Why are we not more competitive?

[psyclone51]

This is a serious question. If you want to rag on the girls, or on Christy, go somewhere else; I'm not interested. But I am really puzzled why we are not more competitive. Baylor was there for the taking today. We should have smoked Iowa. We also should have at least given teams like Nebraska and Creighton more of a challenge. And I cannot figure it out.

I thought we had a great influx of talent the last two years. And our woes with blocking last year have clearly been resolved - Grace is playing lights out at the net. Maybe we do not have as much talent as I thought. Maybe the injuries are hurting us more than I thought they would. Certainly, we have way too many service errors, and our passing still leaves a lot to be desired. Piper has to chase way too many balls, and we get scrambly awful easy.

Thoughts?

 

[NenoFone]

First let me say, I am not a coach, just a fan, but as I see it: service errors, serve receive/passing errors, injuries, and lack of overall height. Also the recent trend of playing mini-tournaments in the non-conferance season leaves very little time for practice.

 

[Buster28]

I see the energy level generally starting out well in games, then there is a nose-dive and it's difficult to recover after that point. Case in point today: ISU clobbered Baylor in the first set, raced out to a 6-1 lead in the second set before BU called time out. Then it was all Baylor the rest of that set and the third as well. Fourth was close, but a win, then fizzle in the 5th. There is no consistency in power or accuracy. I'm at a loss as well because the pieces are there (just an illusion?), but they've shown an inability to all stay on the same page when on the court for more than a short amount of time.

 

[cykadelic2]

First let me say, I am not a coach, just a fan, but as I see it: service errors, serve receive/passing errors, injuries, and lack of overall height. Also the recent trend of playing mini-tournaments in the non-conferance season leaves very little time for practice.

The team is 0 for 3 in five set matches which as CJL has suggested, reveals a strong tendency to overly tighten up in high stress situations. That obviously needs to be fixed.

The non con SOS was tough, but the overly numerous Back to Back matches took their toll with the most glaring example being TOE where we played Wyoming the night before while TOE had 4 days to prep for ISU. Probably win that match with multiple days of prep.

Also, CJL’s lineup tinkering likely cost the team at least one non con match. Replacing Anderson with Herbst has been understandable but some of the other tinkering has been unnecessarily excessive IMO outside of those changes related to injuries. Maybe more tinkering will be justified to help the serve receive/ pass game which has suffered with some back row rotations.

 

[MartyFine]

It seems like we always pose these questions in September as it concerns the volleyball program, but then they generally improve over the course of the season and wind up playing pretty well...

 

[Cyfan1965]

Pressley finished the game with 39 kills on a .390 hitting percentage. FOREGETABOUTIT

 

[StClone]

Unreal

Turn of the century, if my memory serves me, an Iowa State player had 38 kills for all time kills in a game. Pretty sure Schaben's best is under 30 kills per game.

 

[Buster28]

Pressley finished the game with 39 kills on a .390 hitting percentage. FOREGETABOUTIT

And she's only a sophomore, if the program was accurate. We'll get to see plenty more of her over the next three seasons.

 

[BoxsterCy]

It's a down year but the league is weak, even weaker than last year it seems, so maybe we can rebound in conference and still make the NCAA's. 10 conference has gotten us in before but that was with an overall record better than what we are going to see this year.

 

[Cyfan1965]

Had we beaten two of these.... Orange Utah Creighton Baylor I would say we had a shot at NCAA. Losing to the Howks was a bad one. It may be in the back of the committee's mind that we got smoked by Purdue. We have to finish third of better in big 12 to get in. IMO

 

[runbikeswim]

I have to say, I was really looking forward to this year, but I think the identity of ISU being a scrappy team has been lost. Our opponents are leading us in digs on the season, and our opponents have gotten more kill swings/attempts than we have.

To me, this all points to poor transition and ball handling. Also, it could be the matches I've seen, but Jess getting targeted a lot when she is back row on serves and kills, and I didn't think she was handling it great, but that could have been just what I watched.

 

[Cyfan1965]

When we get into a scramble which is way too often we have one option... Schaben pipe. Other teams have enough ball control to at least get an out of system swing that isn't basically a free ball.

 

[ArgentCy]

Granted, I've watched very little volleyball this year. It seemed like their blocking was better than past years. They just never seem to finish sets and do much worse in later sets. This has been clearly a trend where ISU will get up 2-0 or 2-1 and lose. No idea why other than mental.

 

[Tornado man]

Tonight they just mailed it in. The last 5 or 6 years have been disappointing compared to CJL's start at ISU, but something really looks wrong this year. Like effort?

 

[BoxsterCy]

Tonight they just mailed it in. The last 5 or 6 years have been disappointing compared to CJL's start at ISU, but something really looks wrong this year. Like effort?

Going to likely be our worst season since Lynch-Johnson's first year. That 3 Sweet-Sixteen's and 2 Elite-Eights in six years seems to be fading in memory. Guessing the ten straight years of NCAA appearances is going to end this season.

 

[Buster28]

Going to likely be our worst season since Lynch-Johnson's first year. That 3 Sweet-Sixteen's and 2 Elite-Eights in six years seems to be fading in memory. Guessing the ten straight years of NCAA appearances is going to end this season.

Even worse, it's been twelve consecutive NCAA tournament appearances for ISU - all but Christy's very first season (16-15). She pulled a rabbit out of her hat a couple seasons ago when all looked lost midway through the schedule. Maybe she can do it again. Getting blasted by Tech last night, 3-1 where the 3rd and 4th sets weren't particularly close, (after 23 consecutive wins against them) isn't a good sign, regardless of Tech being in 1st place in the league right now at 3-0, 14-3.

 

[BoxsterCy]

Even worse, it's been twelve consecutive NCAA tournament appearances for ISU - all but Christy's very first season (16-15). She pulled a rabbit out of her hat a couple seasons ago when all looked lost midway through the schedule. Maybe she can do it again. Getting blasted by Tech last night, 3-1 where the 3rd and 4th sets weren't particularly close, (after 23 consecutive wins against them, I believe) isn't a good sign, regardless of Tech being in 1st place in the league right now at 3-0, 14-3.

At least no one is talking about her getting hired away anymore. Sorry, couldn't resist that bit of gallows humor.

The main reason I have my Cyclone.TV subscription is to watch them and the WBB. Guess I am now going to be holding out for a rebound year for the WBB team. With a PG added I at least think they will get back to the NCAA this year.

What makes the slump of both teams worse is that it is coinciding with a period of the league not being particularly strong. Might be turning into Texas and Baylor and then the Little Six in both sports.

 

[cykadelic2]

Tonight they just mailed it in. The last 5 or 6 years have been disappointing compared to CJL's start at ISU, but something really looks wrong this year. Like effort?

Effort isn't the issue given the team's tendency to win first sets like they did Friday night

 

[Royalclone]

Effort isn't the issue given the team's tendency to win first sets like they did Friday night

First set wins can come on adrenaline. As you say, that could be coming in ready to make the effort. When the other team continues to keep them out of system as the match drags on they tend to lose that first game magic.

A couple of years ago, it was our block that seemed to be the week point. That has been corrected, but maybe at the expense of the back row defense.

 

[cykadelic2]

First set wins can come on adrenaline. As you say, that could be coming in ready to make the effort. When the other team continues to keep them out of system as the match drags on they tend to lose that first game magic.

A couple of years ago, it was our block that seemed to be the week point. That has been corrected, but maybe at the expense of the back row defense.

CJL has mentioned multiple times they tend to tighten up when things go haywire. Also, the staff may be having issues countering adjustments made by the opposing staff after the first set.

The team again got beat tonight 3-1 at home by an average OU team. Again win 1st set and lose next 3. Very disappointing and perplexing.