wahine to short

[whirlygig5]

after seeing the California match it was obvious to me that the Wahines are just to short. After smashing the 2 teams that beat Cali both in straight sets...it was easy to see that the Wahines were spent. Winning the first 2 matches over less talented but a lil taller teams took it's toll on them. So when Sunday came around you can see almost all the hitters making more mistakes then usual. Mostly hitting it long, prolly becz Cali was the tallest team in the tourny. Anyways i think the Wahines will be okay this year, but Hope they continue to get taller next year

[SM96753]

I'll take height (the block) over quickness (floor defense) any day of the week.

[SRJC]

I didn't watch this game just because I thought Wahine would win since Cal lost to Baylor and SF. I woke up the next day to find out they lost in five. looking at the stats what happen to Vorster? and Croson to much errors. Maybe the Wahine are too short but maybe the wahine thought it would be a cupcake win since I thought the same and just didn't play hard. All I know is Coach Shoji making them run so that being tired won't be an excuse.

[seasider]

Height? Hawaii had 2 BS and 24 BA versus Cal’s 0 BS and 24 BA.

Reason why the Wahine lost:

Poor passing-Uiato had to chase a lot of balls down before setting. Not to many options, i.e. quick set to the OH; quick set to the MH (front/back of the setter), quick-back to the opposite or a pipe set to Hartong/Croson.

Poor passing created a lot of broken plays where Uiato had no choice but to set the OHs, giving Cal’s middle time to focus on Croson (62 attempts) and Hartong (51 attempts).

Serve receive-Hawaii had 7 versus 3 for Cal:

Bottom line even with poor passing, the Wahine still took the game to 5.

IMHO Croson and Hartong, especially Croson will need to be smarter attacking the ball on broken plays by using dinks, roll shots, angle shots versus trying to overwhelm the block with heat seeking missile every time.

[My3Cats]

Height? Hawaii had 2 BS and 24 BA versus Cal’s 0 BS and 24 BA.

Reason why the Wahine lost:

Poor passing-Uiato had to chase a lot of balls down before setting. Not to many options, i.e. quick set to the OH; quick set to the MH (front/back of the setter), quick-back to the opposite or a pipe set to Hartong/Croson.

Poor passing created a lot of broken plays where Uiato had no choice but to set the OHs, giving Cal’s middle time to focus on Croson (62 attempts) and Hartong (51 attempts).

Serve receive-Hawaii had 7 versus 3 for Cal:

Bottom line even with poor passing, the Wahine still took the game to 5.

IMHO Croson and Hartong, especially Croson will need to be smarter attacking the ball on broken plays by using dinks, roll shots, angle shots versus trying to overwhelm the block with heat seeking missile every time.

+1

That's what I saw too. The pass is the most important part of the game, after the serve. If can't serve, no natural points. If can't pass, no offense.

[caboman70]

Time after time the commentators kept saying how tired UH looked, weird when they were at home and California had to travel, you'd think it'd be the other way around. But UH's lack of size caught up to them at the end. lt is pretty plain and simple.

[seasider]

Time after time the commentators kept saying how tired UH looked, weird when they were at home and California had to travel, you'd think it'd be the other way around. But UH's lack of size caught up to them at the end. lt is pretty plain and simple.

No pun intended, but a lot of times, especially Leahy's radio play-by-play is way out of touch with what is going on the floor...mistakes galore, but I still love the guy. I just wish he would just let the game flow and let the TV viewers enjoy the action in real time, versus listening to his delayed play calling.

Passing lost the game for the Wahine, not SIZE. LOL...the Wahine did not win over Stanford because they had more size, they won because of their floor defense and PASSING that gave Uiato FOUR options, instead of one HIGH and WIDE to the outside where SIX hands were waiting to block or slow down Hartong/Croson's attacks.

The Wahine made it to the final four in 2009 not because of their SIZE, but because of their athleticism and tremendous defense featuring two undersized OHs in Kanani Danielson at 5-10 and Aneli Cubi-Otineru at 5-10. LOL…the Wahine had only one top ten recruit in Danielson, but they took a set from Penn State that was loaded, at that time, with top ten recruiting classes for the past 4 years.

The Wahine always will be undersized compared to most top BCS programs from the PAC 12, Big 12, Big 10, i.e. Stanford, Cal, USC, Washington, Penn State, Nebraska, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota…and a handful of non-majors, i.e. Pepperdine. But, for the past 11 years (2001-2011), except for 2001 at #13; 2007 #18, and 2010 at #13, the Wahine have finished the year ranked in the TOP TEN.

Last year the Wahine took USC to five in the Hawaii Regional…the Wahine didn’t lose because of their lack of size, but because USC went toe-to-toe matching the Wahine in digs and overall floor defense.

Bottom line, on broken plays where Uiato’s only options were those high sets to the outside, Hartong and Croson need to hit smart by putting the ball in play with dinks, roll shots, angle shots versus trying to overwhelm a well formed block, thus giving the Wahine another chance to win a point.

[Duster]

The passing was off, but I give credit to Cal for that. It looked like they decided to let it rip on serves to try to get the Wahine out of system. Fortunately for them (and unfortunately for the Wahine), they were on most of the time and the strategy to serve tough worked.

Kinda high risk, and the Wahine can expect to see that strategy often.

My observation anyway.

[whirlygig5]

how funny you people are....i used to play for UH during the Allen Allen years. We were a short team then. l know what it's like to go against bigger teams. lt takes a toll on you. Yes UH won with Danielson and Otinero. And if UH had those two athletes on the team right now they'd prolly beat Cal. But they don't. They have other girls their size but not at that talent level just yet. l know they beat Stanford, that was a good win, but only the 3rd match of the season and Stanford wasn't quite as tall as Cal was. Did you see UH's hitting percentage??? they kept blasting the ball long toward the end of the match..that's a good indication of lack of size, if you wanna blame sloppy passing? you can ad that too, but make no mistake, UH needs size to win consistently against big and talent.

[seasider]

how funny you people are....i used to play for UH during the Allen Allen years. We were a short team then. l know what it's like to go against bigger teams. lt takes a toll on you. Yes UH won with Danielson and Otinero. And if UH had those two athletes on the team right now they'd prolly beat Cal. But they don't. They have other girls their size but not at that talent level just yet. l know they beat Stanford, that was a good win, but only the 3rd match of the season and Stanford wasn't quite as tall as Cal was. Did you see UH's hitting percentage??? they kept blasting the ball long toward the end of the match..that's a good indication of lack of size, if you wanna blame sloppy passing? you can ad that too, but make no mistake, UH needs size to win consistently against big and talent.

LOL...where have you been? UH with lack of size have been winning consistently against big and talented BCS programs. LOL...I maybe wrong, but there's only one BCS team with a winning recrod versus the Wahine, that team is Nebraska.

Stanford wasn't as tall as Cal? Stanford had a 6-6 opposite 6-4 middles, and the 2012 top recruiting class in the nation.

You know volleyball? UH hitting % was low was due to poor passing, Uiato had no place to go but the outside. Cal was waiting, drooling with 6 hands up everytime UH had a broken play going to the outside.

And, because of poor passing, Hawaii's quick middle attack was nil, except for the slide to Adolpho. LOL...did you not see Cal's middles release early to cover the outside?

[whirlygig5]

"LOL...where have you been? UH with lack of size have been winning consistently"

exactly thank you. Like you said "lack of size" and this is another year they have "lack of size"....but they don't have the talent to make up for that lack of size. Look, they loss to a less talented but taller team. You can be a good shorter team, l remember the ah mow year. They had Robbins at 5'8, Wilton at 5'10 and Nobriga at 5'10 But yet they had success. But they had one of the best setters....But yes UH needs size. We don't have Danielson, don't have Willouby, Don't have Houston, UH needs size....Stanford, how many freshmen starting for them again?

[seasider]

"LOL...where have you been? UH with lack of size have been winning consistently"

exactly thank you. Like you said "lack of size" and this is another year they have "lack of size"....but they don't have the talent to make up for that lack of size. Look, they loss to a less talented but taller team. You can be a good shorter team, l remember the ah mow year. They had Robbins at 5'8, Wilton at 5'10 and Nobriga at 5'10 But yet they had success. But they had one of the best setters....But yes UH needs size. We don't have Danielson, don't have Willouby, Don't have Houston, UH needs size....Stanford, how many freshmen starting for them again?

The Ah Mow Years not only had Robbins, Wilton and Nobriga.

Big West Conference 93-96:
1993 1st Team-Ljungquist 6-3 MB (all rotation), Kee Williams 6-0 OH: All Freshmen Team-Ah Mow , Ljungquist.

1994 1st Team-Kee Williams OH, Ljungquist MB, Sarah Chase MB, 6-2: Freshmen Team Terese Crawford, 6-0 OH

1995 POY BWC Ljungquist-1st Team-Ljung1quist MB, Ahmow S, Crawford OH; 2nd Team-Joselyn Robins OH, Cecelia Goods 6-1 MB

1996 1st Team-Ljungquist MB, Ah Mow Setter, Crawford, OH, Yamashita DS: 2nd Team Joselyn Robins OH, Cecilia Goods MB

AVCA All-American: 1993-1996 Angelica Ljungquist (POY 1996); 1995-1996 Robyn Ah Mow
AVCA District VII: 1997 Cecilia Goods

AVCA Northwest Region: 1992-1993 Sarah Chase; 1994 Kee Williams

LOL...To early in the season to say "Cal is a less talented team" than UH. When conference season comes around Cal and Stanford will be right up there. Stanford had two freshmen start in Burgess (#2 recruit) and Anjanaku (#3 recruit) with the #11 recruit rotating in...They also had all All Americans RS in 6-6 Shipman and All-American OH in Williams, and all conference returning setter.

Bottom line, don't sell the Wahine short, when the post-season comes around the Wahine will be right up there...and LOL, they'll most likely end up in the top ten in the Final Poll of the year.

[My3Cats]

Lack of size, lack of talent, somehow Dave Shoji manages to squeeze out all that he can, with the players that he has at his disposal.

[Duster]

Lack of size, lack of talent, somehow Dave Shoji manages to squeeze out all that he can, with the players that he has at his disposal.

I respectfully disagree on the lack of talent part of your post. Yes, his teams tend not to be tall, but they are typically very athletic.

[seasider]

Lack of size, lack of talent, somehow Dave Shoji manages to squeeze out all that he can, with the players that he has at his disposal.

I respectfully disagree on the lack of talent part of your post. Yes, his teams tend not to be tall, but they are typically very athletic.

No talent?

Perennially the Wahine is one of top programs recruiting Volleyball Magazine’ FAB 50s, and PrepVolleyball Top 100 Senior Aces.

The Wahine may not have multiple recruits ranked in the top ten, i.e. Stanford, Penn State, Texas, Nebraska, etc. But, Last year the Wahine had two on the roster in Danielson at #5 and Croson at #7)

Current Wahine who made PrepVolleyball Top 100 Senior Ace and Next 150 Senior:

Kaela Goodman 6-1 OH (2010 ranked #55)
Kristiana Tuaniga 6-1 MB (2009 ranked #37, Fab 50)
Monica Stauber, 5-8 Setter (Next 150 listing)
Jade Vorster 6-4 MB (2011 ranked #89)
Tai Manu-Olevau 6-0 OH (Next 150 Senior Ace)
Jane Croson 5-11 OH (2011 ranked #7, Fab 50)
Mita Uiato 5-8 Setter (2010 ranked #61, Fab 50)
Emily Hartong 6-2 OH/MB (2010 ranked #55)
Kalie Adolpho 6-1 MB (2011 ranked #100)

And….next year’s 2013 Class:

Nikki Taylor, 6-3, OH, Kaiser HS
Tayler Higgins, 5-10, S, Punahou HS

PrevVolleyball.com Top 50 Juniors - Class of 2013 Top 50 Recruits:
Tayler Higgins 5-8 Setter, Punahou HS, Ku-Ikahi Club (orally committed to Hawaii)
Nikki Taylor 6-3 OH, Kaise HS, Imi Ike Club (orally committed to Hawaii)