I just looked at our Team Stats on the BIG Volleyball website. Most of the time we are in the bottom 3 of the BIG in several areas of the game. No secret...one or both of our first two touches are not where they should be in some players careers.
L/DS Passing and Serve/Receive
This season our Libero is a Grad Student and our DS is a Senior. The above stats do not indicate the experience these two bring to the game. The following is what has happened in these positions in the last 3 seasons.
1 - The 2020 recruit arrived on campus and left during or after the first semester for COVID reasons......she decided to go back to California.
2 - We all know the story behind Barnes who transferred to Wisconsin.
3 - A 2021 recruit decommitted and decided to play at Penn State instead.
Middles
1 - I personally feel COVID and the maternity leave of our middle coach (who has since left as an assistant coach) did not help in the development of Rubright and Husemann.
Setting
Hugh made the decision to put all his eggs in one basket, as they say, by committing to an 8th grader for his starting setter. This season she is a Junior and IMO still struggles setting. However, the REST OF HER GAME IS TOP NOTCH FOR A SETTER....digging, blocking, serving, and hitting.
1 - In the last 2 seasons well established middles like Myers who transferred in from Maryland and our own Pittman had some of their poorest stats and could not make the connections they were use to with other setters.
2 - It appears that Davis and Gros who have also transferred in cannot match the level they had at Ohio State and Michigan State respectively with other setters.
So again we are playing OOS volleyball and dependent on our pins to survive a match for a win. Yes we have seen some better stats for our middles in recent games. However, any team with a STRONG MIDDLE GAME, I'm afraid to say, we will continue to struggle with a setter connection.
stats.ncaa.org
www.ncaa.com
