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11-28-2010, 07:53 PM
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Flyer Volleyball Superfan. Almost 8,000 Posts To Prove It.
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Butler Thread
Heads up on the Friday matches at Frericks -- they very well could sell out. Butler averaged 715 fans/home match this year and tOSU averaged 1096. Lipscomb was at 399. And UD 1205. According to Butler's website, they will have a big fan following and you know tOSU will.
You might want to get your 2 day pass for $10 now and you'll want to get there early to get a good seat. The NCAA took away a lot of the floor seating (maybe all?) when we've hosted before.
Also - Butler finished 2nd in the Horizon regular season and won the conference tournament from the #2 seeded position. Common opponents this year:
lost to Baylor 3-0
Lost to X 3-2
also lost to:
SMU 3-1
Stephen F Austin 3-2
AZ 3-0
Louisville 3-1
Cleveland St 3-0
Milwaukee 3-1 (split for the year)
Green Bay 3-1.
No big wins except Wright State twice (3-2, 3-1) and Milwaukee 3-2.
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12-01-2010, 01:35 PM
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General of the Air Force
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Cleveland State from that league gave us a tough match last year or the year before. The team has done a very good job this year of focusing on their own play instead of worrying about the opponent. Bring your A game and try to end the match as soon as possible. the longer a match lasts the more luck can factor into it.
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12-02-2010, 01:46 PM
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Flyer Volleyball Superfan. Almost 8,000 Posts To Prove It.
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Butler's match preview video
http://www.butlersports.com/sports/w...vbnotes14-ncaa
My first impressions are they won't be looking ahead and neither will we. Also, they look a little slow versus UD's pace of play.
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12-02-2010, 01:50 PM
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Flyer Volleyball Superfan. Almost 8,000 Posts To Prove It.
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Cleveland State - 2 years ago (3 since we are at the end of this year?). Sheff's first year here. 2nd weekend. Dayton tournament after we had gone to AZ St and lost 2 of 3 matches. We beat Cleveland State 3-2 in a close match.
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12-02-2010, 05:30 PM
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Captain
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I think a slow style of play should help us. After the likes of x and UNI, we should have no problem setting up the block and getting in position for digs. Hopefully the team can stay focused and get through this match instead of thinking ahead.
Go Flyers!
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12-02-2010, 11:35 PM
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From what I saw at practice today, UD should be able to overpower Butler. They have no one anywhere close to the size of Lindsay, Becky, OR Yvonne. The Bulldogs go mostly to Jessica Wolfe, their big-time OH who averages more tha 4 kills/set, far and away more than anyone else on the team. Tiny setter (Gina Vera) for Butler, so if Jess can pick on her and set whomever is on the side of the net opposite Vera when she's in the front row, that could become a very long rotation cause they won't be able to block a whole heck of a lot.
I now have to shut up for two days per NCAA (and those watching the video stream will notice Mandy and I will be totally unbiased in our call for all three matches this weekend) but I'll be ready, so if anyone sees any interesting stat or fact and can throw it up here, by all means go for it!
And for the only time this weekend, GO FLYERS!
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12-03-2010, 07:27 AM
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Flyer Volleyball Superfan. Almost 8,000 Posts To Prove It.
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Speaking of undersized competition...
I watched Nebraska-Sacred Heart on tv last night. SH has 1 player at 6-0 and everyone else is shorter. NE of course has just about everyone over 6-0 including two starting 6-5 rightside hitters.
SH had a freshmen leftside OH who is 5'7" and can hammer the ball. Great hops. She's like a firecracker - just explodes at the net. NE won 3-0, but SH gave them a game in the second set before a service error at 22-22 allowed NE to close out the final 2 points. Very entertaining set to watch sheer power and size (NE) getting matched point for point from a fearless undersized opponent.
Note to Flyers: Play fearless this weekend and swing with a purpose. Attack agressively. Serve agressively. Just keep bringing it no matter what happens. SH did and it was inspiring.
Also watched MI and WA. Michigan's L1 - who is about 50% of their offense - didn't suit up. Rolled her ankle earlier in the week and could not play. WA won 3-0. But Michigan has only themselves to blame. 46 errors by MI in 3 sets = 15+/set. And 13 of them were service errors. In the first set it was neck and neck and MI lost by 3. They had 7 service errors. You do the math. They gave Washington 15 of their 25 points every set. You can't win against good teams when you make errors.
Note to Flyers: Play smart and keep your errors down. Do NOT give them points, make them out-play you and earn points. We have one of the lowest errors/set in the nation (6.7/set). That's one of our competitive advantages and we have to continue to play smart in the NCAAs and keep our errors at a minimum.
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12-03-2010, 09:23 PM
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Flyers up 2-0 but not playing well. Basically up 2-0 on raw talent.
Cowdrey must be hitting -.900. I've never seen a player struggle like she has. Yet, she got set two's winning kill after about nine hitting errors in a row. She just needs to settle down, get more lift off her feet and open the court so she can keep it in play.
Paige, Becky, and Kray are carrying us. I'd say Paige has been the strongest out there. She is wrapping up every serve receive pretty well.
We just gotta hit the ball and get Amanda off this nasty funk and we should close this pooch out however.
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12-03-2010, 09:57 PM
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Flyer Volleyball Superfan. Almost 8,000 Posts To Prove It.
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Definetly not our best effort for sure. But we stepped up in the 3rd. Passing improved a lot. Way too many passes outside the 10' in the first 2 sets. And they started setting the MBs who delivered. Yvonne also had a nice night hitting .308.
Gotta play better tomorrow night. Clearly an off-night for Amanda - very rare. And she'll come back tomorrow strong. She's too much of a competitor.
I saw very few hard angle shots tonight from our OHs. I don't know if it was the set/pass that didn't give us that option. It also could have been their setter wasn't very tall so they hit over her - but their Libero was pretty good and dug shots. She had 16 digs in the first 2 sets.
We need to mix in hard angle and down the line shots more. Too many basic cross court shots all night.
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12-03-2010, 10:47 PM
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I agree on the hard angles. Most of the wind-ups were the typical 45 degree angle cross-court and Butler picked quite a few off. We need to hit closer to the 10ft line.
Becky, the other thing I saw was in the first two sets, I bet we set to the left side 95% of the time. We rarely ever went right. I thought we were way too predictable. Not many slides. Just shove it to the left side and look for the kill. Most of our attacking errors were on the left too, though Cowdrey hit over there. Against Butler maybe it didnt matter, but I did think Butler kept some kills in play because they anticipated us going left and had the back row player on the opposite side expect the cross-court ball at 45 degrees.
Im not sure how much better we played in the third set as Butler had a ton of errors in set three and were not communicating well. They let an easy serve receive just drop on the court below the line. I think we wore them down to be quite honest. We just had bigger, stronger horses and even when you dont play well, you can still win matches like this.
The good news is we swept a team 3-0 without playing well and with Amanda ponying up about 5 points for them in each of the first two sets. She just puts away half of those and we win set two 25-17. Im sure Amanda and Sheff will talk it out and she'll be ready to go tomorrow.
On the other side of it, I thought Paige was terrific tonight. She had about one bad touch all match and it was in the final set about two points from the match. She couldnt decide whether to let the ball go or play it. Other than that, she was on her line on every serve receive and gave the setters something decent to work with. And Paige's serves were helpful too. She sends a long, deep ball and forced the Butler back line to play them at shoulder height. It threw their rhythm off.
Watched most of Ohio State. I think they are deeper than Butler and more disciplined. I dont believe they get off the floor any better or are any quicker. I think they are savvier though and they didnt make the same kind of mistakes against Lipscomb that Butler did against us. Lipscomb was way undersized but they got a lot out of what they had. They were two points away from sending it to a fifth set, but two straight (bad) errors ended set four and the match.
OSU will be a tough out. They brought quite a few fans and it should be loud in Frericks.
If we play like we did tonight, we may get beat. If we play our best and OSU plays their best, they cannot win. Its as simple as that.
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12-03-2010, 11:56 PM
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I just looked through every boxscore this season. Amanda had 11 hitting errors tonight. The next highest during the whole season was Kray who had 9 hitting errors at SLU and also against Northern Iowa. But the SLU and UNI matches were five set marathons away from home, not three-set cruisers. So the discrepancy is even more pronounced.
It was a tough night for her to say the least. It was like watching an 85% free throw shooter go 2-11 from the stripe. My thinking is, if it was a season-best in futility, that probably means the likelihood we see the same Cowdrey tomorrow is slim and none. My guess is she demands the rock early and often and drops the hammer.
__________________
Hot shooting hides a multitude of sins.
Make everyone else's "one day" your "day one".
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12-04-2010, 08:50 AM
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I Am A Statistical God
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Agreed on Amanda. Definately an off night. Was talking to Brian about it and he was wondering if she wasn't hitting the ball with enough down angle, and therefore it's going out. Either that, or Butler noticed that her hits are always going out, yet people return them, not sure.
As for Paige, didn't pay attention to how well she was playing, but since her name never came up as a, 'wow, what happened', she had to have a good night. As Chris said, that one 'maybe, maybe not' touch she did at the end was one she would like back, but the other was her and Amanda both yelling that a serve was long, but it dropped in about a foot short of the line. They must have been too far up the court than expected for a call like that.
Go Ladies! Beat Ohio State!
(And props to whoever put a piece of paper with the word 'An' over the 'The' on the OSU buses!)
Figgie
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12-04-2010, 10:15 AM
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General of the Air Force
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I'm guessing that Amanda was a little overanxious yesterday. Usually when you hit balls out of bounds it is because your body is a little too far forward compared to the ball. I can't know for sure without seeing it on tape but I expect Amanda to be ready for a great match tonight.
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12-04-2010, 02:09 PM
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General of the Air Force
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Paige has been exceptional these last few weeks. Certainly playing her best when it counts most. For Amanda think her sets were a little low causing her errors. Higher sets and she has a better angle.
Good news is OSU players only saw our first two sets and not our dominating 3rd set.
The girls look confident and having fun too.
Need our A game tonight. Amanda will be fine. Go Flyers!
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