Men's Volleyball 2018

[Jeff Lebowski]

Really nice week for BYU. Beat #11 Penn State, #8 Lewis, and #2 Hawaii. Really nice match against Hawaii despite the fact that BYU was missing 3 starters:

Jarman (MB): finger surgery
Miki (MB): ankle (I think) in the Penn St. match
Sikes (libero): concussion in the Penn St. match

Really great serving by Sander, Fernandez, and Storm. I think it was 11 aces for the match. I think they exposed Hawaii a little in terms of serve receive. If Tillberg plays OH (not oppo) for Hawaii, he's a weak link in their serve receive. Other good serving teams can take advantage of that (wouldn't shock me if they go to a lineup with Tillberg at oppo to avoid that ... in fact, by the end of the match Hawaii did exactly that (we'll see if they go to that lineup more in the future)).

Storm had a really nice match at OH2. Really nice set of shots: hard off the BIC, tooling off the block, etc. Blocked well too.

Also, it was good to see Hendrickson play well for the concussed Sikes. I think he gets to more balls than Sikes but hasn't been near as consistent. At times I think it hurt BYU to play him so much early in the season (the loss to UCSB comes to mind), but clearly a nice payoff tonight. Except for a few lapses in the first set he passed well, got to a lot of balls, and even bumped set out of system pretty well.

We stayed up and watched the match last night. Really fun. Those last two points were exciting.

Holy cow, the serving by Matautia in the first set was incredible. Great to see the team rally in the next three sets. Funny how we seem to struggle with weaker teams and play well against good teams this year. And somehow find a way to win against everyone lately. Nice win streak.

Yes, Storm was fantastic last night.

[pelagius]

Funny how we seem to struggle with weaker teams and play well against good teams this year.

Yeah, it's definitely a higher variance team than we've seen in the past few years. Here is what I think drives that:

1. A few days after the UCLA match, UCLA assistant Brad Keller said something like the following: If BYU passes well, good luck, you're not going to beat them. BYU has been quite inconsistent at serve receive. First, because the boys are inexperienced and young at OH2 (Storm, Cy, Lincoln, Eschenberg). I think both Cy and Storm's passing is rounding into shape but there are still lapses. Second, the coaching staff clearly made a decision to get Hendrickson experience at Libero. I think that's paying off now but he is relative high variance (he's young: 18).

2. The same thing can be said about serving. BYU has three guys who can really rip a jump spin: Storm, Fernandez, and Sander (Will Stanley too but he's only a serving sub). They also have some really good floats. But I think altitude really leads to high variance particularly for the aggressive jump spin servers. It doesn't surprise me that it was the third straight match at sea level when the boys really were able to dial in their jump spins. It was also third straight match at altitude (UCLA) where the boys finally dialed in a whole bunch of wicked floats.

3. I do think the coaching staff has come up with really good game plans for UCLA and Hawaii. I think to some degree they just expect he boys to line up beat the Penn Sts and Lewises of the world.

[Topper]

Yeah, it's definitely a higher variance team than we've seen in the past few years. Here is what I think drives that:

1. A few days after the UCLA match, UCLA assistant Brad Keller said something like the following: If BYU passes well, good luck, you're not going to beat them. BYU has been quite inconsistent at serve receive. First, because the boys are inexperienced and young at OH2 (Storm, Cy, Lincoln, Eschenberg). I think both Cy and Storm's passing is rounding into shape but there are still lapses. Second, the coaching staff clearly made a decision to get Hendrickson experience at Libero. I think that's paying off now but he is relative high variance (he's young: 18).

2. The same thing can be said about serving. BYU has three guys who can really rip a jump spin: Storm, Fernandez, and Sander (Will Stanley too but he's only a serving sub). They also have some really good floats. But I think altitude really leads to high variance particularly for the aggressive jump spin servers. It doesn't surprise me that it was the third straight match at sea level when the boys really were able to dial in their jump spins. It was also third straight match at altitude (UCLA) where the boys finally dialed in a whole bunch of wicked floats.

3. I do think the coaching staff has come up with really good game plans for UCLA and Hawaii. I think to some degree they just expect he boys to line up beat the Penn St's and Lewis' of the world.

This season has shown the strengths of the coaching. The variance is frustrating but the upside is fun to watch. Great report, pelagius.

[pelagius]

This season has shown the strengths of the coaching. The variance is frustrating but the upside is fun to watch. Great report, pelagius.

Yeah, I tend to think they deserve a lot of credit for bringing the young guys along and the way the team is coalescing. If they continue to improve into the tournaments it will be a really impressive coaching job.

This is the last year of Luka Slabe as an assistant. That worries me a little for the future, but he will be with the team for the rest of the season.

[KillerDog]

Yeah, I tend to think they deserve a lot of credit for bringing the young guys along and the way the team is coalescing. If they continue to improve into the tournaments it will be a really impressive coaching job.

This is the last year of Luka Slabe as an assistant. That worries me a little for the future, but he will be with the team for the rest of the season.

I think Shawn is losing Jaylen and Luka. He will need to get some help in there. That said, he has done a great job with this team. They could be in the mix for a Natty again.

[pelagius]

I think Shawn is losing Jaylen and Luka. He will need to get some help in there. That said, he has done a great job with this team. They could be in the mix for a Natty again.

Yep, Jaylen is headed to Nebraska. Obviously a good opportunity for him given how many Nebraska assistants transition to head coaches. And certainly it speaks highly of Olmstead that he picked Jaylen right off the team to an assistant coach and now three years later he's an assistant on arguably the premiere women's program.

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I do think BYU can make to the national championship again, but have you seen Long Beach St play this year? They are really good.

[KillerDog]

Yep, Jaylen is headed to Nebraska. Obviously a good opportunity for him given how many Nebraska assistants transition to head coaches. And certainly it speaks highly of Olmstead that he picked Jaylen right off the team to an assistant coach and now three years later he's an assistant on arguably the premiere women's program.

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I do think BYU can make to the national championship again, but have you seen Long Beach St play this year? They are really good.

Long Beach can ball. Our team is progressing quickly and has the upside to win a Natty. Can they catch the beach? I don’t know. Our setting is a little weak for that.

[pelagius]

New poll out. BYU is still #2. Hawaii really dropped; from 3 to 7 after three straight losses (2 x CSUN and Pepperdine) on the road. A big function of the collapse is Hawaii having to play their first road matches of the season. But I also think it's a function of the fact the BYU, CSUN, and Pepperdine are all really good serving teams and Hawaii's OHs aren't great passers (Tilburg is really struggling at passing but he's by far their best terminating pin). Tui is a good libero but he can't cover enough ground against elite serving teams. Furthermore, we've reached the point in the season where the good serving teams are really dialing in and reducing their error rates.

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also, OSU is probably ranked fairly, but they're still super dangerous. If their French OHs start bombing with accuracy it wouldn't surprise me if they make the NC again

[Pelado]

New poll out. BYU is still #2. Hawaii really dropped; from 3 to 7 after three straight losses (2 x CSUN and Pepperdine) on the road. A big function of the collapse is Hawaii having to play their first road matches of the season. But I also think it's a function of the fact the BYU, CSUN, and Pepperdine are all really good serving teams and Hawaii's OHs aren't great passers (Tilburg). Tui is a good libero but he can't cover enough ground against elite serving teams. Furthermore, we've reached the point in the season where the good serving teams are really dialing in and reducing their error rates.

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also, OSU is probably ranked fairly, but they're still super dangerous. If their French OHs start bombing with accuracy it wouldn't surprise me if they make the NC again

Loyola-Chicago's athletic department seems to be having a very good March so far.

[pelagius]

Also, here is a nice little slo-mo of Storm hitting in practice:

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Have this theory that they should limit Storm to basically two sets a match. He has to be so explosive to play at an elite level, I don't think he can quite sustain it for 3-4 sets. I kinda want to see them play Cy for most of set 1, bring in Storm for the end of 1 (unless Cy is playing lights out) and sets 2-3, and then bring back Cy for set 4 if the match goes beyond 3.

[pelagius]

Loyola-Chicago's athletic department seems to be having a very good March so far.

No doubt given the Basketball team's performance, but this is super typical for the Volleyball team. Loyola and Ohio State are the midwestern powers in volleyball. In fact, they won back to back NC in 2014 and 2015.

[falafel]

Also, here is a nice little slo-mo of Storm hitting in practice:

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Hitting it out of bounds.

[falafel]

How many universities have D1 men's volleyball programs? Since the poll includes D2 teams, and only goes to 15, I'm thinking its about 15 schools.

[Donuthole]

Hitting it out of bounds.

Off the block. That's a kill, bro.

[pelagius]

How many universities have D1 men's volleyball programs? Since the poll includes D2 teams, and only goes to 15, I'm thinking its about 15 schools.

Around 30, I think. But for volleyball D1-D2 are combined even at the conference level: Lewis (MIVA), Concordia-Irvine (MPSF).

Notable teams currently unranked: USC, Stanford, and Penn St. I doubt that's every happened before.