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Post by Cap'n on Sept 5, 2023 19:52:06 GMT -6
I was at the VB game. Big crowd and the atmosphere was electric. The students led by the other athletic teams just went crazy all game. It was so much fun. We were picked 11th or 12th in the WAC. We just might be better than that.
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Post by rc on Sept 5, 2023 20:35:17 GMT -6
Beating Tech is pretty impressive. Vollyball is a lot stronger this year! At 5-2 wins to losses we are looking good. Been watching the ESPN+ replay and the ladies are playing defense a lot better this year. Glad the atmosphere was great.
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Post by acutrackfan on Sept 8, 2023 9:59:05 GMT -6
Today is the first day of ACU's tournament at Texas State. Texas State is always a solid team and the other 2 teams will be old SLC foe SELA and Cal-Berkeley (probably never thought anyone every expected to see ACU ever play Cal-Berkeley in ANYTHING). The 2023 RPI rankings have not started producing their rankings yet and they do not produce a preseason rankings. So, I have inserted last year's rankings until RPI starts producing their 2023 list.
Texas State -- the host team is always among the top-5 in the state of Texas for volleyball. They finished the 2022 season #43 in the RPI, losing the SBC championship to James Madison and although ranked rather high in RPI, did not get a NCAA tournament bid. They are currently ranked just outside the AVCA top-25, one of the teams mentioned on at least 2 ballots. Last weekend, they beat #13 ranked UH 3-1 in Houston. BUT, in an interesting scheduling tweak, they opened their tournament last night with a big upset loss to SELA 3-2.
SELA -- finished the year ranked #138 in RPI, but won the SLC tourney, won 25 games on the season, and went to the NCAA tourney only to get skunked in the first round by a very good Minnesota team. Coming into the tourney, they were 3-2, with no defining wins, but that win last night over TX State was big for them. They are literally playing Cal right this minute and won the first set in a slugfest, 30-28. They will play ACU in the afternoon game today and they head east to play LSU on Sunday afternoon.
Cal -- they were not good last year at all -- ranked #222 in the RPI in 2022 and winning a grand total of 7 games all last season. But, this season they look much better, coming into the tourney 6-0 and with wins over solid teams from Southern Utah and St Mary's (CA) at their home tourney last year. They will play this evening in the prime time game against TX State
ACU -- just a reminder that the Wildcats finished ranked a very disappointing #255 last year. Anyone who has seen the team this year knows that they are looking much better than the 2022 version. Is it enough for ACU grab some wins at this tourney? Hopefully. This tourney will tell us a lot more about the rest of the year.
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Post by Cap'n on Sept 8, 2023 11:35:34 GMT -6
Great preview.
I watched the replay yesterday and your granddaughter did a remarkable job on the ACU-Tech broadcast. Super professional.
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Post by bogeyman on Sept 8, 2023 14:23:04 GMT -6
We blew set #1 and lose 27-25 after being ahead 24-21. On to set #2.
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Post by Outsider on Sept 8, 2023 14:47:04 GMT -6
Cats lose set #2: 25-17.
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Post by bogeyman on Sept 8, 2023 14:48:18 GMT -6
Couldn't overcome a terrible start. Hoping we get Steinhilber back soon.
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Post by bogeyman on Sept 8, 2023 15:42:15 GMT -6
A little comeback in set #3 but not quite enough and we fall 25-23 and lose the match 3-0.
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Post by acutrackfan on Sept 8, 2023 15:42:28 GMT -6
Fought it hard in the 3rd set - losing 25-23. This is a SELA team that went to the Tournament last year and had a big upset last night over Texas State. Bryley played in the first 2 sets, but apparently did not set foot in the final set. Getting her back at 100% sometime in the future will be huge. I did not see the game, but judging by the stats, SELA must have been throwing up a wall on Braden Bossier and it looks like they were attacking our setter -- Madeline Guffy had more digs that Sara Carrizales and Sara has been a digging machine this year. In the perfect world, you want your libero taking the serve, feeding the setter, who decides where she will set the attack. Repeatedly attacking the setter takes us out of rotation.
Two games tomorrow and they don't get any easier. Cal and TX State play tonight and they are the 2 teams we play tomorrow. With Cal beating SELA earlier today, they are 7-0 on the season and they only had 7 wins all last season.
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Post by acutrackfan on Sept 9, 2023 8:41:03 GMT -6
Incidentally, if any Wildcat fans are bummed about the PV football game not being carried on ESPN+, the ACU VB game against Texas State WILL be broadcast at 4 p.m. today (although I do like the idea that Cap'n had to watch the UNC/UIW game at 3 as well). Texas State is a good team -- last week, they upset UH, which was ranked #13 in the nation at the time of the game. Will be interesting to see how ACU bounced back from a tough loss last night against a SELA team which upset TX State in 5 sets on Thursday night.
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Post by acutrackfan on Sept 9, 2023 11:41:11 GMT -6
Cal destroys the Wildcats in the first game today - 25-16; 25-15; 25-16. The Cal defense stymied the ACU offense -- ACU ended up with a .023 hitting average. ACU had a .187 average against Tech. Cal is an example of how it is silly to use last year's standings to make prognostications this year. I did some more reading on Cal and it is very telling. Their HC resigned from Cal 2 weeks before the team was to report to take a job at a California community college. The former HC had a record of 0-40 in conference play in the Pac-12. Now, the Pac-12 is a top VB conference, but 0-40 is still 0-40! Cal did not try to launch a coaching search at that late date -- they moved up the top assistant who had only joined the team this past spring and had never even coached a game at Cal as an assistant.
The new assistant put in a very different, defense-first scheme and it seems to be working very well (note ACU's hitting percentage against Cal noted above). Texas State came into the tourney with the #4 offense in D-1 and Cal shut them down last night in a 3-1 win. Now, ACU has to try to pick up a win this afternoon against the Texas State team that beat the #13 ranked team in the country just last week. Texas State is also 0-2 this weekend as well.
I did notice that Bryley Steinhilber had some success against Cal today -- glad to see that she is getting to play some coming off an injury.
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Post by bogeyman on Sept 9, 2023 16:08:39 GMT -6
Cats lose set 1, 25-21 then win set 2, 30-28.
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Post by acutrackfan on Sept 9, 2023 16:10:15 GMT -6
ACU really fighting with a good TX State team. Lost set 1 21-25. But fought back to win set 2 30-28. Edmiston having her best game of the tourney. I certainly enjoy watching the game a lot more than following on Live Stats.
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Post by Cap'n on Sept 20, 2023 8:35:37 GMT -6
ACU Volleyball Cats (5-7) open WAC play at home where they are 4-1. They play Seattle (5-6) Thursday night and Utah Valley (3-8) Saturday. I think these games give us a good opportunity to get off to a fast start in conference.
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Post by acuprof on Sept 21, 2023 12:31:09 GMT -6
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