flintdragon said:
was thinking about it earlier
We were definitely not setting the middles much and during the match, I was commenting how Waak couldn't seem to locate the placement when she did. She did great with them in set 5 though.
But I was actually wondering if the gameplan just didn't give middle kills the priority. Our blocks however were absolutely dominant and maybe the key to the win. Middles jump literally every play either to block or hit. They jump and swing even when the ball isn't for them as a diversion.
Is it possible we were selling out on the block and wanted to conserve the energy for the middles? ICO had a magnificent game. While not her highest block numbers (like the Pitt and TCU games), it was very good against a team like NU. Even more so, Perkins actually outblocked ICO and she's usually much quieter though still a keep contributor.
I know our forum plus VT there were plenty of people screaming for us to set the middles.
I thought we abandoned middle also while watching live, but a few on VT commented that NE was keeping blockers inside to take away our middle attack leaving our pins 1-on-1 which is why Waak was going to them so much. I haven't watched the replay yet (will be doing so tonight) so not sure, but from those posters it sounds like NE wanted to force our OHs to beat them and unfortunately for them Hellmuth and Stowers had career nights.
