Wahine-Titans rewind
By Cindy Luis
Other thread way too long
Here’s the stats.
Vorster 6-6-19, 4 BA
Croson 16-9-45, 2 aces, 16 digs, 1 BA
Maeda 1=0=3, 12 digs
Uiato 1-0-3, 41 assists 14 digs, 3 BA
Hartong 21-5-62, 2 aces, 9 digs, 4 BA
Adolpho 5-2-13, 6 BA
Goodman 4-1-10, 2 BA
Tuaniga 0-1-2 1 BA
Longo 2 aces, 22 digs
Kastle 9-4-22, 1 BA
Stauber 1-0-2, 14 assists
Hagines 1-1-2
7 aces, 7 SE, 11 blocks, 70 digs
Fullerton 3 aces, 11 SE, 15 blocks. 70 digs.
Credit the Titans for their defense at the end. major decision to go away from the 6-2 and let Taeatafa (injury-prone) to set. and switching out their libero from OH.
A lot of negatives out of tonight, including the letdown after being in control at 2-0. But the positive was they played through it and pulled it out, something they didn’t do against Cal, and to some extent UCLA.
Not sure what is going on with Uiato, although her mom is going through chemo. but sounded like the mom was going better. Still … team had a lot of family and friends in the gym and they got tight, pressed a bit.
Wahine fly back in the morning, take on Toyota in an exhibition Tuesday. UCI Thurday. The Beach Saturday.
not a pretty sight at Aloha Stadium. glad i’m not there.
Volleyshots
CSUF had more blocks than UH?
Yikes…may the force be with them against the Beach
Most of those blocks in Sets 3 and 4 when Hawaii was struggling and a lot when Hawaii went to ill-advised 3-meter attack.
More blocks when Shoji put Hartong back LS and Fullerton camped out there. Fullerton couldn’t do that the first two sets when Hartong was RS.
What a return back to the Big West. This is going to be a long conference season. After these 3 conference matches, I hope UH wins the conference title, not going to be a cake walk.
Sounds like the coaches has some growing to do as well making this season as their only 2nd season together.
Those pipe sets were not working. I hope the Wahine will learn from this tough first road trip – 2 five set games. A win is a win – we’ll take it. Go Bows!
have a good night gang. at least it wasn’t the disaster football is tonight
Mita wasn’t herself tonight. Lots of sets close to the net.
I credit CSU’s middle blockers especially that 6-6 girl. They did a really good job in sets 3-5. Not sure how many block solos they had, but it seemed like a lot.
There were way more Hawaii fans then CSU fans in the crowd, but the Hawaii fans were a lot quieter.
Why is an elephant the mascot for a team named the Titans? And a skinny elephant too.
Mita hasn’t impressed me all season, it’s disappointing because I thought she was gonna have a break out season and get post season honors but it’s not happening.
Rage 777 – Back when “Orange State College” ( Cal State Fullerton) was started, they held an elephant race to help put the school on the map. Elephants from at least 15 colleges including Harvard were there. They started the race but the Long Beach State elephant went berserk and the rest scattered (as well as the spectators). I think they tried to have the race again but I am not sure, but that is why the elephant is their mascot. Were talking 50 years ago so I might be a little off.
Thanks Ron.
I think we need to remember that the BWC isn’t the WAC and these BWC teams are no pushovers… with that said though, I think there’s one thing to really take out of this…
I don’t think Shoji will be able to experiment with lineups DURING conference play anymore. It was a luxury in the WAC, being able to experiment and clear the bench by the middle of set 2, but the BWC is going to be a grind because there are much better volleyball players and teams from No. to No. 10.
The turn of events happened with the lineup switches in Game 3 and that just messed up the whole feel for set 4. Give Hawaii credit for pulling set 5 out, but realistically… Hawaii needs to start it’s seven and stick with it.
How many other Top 10 programs could do what Hawaii did in the WAC? Not many… that’s why Hawaii had such bloated statistics. Most programs start and play their starting 7 and their regular subs by conference season and through postseason.
Hawaii has always been a team that tinkered and could afford to, not anymore in the BWC. Start your lineup and build off of it.
Also wanted to echo that yes, it’s a combination of a conference upgrade and a year where Hawaii is trying to find itself. Last years team wouldn’t be so lost this season in the BWC.
Hawaii fans are spoil
What’s going on with the Wahine? Do we need to see more of Stauber? As for the “Warriors,” worse beating and disappointment since the VonAppen years. But this is the Wahine blog. Perhaps there’s a silver lining in these 5-set matches.
This in one match that blaming players is just plain dumb.Even a 12 year old club player could tell you that screwing with what has worked for two sets is a recipe for disaster.
This conference doesn’t have a tournament,there is no second chance and you cannot afford to continue experimenting when you get into conference play. This isn’t the WAC
I see someone hasn’t taken his medication today.
Steve/Dedicated Fan and your other alias …
Your posts attacking Cindy shows your immaturity and stupidity and total lack of aloha.
thanks for the support.
to elaborate, I deleted Steve/Laura/whoever’s post. it was more mild than the ones I get to my personal email. Have asked our webmasters to block him.
AS CONFERENCE PLAY BEGINS, UNDEFEATEDS DROP TO 3 (OUT OF 330) NCAA D-1 TEAMS
14-0 BYU/WCC [#16] … Remember: In the preseason poll, WCC coaches picked the Shawn Olmstead-coached Cougars to finish 4th (after St. Mary’s, San Diego, and Pepperdine) in this year’s conference.
BYU started league play with a home matchup against Pepperdine [#14] followed by Gonzaga [unranked]. True to form, BYU swept both teams and has now swept 11 of its 14 opponents. POV: While one can argue that winning in 5 sets builds greater character (in terms of “heart,” an enigmatic term if ever there was one) than winning in 3, one can also argue that sweeps develop even greater character (in terms of confidence) than outlasting an opponent in 5.
Next up: @ San Francisco [unranked] this Thursday and @ St. Mary’s [unranked] this Saturday.
11-0 OREGON/PAC-12 [#8] … Pac-12 coaches picked Jim Moore’s Oregon to finish 4th in the league, which tied Oregon’s highest Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll ranking in 27 years of Pac-12 play. Obviously, Pac-12 coaches were spot on!
UO looked for — and got — its 3rd recent upset of the defending Pac-12 champion Trojans after victories over the 2008 [then ranked #6] and ’07 [then #4] USC teams.
Thus far, the tall Oregon team has knocked off top-25ers Kentucky [then #10, currently unranked] on a neutral court, Ohio State [then #24, currently #23] @ Ohio, and USC [#2] @ Los Angeles.
Next up for the Ducks: hosting of Utah [unranked] this Friday and Colorado [unranked] this Saturday.
11-0 WASHINGTON/PAC-12 [#5] … I wrote last week, “Picked to finish 5th in the Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll, U-Dub continues to roll and should be among the top 3 in Monday’s new AVCA Top 25.” I had to eat crow (or mynah bird) for that prediction. I was a week –maybe 2 weeks — too early.
The Dawgs proved it can be road warriors, but now must face huge speed bumps when it hosts UCLA this Wednesday and USC this Friday. Team Jim McLaughlin will soon find out if this year’s version of the Huskies is Final Four material.
Note: Even though Washington is ranked among the top teams in the nation, it is oddly flying under the radar since it has played only one Top 25 team — Purdue [then #7, currently #17], which U-Dub swept on August 31 on a neutral court.
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As for the Wahine, others here are better than I could ever be at Monday morning coaching.
But if I had to identify the UH’s #1 trait, it would be “enigmatic”: hard to fathom, ambiguous, leaving people wondering. In short, a work in progress. Hopefully, that work when turned in at the end of the semester will produce an “A.” Goooooooo Bows!
Hawaii might be better off with 2 setter system. Bigger block and more hitters in the front, instead of back attack, and Mita still setting Jade too low. Defense is lacking as Jane and Hartong seem tentative. Kanani really spoiled us. The key however is and always will be — the pass to the setter. Even on free balls, the setter has to chase the ball (sometimes). Improve the passing and their chances of winning improve
If Hawaii went with a 6-2, would Shoji have enough substitutions to sub out the second middle for a serving specialist? He already seemed to get very close to the 15 several times.
Dumb question: how good is the Toyota team? Are they expected to beat the wahine???
Nissan Team is a lot better.
Thanks for the info; I know I can make it to the game but I’d go only if the Japanese team is good; don’t wanna have a cold beer in my hand with the match over in 5 minutes!
Japanese … it’s a professional team. Danielson won’t be playing. Her contract doesn’t take affect until next month. Should be a very good match and a challenge for the Wahine.
Better to win ugly than lose pretty.
Word around the BW ? Hawai`i highly overrated.
Eh, who cares. Hawaii just needs to worry about their side of the net. A lot of WAC teams probably privately thought Hawaii was overrated too, it didn’t help them win any games.
Good to see Shoji man up about the lineup change.
When and where?
I changed the lineup.I felt like we were in control,and I wanted to see everybody play. We completely lost our momentum.It was a bad decision by me to sub.We probably should have started our starting lineup in Game 3 and seen how that went,then maybe get the kids in
http://www.staradvertiser.com/s?action=login&f=y&id=170881491
Thanks! On the next round of Wahine’s next conference matches, they need to come out firing. Any BW coach can look at how they played over the weekend and should feel like they can beat UH. It showed a lot of weaknesses.
sunday paper
I don’t know who Joseph D’Hippolito is but he covers Wahine VB better than these two.
https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSbRER9k_guKp72wI28qrTvfDXzb2IKi3mNpGYhuSZGyY3dGkgGFg
Ha! Ha!
Joseph is our mainland stringer. He usually stories for us when UH is on the mainland.
Want to make something better add bacon.
Mike Jordan showing his players the ring he bought himself when they tied Hawai`i for first place in the WAC.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C5Y4Zs-00A0/UFuN36BPMZI/AAAAAAAAAcc/fiYoZ8I6j20/s400/092012.LC.B.q%2526a%257E2.jpg
Anyone remember about what date the RPI came out last year ?
I’m guessing the second week of October.
Also forgot to mention that the announcer said the attendance for the Fullerton match was 905 (900 something). He said that was the largest crowd of the season for them. I would guesstimate about 600 was for Hawaii. Didn’t see the attendance figures in the paper, so I thought I would mention it.
Just a small note, UH site shows 805, anyways the largest for Fullerton.
The Wahine vball team always bring in large crowds to their away games, and at least half of the fans are rooting for them. Hawaiians are faithful to their roots.
They had over 1000 last year for Hawaii. and yes, as mentioned many times, Hawaii always draws crowds when on the mainland and it’s usually the largest crowds of the year for the opponents.
The Wahine now at #8
#1: Penn State
#2: Oregon
#3: USC
#4: UCLA
#5: Washington
#6: Nebraska
#7: Stanford
#8: Hawaii
#9: Texas
#10: Minnesota
http://www.avca.org/includes/media/docs/9-24-12DIPoll.pdf
Hawaii’s RKPI (which mimics the RPI) dropped from #11 to #20 this week. Ouch.
If that keeps up, Hawaii will not be seeded and thus will not host rounds 1 and 2 of the tournament.
I’ve posted on this before, but it seems the lack of regional diversity in the scheduling — especially the non-conference portion of the schedule — could really limit Hawaii’s RPI this year.
Some very interesting stuff going on this morning
It is sooooo early, wouldn’t worry about it yet.
Hawaii schedules as tough as they can. They can’t control anyone else’s scheduling. That they have 3 Pac-12 teams will help.
Cindy – yes it is early, but Hawaii’s RPI has never swayed this much in just one week. at least as long as i’ve been following the RPI in the last few years. Hawaii’s RPI has tended (surprisingly) to be really stable, even as it’s moved from it’s tougher non-conference matches to the weaker conference portion of the schedule.
It’s definitely a concern. Hawaii’s RPI cannot depend on the PAC-12 alone. Last year’s schedule had a very balanced and mixed schedule of non-conference teams from all regions of the country, which went a long way to propping up Hawaii’s RPI.
This year, there is of course, the Big West conference schedule, which is all Cali schools. But even Hawaii’s non-conference schedule this year was heavily West Coast-centric. Hardly any regional diversity in the scheduling at all. (A lot of PAC-12 schools suffered this fate the last couple years, but it seems this year, a lot of them were a lot more cognizant of their non-conference scheduling.)
The California/West Coast heavy schedule could turn out to be detrimental to Hawaii’s RPI this year.
I do understand that Hawaii schedules as tough as they can, and can’t control who accepts invites to the preseason tournaments here. The schedule is what it is. I’m more interested in seeing the implications of the scheduling by season’s end.
In the meantime, it’s really interesting to track and see how it unfolds.
Appreciate all your insight. Good stuff. Agree it’s a big drop. But it was the first week of conference play for everyone.
What didn’t help UH was UCLA losing among some of their other opponents.
You’re right UH was heavy west coast schedule this year. hard to balance regional diversity with affordability as well. and they can’t control who accepts invitations to come play here. they can only make travel package as attractive as possible and hope it’s enough. sometimes it’s not.
What’s with Jordan the BFF of the SA voting us #14 ?
It’s not like he’s the only one voting. There’s 59 other voters.
Funny since several said last week Hawaii wasn’t No. 7. or Top 10 or Top 20. They won 3 and for some voters they look at the record.
Jordan not our BFF. Ann and I have interviewed him because that’s part of the job of objective reporting.
I am fed up with name calling and rude terms. sorry but I deleted it. the very definition is someone being disrespectful.