Sfa: 11
Usc:19

USC is big, fast, and strong. Seeing the two teams at the net, they are much bigger.

Yep it's making a difference.

They served at Pagan all set. She really struggled with the serve receive. Got much better as the set went on. Freshman jitters no doubt.

Lost first set. SFA has been slow starters in tight games all year. Looked much better down the stretch. Time to grind out this second.

Kills 16-10 USC.

Am I wrong in thinking that height(and vertical leap) makes a huge difference in angle of attack?

No you're not wrong. Their tall players have been a wall on the right side. Need to figure out where to go.

Great start to this one.

Yes!!! Start to roll.

Down 15-12 in set two. Got to stay steady. Not getting tons of straight hits.

Playing hard, but this is the first time this year that the ladies are acting like they are overmatched. They can do it, but have to clean up the unforced errors.

Does ESPN3 only have 3 advertisers?

It's been tough, and we are down to our last set. However, I remember when Rice had multiple match points and didn't win. They came back from 6 set points down to win the set in conference play. You cannot count the Jacks out until it's over.

Dig deep girls. Dig deep.

Need a push. Timeout speech: Did we win 31 games to say Hi to USC? Or do you want more? Go get something.

I'm not much of a volleyball expert but our setting is horrible!

jboy93 said:

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I'm not much of a volleyball expert but our setting is horrible!

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Passing has not been very good either. That is leading to some of the poor sets.

Well, it has been a great season

Their outside hitters just are beating us down!

This doesn't spoil the season, but would like to seen this closer. Seeding hurt. We just know we have to try to beef up our non-con.

Still an outstanding year! Way to go ladies!!!

They still deserve all the accolades that come their way!!!

What a spectacular year!!! I know they wanted more, but they were incredible this season. So good.

Proud of the girls. Feel like we ran into a seeding buzzsaw, but they put together an incredible run this season. Now onto beach volleyball.

What's our path to NCAA tourney success? Seems like we're gonna have to get more height to compete regularly.

Great season. Great two seasons. We are not a top 25 team, but it was fun to earn that level of recognition.

I don't know what exactly it takes to get to the next level. Height is part of it. Four of our nine recruits are 6' and taller. USC has 11 girls on their roster over 6'. But it is not just height. We have five on our roster listed at 6', only two played much all season. USC played much faster than anything I have seen. Our blocks and net defense were generally a step slow getting to the point of attack. When we did get there, they did a great job of tipping over the block, or hitting around it. Our serve receive was hit and miss. As I mentioned, they went after Pagan early and often. She is a really good young talent, and will get better. Their passing and setting was much better than ours. That isn't about height, but rather about skill. Our serve was as good, or maybe a touch better than theirs.

We did not play our best yesterday, but USC was most of that. I did not see anything yesterday to indicate we could beat them even at our best. The 7-2 start to the second set was fun, but that lead got erased quickly after a USC timeout.

2020 will be another rebuild year with our four seniors being half of the eight that played most of the time. Not sure who steps in. Sheets, a Juco transfer was next up, but she had a serious knee injury late in the season. Recovery could be an issue. Hill, a Juco with height, showed athleticism, but not enough skill to get regular playing time. Perhaps Perdue, our one sophomore, steps up. We were not deep this year. It was fortunate that the eight stayed generally healthy. This is a team sport. Humphreys will argue it is the most "team" sport there is. How do the new nine and whatever returners come together?

Again, a great season headed by a coach that is the best ever in the SLC, and one of the best in the NCAA.

Volleyball is action packed. In person, as are most sports, it is much better. The athleticism is really good. I don't know how they get to some of the balls they do without having some serious wrecks. Hence the ultimate team sport that Debbie calls it.

By the way, we had a really good crowd. Purple Haze had a good group. Crowd was subdued unfortunately, other than the start of the second set. USC took the crowd out early.

Just to follow up, Baylor cleaned USC's clock in straight sets.

Wow. We wouldn't have had a chance.

Wisconsin topped Baylor 3-1 to go to the championship game. Will play winner of Stanford/Minnesota. The Cardinal is up 1-0 right now.