The 2019 season is just around the corner. BYU plays Ohio State on Thursday at the Fieldhouse; so a high quality non-conference match that could matter for NCAA tournament seeding right out of the gate (and Ohio State has already played a couple of matches)
So here is a bit of a preview of the season:
Projected starting lineup (this is the lineup they used in the Alumni game on Saturday):
Key losses from the last year:
Assessment of the losses and their replacements
Brenden Sander is probably the biggest loss in an absolute sense, but this loss is mitigated well (at least in expectation) by the arrival of Davide Gardini. He is a very talented player from Italy (his father is one of the best middle blockers in the history of the game). Not only is he a very tall OH, but he looks long for his size. He can definitely go over the top of defenders given his length. I don't worry about Gardini offensively. He looked impressive in the alumni game; the question (as it is for most really tall OHs) is how well he holds up in serve receive.
Durkin is a big loss. On the other hand, I've generally thought the Stanley was the more talented setter. We will see how is steps up. Can he get consistently good location to the pin hitters? Once again, I think BYU has really talented pins. If Stanley plays reasonably well, BYU will be very good offensively (maybe better than anyone besides Long Beach). Stanley does have a nice jump spin so he does have more serving upside than Durkin too.
BYU lost Jarmin in the middle, but I expect BYU to be better in the middle than last year. Mostly because Felipe de Brito Ferreira is so talented, and should now be fully comfortable in the system. Miki is a solid middle; I would say equal to Jarmin defensively but not quite as good on the offensive end as Jarmin.
This year's Gabi versus last year's Gabi. I do think BYU needs more out of Gabi to really compete for a championship. He's was very solid last year. No doubt he's an elite server. But I think he needs to be more efficient. I don't think he'll every give BYU Patch level efficiency, but it would be nice if he could give BYU plus 0.300 hitting efficiency this year.
Players that could get time -> Storm for sure. If either of the OHs (Gardini or Cyrus struggle), you'll see storm early in the season. Tim Baldwin was the biggest OH recruit besides Gardini. Will we see him later in the season? I'm skeptical. Cyrus is BYU's passing/good hands OH. I'm skeptical that he gets overtaken this season. At middle bocker, I do think Oberender will get some time. He redshirted last year. He is shorter than Miki and Ferreira, but he does have one advantage over those two: he's got a jump spin. If BYU wants to go junp-spin heavy and use less floats we might see Oberender.
My bottom line: BYU is strong where they usually are strong: pin hitters and good blocking middles. Keys: Stanley at setter and Hendrickson at libero. You don't need elite play from either, but they do need to be solid. The closer either of those get to being elite, the more of a legit title chance BYU has.
So here is a bit of a preview of the season:
Projected starting lineup (this is the lineup they used in the Alumni game on Saturday):
Code:
Cyrus Fa'alogo 6-4 Jr OH Davide Gardini 6-9 Fr OH Gabi Garcia-FernandeZ 6-7 So Opp Miki Jauhiainen 6-8 Jr MB Felipe de Brito Ferreira 6-9 So MB Will Stanley 6-4 Jr Setter Zack Hendrickson 6-0 So Lib
Code:
Brenden Sander 6-4 OH Leo Durkin 6-4 Setter Price Jarmin 6-9 MB
Brenden Sander is probably the biggest loss in an absolute sense, but this loss is mitigated well (at least in expectation) by the arrival of Davide Gardini. He is a very talented player from Italy (his father is one of the best middle blockers in the history of the game). Not only is he a very tall OH, but he looks long for his size. He can definitely go over the top of defenders given his length. I don't worry about Gardini offensively. He looked impressive in the alumni game; the question (as it is for most really tall OHs) is how well he holds up in serve receive.
Durkin is a big loss. On the other hand, I've generally thought the Stanley was the more talented setter. We will see how is steps up. Can he get consistently good location to the pin hitters? Once again, I think BYU has really talented pins. If Stanley plays reasonably well, BYU will be very good offensively (maybe better than anyone besides Long Beach). Stanley does have a nice jump spin so he does have more serving upside than Durkin too.
BYU lost Jarmin in the middle, but I expect BYU to be better in the middle than last year. Mostly because Felipe de Brito Ferreira is so talented, and should now be fully comfortable in the system. Miki is a solid middle; I would say equal to Jarmin defensively but not quite as good on the offensive end as Jarmin.
This year's Gabi versus last year's Gabi. I do think BYU needs more out of Gabi to really compete for a championship. He's was very solid last year. No doubt he's an elite server. But I think he needs to be more efficient. I don't think he'll every give BYU Patch level efficiency, but it would be nice if he could give BYU plus 0.300 hitting efficiency this year.
Players that could get time -> Storm for sure. If either of the OHs (Gardini or Cyrus struggle), you'll see storm early in the season. Tim Baldwin was the biggest OH recruit besides Gardini. Will we see him later in the season? I'm skeptical. Cyrus is BYU's passing/good hands OH. I'm skeptical that he gets overtaken this season. At middle bocker, I do think Oberender will get some time. He redshirted last year. He is shorter than Miki and Ferreira, but he does have one advantage over those two: he's got a jump spin. If BYU wants to go junp-spin heavy and use less floats we might see Oberender.
My bottom line: BYU is strong where they usually are strong: pin hitters and good blocking middles. Keys: Stanley at setter and Hendrickson at libero. You don't need elite play from either, but they do need to be solid. The closer either of those get to being elite, the more of a legit title chance BYU has.
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