Whoop!

Is Kainz still sick, or has Rhodes won the job in practice time?

I can't get on the aggieathletics website. Anyone else having problems? How is the game going?

Ags up 2-1:
30-27, 28-30, 33-31, tied at 9 in game 4.
Stanton and Hahn hitting very well.

Stayed tied for a while, but Tech on a 5-point lead, now they're up 25-19.

Yuck, four of those last points were passing and attack errors.

Tech now up 26-20.
Mary Batis is hitting very low percentage tonight... but a lot of that comes from being the OH forced to attack desperation sets off wild passes.
28-20 on another ace.
Tech with game point, looks like we're going five.


[This message has been edited by wannaggie (edited 10/4/2006 9:07p).]

Philister Sang puts the ball away to take the game 30-22. Going to game 5.
Batis with 19 kills but 14 errors on 57 attempts.
But Bryant has pulled out of her early match slump to bring her percentage up to .273
Stanton .216
Hahn .471
Yon at .105
Ammerman at .000

Nebraska sweeps KSU easily.



Why does our serve receive never get better?

Tech with another ace.
Followed by a dump and no one takes responsibility.
If we don't pass, we don't even get a chance to hit.

Tech up 4-0. Timeout Corbelli.

We get a point on a Tech attack error, 1-5.
Sang answers with a kill 6-1.
Tech serve error 6-2.
Castillo with good serve, Aggie block 6-3.
Sang with a kill 7-3.
Bryant down the line 7-4.
Bryant gets an ace 7-5.
Tech with a dump after a long rally, nobody there. 8-5

Switch sides.

Tech kill 9-5.
Terrible pass, nothing Rhodes can do, Yon into the net. 10-5
Timeout.

Bad pass, we give it to Tech, they kill from the right side. 11-5.
Hahn gets a kill when the pass is decent. 11-6
Bad pass on an obvious tip that should be a virtual freeball, Rhodes doubles. 12-6
Nice defense Aggies! transition to a kill. 12-7.
Hughes with the kill. 13-7.

[This message has been edited by wannaggie (edited 10/4/2006 9:03p).]

I just don't get it, I really don't. I'm a self-proclaimed "they're young" stater, and even I'm getting a little fed up at this point.

Awful pass but Stanton makes a kill out of it, 13-8.
Sang gets another kill for match point. 14-8.
Terrible pass, Batis puts it away, 14-9.
Sang roofed, 14-10.

Batis serving very carefully.
Tech setter sets a 31 but looks like the hitter was going for a 1 and can't keep it in play. 14-11

Batis serves...SANG HITS WIDE!
14-12.

Batis with good serves.... Sang comes out of the middle, it dribbles off the block and finds the floor.

Tech wins 27-30, 30-28, 29-31, 30-22, 15-12.

I'd say the unsung hero award goes to either Kelly Stanton or Kelsey Bryant. Those two both played pretty solid games, Kahn wasn't too shabby, either.

However, I can't say the same for Courtney Rowe, and I really don't even know what too say about Zanny Castillo. Both have the ability, especially Castillo, but I can't tell if they're trying to hard or what, they just keep screwing up.

At this point, I'm just not sure what to think. I watched the first 3 and a half games, and I'm just stunned. This is a talented team that should have trashed Texas Tech...badly. And instead, we slugged it out, not because of a talent difference, but because of just stupid mistakes that seemed to never stop. We're talented, but I don't know if it's laziness or stupidity at this point that is stopping us. And I'm not sure if Corbelli knows how to fix it. In the 3+ years I've been watching Aggie volleyball, I've never seen her have to stay on top of a team like this one. I'd say pretty much any of the games the rest of the season are a tossup.

[This message has been edited by Maximus_Meridius (edited 10/4/2006 9:09p).]

I only have one thing to say:

PASSING

PASSING

PASSING

meghan kainz is still sick, doctors are confused about what she has but she should be returning soon, didn't get to see the game so any analysis would be helpful

Analysis?
Did you read what I wrote?
Maybe because I only had one thing to say it confused you?

There's nothing to analyze. If we can't pass the ball to target, there's no way of knowing anything about the rest of our offense. We could be loaded with incredible, smart attackers who have a lot of finesse - or we could be saddled with inconsistent bangers incapable of choosing the right angle/line/rollshot to get the point. I believe it's the former, but without passing/setting all we see is the latter.

The blocking is generally good, but again, when you can't pass to let the setter put up something killable in the first or second volley, you're constantly in transition from defense to offense, which in long rallies will quickly take your blockers out of position and eventually leave your opponent with an open net to hit across.

oh ok, yes i saw that you wrote passing I just wanted to see if there were other issues

I knew there would be growing pains this season, but I wasn't expecting anything as bad as this.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the really lackluster defense. It seems that we just kinda creep up to the net and leave the back door wiiiiiide open. Tech took advantage of that several times tonight. We also seem to be confused about assignments, who covers what area, etc. Like I said, stupid stuff.

How can we go from a minor national contender to where we are now? Other top programs are still top programs, and we have dropped to the bottom of the Big 12. Go figure.

Volleyball team...Thanks for pouring salt in the tceh wound

The program has been on a slippery slope, and the descent is accelerating.

Young teame do not finish well. This team will get better and better. Patience everybody!

Frankly, it's recruiting and fundamentals coupled with an inability to make in-game adjustments.

Yes, the starters are almost all frosh, but "rebuilding" happens to dozens of Division I programs every year. It is the responsibility of the coaching staff to continuously develop all the players on your roster to minimize the gaps. To have had passing problems for the last three years and not have made sure to spend that time developing a go-to defender who can pass balls that give your setter the full range of offensive options.... I don't know what to say that won't bring out the ire of people who don't like to hear any criticism of the program.

It's rally scoring now, people. The game has moved beyond what it was when Corbelli first came here. Mistakes are more heavily punished than before, and you cannot simply count on a big OH to side-out and regain serve. Look at the top 10 programs and ask yourself what most have in common.....

PASSING

PASSING

PASSING

...in the form of a valued and highly skilled libero or DS.

When posting about this program last year, I was criticized for suggesting that we were not merely in the middle of a bumpy season but rather were in the middle of a downhill slide over several seasons. Laura and Kendra kept our butts out of the fire just barely enough to maintain the illusion that we hadn't fallen far from the glory years of 1997-2003 and all we needed was a little extra spark.

I guess we can just ditto both sides of all the Franchione arguments on the Football board.

im getting a "mark johnson situation" type vibe this season. thats not meant as a slight towards coach corbelli. shes a class act and has been a great representative of this university. but perhaps its time for a change. i seriously wonder what $bill is thinking right now....

i hope bill is thinking "this coach has an amazing track record of bringing the team around and this team is especially young. if the inconsistant performance turns into a consistant one, we will be winning again in no time"

were we a lot worse off last year before we started winning? granted we had more experienced players, but we went on a roll that can be only attributed to great leadership.

i dont disagree. i truly hope that is the case. i'll be honest in that i dont follow aggie volleyball as much as i would like to (my little sister plays small college v-ball, so thats all the volleyball i can take in a year)

i would hope that she gets every benefit of the doubt from the AD. if she turns it around with this young team i think thats a testament to her coaching ability and the girls on the team. but if not, what then? again, im not bashing laura or the coaching staff. i've met her a couple times and shes a great lady. but at what point is a move necessary by byrne?