Posts by elvis

    Hi, guys! Thoughts on this year's teams? I think the championship is BYU's to take this year, but Lewis is a strong contender too. The other top teams like LBSU, UCLA, and UH look too "crippled" to me. I do wonder what UCLA would be like if Gyimah were moved to the opposite spot. I mean, he's so good I don't think he should ever leave the court. LOL. My favorite team so far, though, is Santa Barbara. The way they played against BYU about four weeks ago reminded me of Japanese teams. They were short, but, oh man, they were super fast and athletic. My heart just broke when they lost the fifth set in the second game. Loved their defense too!

    Hawaii and BYU are the clear favorites. Rado, Cowell and Gasman all seem to be even better than last year.

    UCLA tried Gyimah at opposite last year but that didn't really work. I like what they did with him last match against USC.


    I really like the Gauchos, too! They are a bit undersized, but as you said, great backrow and ball control. I am rooting for them this season!

    You guys got to watch the finals? I thought it was refreshing to see unconventional plays. I'm not so sure, but I thought the double quick with TJ De Falco was Long Beach's response to Dalton Solbrig's slides. Perhaps Ensing's pipe attacks from six served the same purpose too. Too many complaints from the coaches, though.

    I was rooting for Hawai'i and kind of wished that the finals were a series. I hope we get to see more of Joe Worsley.

    I feel like they had Ensing hitting the pipe because he and Tuaniga weren't really connecting on the super fast D set. Tuaniga did have a really great back quick set behind 10 ft line to Amado!

    They have enough for a bigger tournament now in my opinion.


    Also for those outside the States how do you plan on streaming this?

    There are actually 7 teams in the tournament, the first play-in match was Barton vs. Princeton last Thursday.


    As far as I know, the number of teams in the tournament has to do with the number of conferences and also number of teams overall (I could be wrong about this so don't quote me!). There are only 5 conferences sponsoring MVB, hopefully we'll see more teams and conferences in the near future.


    The quarterfinals were on bigwest.tv

    USC vs. Lewis: https://bigwest.org/watch/?Archive=4474

    Pepperdine vs. Princeton: https://bigwest.org/watch/?Archive=4475


    Semis were on NCAA.com

    https://www.ncaa.com/video/volleyball-men

    you could find full replay here.


    The final is tomorrow on ESPN2, it should be pretty easy to find a stream link even if you're not in the US, and the match will probably on Youtube a few days later!

    AVCA Coaches Poll / National Stats


    Big West
    Schedule
    (Preseason ranking)
    Conference Carolinas
    Standings / Schedule
    EIVA
    Schedule
    (Preseason ranking)
    MIVA
    Schedule
    (Preseason ranking)
    MPSF
    Schedule
    (Preseason ranking)
    #1 Long Beach State Barton #1 Princeton #1 Lewis #1 UCLA
    #2 Hawaii Belmont Abbey #2 Penn State #2 Loyola #2 BYU
    #3 UC Irvine Emmanuel (Ga.) #3 George Mason #3 Ohio State #3 Pepperdine
    #4 UC Santa Barbara Erskine #4 NJIT #4 Ball State #4 Stanford
    #5 CSUN King (TN) #5 Harvard #5 Purdue Fort Wayne #5 USC
    #6 UC San Diego Lees-Mcrae #6 Saint Francis #6 Lindenwood #6 Concordia
    Limestone #7 Charleston #7 Mckendree #7 Grand Canyon
    Mount Olive #8 Sacred Heart #8 Quincy
    North Greenville



    Other Independent teams:

    Alderson Broaddus / Coker / Daemen / Lincoln Memorial / Queens (NC)

    Berlin, on the other side, played very organized volleyball for a team that is practically brand new. And they should get better with time. I will confess this was the first longer period in which I watch Kyle Russell. I will need more time to make some impression about his game, he was fine tonight. He is very athletic, though, and I think he should be able to reach higher given that athleticism. But I may get the chance to watch Russell more as Patch again had to taken out. Now that I think of, Patch played only a couple of matches from the beginning to the end (thos that I watched at least) and they were with the NT during the summer when Anderson was on holiday. The guy seems to be having difficulties with the professional volleyball life.

    I think it has more to do with injuries. Speraw mentioned that Patch was injured twice this summer so they couldn't really train him. For the 2017 nt season, he was also coming off injury from the NCAA season.

    Question for those who follow the NCAA: is there any potential standout MB coming from the university league? I'm asking because I've been feeling that Holt is already kinda past his prime for a while now and Smith doesn't really have that star quality to be a starter in the NT. Not to mention both are already past 30 yo.


    I know there Jendryk, but he's far from being there yet (which is perfectly understandable as the guy hasn't even played a pro season yet). McDonnell is over 30 too and Averill is... eh...

    The best middle last season is kofi IMO, and he's Canadian...


    I think you'll see Stadick on the NT next quad, he's been in the USA pipeline for a few years.

    Another middle who I really like is Stahl, graduated last year and played his first season at Paris. He should have more opportunities next quad.

    Unfortunately, that's the very same reason why I subscribed to the FIVB TV. With the exception of the opening day (09.09. and 12.09.) when they uploaded all matches on demand, there are missing matches overall and only a limited selection is available. Such was the case with the VNL during the summer. I am afraid you can't really access those and we just have to live with it :( What I didn't try was writing them and letting them know, maybe this can result in fixing their uploads and search algorithms.

    Can you download the replays on FIVB TV? (Not that it's available here but I guess I could use a VPN)

    I was also thinking to send them an email or something but I am afraid that they are going to ignore it. (because well they are supposed to be available for German users only)

    So...... I have a question about sportdeutschland.tv.


    Some of the replays there are still missing (matches from round 2), does anyone know if they are going to upload all the matches eventually or some of them just won't be there?

    It could be, he's a very good OH but not the best teammate. I don't like his body language on the court.

    Congrats ITA! What a game. USA has not played their usual selves. ITA took advantage of their situation and stood their ground. Guaranteed of silver who would have thought :-)

    Yes. Disastrous WL (finished dead last in Group 1) and ECH (eliminated by Belgium in the quarterfinal). Congrats to Italy. Their middles play very well

    Shame said the level of German League is stronger than Poland and Serie A2. I don`t agree, and I joked saying of course Shame will think German League is stronger because there`s over 20 Americans playing over there, while there`s 2 or 3 Americans playing in Poland and Serie A2.


    Does anyone knows where Shame is from? If I knew I would understand a little better, I know he loves the Americans and hate the Italians, but one time he told me he was american, another time he said he`s Italian.

    You live in the States too and you still hate the american players and the team :whistle: