Looking more and more like it is gonna be a very long season for the VB team. Lost yesterday 0-3 to NDSU and today to Portland St 1-3. Streams behind a paywall so no report from me, but the live stats indicate coach is still randomly mixing lineups, with Mormon finally getting some time at setter (splitting with the freshman today) and another freshman who had barely played getting big minutes today.

Who was the frosh getting big minutes?

(09-09-2023 09:59 PM)irieboy8 Wrote:  Who was the frosh getting big minutes?

MB Emily Honzelka

Has Brooke seen any action?

(09-10-2023 04:05 PM)irieboy8 Wrote:  Has Brooke seen any action?

Not much, 2 sets in 1 match so far. 2 kills.

5 set loss today… umphfff..

(09-12-2023 10:16 PM)irieboy8 Wrote:  5 set loss today… umphfff..

Yep, another dud of a match, as UT loses to Oakland in extra points in the 5th. Oakland came in 4-6 having not played anyone of note. Interestingly, in a scheduling quirk, OU has played EMU twice, winning both matches. So, maybe UT is at least competitive with 1 other MAC team at this point - which is not saying much at all.

Coach is still fiddling with the lineup. He played a 6-2 last night with Mormon and the freshman Hatkevich rotating as the setters, staying in the back row. I can't recall any UT team ever playing a scheme like that before. Lopez who was the sole setter for several matches seems to now be relegated to the bench. Mormon ended up with almost twice as many assists as Hatkevich though, which seems strange in that scheme.

Tons of miss-timed sets, service errors, net violations and other errors again. It seemed that a significant number of UT's kills were on dinks or miss-timed hits and not clean kills. Not really sure how the team has regressed so far from last season, but it has. UT now 2-7. They play Notre Dame next in a weird home-and-home weekend series. ND has recently not been a great volleyball program - they were 10-18 last year, but they still beat CMU and Ohio handily, two of the best MAC programs. So, I am not optimistic the UT will be able to make matches out of these two games.

Also, DS Macey Meadors was on crutches at the match with what looked like an ankle injury.

So, do we think this is more because of Covid holdovers playing for another year, all leaving at once, and stunting growth for their replacements, or is this because of the portal losses? Seems weird to go from one of the better years the program has ever seen to this in 9 months.

(09-13-2023 07:01 AM)BearcatMan Wrote:  So, do we think this is more because of Covid holdovers playing for another year, all leaving at once, and stunting growth for their replacements, or is this because of the portal losses? Seems weird to go from one of the better years the program has ever seen to this in 9 months.

Good question. Sina Uluave (transfer to SMU for 5th COVID year) they probably miss the most, given she was a solid 6-rotation player. Granger has taken her slot and she's still growing into the 6-rotation role, IMO.

They lost their best MB in Olivia Vance (transfer to Temple for 5th COVID year), but Fillisi is solid and Erickson is not that huge of a drop off.

both of those would have graduated in a normal season anyway.

Also lost DS Abby Ray to graduation and another DS Anna Ramlow but she didn't play at all last year.

Obviously the carousel of setters used so far hasn't bred good timing with the hitters yet, especially with the freshman who needs reps. I get the feeling Coach would like play the freshmen full time (I could be wrong) but she's still learning and not as polished as the young lady from Tennessee was in her 1st year a couple seasons back. It really hurt that position when she transferred back home. Hatkevich is also short for a DI setter at 5'8, so I think the experiment with the 6-2 scheme is to protect her from being the front row while still being able to play her. Given time, she may turn out to be solid.

But defense, passing and serve receive are still the week points in my not so informed opinion. If that doesn't improve 1st, the rest won't fall into place either.

Rockets lose to Notre Dame @South Bend in 4 sets.

Truthfully, I think this was the best the Rockets have looked all season. It was not a dominating win by the Irish as they look beatable. They seemed to score a significant amount of points on dinks, mishits, serves off the net, etc., in addition to UT's own mistakes. After losing set 1, UT came out and ran way ahead in set 2, leading by as many as 6. They let ND come back and tie it, but showed some resilience as they regrouped and finished the set strong to tie the match. Again they ran out ahead in set 3 and were up 14-12 when there was an overturned call on a a challenge by the ND coach (the overturn was correct) and for whatever reason that seemed to completely change the momentum of the match and ND quickly took the lead and ended up winning the last 2 sets. In the end, the Rockets still made too many mistakes, although not as many as they have in many of the matches so far.

It was a homecoming match for freshman Hatkevich who is from nearby Granger, IN and the announcers reported her high school team was in attendance. She played well on the big stage, and in front of a fairly big crowd. The other bright spot was freshman MB Emily Honzelka who seems to have cemented a spot in the lineup. She played the whole match and did some really good things, tallying 7 kills and 8 blocks while hitting .389. Alt and Bouyer each had 10 kills. Coach continued to play the 6-2, platooning Mormon and Hatkevich at setter for the 1st three sets. He then inexplicably subbed in Lopez for Mormon in set 4.

UT and ND do it all again, this time at Savage, on Sunday.

Rockets lose to Notre Dame today in straight sets. After being encouraged by the Rockets' showing at South Bend, I am not back firmly in the camp that this will be a very long MAC season.

The 1st set was probably the worst UT has played all year and they had to make a bit of a comeback at the end to only lose it by 9. They were hitting -.300 much of the set until they got a handful of kills late (yes, that was negative .300.) Then, miraculously they came out on fire in set 2 and took an 8 point lead, only to watch it dwindle and dwindle until ND tied it and eventually took the lead, The Rockets eventually tied it at 24 and had some set points but ended up losing it 30-28. The last set was closer to set 1 than set 2. The Rockets finish OOC play at 2-9.

Conference season starts with a pair at home against EMU Thu & Fri. EMU's record is worse than the Rockets' at 2-10. So, UT needs to take care of those 2 matches to have any hope of seeing a decent conference season.

Love volleyball but not a great volleyball minded kind of guy…. But from my own coaching perspective maybe the coach should try to change things up a little bit…. Sounds like whatever he has been trying hasn’t been working… unless that’s already been done and still not working… if so uh oh….

Rockets win their conference opener beating EMU in 5 sets. Alt had 21 kills, Bouyer added 10. Freshman Honzelka hit for 0.438 and had 5 blocks.

EMU could be the worst team in the MAC, coming in at 2-10 under a new head coach, and reportedly 2 of EMU's best defenders were out for this match. It looked like UT would breeze through the match after dominating set 1, 25-13. But no, as after that it was a struggle all the way. EMU won sets 2&3 by close margins, and UT had to come from behind late to win set 4. But they were able to win the tie-breaker easily. A win's a win I suppose and they get EMU again tomorrow, but it will only get much harder from here.

(09-21-2023 08:29 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Rockets win their conference opener beating EMU in 5 sets. Alt had 21 kills, Bouyer added 10. Freshman Honzelka hit for 0.438 and had 5 blocks.

EMU could be the worst team in the MAC, coming in at 2-10 under a new head coach, and reportedly 2 of EMU's best defenders were out for this match. It looked like UT would breeze through the match after dominating set 1, 25-13. But no, as after that it was a struggle all the way. EMU won sets 2&3 by close margins, and UT had to come from behind late to win set 4. But they were able to win the tie-breaker easily. A win's a win I suppose and they get EMU again tomorrow, but it will only get much harder from here.

The hell is going on over here?

Rockets looked much better tonight, beating EMU in straight sets. Alt had a monster night with 19 kills and hitting a ridiculous .531. UT hit over .300 as a team for the match.

UT took the 1st 2 sets pretty easily and took a led in the third before having one of their patented bad runs where EMU scored 8 straight and took a sizable lead. EMU was up 23-19 when Alt went to work and single-handedly scored the last 6 consecutive points all on kills.

Rockets travel to CMU for a pair next weekend. CMU does not seem to be as good a version as they typically are, having lost their opening 2 matches to Ball State, both in straight sets. They also have a mid-week match against EMU on Tuesday.

Interesting MAC news as 2-11 NIU went to BGSU and beat the falcons in 5 sets tonight.

Rockets take 2 out of 3 MAC West awards this week, as Taylor Alt named offensive PoW, and Ryann Jaqua named defensive PoW.

Also I see UT picked up a '24 verbal commit from Libero Grace Freiberger from Lima Shawnee. Jaqua is graduating and it's not clear who currently on the roster is ready to take on that role next year, so good to see them signing at least 1 recruit at that position.

(09-25-2023 06:13 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  Rockets take 2 out of 3 MAC West awards this week, as Taylor Alt named offensive PoW, and Ryann Jaqua named defensive PoW.

Also I see UT picked up a '24 verbal commit from Libero Grace Freiberger from Lima Shawnee. Jaqua is graduating and it's not clear who currently on the roster is ready to take on that role next year, so good to see them signing at least 1 recruit at that position.

Yessa… some teams think giving a schollie on onelibero isnt worth it…. But the top teams definetly will dish out one to those top talent players…. They make such a huge difference….. I know this recruit isn’t like Lexi or someone highly rated… but trust the coaches she worthy of a schollie

Rockets went into Mount Pleasant and came away with a 4 set win over the chips. Stream was not on ESPN+ and instead behind a CMU paywall. (The MAC should stop that, and require all schools to stream their conference games on the same platform ... but I digress.)

Following the live stats, it didn't look good at the start as CMU easily took set 1 and in fact UT had to come back a little at the end to even close within 9. Yikes. But something happened in set to and the Rockets took it 25-11. What a beat down. Sets 3 and 4 were much closer, but UT closed it out in extra points in set 4. Three Rockets with double-digit kills - Alt, Bouyer and surprisingly Erickson. Fillisi didn't play, for reasons unknown to me, and it appears coach has decided that the freshman Hatkevich is the full time setter now.

Rockets are 3-0 in conference and one of only 3 undefeated teams along with WMU and Ball State, both of which are really, really good. Now, the Rockets have not played any good teams yet, but at least they have been able to beat teams that they should beat, which I was wondering about after the OOC schedule. They play CMU again today.

Looks like they found the sauce…..