Germany - VBL 1. Bundesliga 2016/17

  • Schedule for the weekend, all matches except VCO matches live on http://www.vbl.tv


    Sa, 18.02.17 18:00 Erfurt vs. Vilsbiburg
    Sa, 18.02.17 19:00 Schwerin vs. Stuttgart :!:
    Sa, 18.02.17 19:00 Potsdam vs. Suhl
    Sa, 18.02.17 19:00 VCO Berlin vs. Dresden
    So, 19.02.17 14:30 Münster vs. Wiesbaden
    So, 19.02.17 15:00 Köpenick vs. Dresden
    So, 19.02.17 18:00 VCO Berlin vs. Suhl

  • Münster vs. Wiesbaden is hard to predict, it is a tough match about one of the direct play off rankings 5 and 6.


    Regarding Schwerin vs. Stuttgart: a tie-break is not unlikely as seen in the first two meetings of this season, of which each team won one. Despite Schwerin has home advantage this time, especially the rising strength of opposite Aiyana Whitney at last makes me hope, that Stuttgart can win - and mentally in the last two years Stuttgart proved stronger as Schwerin at the end at least.

  • I'm very sorry, that Stuttgart is that weak abroad this season - Schwerin was better in blocking, attack efficiency and reception today, only the service statistics are in favor of Stuttgart. This is already the third clear defeat of Stuttgart abroad at the best other teams without winning even a match point (Potsdam, Dresden, now Schwerin). One thing is for sure: Schwerin will stay on top of the table until end of regular season and exploit its persistent home advantage in the playoffs to the full extent. I don't see any other champion than Schwerin this season, to be honest.

  • I was surprised that in the end SSC-MTV ended a clear 3:0, Schwerin finally could keep their level the whole game... Overall I guess my pre-season prediction, that Schwerin has the strongest Starting Six is true so far... I am very happy for Lippman, who is really showing what she can do this season after benching most of her time in Dresden and Barfield showing her true Potential when the Game does not depend so much on her as it did in Köpenick. Ah and of course for Sandor who came back from an injury like as she had never missed a season.
    Very nice game to watch :)


    The rest went as expected... No Chance for Suhl or Erfurt to get some important points...

  • I was surprised that in the end SSC-MTV ended a clear 3:0, Schwerin finally could keep their level the whole game... Overall I guess my pre-season prediction, that Schwerin has the strongest Starting Six is true so far... I am very happy for Lippman, who is really showing what she can do this season after benching most of her time in Dresden and Barfield showing her true Potential when the Game does not depend so much on her as it did in Köpenick. Ah and of course for Sandor who came back from an injury like as she had never missed a season.
    Very nice game to watch :)


    The rest went as expected... No Chance for Suhl or Erfurt to get some important points...


    I don't think, that the roaster advantage of Schwerin is real - the drawback of Stuttgart is, that the teamwork is not that smooth, flawless and strong in the head as in the last two seasons. But remember, that Schwerin and Dresden still have a financial advantage of about 400.000 to 500.000 Euro budget against Stuttgart, which helps for example also when travelling. So we play not on the same base.

  • Erfurt - Vilsbiburg 0:3 (17:25 19:25 19:25)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2109.pdf
    MVP: ? / Naoko Hashimoto


    Schwerin - Stuttgart 3:0 (25:23 25:22 26:24)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2110.pdf
    MVP: Denise Hanke / Renata Sandor


    Potsdam - Suhl 3:0 (25:17 25:19 26:24)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2113.pdf
    MVP: Roslandy Acosta / Tereza Patockova


    VCO Berlin - Dresden 1:3 (25:22 16:25 14:25 20:25)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2114.pdf
    MVP: Sabrina Krause / Katharina Schwabe


    Other matches tomorrow.

  • Münster - Wiesbaden 2:3 (25:20 17:25 15:25 29:27 11:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2111.pdf
    MVP: Hanna Orthmann / Molly McCage (21 pts with 62% and 6 blocks)
    Very entertaining match, Wiesbaden couldn't finish a 19:15 lead in 4th set but took at least two points eventually. Molly McCage with another dominant performance, she'll have a lot of good offers from strong teams for next season for sure.


    Köpenick - Dresden 3:0 (25:22 25:22 26:24)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2108.pdf
    MVP: Nicole Walch (24 pts) / Kadie Rolfzen
    Big surprise :white: Apparenly Köpenick played with full risk, 29 errors in 3 sets compared to 14 of Dresden, but it paid off. They created a lot of pressure with their serves, even if they didn't get too many direct aces you can see that Dresden's attackers had big problems to score. Stuttgart will be very pleased with this result :D

  • Münster - Wiesbaden 2:3 (25:20 17:25 15:25 29:27 11:15)
    Molly McCage with another dominant performance, she'll have a lot of good offers from strong teams for next season for sure.


    She comes from an elite program of the NCAA, University of Texas. You shall see Chiaka Ogbogu, who's way more dominant than Molly. She's from the Longhorns program too. Aldrich, Adams, Bell, Paolini, Doris... there's a dinasty of strong middles there.

  • Sounds like Dresden and Sttugart has the same problem in the OP position. Machmon and Witney shows that height is really not that important as everyone thinks, they are 1.99 and 1.95 but they struggle to kill a ball. And the twin playing as back OP clearly can`t play as OP.


  • Yes, this means we in Stuttgart have now a big chance to get the desired second place at end of league round, to capitalize on home advantage in the playoff semis...


    I would not have bet a single cent today on Köpenick, but this is the consequence of Dresdens shaky season performance: most often they could avert big drawbacks, but today they couldn't. You can't simply always get away, when you are that vulnerable.

  • Sounds like Dresden and Sttugart has the same problem in the OP position. Machmon and Witney shows that height is really not that important as everyone thinks, they are 1.99 and 1.95 but they struggle to kill a ball. And the twin playing as back OP clearly can`t play as OP.


    Sounds like Dresden and Sttugart has the same problem in the OP position. Machmon and Witney shows that height is really not that important as everyone thinks, they are 1.99 and 1.95 but they struggle to kill a ball. And the twin playing as back OP clearly can`t play as OP.


    IMHO, Dresden's issue is not really at the OP position. Unless Alex can create a magic elixir that will fix their reception problems, Dresden is going to struggle to be consistent. I have never seen a team play out of system so much. This has been the problem all year, and although for a while lately the reception had improved, today was more like what Dresden showed at the beginning of the season. This makes it difficult for the entire front line to get a good swing, which also explains that whoever they play looks like a great defensive team.

  • Sounds like Dresden and Sttugart has the same problem in the OP position. Machmon and Witney shows that height is really not that important as everyone thinks, they are 1.99 and 1.95 but they struggle to kill a ball. And the twin playing as back OP clearly can`t play as OP.


    You should watch more games.

  • I started watching since the twins went to Dresden, because I like them. And the games I watched both Machmon and Rofezen has not been effective at all. Just look at the stats and you will see Liz and Rofzen are not being effective at all. They are hitting negative ....STATS DON`t Lie. But all Dresden outside hitters are showing to be really weak in attack as well.


    Today Rofzen started and in 2 sets she went 3/18 (17%), Liz replaced her and 3/12 (25%). A OP hitter can`t hit this negative. This is a problem.
    Vs VCO Berlin Liz did OK hitting 46%, but Amber was bad 4/17 (24%)
    VS Vilsburg Amber 8/28 (29%) Liz 1/5 20%.


    Same thing goes to Witney, she is always hitting negative, and lost her sport in the starting position.


    Maybe you should go take a look at the stats....

  • The top 8 teams makes to the playoffs? or only 4?


    It is a rather complicated system, copied from Italy some years ago (where this nonsense was ceased for good reason meanwhile, but Bundesliga maintains it likely to give the weaker clubs more matches and i.e. more income by ticket sales):


    the first six go directly to the playoff quarters. The places 7 to 10 after league round play in pairings 7th against 10th and 8th against 9th for the last two playoff spots, from here on in every round the better placed (remaining) team in the (pre-)playoffs takes the first (and eventually last) home right. The pre-playoffs are played best of three as the quarters thereafter, but for the first time the semis as the finals are played best of five. So expect currently a more or less one sided semi series Schwerin-Potsdam and a more balanced series Stuttgart-Dresden (I hope Stuttgart takes the second spot now).

  • Oh ok, I don`t like this format at all. And this season they are doing it in Italy as well. Right now basically only Club Italia is out. It is not really fair, because if you finish in 10th in the regular season you really don`t deserve a spot in the playoffs, and if the 10th place wins vs 7th, what are their changes going against the number 1 team? Almost none... :down:

  • VCO Berlin - Suhl 2:3 (18:25 25:21 22:25 25:19 13:15)
    http://live.volleyball-bundesliga.de/2016-17/Women/&2112.pdf
    MVP: Aisha Skinner / Claudia Steger


    Ranking:
    1 Schwerin 19 16 53:17 48
    2 Dresden 20 15 51:26 45
    3 Stuttgart 18 13 44:23 41
    4 Potsdam 20 14 48:36 39
    5 Vilsbiburg 19 10 39:32 33
    6 Münster 19 11 40:36 32
    7 Wiesbaden 19 12 43:37 31
    8 Aachen 19 8 37:37 26
    9 Köpenick 19 7 31:42 20
    10 Suhl 20 5 23:50 15
    11 Erfurt 19 3 17:51 10
    12 VCO Berlin 19 1 17:56 5