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have to admit was pleasantly surprised at the level of competitiveness vs. the Tree

basically the Stanford match turned on two massive Stanford runs 2nd set with their main setter coming in for a 10 pint run, then 3rd set with an 8 pt match - the tam can't be giving up those types of runs, chalk it up to talent and also development in youth - you have to get out of those rotations

the good:

Mad Max actually looked better than I expected, had good locations I would say as good as Zayna, she's not as mobile and for an OH hasn't learned how to attack well yet, when she does there's a big upside.

Middles, had a lot of nice kills and stuff Stanford a few times, Sheffie brings energy her swing is often borderline throw (she did get called)

Serving, King and Jelenik had some really nice runs location and got Stanford out of position. Agi was missing a lot, if she gets that dialed we can, operative word is can, be a solid serving team, SEs 2nd set was part of the demise

Libero & DS. I do like Jelenik - you can see the athletic difference over Velucci, Velucci just did not have D1 athletic movement. it was klunky back there. I guess I was half expecting it ugly back there, and yes on the serving runs the passing went astray. have to recover from a shank. Back row just seemed more fluid ?, maybe Molina in his 2nd year is exerting more clearly in the coaching and planning, just seemed less clunky and maybe that's rose colored glasses and putting too much into Stanford's #6 rankng.

OH. Agi looked like she didn't miss a step, really missed her attitude and ability to play thru adversity and her shotmaking last year - she just exudes calmness and confidence - can see she will be the leader of the team, she could have a great year. King looked solid and she should get more so. really nice swing, IMO she would have beat out O'Reilly. Hamaker is a frosh and you can see she can be a player, she just look slike a solid Big West attacker.

hopefully vs. Oregon State they can keep that enthusiasm with a likely much smaller crowd they can maintain momentum cause the Student section won't be a big. really nice to see the big crowd and hope they get the dance and band for today and tomm vs. UCLA.

ORegon State got swept handily by Stanford, but hard to take too much this early from comparing scores. they'll need to grind. Gonna see how they fight thru what should be close sets tonight. and then challenge UCLA on Monday.

so all in all, at least for one match, the only off season loss that sticks out is Lomogoria, and the staff hopefully will make us forget about that rapidly.

one match though, lol, and they were hyped I'm sure for the opener and crowd. Not see what happens

also, Reagan didn't do some of her over-challenging with the refs thank god. this is her team, so this is kind of fun.

Hawaii got reverse swept on the islands...too bad!!