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Volleyball 2014
Volleyball 2014
UDBrian
Published by UDBrian
09-07-2014
Volleyball 2014

The 2014 volleyball season began last week on the road and the Flyers hosted their annual tournament this weekend. The Flyers are curently 4-2 with wins over Bowling Green (3-1), Middle Tennessee (3-0), Wright State (3-2) and CSU Bakersfield (3-0). The Flyers have lost to Pittsburgh (3-0) and Nebraska (3-0).

I attended the Nebraska match last night so that I could provide an educated guess at what Vball fans might expect during this season.

The Flyers lost to Nebraska 3-0 but they had opportunities to win sets one and three. The Flyers lost set 1 by the score of 29-27. UD hit .179 versus .216 to Nebraska. UD had a sideout percentage of 55% versus Nebraska's 59%. The team had opportunities to win this set.

Set two was dominated by Nebraska by the score of 25-14. The Flyers were outhit .448 to .167. The Flyers really struggled in this set with serve receive which made the hitting opportunities difficult. Nebraska's 86% sideout percentage made it almost impossible for UD to remain competitive in this set.

The Flyers lost set three by the score of 25-23. The Flyers outhit nebraska by the score of .275 versus .182 for Nebraska. The sideout percentages were again close with UD having 60% versus NEbraska's 65%. I don't have set by set stats but it seemed that UD had multiple service errors which hurt their cause.

Fans in the stands were complaining about the number of missed serves (12) in the Nebraska match. You will have some missed serves when you are serving aggressively which is low and hard. You want a float serve to barely clear the net because it will have more movement. If you hit it high over the net it normally doesn't have great movement. I do not have stats to determine who was serving effectively but from my vantage point Alaina and Jessica had difficult serves to pass. But, you do not need aces to be a good server. If the opposing team makes a poor pass it drastically cuts down on their offensive capabiltities. IF a team is routinely doing PASS, SET, SPIKE you are in trouble.

The offensive tandem of Alaina Turner, Jill Loiars and Jessica Sloan all hit the ball with authority against Nebraska. Angel Agu and Isolde Hannan are both threats on the inside. There is enough offense to win with that lineup with good passing.

Ball control needs to be very good for this team to be successful. In the past UD has had players like Rachel Krabacher who could save points with bombs from the back row. They do not have anyone on the roster capable of winning points repeately from the back row.

Some fans might remember Xavier's team from several years ago. They had very small outside hitters who were successful when the team passed the ball well. When the setter has multiple options it makes it tough for the defense to double up on a particular hitter and increases your kill percentage.

This team will need to pass the ball well to beat really good teams. The good news is that they have the skills and athleticism to pass the ball better than they have so far. Tim's teams have always played good defense and scrambled well. I expect the team to continue improving in this area. Janna Krafka and Rachel Jones with others are capable of making this a good passing and defensive team.

Jane Emmenecker has played just as expected after watching her highlight reel, she has great hands and places the ball accurately. Jane and Isolde missed badly on a few quick sets but that is a timing issue that they can corrected. Jenna Jendryk has shared some time with her as she recovers from knee surgery.

This will be a season of continuous improvement which would be expected with a coaching change. I do not expect the Flyers to peak anytime soon.

It is unlikely that UD can gel fast enough to win the A10 regular season title. But, I would say that the Flyers will have a chance to win the A10 championship and play in the ncaa tournament.

The progress made during the season should be fun to watch!
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