Posts by usantvolleyball

Any word on whether Woloz is in playing shape and whether she will be called to the VNL finals?

I'm curious if the new mayor of Istanbul and the new party affiliation there will have any impact on the budgets of the Istanbul based Club volleyball teams?

I haven't seen anything about Kim Hill returning to Imoco. Was she on a two year contract?

Guidetti should try and sign the fifth year senior Thompson from the USA. Athletic, versatile and probably a real steal especially for a developmental type of coach like GG. If he could switch her to OH and keep her for 3 or 4 years Zhu would be forgotten.

Thompson's a clear threat to one of the lefties.... She is murder against the small blockers..

Egonu is sick based on US reports.

Will Poland have a chance to qualify for the olympics with this young emerging team? Does Skwronska still have enought game left to help them in that regard. She seemed to have some big games in Brazil this year.

U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach Karch Kiraly and his staff have chosen the following players for the VNL second weekend in Conegliano Venato, Italy:

• Setters (2): Micha Hancock, Jordyn Poulter
• Liberos (2): Megan Courtney, Mary Lake
• Middles (4): Chiaka Ogbogu, Dana Rettke, Hannah Tapp, Haleigh Washington
• Outsides (3): Madi Kingdon Rishel, Simone Lee, Sarah Wilhite Parsons
• Opposites (2): Annie Drews, Jordan Thompson

Remind me again why Imoco wants to break up this team.

As Imoco fully humanizes Egonu today, Fabris pretends she is the better of the two. Hill playing great today. Her back row defense beautiful to watch.

I wonder what Egonu will do to the chemistry of Imoco? It seems a shame to break up this team. Fabris is much a part of the Imoco vibe. Beautiful Imoco volleyball today although Egonu hasn't got started yet.

The Queen is dead, Long live the Queen

Egonu 6 service errors on 9 tries....no middle ground for her

Hopefully no stolen points this match or at least no more than one for Fenerbache to even things up.

Overall I think this is a solid rookie season for Taylor Agost. Storch certainly took her spot mid season but then was injured and Agost returned to play solid enough to help get them where they are today. Last match she started and got subbed by Storch in their loss to Dresden. Still she started again today and played the whole match so her coach must be seeing something. She was +9 for the match getting points on blocks and serves. Personally I think she should try to switch to OH as she had a solid season her last year at Oregon when she played as a receiving OP and also OH due to Oregon's injuries. She came late to volleyball starting only in highschool but she has great athleticism. Let's see if she likes over-seas play enough to continue her pro career.

Zhu didn't have to receive all the balls, she was forced to receive all the balls by Novara's pin point accurate serving. That dual duty takes a lot from big hitters like Zhu which is why most of them are OP's. Novara deliberately targeted her for the reasons stated. Without a perfect pass a receiver can't be an effective attacker.

There is a lot of mental stress on a receiver with marginal skills who gets targeted. Krob has never been known as an attacker and she is on the court for her defense but when Sloetjes can't deliver and the middles don't get enough kills the attack falls apart. Novara's game plan was brilliant and there seems to be little that Vakif can do to change it short of Zhu having a brilliant match. Without good passing only the best setters can continue to spread the ball around to MB's and wings.

Egonu is not unstoppable and Novara is beatable it just so happens that Vakif as it's currently constructed may not be the team to do it. The Zhu era in Vakif is about to end but it has been a wonderful ride for their fans. When it comes to CL there are no foreigner limits. Vakif choose to use a Turkish setter but they could have had a solid veteran setter just for CL if they chose. They didn't and it may cost them.

Those early transfer announcements are definately a team chemistry killer. Still, Fabris, who is very tight with her teammates knows that she is gone from the team next year but she gave a great performance in her last match. I guess both Fabris and Egonu want to show their teammates some love and so far are going out with a bang.

What we saw today from Vakif is that maybe Guidetti has already lost his team and their thoughts have moved on to national teams and next year. We'll know in Vakif's case both in CL and Turkish league.

Egonu is the Italian equivalent of what Destinee Hooker once was. The major difference is Egonu will not be kicked off the Italian national team even though she is sometimes seen as a bit of a diva plus she most likely will not have two babies in the heart of her best playing years.

Part of the problem in Turkey is that the league competitive level is so shallow so many games during the season are not competitive. In Italy there are only two teams you can not use your starting six and expect a win. This higher level of overall competitiveness requires that the teams be sharper all through the season. Sometimes a team can't just "turn it on" and we saw that today.

Novara just lost to Pomi last week in 4 sets using their starting players. But it was shocking to see Vakif be so badly beaten and Guidetti didn't even get a red card in his response. Even he seems to be caught in some strange malaise for this to happen. He could not rant and rave to rally his team. Maybe his mind has already gone to the national team.

Woloz won't be setting Egonu 40 times but when she does Egonu will be hitting about 66% with no errors and HIll will go up to about 50% because she will only see one on one blocks. If Imoco can keep their core players for next year I see a potential trophy sweep for them.