UT released their VB schedule. Notre Dame & VaTech coming to Savage which is great - too bad they were two of the worst teams in the ACC last year. Also playing Wake Forest and Northwestern.

Looking at last year's RPI rankings, only Northwestern had a better RPI than Toledo, of the OOC opponents, so perhaps there are opportunities for UT to win a couple. But this will be a somewhat unproven roster, so we will have to see.

https://utrockets.com/news/2023/6/28/wom...edule.aspx

Who ready for some VBALL (prob my second fav college sport)... would really like to check out some games this year.... plus two local girls from Hawaii are on the team! yessa!

UT keeps most of the roster intact from last year, only losing 3 players, but they were all contributors. The biggest loss is having Sina Uluave transfer to SMU for her final year. They bring in 6 newcomers, including a late addition not announced in November, in 6'3 MB Kayla Ozanich from Okemos, MI. They have a large roster with 19 players - but it still seems to me to be thin on the defensive end, with only Jaqua having significant experience playing L or DS, and two others who played spot roles last year. Uluave was also an all-court player, so she filled in defensive roles too, but is now gone.

Front line still looks strong with Alt, Filisi, Bouyer and Pierce, and a load of young hitters looking to make their marks. Morman is back at S, but needs to take another step up and improve as a senior leader. But, serve receive and passing have been the weak points of the team in recent years in my opinion, so we will have to see if the can improve that part of the game to be in contention for the top spot in the MAC this year.

Is Jason Oliver the right guy?

(07-23-2023 10:30 AM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  Is Jason Oliver the right guy?

I mean...they just had their best season in a decade and second best season in 18 years, so I wouldn't say he's not the guy lol.

Exhibition loss 4-0 to Wright State.

Don't go to see WSU volleyball, but I did hear, they can recruit and compete well against other D1 schools.

(08-19-2023 07:19 PM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  Exhibition loss 4-0 to Wright State.

how can you lose 4-0?

Lets go Brooke!!!

Season preview story is out:
https://utrockets.com/news/2023/8/23/wom...eview.aspx

Interestingly, VB has not released a media guide. (Neither did soccer.) Seems strange, but maybe they are trying to cut costs, by not hiring media interns for those types of jobs?

Anyway, coach announces in the story that 2 of the freshmen will redshirt - both middles, which is where they seem a little thin on depth to me, but hopefully I am wrong. Very anxious to see the freshman hitter from Hawaii, as the small amount of HS tape I saw on her looked impressive to me (although I am not a VB expert.)

Season starts Friday at Wake Forest, where they play Northeaster in the morning, and then Wake at 7. The Evening match is supposed to be streamed on the ACC Network Extra. They then play Grand Canyon on Saturday.

(08-23-2023 04:42 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Season preview story is out:
https://utrockets.com/news/2023/8/23/wom...eview.aspx

Interestingly, VB has not released a media guide. (Neither did soccer.) Seems strange, but maybe they are trying to cut costs, by not hiring media interns for those types of jobs?

Anyway, coach announces in the story that 2 of the freshmen will redshirt - both middles, which is where they seem a little thin on depth to me, but hopefully I am wrong. Very anxious to see the freshman hitter from Hawaii, as the small amount of HS tape I saw on her looked impressive to me (although I am not a VB expert.)

Season starts Friday at Wake Forest, where they play Northeaster in the morning, and then Wake at 7. The Evening match is supposed to be streamed on the ACC Network Extra. They then play Grand Canyon on Saturday.

Brooke went to an excellent private school... (easily the best academic/hardest school in the state).. her HS team Iolani won the state championship her senior year... she prob needs sometime to adjust to the college game...i don't think she was the teams terminator last year....

Rockets picked to finish 4th in the west in the preseason poll.

Rockets win a squeaker over Northeastern in 5 sets. Alt led the Rockets with 22 kills, hitting .294. A coming out party for Izzy Granger who added 17 kills.

Interestingly, Payton Mormon did not play at all. Mary Kate Lopez started out at setter, but after the Rockets fell behind 2 sets to 1, UT turned to true freshman Macy Hatkevich to finish out the match. She ended up with 21 assists, as the Rockets took the last 2 sets. Hatkevich was the only freshman to play at all according to the live stats. Northeastern was an ok team last year, with barely a winning record and an RPI that would have been in the bottom half of MAC teams.

Will be a little harder tonight, playing Wake on their home floor at 7.

Rockets lose to Wake in straight sets. Serve receive is still a huge problem, as well as way too many service errors. And the block, which was so good last year, was nonexistent tonight as none of the middles were getting to their spots. Probably should have won set 1 if not for the errors, and set 3 was close too. Bouyer led the Rockets with 11 kills.

Pierce was in sweats, so not sure what the issue is with her. The announcers said that Mormon wasn't playing because her nursing program requirements prevented her from participating in summer practices. But then, inexplicably, Coach tossed her into the match at 17-17 in the 3rd set. That seemed strange.

Coach is using Granger as an all-court player, like he does with Alt, but that's a work in progress IMO. Even Alt, after 4 years, is still somewhat of a liability when she rotates to the back row. Saw more of the freshman setter Hatkevich again. She looks promising, but she obviously hasn't built up timing with the hitters yet, and at only 5'8, she hurts the blocking when she's in the front row. 6'3 freshman middle Emily Honzelka got a little time in the 3rd, but we did not see any of freshmen OH Brooke Naniseni or DS Avery Adamski.

I also just noticed that the Rockets have added a third assistant coach this year (seems like not long ago they only had 1) in Sydney Watson, the wife of Rocket FB coach Ross Watson. Apparently she was an all-American setter at Utah and Nebraska, and has coaching experience both at the college and club level. Presumably, she will be coaching the setters. We will see if that pays any dividends as the season progresses.

(08-25-2023 08:08 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Rockets lose to Wake in straight sets. Serve receive is still a huge problem, as well as way too many service errors. And the block, which was so good last year, was nonexistent tonight as none of the middles were getting to their spots. Probably should have won set 1 if not for the errors, and set 3 was close too. Bouyer led the Rockets with 11 kills.

Pierce was in sweats, so not sure what the issue is with her. The announcers said that Mormon wasn't playing because her nursing program requirements prevented her from participating in summer practices. But then, inexplicably, Coach tossed her into the match at 17-17 in the 3rd set. That seemed strange.

Coach is using Granger as an all-court player, like he does with Alt, but that's a work in progress IMO. Even Alt, after 4 years, is still somewhat of a liability when she rotates to the back row. Saw more of the freshman setter Hatkevich again. She looks promising, but she obviously hasn't built up timing with the hitters yet, and at only 5'8, she hurts the blocking when she's in the front row. 6'3 freshman middle Emily Honzelka got a little time in the 3rd, but we did not see any of freshmen OH Brooke Naniseni or DS Avery Adamski.

starts with serve receive if that aint happening game over.. you need people who can do that effectively... well i lilke to hope its the first couple of matches and working things out... and hard to recreate game day vibes while doing two-a-days in the gym... but passing/defense are number one!!

Rockets lose to Grand Canyon 0-3. Two out of three sets were close. GCU had beaten Northeastern earlier also in 3 straight sets. They were 18-11 last year and played in the same post-season invitational that UT did last year.

Rockets lost their home opener to Youngstown State last night, 1-3. They did not look good. YSU is not a powerhouse VB team by any means, having lost to 3 different MAC teams last season, having only beaten Akron who was very bad last year.

Rockets were a mess in set 1 and lost it easily. In set 2 they seemed to get things together and went up 17-9, only to end up losing the set 25-23. You don't see many 8 point leads evaporate that quickly in VB. In set three, they again went up, by 5 or so points, and actually had set points at 24-21, but YSU tied it and UT had to struggle to win in extra points. Set 4 was also close, but UT faded in the end.

Mormon still not playing. Coach went with the freshman setter to start and she had some mixed results - not all her fault, as the passing was really bad in set 1. But she also seemed to set the right side about 75% of the time which was strange, and YSU was all over that for the most part. Then he went back to MK Lopez in the 3rd and 4th and the offense flowed better. But, by the 3rd set, it seemed like coach had just decided to not worry about winning and played almost everyone sitting some of the veterans and riding players like Alford (who played in 1 set last year) and freshman Adamski in the back row and others. Naniseni saw her 1st action in set 2 and looked kinda tentative to swing out, but that was at least in part due to timing issues with the also-freshman setter. The young players made some good plays but made way more errors. YSU blocked UT like they were a top 20 team all night, and probably could have won much easier if not for lots of mistakes they themselves made.

I don't have a positive outlook at this point. It could be a really long season, but there is some time yet to improve. Don't know what's going on with Mormon. Seems like it's gotta be something more than just she missed summer practice due to requirements of her major, since he played her briefly the previous match, and as a senior she knows the system and most of the hitters well. They play VaTech tonight and Memphis tomorrow. Those could be ugly, but we will have to see.

Strange match last night, as VaTech came to Savage 4-0, not having lost a single set, and most of them were blow-outs. The Rockets played badly in set one, hitting for a negative percentage (more errors than kills) and yet, somehow, still not sure how, UT won the set 25-22. Sets 2&3 went to VaTech as UT kept making errors. Then something flipped in set 4, and UT played their best set of the season. Combined with numerous errors from the Hokies, UT took it in dominating fashion, 25-15. After UT ran out to a 4-1 lead in set 5 it looked possible they would take the match, but sadly no, as VaTech showed good composure to rally and UT could not find shots and UT loses set 5, 15-11.

Now, Virginia Tech did not look impressive to me at all, and I am guessing will finish near the bottom of the ACC, but still UT looked a bit better than some of the previous matches. Mary Kate Lopez was setter for the entire match and did a decent job, although there were still several mistimed connections. Alt had a poor game and was hitting negative through 3 sets but came on a bit in the last 2. Granger showed some flashes of how good a hitter she can be, leading UT with 16 kills. Erickson also had a great match with 12 kills, hitting .370. But the frustrating part is UT still mostly beating themselves - double touches, back row attack errors, net violations and 16 service errors. That's just a ridiculous number of points given away - and several of the serves missed by 10-15 feet.

I expect the better MAC teams - WMU, Ball State and BG at least - would have beaten the Hokies the way they played, so UT still has a ways to go to show they can be competitive in the MAC this year. Still time to clean up the errors, hopefully starting tonight against Memphis who lost to YSU in 5 sets and was crushed by VaTech in 3 straight.

Rockets beat Memphis 3-1 to close out the Toledo Invitational. Was not able to watch, but all 4 sets went down to the wire. Alt & Bouyer 14 kills a piece. Memphis is 2-4.

Hope they start pulling it together soon… will be able to see my first match in october