well, kind of got sketchy end of the 4th set

the team can be frustrating, they look so in sync for 2 sets. serve pressure forcing Irvine out of system, MBs pounding it down their throats

then Goss, have to give credit, got Irvine off to a hot start 3rd set, he can bring it from the end line.

recovered 4th set and had the match in hand, then...jeez on a not so hard jump server, Irvine erased 4 match pints, Gajek hit out, Varga hit out, poor passes, MacRae had put Hills in to receive and he struggled, put Bloom back in, and finally got an in system pass that Cryst put down for the match, but if they did not score that point, yikes

this team has progressed, the dual setter has worked out well, albeit with the role reversal Doty coming in late 3rd was not effective.

main thing is MB connection has gotten a LOT better, and I give some credit to Doty, and Pazanti seemed to set to mddles better coming off the bench.

key thing was Varga despite a few too many errors hitting, Varga was back to serving lights out, he was putting more right to left spin, probably a subtle change with his wrist, and had 4 aces and only 1 error and back to scoring points. hopefully that continues after about two months of losing something he had the first month of the season.

Bloom was fantastic this weekend, experience showed, and needed that with Kandev still resting his leg.

have the #2 bye for next week which is huge and probably get Irvine again for a 3rd straight match in the BWCT semis. really want to get another crack at Hawaii.

the win was also huge, trying to get that 3rd or 4th seed for the NCAAs and host the first weekend if they do. Ball STate, Pepperdine, and Beach are the 3 teams likely to get to get those 3rd and 4th seeds. Ball State has RPI/KPI inflated ratings and geography on their side.

I can't see how the team does not get an at-large with the weekend sweep, they'll own head to head over Irvine no matter what plus the other metrics, USC lost again, Lindenwood lost. It's pretty close to a lock.

Kind of strange, this team is good, it has flaws, and jeez only losses to 1/2 UCLA/Hawaii and undefeated vs. everyone else.

last 3 weeks team just seems to grind a bit better, and the progress of Cryst especially, and Gajek playing more mature. Larson is a super stud libero.

the team has weapons, especially the serve pressure. still believe they could win the BWCT, we'll see. especially in Irvine would be nice.

for a large portion of the weekend they made Irvine look bad. and part of that is the service pressure.