the match.

Passing dictates location and temp of sets, lack of passing allows for an opponent to be defensively prepared especially at the first line of defense with solid net play. We looked good blocking and neutralized their best attacker with solid serving.

Kierra McGee went off on it seemed like 5 consecutive kills to take a lead in the first set and Ole Miss was never in the rest of the match.

We have had Amy Houser and Gabby Litwin have become our 2 DS's over the past two matches and although a small sample size of play our passing has looked much better.

Ashlie Reasor had one of her better 3 set matches from the right side hitting a solid .353 and more importantly having 6 block assists, one area of improvement but she had more chances because of the number of swings the outside hitters for Ole Miss had to take.

We sided out at an alarmingly high rate of 72% comparative of under 50% for Ole Miss.

Next up a reeling Florida team that was #3 in the nation before dropping 3 straight SEC matches. Their floor defense in the back row along with below average passing gives us a good shot at their place but it will be tough. Serve aggressive and their lack of tip coverage needs to be exploited. We have to keep them OOS when Alhassan is on the front row.

A&M 0 Florida 3. Florida is not reeling anymore.

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A&M 0 Florida 3. Florida is not reeling anymore.

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See my post above.

Underground, who are you getting to replace the Corbelli's??

Just curious as to your thoughts of a replacement of a coaching staff of a consistent NCAA tournament team

I don't always agree with some of the decisions, but they have more hands on and more volleyball knowledge than I ever will.

I haven't seen the Florida match yet but will get a chance to sometime soon. Without seeing anything but the box score I can safely assume that the Florida passers who have been below average in the last few matches were nails. When the other team is in system and has a player like Rhamet Alahhsan we are not going to be able to defend that attack that is that vertical like most teams in the nation

SEC Network.
We have to beat SC. They are 0-5 in the SEC so far.
Sets 2-2.

Ags win, 3-2. Hit .181 thru first three sets; were behind sets 1-2.
Hit around .600 in set 5 in which Ags dominated 15-4.
Ags now 3-2 in SEC.

Schedule problems Ags have:
Must still play MO & KY twice.
Last 4 games -- KY, FL, MO, & AR.

We will have to get much better to even win half of those 6 games.

quote:

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Underground, who are you getting to replace the Corbelli's??

Just curious as to your thoughts of a replacement of a coaching staff of a consistent NCAA tournament team

I don't always agree with some of the decisions, but they have more hands on and more volleyball knowledge than I ever will.

I haven't seen the Florida match yet but will get a chance to sometime soon. Without seeing anything but the box score I can safely assume that the Florida passers who have been below average in the last few matches were nails. When the other team is in system and has a player like Rhamet Alahhsan we are not going to be able to defend that attack that is that vertical like most teams in the nation

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Yes.

Alabama tonight. Last year we were able to stop all SEC player Krystal Rivers in both matches, however were not able to stop now soph OH Kat Hudson during our split of the series last season. If we can control first contact I think this is a match we should win. Hudson, due to injury, hasn't played as much this year and they are just now getting to use the lineup they wanted. Our middles are IMO much better than Alabama thus ball control will be the key.

Went 6-0 in sets over the weekend beating Alabama and Miss State for 2-0 weekend.

In both matches I don't think we were ever in doubt of winning the sets, which is not always the case.
Babers was unstoppable on Sunday with 9 kills leading to a 1.000 kill percentage and Shelby Sullivan right behind her with 10 kills with a .400 hitting percentage.

Our starting DS's looked good and we had some digs that not only were dug to th 20-10 standard but actually to stay in system.

Stephanie Aiple set a balanced attack and Kaitlyn Blake got some more swings on the outside towards the end of the match and did well in set three. Reasor had a solid match again her cross court hard angle shot is becoming deadly. Needs to work on line shot a bit but had two off speed kills as well. This is the type of match against Miss State I wish she had gotten to serve her jump top spin serve that is a hit or miss serve but when she hits it takes the team out of system.

Of the three main issues I have we had no real issues this weekend although missed a couple of freeball chances to put the ball away against Alabama but no real issues as most sets were determined by the time we got to 20 points.

We have LSU next Wednesday in our only match of the week before going to First place Kentucky and then a much improved Tennessee squad. These three matches will determine who we are IMO...are we the team who battled and won against Big 10 leading Minnesota after an injury to Angela Lowak or are we the team that lost to a good Iowa team who is winless in the same conference.

I thought a 13-5 record was what we could expect in SEC play, these next three games will help shape that league standing a lot more than any other part of our schedule.

I think against Kentucky we will have to shift our rotations to have Hardesty and her improved block go up against their 6'5'' RS Brooke Morgan and have Kierra McGee hit against the Setter Morgan Bergen at least 2 of the 3 rotations

Come support the Aggies against LSU Wednesday



Looks like the plan is to redshirt the 6'7'' girl from Mexico.

Lady Ags just took game one of the set with LSU!

The Ags swept!!

Group of LSU guys with no shirts giving the hookem signs ! Disappeared quickly after they got beat !

They were actually a bunch of guys from Austin...why they had references for Longhorn Network and hookem etc. i thought they were fun bunch, one dates one of the LSU players according to someone in athletics who found out about the group

Game assessment later

Just beat #20 Kentucky 3-1 on the road

Fantastic win at UK! Came from way back in both sets 3 and 4 to get the W. McGee's smash on the 2nd to last point from way back was amazing.