always nice to give Irvine the boot

observations

UCSB looked really good - solid all around, ok Northridge looked not so good.


We looked good.....for awhile. Just latter parts of each set either lost focus, maybe Irvine fought a little better.


Hammaker - man, she does seem to have lost a lot of confidence, was hitting like avoiding the block. and then her receiving was going south, being targeted so that Agi had to step in. & Irvine frankly is not a good serving team. the other coaches there to scout, they'll see Agi cheating over and not only will target Hamaker but they'll also hit at seams that Irvine never seemed to.

to Hammaker's credit, here attack issues have not affected her serve, she's been acusing issues on the other side of the net these last two games and a couple nice aces again tonight

on the plus side, we didn't exercise King as much as we could have, sweeping and leaving something in the tank

SHeffie again picked up and was hammering away, the slide connecton was great......and then she struggled last set and a half.

Agi, man she'll be missed, she does not hit a high percentage, but she sure has so many shots, she shrugs off an error easily, and it is so clear how much she helps that backcourt with her receiving and passing - does not get fazed, a Sotoris type of player.


& King, makes it look so easy.


that 3rd set run, the worst part (at least to me) was Reagan panicked again and went hyrbid which makes me go bonkers. by now teams have scouted that line-up. I get the run started in that rotation, but then there were solid chances - it wasn't the setting (IMO), and then after the change they were ready for Mad Max to be set, like duh. It worked out of desperation that game vs. UCSD, but that was eons ago. but what do I know. I'm cringing at seeing that again, Reagan went to it extensively vs. Cal Poly and it was a disaster to try to fix an issue. our achillas can be that rotation with a poor set and no chance to set King from the back. but again, that hyrbid to me we lose an attacker (King), don't really gain one as Mad Max is already front row, I almost wish they'd have an option to have the set play to set Mad Max on 2 (hard to do). we are subtracting an attacker on a roation we need to get out of - ouch!

maybe it was good to be challenged with all the frosh and experience some stress that 3rd set.

they are practicing tomm. hope it is light, after coming back from Hawaii, rest up tomm.

Cal Poly is beatable, but they have been a bit of a thorn so I guess some factor to erase last year's semi (against a back up setter) and this year's SLO debacle with that delay of game penalty to boot.

all in all, the middles have grown, Agi & King are the real deal, the backcourt newcomers have been solid, they do have to receive - but that's true for all of these top 4 teams none of which are juggernauts.