VB Starts Season At Northern Illinois invitational

[Buffnik]

Up 2-0 and lose?

On match point in the 5th and give up a run to lose?

That's a choke job tonight. I'm pissed about this one.

 

[buffgal]

Alexis Austin said after the scrimmage last week that she was injured. She played briefly in the 5th set of the NIU match today.

 

[AztecBuff]

Alexis Austin said after the scrimmage last week that she was injured. She played briefly in the 5th set of the NIU match today.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully she gets well soon.

 

[BeBe]

.....

5) It will be interesting how the defense develops, as that was the area I was most nervous about. (Lost both of last years main defensive specialists, their best blocking middle blocker, and their steady 6 rotation senior hitter, all to graduation.) In this match, anyway, it doesn't look like any of the Buffs three listed defensive specialists (other than of course libero Cierra Simpson) played much (two are shown playing in one set, but neither had any other stats). With both G. Simpson and Ms. Shadley having quite a few digs (6 and 9, respectively), I assume they were both playing 6 rotations at least some (most) of the time, a lot of responsibility for two freshmen.
....

I agree totally with this concern. It's been my biggest concern about this season. Buffs lost too much of their defense from last year, as you spelled out. Plus, I was expecting that Chelsey Keoho, who had played as Libero in her freshman year but lost that job last season to Cierra Simpson, would be the main defensive replacement this season but then she up and transferred late in the spring. Without good back row play, the setter/hitters can't be anywhere near as effective as they were at times last season., So lets hope that the defense improves as they settle on the rotation and the injured players return.

 

[buffgal]

BeBe, what did you think of Hargis in the scrimmage? She did have 4 blocks against Presbyterian yesterday.

 

[BeBe]

BeBe, what did you think of Hargis in the scrimmage? She did have 4 blocks against Presbyterian yesterday.

Well, I saw her in both the spring scrimmage and then the pre-season scrimmage....huge improvement. In the spring she was being coached constantly and seemed to be "drinking out of a fire hose". In the scrimmage last week, she seemed much more comfortable with what needed to be done but she was still somewhat slow in making the play .... seemed to me like she was still thinking about everything. I'd guess the coaches have focused her first on blocking rather than working equally with her on both blocking and hitting. I remember one solo block she had last week and everyone on her team was congratulating her.

 

[cmgoods]

I updated the stats and it looks like the only girl that didn't see any playing time was Katherine Hawkins.

 

[BeBe]

Hawkins also was not playing at the scrimmage last week. She was in warm-ups, not her uniform, and had the role of "down ref". I am guessing that she is dealing with an injury.

 

[buffgal]

Thank you for the update on how Rachel is adjusting to volleyball. Turned out Northwestern went 3-0 in the tourney.