Gibby plays in the back row because of her serving prowess. Instead of rotating out when she goes to the back row, she serves and stays in to play defense. She could rotate out immediately after she completes her service or wait until the next rotation, depending on how many subs Beth has left for the game.
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Oh, ideally, Gibby has to meaningfully improve her passing. As of now, sheâs a liability in that department. A good OH pin hitters is usually a decent passer.
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Utes played tonight against WVU, a 2 win team in conference and ran them out of the building 3-0.
Not much suspense in the match except for the first part of the first set where WV caused a bit of trouble for the Utes with some back sets. The Utes adjusted and went on to win that set pretty handily.
WVU really was overmatched, all the Ute hitters basically had free reign to hit and hit and hit finding empty areas pretty much at will.
Great game for team, now on to Senior night on Sunday against Cincinnati at Noon, the game is a white out, so get out your white Ute gear and cheer on those seniors.
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The volleyball team had their senior day today and whupped up on Cincinnati 3-0 with none of the matches really ever in doubt. Lauren Jardine had a great game, with support from Allie Olson and Rianne Vos, all seniors. Fechter had another good game in the shadows of the great hitters.
Congrats for being great Utes to Lauren Jardine, Vanessa Ramirez, Allie Olson, Kamry Bailey, Claranne Fechter, Rianne Vos, Grace Hammond, and Amelia Van Der Werff.
Next up is the final match of the season in Ames Iowa on Wednesday and then next Sunday a likely bid to the NCAA tournament.
Go VBall Utes!
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It was a terrific match. UC went into Provo and won it in 5 with its big outside hitter(#2) back from injury. Great seeing Jardine finish strong.
My friends and I stayed after the match to support the eight seniors for their seniors ceremony. Great to see this group of girls, who have over-achieved, IMO, to get the school and the team back on track for NCAA. One more win, Utah should host the NCAA for the first two rounds.
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It really was. That #2, 6â4" and could jump. I didnât mention above the great game that Jardine and Olson had in blocks. They really did shut down their big hitter.
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Phew. Pulled it out. With some luck Utah will be hosting the first two rounds of NCAA.
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I was on the edge of my seat the whole match. Finally, the Utes found some defense in the last two sets to win 3-2. The Utes finally found a way to slow down #5 from ISU who was a killer all night. Gibadlo and Olson stepped up their hitting and defense and pulled it out for the team.
I say in the broadcast that the Utes are RPI13, would that mean they are hosting?
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Unless there are unforseen circumstances, yes.
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Vballers will be dancing and hosting the first two rounds of NCAA championships. Utah is seeded #4 in the region and will be hosting Marquette (#5 seed), FGCU, and College of Charleston.
Day 1 is on Thursday (12/5). The Utes play Charleston at 7:30 pm in the Hunty.
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I donât know anything about Marquette as a program or if they have a history of good vball. But, since they are ranked higher, go Florida Gulf Coast!
If the Utes win out at home, next would likely be #1 seed Penn St.
As for the conference, 6 bids as followsâŚ
#3 seed to Arizona St (finished 1st in the league)
#3 seed to Kansas (finished 2nd in the league)
#4 seed to Utah (finished 3rd in the league)
#4 seed to Baylor (finished 4th in the league)
#5 seed to TCU (finished 5th in the league)
#5 seed to BYU (finished 6th in the league).
As a note, BYU plays in West Lafayette, IN. If they beat Loyola Chicago (a team Utah swept earlier this year), they play Purdue, who swept the Utes at the Hunty this season 3-0.
Go Utes.
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NCAA tournament first and second rounds at the Huntsman Center.
Utes first match was against College of Charleston. Utes got off to a very hot start and it looked like it would end early, cut COC fought back and made it close, with Utah finally closing it out for a win. The next two games were a defensive clinic by Utah, at one point COC was hitting less than .100. A nice 3-0 sweep by the Utes.
Marquette was next last nightâŚ
First set, Utes lag to start and MU races out, but the Utes fought back and held a 23-20 lead⌠and then gave up 5 straight points to lose the first set. Story of the first set, 5 service errors by Utah.
Second set, a back and forth game, where again, Utah had a 18-16 lead but Marquette went on a 9-4 run to win. Again, a loss because of unforced errors by Utah. Now the team is down 2-0 and have must win sets.
Third set, back and forth and Gibadlo goes on a late tear and pulls out the win for the Utes.
Fourth set, again back and forth and Utah lags a bit and trails 23-19. Utah then pulls what MU did in the first set, went 6-2 to tie at 24, then won 26-24.
Last set, Utah runs out to a 6-4 lead based on Marquette unforced errors. Marquette runs out to 10-8. at 13-12 Marquette, Utah makes a brutal unforced error to put Marquette within one, not a good decision on a dink by Utah gives Marquette the chance and they didnât waste it with a bomb of a hit to win and Utahâs season ends.
In this match, just too many unforced errors, hitting errors, yes, but mainly way too many service errors and throughout the match Utah struggled setting the ball to take advantage of our hitters skill. That was both Hammond and Marco struggling.
Utahâs MVP of the match was Jardine, she played great. To see her come toward the net soaring Jordan-like to pound out a winner is something to see.
This was my first ever season to closely watch the volleyball team and I learned so much about the game by watching, but what really helped was @justauteâs help and explaining.
Looking forward to what next year brings for the Ute Vballers.
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Glad your enjoyed watching the vballers. Weâll have to go to the games together at some point, @LuckyUte .
First, congratulations to the Utes on a really good season. The teamâs performance definitely exceeded expectations. Glad the seniors got to finish their season on a high note. That 4th set comeback from 19-23 was spectacular.
I was at the Marquette game. If our setters had just a decent game, we would have won. There were so many unhittable sets. The setters, both of them, really put the hitters in bad situations where tipping was just about the only option. The setters owe the hitters an apology, IMO.
Marquetteâs defense was really good. Marquette dug a lot of balls, partially because of the blockers were touching everything. This is what won them the game.
Offense â Gibby really had a sub-par game. Her youthfulness showed. JardineâŚreally glad she finished the way she did. That 5-ft line hit was wow. We will miss Olsen.
Setting â sucked, especially Hammond. She was consistent, except even worse than usual.
Service â donât think I have seen a team that served so many balls into the net. Unbelievable.
Again, overall, I believe this team over-achieved and really played together. Credit to both the players and the coaches. Perhaps, less credit to the setting assistant coach.
Next yearâs team will be quite different given the large number of senior group this year.
Time for me to start attending WBB games. As a season-ticket holder, have yet to attend a game.
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My 10 year old daughter discovered that she really likes volleyball, so we made the trek from northern davis county to the JMHC a lot more than I thought we would this year!
Last night was a blast, the outcome notwithstanding. Hopefully, Beth can reload in the portal to put some talent next to Gibadlo, who is a legitimate star.
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We are neighbors, @Ben_In_Utah.
Next year should be very interesting. On paper, we have really good incoming freshmen coming in. I heard we might sign an international middle, but who knows. I talked to Beth for a bit (worked for her as a GA 100 yrs ago), but I didnât want to dig too much.
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@LuckyUte hopeful you are watching NCAA championships. Pitt vs LOU are teams at another level.
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@justaute I caught a portion of the first set last night before I had other things. One thing I realized last night is that at this point in my volleyball watching I have trouble distinguishing between a good team like Utah and a great team like Lousville and Penn St.
During the Utes season, I began to notice in particular that I would see setting errors and how that changes the flow and timing of hits. Last night as I watched, I didnât see a lot of errors because I think I am more used to seeing errors than when teams donât committ errors. Does that make sense?
Earlier in this thread after watching ASU and Utah, I said that⌠âas I watched, nothing specifically jumped out at me that would indicate ASU was that much better, but every game it seemed like the Utes were trying to make up 3-4 point deficitsâ. This is a bit clearer way to say what I saw last night. I will get there at some point in the future where details will jump out at me. Example, on this thread earlier, you gave me a nice tutorial on the 6-2 versus other strategies, and I am still not an advanced viewer where I can see those types of differences.
Now if you asked me to break down power-play or forechecking strategies in hockey, I could talk for a while about those because I am a very seasoned viewer.
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Understandable. As the level of playing ramps up, glaring weakness will subside and smaller mistakes will be more relevant.
You will see a lot more continuity with plays and rallies will last longer because teams tend to execute at a higher level. For example, just think about how Bailey plays OH vs some of the girls you saw (Pitt, PSU, etc). They have a lot more ârangeâ; also, along with better setters, suddenly sets seem a lot more hittable and thereâs more offense. Defense also touches a lot more ball.
6-2 vs 5-1 creates different hitting options because of different personnel sets, and sets become more consistent, depending on the personnel. Louisville usually runs a 6-2, but Busboom (coach, and was a great player at Nebraska), decided to go to 5-1 when Louisville was trying to catch up because sometimes different personnel groups just have better chemistry at times. For example, with 6-2, slides (hitters go behind the setter and jumps with one foot) are hardly run; whereas with 5-1, slides are essential to stretch the blockers to create hitting options.
Youâve made a lot of progress. Keep it up.
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