Forums

[BeckysTXA]

They are big and they are fast. We will have to play our best to beat them. Here are some keys -- and feel free to add to this list as I know some of you are looking at this match up and what it will take to beat them.

1. Stop their great OH Bergsma. She's an AA and a USA A2 player. Her hitting numbers are better than Kray's by a mile. Both wear #2. You can't beat Oregon without stopping her.

2. Serve agressively. Their setter is Lauren Plum. Also an AA and USA A2 player. Her numbers are better than Sam's. Don't give her all her options or we won't be able to stop their hitters. We have to serve like the devil tonight.

3. Oregon's middles are taller than ours. We serve tough and we take them out of the game. Our middles are way better blockers. But we gotta serve tough to give our blockers a chance to get set up because they play fast. They even serve fast, meaning the ball is in the air the second the ref blows the whistle. They just keep coming at you. We better be in shape 'cause it's coming full throttle.

4. Their OH2 Brenner also plays all 6 rotations. So they will ALWAYS have a hitter in the backrow and both she and Bergsma are very good attaching from the pipe. That means usually 4 hitters on the floor at all times. aka -- don't let them have easy passes because we won't be able to stop their hitters if we have to defend 3-4 of them at any one time.

5. They have a solid backrow defense/serve receive. They've been aced the same percentage as us, but they play in the PAC 12 and they have faced much tougher serving all season. We've got to limit our serve receive errors. We had too many against Pepperdine. To counter, I think we dig the ball better than they do, but both teams are solid defenders digging up attacks. Their hitters look to hit harder than ours. Note here: That might be their setter/hitters seem to connect with great timing more often than we do which results in bombs coming in fast.

6. On paper we are a way better blocking team -- but Pac 12 vs A-10 might be why.

7. Errors -- we have to limit our errors to win. We can't give them points. If we are giving them more than 6 points off errors in a 25-pt set, it will be tough for us to win. We have to make their offense generate close to 20 points a set. That's hard to do. As a point of reference, last night in Set 3 we generated 18 of our 25 points. That was the best by either team all night.

On paper they are the better team. Time to step up and beat somebody. Tonight's the night.

Flyer Up!!!!