the dude knows Volleyball 
Previous Message
Yep, he and Natalie definitely have differing coaching strategies. It won't be many years till a brinks truck loaded with cash pulls into his driveway followed by a stretch limo with a full bar. Nice future for him. I too will miss Agi and Sheffie as well. Both have been key to this year's sucess. I didn't know what to expect from Sheffie and she's blown me away with her contribution this year. Agi didn't have huge numbers but she is the glue for this team. Previous Message
I did watch it.
What impressed me was his coaching job this year, he might have been the real COY. although they stunk it up receiving today.
totally different than Natalie. Northridge was getting waxed, and he was not quick to call Time OUts. I think he figured it was a match that they needed to figure SB out on the court, , so he just let his players try to work it out on teh court. Natalie would have never let that first set get to 6-0. Of course I guess one can argue Montoya's slow hook did not work in that case today, not sure anything could have. Frankly, get rid of time-outs or only 1 per set. like why is 2 vs. 1 so important, but I digress. with challenges the matches get longer, so eliminate some TOs lol
Natalie is really quick to call TOs, IMO. I get it - two different strategies. Just I guess I'm somewhat on the 'let them figure it out, and get spanked' side of things. hard to argue though, as maybe she's stemmed some runs with that style.
Just to me Natalie's quick triggers in some respects does not let a team over course of season learn how to do it on the court. The challenge she did on the far opposite in/out ball drove me nuts, like she had zero view of it to begin with. I just can't stand using challenges as TOs unless it's reall late in a match and you have one to spare. Should never run out of challenges so that you don't have one late in a critical match. would be interested to know her 'success' rate cause I suspect it's not all that good.
the team/player development is good, just some of Previous Message
Good analysis and not much can be added. Should be one heck of a final 4 on Friday.
Any of these 4 teams could advance. Did you by chance watch the North post match presser? I'm impressed with coach Montoya despite today's result. He's got North moving in the right direction and he's a well spoken young coach. If he can put together a good year or two a P4 school will be in his future. What do you think of him? Previous Message
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.
68
Message Thread
« Back to index
on 11/27/2025, 8:39 am, in reply to "