(09-16-2022 08:36 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Rice Fight Never Dies.

Completely outplayed by K-state, down two sets and trailing 0-3 in the third, and they just refused to lose. Good teams find ways to win.

That's the way I saw it. Really badly outplayed by K-State for most of the match. K-State, like Texas Tech, didn't really have a weakness, and was a VERY good serving and blocking team. They out-blocked us 26-14, and it was only that close thanks to Bichelmeyer and Adekunle combining for 5 blocks in the 5th set. If we had last year's back line K-State would had double digit aces. Their serve was that good.

To state the obvious, our offense is still out of sync, and I don't see any adjustments being made by Genny. We won this on Nia's and Izzy's serving, and Anota taking charge-- and not being denied-- in the final set. She ended up with 15 kills, 3 errors, .522, 6 blocks). Bichelmeyer had a solid match (12 kills, 3 errors, .273, 3 blocks, 8 digs). Maruska was Maruska-- frustratingly inefficient on offense (13 kills, 6 errors, .179), but she once again contributed to our backline defense. Carly was also back in form. Off nights for Courtley and Harris.

This team epitomizes RFND. We are now 3-1 in 5-set matches-- all against P5 programs, and in that one loss at ranked Oregon, we were badly outplayed but somehow had Oregon tied 9-9 in the fifth set.

As others have noted, though the service defense was excellent tonight, the back line defense had a sub-par game for them against K-State's offense. Far too many uncontested kills.

Creighton is a senior-laden and very tall team. We're going to have to play a lot better than we did tonight if we're going to compete against them. The good news is we pulled this one against a quality team despite playing a rather lackluster match.

Onward and upward.