Status of the Volleyball Union
DAYTON (OH) -- The Flyers are headed off for another challenging tournament this weekend in Buffalo, NY. Let's take a look back at last weekend before we get to coach Sheffield's detaled thoughts on his team.
The Flyers lost three out of three matches over the weekend which is a disappointment when you only consider their record. But, you also need to take into account that this is still a young team and they played three teams that were receiving votes in the polls.
There are many key stats to a volleyball match but sideout percentage is a very good way to judge serving, return of serve, blocking and hitting. If you are executing in all phases of passing, setting and hitting you will have a high sideout percentage. If your opponent has a high sideout percentage it means that your serving is not taking them out of their regular offense and your blocking might not be good enough.
The first match was against Pepperdine which had just beaten top 10 UCLA. You knw this was going to be a very tough match. You can actually see which sets UD won by looking at the sideout percentages below. When we sided out over 50% we won. The last set was 43% but we held Pepperdine to a sideout percentage of 50% which made this a very close, tough match. We started off great on sideout percentage in set 5 but dropped off allowing Pepperdine to pass us. Playing a fifth set often comes down to someone making one or two great plays and we fell just short.
UD Sideout Percentage
1 37%
2 61%
3 64%
4 47%
5 43%
In the next match against Florida State a couple of stats jump out. We only hit .125 against Florida State and had 35 hitting errors. Both teams blocked well as FSU had 15 blocks and we had ten. Even though we had a large number of hitting errors our sideout percentage was very good in sets 2 and three. But, FSU's sideout percentage was even better. This shows that both teams were running their offenses well and it was a close match except for the fourth set.
FSU UD Sideout percentages
52% 47%
58% 68%
69% 63%
78% 39%
In the final match against Michigan I was finally in attendance. Our hitting percentage was .219 but we allowed UM to hit at .292. Their middle blocker Courtney Fletcher killed the Flyers with 17 kills in only 21 attempts. I don't think the Flyers were able to pressure UM enough serving the ball and they passed the ball really well because of that. Our sideout percentages were good enough to win some matches but not against a team whose offense was running very efficiently.
UM UD Sideout percentages
68% 62%
73% 54%
69% 56%
On offense Rachel Krabacher, Yvonne Marten and Megan Campbell continue to carry the offensive load. But Shayne Brown is gaining confidence and taking advantage of her offensive chances.
When I asked coach Sheffield some questions about last weekend and the status of the team he provided me with great info:
To tell you the truth, I think things are going pretty well. Would I like to have won a couple of those 5 gamers? No question! Would the players have liked to have won them? Absolutely! But lets get some perspective on some things:
The 5 matches we have lost, their current RPI's are:
4 Illinois (5 games)
8 Michigan (3 games)
13 Pepperdine (5 games)
17 Tennessee (5 games)
27 Florida State (4 games)
We swept #38 Houston
Tennessee, Pepperdine, and FSU all return 5 rotation players from a year ago. Illinois returns 6 rotation players from a year ago. And Michigan returns 7 rotation players from a year ago. In contrast we return 3 rotation players.
Last year the preconference schedule looked like this:
6 Nebraska (Lost in 4)
7 Illinois (Lost in 3)
8 Northern Iowa (Won in 5)
9 Minnesota (Lost in 3)
We swept #49 Western Michigan
You can make an argument that against the better teams, this year's team has performed better than a year ago. And yet things ended up ok last year. In a few of the matches we did everything but win. Against FSU after a slow start, we rebounded pretty well and were dominating them. We were up 24-20 in the 3rd when Yvonne starting cramping due to dehydration. It got worse as the match went along and got pretty bad. Our training staff was working on her most of the match. It clearly affected our team's performance (and possibly, outcome). She had two IV's in her for 2 hours after the match. Without that, I truly believe we win that match. I thought we did pretty well this weekend considering we basically practiced one day last week. Health is a major issue with our team right now and a few of them are doing very little in practice. Hopefully this will change once we get through these 3 matches in 30 hours portion of our schedule.
To give another comparison, in '07 the team went 33-2. That was an awesome team with an awesome record. But that team played against 1 Top 30 team. This team just played 5 over the course of 9 days - a young team with very little practice - and held their own!
The RPI just got released today. Currently we are sitting at 31. Will we stay there, move up, or move down? I don't know. But I do know that in the history of Dayton Volleyball there have only been 4 teams that have had a better RPI. The '03 team finished 28th, the '07 team finished 14th, the '09 team finished 20th, and the '10 team finished 12th. That's some pretty good company! After 3 weeks of the season there have been 2 teams that have played 5 Top 30 teams - Pepperdine and Dayton.
I give you this not for excuses, but for insight to how I am thinking. I truly spend my time looking for ways to better the team, to challenge them, and to squeeze every ounce of potential out of them. The win-lose record is not something I worry about. I could schedule like the University of Washington has through 3 weeks, we'd be 9 and 0, and probably ranked 14th and everyone would be fired up. But, I wouldn't know much about the team. We challenged the team, found out we are close to some of the best teams in the nation, but we need to become more consistent to be one of them. Hopefully we learn that.
I will tell you this, I feel better about this team than I did the first week of preseason. Both, Hammer (at a position she did not play last year or in club) and Kray are making runs for Conference Player of the Year. Sammi has improved immensely since the spring. Paige's passing, defensive, and serving numbers are all way, way up this year and she is as confident as she's ever been. Yvonne is getting better at a position she has never played, and Shayne is getting better at a position she has never played. The team's confidence is high because they know they are going to end up being pretty good - they can see it!
Our goal from Day 1 was to compete for another A10 Championship. If this young team can do that, I would say they did a pretty good job of transitioning from 7 graduating players. Other than Penn State, who else graduates those kind of numbers and still puts themselves in a position to win a conference championship? :-) Hopefully Flyer Fans will stay behind this team. The '09 team was an underdog team to a very veteran SLU team. This team is definitely an underdog team as well. This team wants to win so bad and be remembered as one of the good Dayton teams.
Obviously we were all disappointed that we couldn't pull out a couple of those close matches. Anytime you have a heavyweight on the ropes you want to knock them out. But we also realize we are a work in progress. The team is not down. They know they are close. As for this coming week, we are just starting to break down film. To tell you the truth, I just want to get healthy. We have 5 players that are on swing/jump limits. I will be able to tell you a little more after I start watching the teams tonight.
Thanks for the great insight Kelly!
This is a big weekend for Flyer volleyball. Don't give up on this team. They will get better! And they are driven to produce another A10 championship and NCAA tournament berth.
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