Volleyball Thread

[Brewtown Andy]

I was shocked to see them win, as I was at Al last Friday to see MU get beatdown by Rice.

Wasn't that shocking after they pushed Florida State to five sets, though.

[Brewtown Andy]

Softball doesn't require that much space, I'm sure they could find room in the valley for a field.  Loyola and DePaul, two schools with far less space, make it happen by doubling their soccer fields as softball fields. 

The difference there, or at least with DePaul, is that they don't have a track running around the field already.

[Mr. Nielsen]

Great attendance for MU volleyball at thee Al this weekend! 800 plus in the sweep if Georgetown and a record crowd of 1,700 plus in the loss to Creighton on Saturday night.

[wadesworld]

The USAV women's National Team won the World Championships today, not dropping a single match the entire tournament and sweeping Brazil in the semifinals (they beat China in 4 in the finals).

The USAV men's National Team won the World League but did not win the World Championships.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Bump. Amanda Green signed today. From the same school at Taylor Louis. (Niles North) Saw Amanda play a few times and did not think she was good enough to get a D1 volleyball scholarship, Taylor was much better then she was in high school an she hasnt played at all this year. Interesting offer to say the least. Had Abdel Nader and Lorenzo Dillard not screwed up Marquette may have started a Niles North legacy.

[warriorchick]

Bump. Amanda Green signed today. From the same school at Taylor Louis. (Niles North) Saw Amanda play a few times and did not think she was good enough to get a D1 volleyball scholarship, Taylor was much better then she was in high school an she hasnt played at all this year. Interesting offer to say the least. Had Abdel Nader and Lorenzo Dillard not screwed up Marquette may have started a Niles North legacy.

Not sure you are going to get much conversation on this thread since y'all chased melissasmooth off the board.

[wadesworld]

I just don't know enough about high school girls volleyball to contribute. I've watched mu play a couple times this year and unfortunately I think they'll be taking a step back with bond leaving. bond was pretty determined.

I do know that the boys wiaa volleyball tournament starts tomorrow with the quarterfinals beginning at 12:30 pm and running through the evening at Wisconsin Lutheran college.  semifinals are at 10:30 and 12:30 on Saturday at wlc and the finals are at 6 pm at wlc.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I just don't know enough about high school girls volleyball to contribute. I've watched mu play a couple times this year and unfortunately I think they'll be taking a step back with bond leaving. bond was pretty determined.

I do know that the boys wiaa volleyball tournament starts tomorrow with the quarterfinals beginning at 12:30 pm and running through the evening at Wisconsin Lutheran college.  semifinals are at 10:30 and 12:30 on Saturday at wlc and the finals are at 6 pm at wlc.

Who are the volleyball powerhouses in Wisconsin besides Burlington? In Illinois its pretty much the same 8-10 teams every year.

[wadesworld]

Who are the volleyball powerhouses in Wisconsin besides Burlington? In Illinois its pretty much the same 8-10 teams every year.

Burlington is far from a powerhouse. They have had a couple of good years lately but I don't think they've ever won State. Marquette High is always the team to beat in the state. They have the 1 seed going into the State tournament (mainly because my little brother is their setter  - kidding that's not "mainly" why). They win State on average probably 60% of the time and have made it there I believe like 15 straight years. Tosa East has made state I believe 7 of the last 8 years with 1 title in there. Catholic Memorial finished 2nd at state 3 years in a row at one point and makes it just about every year. As of late Middleton and Appleton North have been consistently the best teams in their areas of the state.

[Brewtown Andy]

I just don't know enough about high school girls volleyball to contribute. I've watched mu play a couple times this year and unfortunately I think they'll be taking a step back with bond leaving. bond was pretty determined.

Injuries have kind of screwed around with what Theis wanted to do this year, I think.  Still looking like an NCAA team, though.

On the topic of Bond, he has Iowa 1 game under .500 with 4 to play, and they've finished under .500 for the last 13 seasons.

[wadesworld]

Injuries have kind of screwed around with what Theis wanted to do this year, I think.  Still looking like an NCAA team, though.

On the topic of Bond, he has Iowa 1 game under .500 with 4 to play, and they've finished under .500 for the last 13 seasons.

Gotcha that would make sense.

Interesting, I haven't followed them at all.  Hometown guy, I would bet on him turning that program around fairly quickly.  Although in the B1G it's pretty tough.  Competitive conference.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Burlington is far from a powerhouse. They have had a couple of good years lately but I don't think they've ever won State. Marquette High is always the team to beat in the state. They have the 1 seed going into the State tournament (mainly because my little brother is their setter  - kidding that's not "mainly" why). They win State on average probably 60% of the time and have made it there I believe like 15 straight years. Tosa East has made state I believe 7 of the last 8 years with 1 title in there. Catholic Memorial finished 2nd at state 3 years in a row at one point and makes it just about every year. As of late Middleton and Appleton North have been consistently the best teams in their areas of the state.

Good to see MUHS win the title.  My roommate from MU has two sons that play on the team.

[wadesworld]

Good to see MUHS win the title.  My roommate from MU has two sons that play on the team.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

[wadesworld]

He getting recruited by anybody?

Nah, 5'7" doesn't help his college chances.  He's not really interested in playing college either.  Didn't even want to play high school (has too much going on) but decided to do it anyways.  At least it ended well.

[ChicosBailBonds]

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Bump for the womens team making it to the tourney 4 straight years.

[wadesworld]

I just don't know enough about high school girls volleyball to contribute. I've watched mu play a couple times this year and unfortunately I think they'll be taking a step back with bond leaving. bond was pretty determined.

I do know that the boys wiaa volleyball tournament starts tomorrow with the quarterfinals beginning at 12:30 pm and running through the evening at Wisconsin Lutheran college.  semifinals are at 10:30 and 12:30 on Saturday at wlc and the finals are at 6 pm at wlc.

Unfortunately a Marquette ends the season pretty poorly, losing to Seton Hall twice in a matter of weeks (including at home in the BE Tourney semifinals) and then lose in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. I hope I'm wrong but I just get the feeling that Bond had a little more of a chip on his shoulder, so to say, and came in with an understanding of what it takes to win at a high major program. Theis's success at Ohio is hard to argue with, but this hire was a turning point moment for the MU women's volleyball program. With the BE already being a below average "power" conference in women's volleyball before the divide, it became even more of a mid-major conference in women's volleyball with the new configuration. I think with the new hire MU was either going to get someone who would allow the program to be competitive within the BE but never really become a threat to make the 2nd week of the NCAA Tournament, or they could've hired someone who would've taken the program one step further than Bond and separated themselves from the pack in the BE and challenged some teams to make a run in the NCAAs, kind of like a Gonzaga basketball. Unfortunately I have felt like Thies fit the mold of the first type of hire, and in his first season MU took a small step back from what Bond had built it seemed. I know with 100% certainty that someone who I feel very confident would've taken the program to the next step beyond what Bond built was interested in the position, albeit late in the process. Hopefully Thies can prove me wrong.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Bond was a much better recruiter as well. I've seen Amanda Green play (commit for next year) she's not good. Like even as a high school player she's not that good. Not even close to Taylor Louis in terms of skill lever and Taylor didn't play one point the entire year.

[TedBaxter]

Bond was a much better recruiter as well. I've seen Amanda Green play (commit for next year) she's not good. Like even as a high school player she's not that good. Not even close to Taylor Louis in terms of skill lever and Taylor didn't play one point the entire year.

Do you think Taylor Louis may have redshirted, so that's why she didn't play? Maybe that's what they have in store for Green since they may return all but one player for next year. 

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Do you think Taylor Louis may have redshirted, so that's why she didn't play? Maybe that's what they have in store for Green since they may return all but one player for next year. 

I don't doubt Taylor is going to end up red shirting but Green just isn't good.

[StillAWarrior]

The coaching dominoes are starting to fall...

Debbie Brown is out at Notre Dame.  I know that Marquette won't be involved in the carousel this time around, but it's going to get interesting.  I would think that ND would be a pretty desirable job  in light of how successful their women's sports have been lately.

Time for my daughter to start updating her contact lists again.

[StillAWarrior]

If the rumors are true, Notre Dame just hit a home run in its coaching search.  This is potentially a game changer in women's volleyball and ND could very well become a force in fairly short order.

I would think that a strong program at ND would cause pretty significant waves in the Midwest which will affect the Big 10.  It also obviously would pretty significantly affect the ACC.

[StillAWarrior]

If the rumors are true, Notre Dame just hit a home run in its coaching search.  This is potentially a game changer in women's volleyball and ND could very well become a force in fairly short order.

I would think that a strong program at ND would cause pretty significant waves in the Midwest which will affect the Big 10.  It also obviously would pretty significantly affect the ACC.

Following up on my own post...

It isn't official and hasn't been announced yet by either school, but it definitely looks like Jim McClaughlin, from Washington, is the new Head Coach at Notre Dame.  He's been very successful at Washington and built that program from pretty much nothing.  He's got a Championship and four FFs.  He's a former National coach of the year and his team has made the tournament 12 years in a row (after the team finished last in the PAC 10 in 2000 - the year before he arrived).

Also interesting is that it appears that Xavier's head coach, Mike Johnson, has resigned and will be joining McLaughlin at ND as an Assistant.  That also hasn't been announced, and Johnson still appears on Xavier's website, but Xavier just posted for a new HC.

It certainly looks like ND is "all in" with women's volleyball.  It'll be interesting to see how it works out for them.

[Groin_pull]

Seattle or South Bend? Hmmmmmmmm.