(09-12-2021 03:05 PM)owl95 Wrote: NCAA RPI had Sam Houston at #70, so they are a solid squad. Great to get 2 sweeps this weekend over solid teams, that should be a confidence builder given their tough start.
SHS is a very solid club. Much, much better defense than us, and a couple quality outside hitters. IMO, they played us even the first set, despite us winning...totally outplayed us the second set (we looked like a little league team out there the first half of the set; so bad that it forced Genny to make massive substitutions to shake things up)...and played us even in the 3rd set until Nicole served us to a 9-0 run. Fortunately, during those first two sets, we had Nicole on offense, and she was unstoppable.
Save for McCardell, who might have played her best match yet at Rice, our defense was really poor until we started the run in the 3rd set. Nicole had her second really sub-par backline defensive match (missed dig after dig) until the 3rd set, when the Nicole of old came alive (with 7 digs in that 3rd set alone).
Offensively, Ellie had another solid, efficient outing, and as other have said, Maruska probably had her best, most efficient offensive game at Rice. Nicole had her second consecutive dominant and efficient which offset the total disappearance of (and outright poor all-around play by) Anota (for the second consecutive match). How can she go from getting 28 kills with only a couple errors against SMU to virtually being shut out-- and playing incredibly passively-- the last two matches? Genny pulled her after the first set, and she never returned to action. Shore is a keeper and a really good server, but as a MB she needs to improve her offensive game. Kostelecky appears to be slowly coming back from injury. She looked solid today, especially on defense, which is her strong suit.
The service game is still not something for other teams to fear, but unlike last year, it's no longer a liability. We don't have any power servers, but Grippo, LaBue, McCardell, Shore and Graham all keep the ball relatively low to the net, and they've cut down dramatically on the momentum-killing service errors.
Defense needs to improve and be more consistent if we're going to be competitive against Baylor and UT.