RE: Volleyball hosting Adidas Invitational I
Wow, quite the match....and a really important win for us.
Rice badly outplayed the first 1 1/2 sets, but oddly turned it around with Darby Harris playing instead of Carly for balance of the 2nd set.
First let me say that Texas Tech is one heck of a quality squad. Not sure why they haven't yet received any votes. Their offense positions the excellent kill opportunities on almost every play, and they had 20 blocks against us. Their backline defense is solid, as well. Really good all-around team. I don't think anyone in the country is going to beat Texas (unless they beat themselves), but I think Tech will battle with Baylor for 2nd place in the Big12, and will likely be a post-season team.
Again, it was the defensive back line that kept us in the game as our offense once again struggled mightily. McCardell (36 digs) was exceptional, while Maruska, Harris and Mansfield all had double digit digs. Adekunle had a second consecutive inefficient match, though her numbers went from horrid to semi-respectable with a strong final set. A pattern with her over the past couple years is when she gets blocked a couple times early she loses her aggressiveness and shies away from the kill ball. Fortunately for us, she regained her confidence in the decisive final set. Maruska continues to be frustratingly inefficient (almost to the point of being an offensive liability), yet she continues to get more attack opportunities than anyone else. However, she is a big part of our defensive strength. Today she hit 8 kills, 6 errors, 47 attacks, .043, but had 23 digs. Courtley (16 kills, 3 errors, 44 attacks, .295) and Bichelmeyer (14 kills, 5 errors, 31 attacks, .290) were our only efficient offensive players. Once again, far too many wasted offensive opportunities with weak taps over the net. And we had as many blocking errors as we had blocks. Finally, our service game almost cost us the match (3 aces, 10 service errors). It really needs to improve if we're going to be able to compete against elite teams. We can't beat ourselves with unforced offensive errors and service errors.
Having said all that, this team showed resilience and perserverence after getting blown out in the first set (and going down by 4 early in the second), and then having Tech blow past us after a back and forth first half of the 4th set.
Large crowd with Texas Tech fans filling their side of the court. Disappointing that the students once again failed to show up.
Next weekend should be a big test for us and should give us an opportunity to get back into the Top 25. Kansas State (8-2) is solid and #17 Creighton (and probably moving up in tomorrow's poll) is really good, and already has a couple wins against ranked opponents (and lost a nail biter 5-setter to #2 Nebraska).
|