Volleyball Thread

[StillAWarrior]

I was happy to see that Loyola is in the final again.  I'll definitely have to watch that tomorrow night. 

Looking at the box score, I saw that Owen McAndrews didn't play.  Looking back through their results and box scores, it looks like Owen has had very little playing time since fairly early in the season.  Anyone know why?  It sucks to be on the bench, I'm sure, but I  hope it's a volleyball issue and not an injury or health issue.

[Hilltop]

If anyone caught that National Championship game, you might have witnessed one of the greatest men's volleyball games ever.  Took 5 sets and more for Loyola to repeat.  Lewis was a very well rounded team, but Loyola just had a little too much fire power.  So much power that McAndrews pretty much lost his spot due to the addition of two freshman over 6-10.  Loyola only loses 1 senior starter, so a three peat is not unthinkable.  Overall a great night for Midwest volleyball and volleyball in general.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

If anyone caught that National Championship game, you might have witnessed one of the greatest men's volleyball games ever.  Took 5 sets and more for Loyola to repeat.  Lewis was a very well rounded team, but Loyola just had a little too much fire power.  So much power that McAndrews pretty much lost his spot due to the addition of two freshman over 6-10.  Loyola only loses 1 senior starter, so a three peat is not unthinkable.  Overall a great night for Midwest volleyball and volleyball in general.

Great game. Caldwell will be a big loss though. However, though they have some talented freshman, they lose a ton after next year. Jaeske, Olson, Hutz and I think their Libero are all gone after next season.

[JWags85]

I didnt realize that volleyball combined D-I and D-II schools, seeing Lewis there was surprising, much less being the 1 seed.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I should have guessed there was one, but returning home from Vermont yesterday I spotted a sign on I-91 in Holyoke, MA for The Volleyball Hall of Fame.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I didnt realize that volleyball combined D-I and D-II schools, seeing Lewis there was surprising, much less being the 1 seed.

They're D1 for volleyball. Sine schools have different levels for different sports.

[StillAWarrior]

If anyone caught that National Championship game, you might have witnessed one of the greatest men's volleyball games ever.  Took 5 sets and more for Loyola to repeat.  Lewis was a very well rounded team, but Loyola just had a little too much fire power.  So much power that McAndrews pretty much lost his spot due to the addition of two freshman over 6-10.  Loyola only loses 1 senior starter, so a three peat is not unthinkable.  Overall a great night for Midwest volleyball and volleyball in general.

What a great match!  Couldn't agree more.  I'm just thankful I programmed my DVR to record extra time or I would have missed the end.  That was great volleyball.

[GGGG]

They're D1 for volleyball. Sine schools have different levels for different sports.

I believe you can only "play up" in certain sports.  Ice hockey, men's volleyball, lacrosse...maybe others.  Schools can no longer place football or basketball teams in different divisions.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I believe you can only "play up" in certain sports.  Ice hockey, men's volleyball, lacrosse...maybe others.  Schools can no longer place football or basketball teams in different divisions.

Nova? Butler?

[StillAWarrior]

Nova? Butler?

Both are D1 FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) (formerly D1-AA), as compared to D1 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision).  But they're still D1.

[wadesworld]

Was at the Final Four and after 2 less than stellar semifinal matches, what a final match.  Props to both teams.  Loyola should be on their way to a 3 peat, with BYU really their only big competition (as long as the rumors about Patch leaving are not true).  Caldwell's consistent serve reception will be missed but they will have other guys who can outperform what he did offensively.

Nothing wrong with McAndrews health wise, just had a kid who came in and won the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament as a freshman come in and win his spot in the starting lineup.  Jendryk still isn't fundamentally where he needs to be, which is scary, because he is already very, very good.

Should be interesting to see who USC picks up as their coach.  It would not shock me to see Dan Friend (Lewis's coach) take that job.  Some people think Shane Davis is getting a call from USC.  He might (well, he probably should), but it will be a very quick "Thank you but no thank you."  This program is his baby.  He got the job right after graduating when they were going to shut the program down, and he said he would do it even though they were only willing to pay him $10K for it.  He's now making a very comfortable salary.  They should go after the guy who we tried to get onto the Marquette woman's team's list of candidates, but we got our word in too late.  And it would be all to ironic, because Brad Keller was one of the assistants who became the sacrificial lamb in order to keep Bill Ferguson around as the head coach at USC not too many years ago.  Oops.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Was at the Final Four and after 2 less than stellar semifinal matches, what a final match.  Props to both teams.  Loyola should be on their way to a 3 peat, with BYU really their only big competition (as long as the rumors about Patch leaving are not true).  Caldwell's consistent serve reception will be missed but they will have other guys who can outperform what he did offensively.

Nothing wrong with McAndrews health wise, just had a kid who came in and won the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament as a freshman come in and win his spot in the starting lineup.  Jendryk still isn't fundamentally where he needs to be, which is scary, because he is already very, very good.

Should be interesting to see who USC picks up as their coach.  It would not shock me to see Dan Friend (Lewis's coach) take that job.  Some people think Shane Davis is getting a call from USC.  He might (well, he probably should), but it will be a very quick "Thank you but no thank you."  This program is his baby.  He got the job right after graduating when they were going to shut the program down, and he said he would do it even though they were only willing to pay him $10K for it.  He's now making a very comfortable salary.  They should go after the guy who we tried to get onto the Marquette woman's team's list of candidates, but we got our word in too late.  And it would be all to ironic, because Brad Keller was one of the assistants who became the sacrificial lamb in order to keep Bill Ferguson around as the head coach at USC not too many years ago.  Oops.

Was that you wearing the Marquette blue sweatshirt with the gold lettering?  Saw some guy that appeared on camera more than a few times. 

Many of the US national team players were here on Friday at a Costa Mesa high school from both the men and the women's teams.  Including the freshman from Loyola.

[wadesworld]

Was that you wearing the Marquette blue sweatshirt with the gold lettering?  Saw some guy that appeared on camera more than a few times.  

Many of the US national team players were here on Friday at a Costa Mesa high school from both the men and the women's teams.  Including the freshman from Loyola.

Nope, I was the guy in the white next to him.  That was my roommate from college and teammate from high school.

Having coached 3 of the Loyola players in club one of them was kind enough to set me up with tickets when I told them I was coming out for the tournament, so we were in the Loyola section.  I'm not exactly sure what her position was, but the woman who seemed to be handling the tickets and events for Loyola saw the Marquette shirt and started talking to us when she was handing out the post match party invites.  Evidently she has 2 kids who went graduated from Marquette (the 2nd of which just graduated last weekend).  She spoke very highly of their experiences at MU.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Nope, I was the guy in the white next to him.  That was my roommate from college and teammate from high school.

You guys didn't seem to be wanting Loyola to win, or you were pretty stoic when they did.

My son and I were chuckling when we watched the tournament and saw the sweatshirt...."what the hell...was that a Marquette sweatshirt". 

Kudos to your roommate for representing.  Set 5 was pretty insane.  Thought the other sets were ok, so-so, with some good points here and there.

[wadesworld]

You guys didn't seem to be wanting Loyola to win, or you were pretty stoic when they did.

My son and I were chuckling when we watched the tournament and saw the sweatshirt...."what the hell...was that a Marquette sweatshirt".  

Kudos to your roommate for representing.  Set 5 was pretty insane.  Thought the other sets were ok, so-so, with some good points here and there.

Hah I try not to get too loud and riled up about it.  On the inside I was certainly rooting for Loyola.  I could've this year since I hadn't coached anyone on Loyola, but last year was really awkward.  I couldn't make the Thursday (semifinal) matches because we had a club practice, so when Stanford upset Loyola I shot a text to the guy on Stanford who I had coached to see if they got any extra tickets, since all the team tickets come in a package for the whole tournament (so not just semifinals or just finals, but all rounds).  Each team is allotted, I believe, 100 tickets per team.  When BYU lost I thought maybe they'd offer some of their tickets up to Stanford.  Luckily for me they did and I was sitting in the first row of the Stanford player pass section.  Having coached 3 guys on Loyola and 1 on Stanford, and having seen all of their parents at the match, I certainly couldn't openly root for either team.  Eventually the Stanford parents sitting next to myself and my friend finally turned to us and said, "Okay I'm sorry, but I have to ask, how did you get these seats and are you even rooting for anyone?"

I was wearing one of my shirts for Greg Von Rueden.  I have worn those shirts at each of the last 3 Final Fours.

I thought the team that lost each of set 1 and 2 was the team that should've won those sets.  When you get a 5 point lead in a set at that level you have to be able to hang onto that lead, especially when the stakes are as high as they were.  But to each team's credit, players stepped up and stole those sets (particularly Petty in the 1st set and Loyola's serve reception as a whole in the 2nd).  The 2nd half of set 4 was very good I thought.  Some very good defensive digs that led to some really entertaining rallies.  Lewis's libero was very impressive.  He's too willing to fall backwards and commits too early sometimes, but he gets results.

Set 5 was a thriller.  For as much as I absolutely love the kid and root for him because nobody I have ever coached works harder than him, I have no idea what Shane Davis was thinking subbing in 6'1" Trevor Novotny on the right side in serve reception with Lewis having match point and Petty front row.  Gevis played a really poor match (in my opinion) and his block, while he had a few big ones, got abused quite often, but I'd still take my chances with a 6'11" kid putting some hands in their stud's face than a 6'1" outside hitter coming in cold off the bench to block on the right.  I guess Shane's thinking was "we need to slow the match down and I don't have timeouts, and we're either going to put the ball away and even the score or they're going to get a dig and Ricky's not slowing Petty down anyways, so it'll be match over either way," but I'd still take the matchup over the momentum any day.  But, Petty got his swing on Novotny and let it get away.  The Lightning kids always did beat the SPRI (and Ultimate) boys  .

[StillAWarrior]

Nothing wrong with McAndrews health wise, just had a kid who came in and won the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament as a freshman come in and win his spot in the starting lineup.  Jendryk still isn't fundamentally where he needs to be, which is scary, because he is already very, very good.

Glad to hear that Owen is well.  Actually, I saw him on Thursday when my son's HS team played at Owen's alma mater (St. Eds).

When I watched Loyola play Harvard earlier this year Owen was playing RS.  I think (but am not sure) that is where he was slotted when he played early in the season (even though they have him listed as MH).  So, it was the other Freshman who took his spot.  I guess it's hard to argue with 6'11".  I'd imagine that's a pretty common occurrence with teams that reach the "next level."  The freshman who are coming in after the championship are sometimes a higher caliber than the existing players and take their spots.  Still, I'd imagine it's been a nice experience for Owen at Loyola with two national championships and a good shot at a third.

The championship was a great match.  That fifth set was incredible.  Lewis just didn't have an answer for Loyola's middles.  Loyola's middles combined for 0.524 (27 kills on 42 swings with only 5 errors).  Amazing.  In that final set, it seemed like every time they set the middle they got the kill.

[wadesworld]

Glad to hear that Owen is well.  Actually, I saw him on Thursday when my son's HS team played at Owen's alma mater (St. Eds).

When I watched Loyola play Harvard earlier this year Owen was playing RS.  I think (but am not sure) that is where he was slotted when he played early in the season (even though they have him listed as MH).  So, it was the other Freshman who took his spot.  I guess it's hard to argue with 6'11".  I'd imagine that's a pretty common occurrence with teams that reach the "next level."  The freshman who are coming in after the championship are sometimes a higher caliber than the existing players and take their spots.  Still, I'd imagine it's been a nice experience for Owen at Loyola with two national championships and a good shot at a third.

The championship was a great match.  That fifth set was incredible.  Lewis just didn't have an answer for Loyola's middles.  Loyola's middles combined for 0.524 (27 kills on 42 swings with only 5 errors).  Amazing.  In that final set, it seemed like every time they set the middle they got the kill.

Yeah Owen started out the season as their starting right side but in my opinion (and possibly Shane's and their staff's opinion) he's naturally just a middle blocker.  He did not seem very comfortable on the right side and when hitting he would dip his left shoulder and that led to a lot of hitting into blocks and hitting errors, plus making it hard to hit down the line so making the scouting report on him easier.  Eventually a freshman from Milwaukee took his spot, and after that kid became an error machine Gevis finally ended up taking the spot to close out the season, as Gevis has only been playing volleyball for a few years and finally found enough consistency to warrant being on the court.  What's interesting is that McAndrews was really explosive in the middle but seemed to lack explosiveness on the right side.  Just being out of his comfort zone I suppose.  Once you remove the pin-to-pin moves that middles have to make they can become pretty uncomfortable and seem to have a hard time waiting and timing out their blocks.  McAndrews seemed to handle it all in stride and seemed like he was having a blast at the Final Four.

It's always been our philosophy that you get your middles the ball as much as you can.  They will always have the highest hitting efficiency of anyone on the court.  Serve and pass become the name of the game because if you can do those 2 things you can get your middles the ball and you can take the other team's middles out of the game.  Middles will almost always have a 1 on 1 and at most have just simple help on them.  Plus when you throw the threat of a bic like Jaeshke in there it's just 1 more thing for a middle blocker on the other side to think about.  What's scary is that Loyola could have the 2 future starting middles for the National team.  Olson was injured for a big portion of the conference season, but in my (biased, as I coached him) opinion he is every bit as good as Jendryk right now, mainly because he is more fundamental.  Jendryk has the ability to hit some really nice off angle shots, but he doesn't get through the ball well yet, but when he does he will be scary good.  Scott Stadick, a UCI commit from Watertown, may be in that mix in 5 or so years as well.

These guys just continue to win at every level they've been at.  They each have 2 club National Championships, 2 NCAA National Championships, and 1 WIAA State Championship.  The 2 on the left were 2 time Nationals All Tournament Team and the 1 on the right was 2 time Nationals MVP.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Rewatching the game and two things about the college game amaze me. One, how quick these 6 10 kids move. They move so well, you think of how slow Otule was but these guys have such incredible footwork. Secondly, the passing amazes me every time, in both serve receive and in regards two digs.

I used to go to Loyolas volleyball camp back in like 2007 and 2008. Shane was there and he's such a great guy. Also, since I was a setter, I worked a lot with Hutz's older brother who was on the team at that time. He was a goof but setting runs in the family I guess.

[StillAWarrior]

It's always been our philosophy that you get your middles the ball as much as you can.  They will always have the highest hitting efficiency of anyone on the court.  Serve and pass become the name of the game because if you can do those 2 things you can get your middles the ball and you can take the other team's middles out of the game.  Middles will almost always have a 1 on 1 and at most have just simple help on them.  Plus when you throw the threat of a bic like Jaeshke in there it's just 1 more thing for a middle blocker on the other side to think about.

That bic they run with Jaeschke is absolutely ridiculous.  When we saw them play Harvard, I think they ran it about 6 or 7 times and scored on all but one.

[wadesworld]

That bic they run with Jaeschke is absolutely ridiculous.  When we saw them play Harvard, I think they ran it about 6 or 7 times and scored on all but one.

It's the most fun play to watch in volleyball if done well, in my opinion.  Seeing someone jump from behind the 3 meter line and be able to contact the ball at about 4 feet off the net at nearly the same tempo as a middle attack makes it pretty dang tough to defend.

When those guys were 16s we had Olson (6'10") and Josh Kirchner (6'7" now playing RS at USC) in he middle and they were had and shoulders above any other middle in the country.  We ran them on just standard 1 balls because they could go OT of any other middle block in the country (so why complicate it by moving them around and allowing teams to bring help blockers to them?).  We then had Novotny, who at that time was the most dominant player in the country for the age group, run a bic but in the gap between the middle and the outside (so basically a 31 but to the back row), and we had a little setter whose IQ and placement was 2nd to none (he's playing libero for Erskine, who made the NCAAs last year out of the Coastal Carolinas but lost to Pfieffer in the conference finals this year).  The first qualifier of that year we sat Novotny for the entire first pool and at that time qualifiers were just 2 day events, so you'd do your first pool on day 1 and start your 2nd pool on day 1, finishing the 2nd pool day 2 and then doing the playoffs on day 2.  We finally put Novotny in for the last match of that day and he was just itching to play.  Mid way through the first set he just blistered the Gap set and their middle blocker turned to their coach and said, "Coach, this isn't even fair."  He was right, it wasn't fair at that age.  He then turned to Trevor and said, "Can you at least let us score a few points?"  Pretty funny.  Hutz's older brother just finished his senior year that season and he came to play at a few practices.  The first time he was back row with Trevor hitting OH on the other team Trevor ripped 1 right past Mike down the line, and Mike turned to us and said, "That right there is a D1 level swing."  I'm hoping that kid is in the gym passing serve receive every day until next season.  He can get the job done even at 6'1".  Just comes down to being a nail gun passer.

[Hilltop]

Rewatching the game and two things about the college game amaze me. One, how quick these 6 10 kids move. They move so well, you think of how slow Otule was but these guys have such incredible footwork. Secondly, the passing amazes me every time, in both serve receive and in regards two digs.

I used to go to Loyolas volleyball camp back in like 2007 and 2008. Shane was there and he's such a great guy. Also, since I was a setter, I worked a lot with Hutz's older brother who was on the team at that time. He was a goof but setting runs in the family I guess.

If i recall correctly, Peter Hutz wasn't even a setter in high school at MUHS.  His older brother, now Dr. Hutz, was actually the one known more for his setting. 

[wadesworld]

If i recall correctly, Peter Hutz wasn't even a setter in high school at MUHS.  His older brother, now Dr. Hutz, was actually the one known more for his setting. 

Peter hit throughout his high school career but he did set half of his 17s club season and his entire 18s season, making the All Tournament Team at Nationals as a setter his 18s year.

And come to think of it, not only did Novotny win MVP twice at Nationals, but he also was named to the All Tournament Team the 2 other years (they only give out All Tournament 15s-18s, so Novotny was All Tournament all 4 years he possibly could've been, with 2 of them MVPs).

[Hilltop]

Peter hit throughout his high school career but he did set half of his 17s club season and his entire 18s season, making the All Tournament Team at Nationals as a setter his 18s year.

And come to think of it, not only did Novotny win MVP twice at Nationals, but he also was named to the All Tournament Team the 2 other years (they only give out All Tournament 15s-18s, so Novotny was All Tournament all 4 years he possibly could've been, with 2 of them MVPs).

I was at the first Loyola-Lewis match during the regular season and saw Novotny run one of the best bics I've ever seen.  I didn't know his history, so it came as a huge surprise to me.  I'm sure he doesn't regret coming to team that has won back to back national champs and made it to the Final Four every year he's been there, but he sounds like he could have been a star at a lesser MIVA teams and maybe even a career similar to former Tosa West and Lewis star Drew Pickering.

[wadesworld]

I was at the first Loyola-Lewis match during the regular season and saw Novotny run one of the best bics I've ever seen.  I didn't know his history, so it came as a huge surprise to me.  I'm sure he doesn't regret coming to team that has won back to back national champs and made it to the Final Four every year he's been there, but he sounds like he could have been a star at a lesser MIVA teams and maybe even a career similar to former Tosa West and Lewis star Drew Pickering.

He's a special player, just his combination of a lack of height and his inability to be a nail gun passer (he's not a bad passer, but when you're a 6'1" OH you have to have unbelievable ball control to be effective at the high major level) keep him from doing huge things at the college level.  He was also 2 time WIAA State Player of the Year in Wisconsin and possibly 4 time All State Team?

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Illinois boys state tournament is in full swing. Really some great volleyball if anyone is interested. Couple of thoughts, there was a regional in the Southwest that was absolutely brutal. Lincoln way east, north, west and central were all in it and they are all incredibly good volleyball schools. They got screwed having to play eachother so early.

Glenbrook South sectional is going to be a fun one. Loyola, New Trier and Glenbrook North are always good and Maine East who has always been a solid volleyball school finally got over the hump and won a regional (congrats dad!) There area lot of talented players in those 4 teams. Don't know if anyone pays attention but if you enjoy the game definitely worth going out for a look. State finals at Hoffman Estates is always a good time as well.