2009 Volleyball Thread

[awhom111]

Looking Back:
Duke Volleyball had another solid season as they reached the second round of the NCAA tournament again. The stupid ACC schedule cheated Duke out of a legitimate opportunity to win the ACC outright (we were skipped on the opportunity to beat the stuffing out of Maryland and Boston College twice (unlike Carolina, who got a much more favorable pod to skip)), but at least we get to only play Clemson and Georgia Tech once this season. This team has settled into a nice pattern of being a second round caliber team every year, but is still looking to take one big step forward. Three very good players graduated from last year’s team. In Jourdan Norman, the team loses the best middle blocker from a defensive perspective that the program has ever seen. Her record-setting block totals will be missed as well as her reliable attacking skills. The opposite is one of the most important offensive players in Coach Jolene Nagel’s system, and losing Sue Carls means losing a high-percentage hitter on that right side. Carls also brought incredible energy and emotional leadership to the court. Aana Wherry was a versatile member of the defense in covering in any of the back row positions. Her productive serve will also be missed. All three seniors that graduated played regularly.

Key Returnees and Additions:
Last season, Duke found its next four-year setter in the form of Kelly Catanach. She has already displayed good technical ability and aggressive defense and will probably develop further this year in getting the ball to the right spot on offense as well as figuring out when she needs to let the rest of her defense get the first ball. She is capably backed up by veterans Alex Sall and Christina Falcone. Claire Smalzer was an effective libero in her first year in the position. It is difficult to only play in the back row and to play back there for almost every play of the game is a real challenge that she stepped up to quite admirably. Amanda Robertson played defense for the opposite last season and may get the chance to add to it by playing all around on that right side. Kayla Kirk has also gotten the chance to play in the front row on that side. Rachael Moss is the key hitter on the outside both on the attack and with her powerful curving serve. She is probably the most dangerous hitter out of the back row as well. The other outside hitter position was technically held by Sophia Dunworth, who was able to display her positional versatility. While she did play on the outside, she also drifted inside and did well in blocking duties. She played on the inside for some rotations in order to free up the most deadly attacker on the team in Becci Burling. Burling’s attacking ability in the middle is only surpassed by her abilities to hit from the outside. She also brings solid blocking abilities to the front line and will be expected to provide some vocal leadership on the court. Off the bench, Brittany Staffeil has mostly been used in defensive situations, but she is also a skilled, accurate hitter on the outside while Juliana Traut brings more power to the left side. The freshmen are not listed on the roster currently, but they were listed in news items. Christiana Gray looks to play in the vacant middle blocker position, while two defensive players and one outside hitter were also brought in for the season.

Outlook:
This team will need to address a couple of holes to ensure that it reaches the same level as it has in the past few years. While the team will definitely have a strong attacking threat, making sure that the blocking in the middle is solid will also be critical. Losing an opposite is a very important matter for Duke as it is such a critical part of the attack due to the high percentage of the attacks that the team has historically enjoyed from the right side. Fortunately, it looks like there are some experienced options for that spot. Expect this team to be an ACC contender again this season. While the rest of the teams in the ACC are also getting stronger, Duke has been in a very strong position to recruit nationally and bring in some great players. As mentioned earlier, the schedule does slightly favor the team in the sense that Duke does get to play the Clemson-Georgia Tech pod only once, but the team does have 11 away games to 9 home games. Is this the year that the program takes one giant step forward in the NCAA tournament? It will be tough as the second round almost always contains a perennial volleyball power, but this team will break that barrier eventually.

[merry]

Thanks for posting all of this! Just got this email from goduke - Duke picked first (http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22699&SPID=1844&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=204776910) in ACC preseason!

[hughgs]

Looking Back:
Duke Volleyball had another solid season as they reached the second round of the NCAA tournament again. The stupid ACC schedule cheated Duke out of a legitimate opportunity to win the ACC outright (we were skipped on the opportunity to beat the stuffing out of Maryland and Boston College twice (unlike Carolina, who got a much more favorable pod to skip)), but at least we get to only play Clemson and Georgia Tech once this season. This team has settled into a nice pattern of being a second round caliber team every year, but is still looking to take one big step forward. Three very good players graduated from last year’s team. In Jourdan Norman, the team loses the best middle blocker from a defensive perspective that the program has ever seen. Her record-setting block totals will be missed as well as her reliable attacking skills. The opposite is one of the most important offensive players in Coach Jolene Nagel’s system, and losing Sue Carls means losing a high-percentage hitter on that right side. Carls also brought incredible energy and emotional leadership to the court. Aana Wherry was a versatile member of the defense in covering in any of the back row positions. Her productive serve will also be missed. All three seniors that graduated played regularly.

Key Returnees and Additions:
Last season, Duke found its next four-year setter in the form of Kelly Catanach. She has already displayed good technical ability and aggressive defense and will probably develop further this year in getting the ball to the right spot on offense as well as figuring out when she needs to let the rest of her defense get the first ball. She is capably backed up by veterans Alex Sall and Christina Falcone. Claire Smalzer was an effective libero in her first year in the position. It is difficult to only play in the back row and to play back there for almost every play of the game is a real challenge that she stepped up to quite admirably. Amanda Robertson played defense for the opposite last season and may get the chance to add to it by playing all around on that right side. Kayla Kirk has also gotten the chance to play in the front row on that side. Rachael Moss is the key hitter on the outside both on the attack and with her powerful curving serve. She is probably the most dangerous hitter out of the back row as well. The other outside hitter position was technically held by Sophia Dunworth, who was able to display her positional versatility. While she did play on the outside, she also drifted inside and did well in blocking duties. She played on the inside for some rotations in order to free up the most deadly attacker on the team in Becci Burling. Burling’s attacking ability in the middle is only surpassed by her abilities to hit from the outside. She also brings solid blocking abilities to the front line and will be expected to provide some vocal leadership on the court. Off the bench, Brittany Staffeil has mostly been used in defensive situations, but she is also a skilled, accurate hitter on the outside while Juliana Traut brings more power to the left side. The freshmen are not listed on the roster currently, but they were listed in news items. Christiana Gray looks to play in the vacant middle blocker position, while two defensive players and one outside hitter were also brought in for the season.

Outlook:
This team will need to address a couple of holes to ensure that it reaches the same level as it has in the past few years. While the team will definitely have a strong attacking threat, making sure that the blocking in the middle is solid will also be critical. Losing an opposite is a very important matter for Duke as it is such a critical part of the attack due to the high percentage of the attacks that the team has historically enjoyed from the right side. Fortunately, it looks like there are some experienced options for that spot. Expect this team to be an ACC contender again this season. While the rest of the teams in the ACC are also getting stronger, Duke has been in a very strong position to recruit nationally and bring in some great players. As mentioned earlier, the schedule does slightly favor the team in the sense that Duke does get to play the Clemson-Georgia Tech pod only once, but the team does have 11 away games to 9 home games. Is this the year that the program takes one giant step forward in the NCAA tournament? It will be tough as the second round almost always contains a perennial volleyball power, but this team will break that barrier eventually.

I think the key to Duke's success will be the maturation of Claire or Juliana as an attack option, rather than simply a defensive player. Duke has three established attackers so adding a fourth would help prevent the offense from getting stuck in one of their setter forward rotations. I also thought Claire was left-handed which would allow her to shift over to opposite relatively easily.

On the plus side, Jolene has done a pretty good job of developing a good opposite hitter over spring practices. One key to a successful opposite in Duke's system will be the ability to establish a good rapport between the setter and the middle. Last year's team demonstrated this. Sue's production fell off without Carrie running the middle to bleed off blockers.

[awhom111]

I think the key to Duke's success will be the maturation of Claire or Juliana as an attack option, rather than simply a defensive player. Duke has three established attackers so adding a fourth would help prevent the offense from getting stuck in one of their setter forward rotations. I also thought Claire was left-handed which would allow her to shift over to opposite relatively easily.

On the plus side, Jolene has done a pretty good job of developing a good opposite hitter over spring practices. One key to a successful opposite in Duke's system will be the ability to establish a good rapport between the setter and the middle. Last year's team demonstrated this. Sue's production fell off without Carrie running the middle to bleed off blockers.

Well, no setter-middle tandem will ever quite have the chemistry of Carrie and Ali since they played with one another for so long. I do agree that increasing the attacking threat from the middle will be critical. Becci has such a sweet swing from the outside, but it may be better to keep her in the middle all of the time and allow Sophia to be more of an attacking threat from the outside. A lot will depend on whether our freshman middle is more of a blocker or a hitter. I am pretty sure that Claire is right-handed, but she is definitely a pretty good hitter along with stepping in nicely at the libero. If the freshmen defensive players are ready to go then maybe she can contribute elsewhere. I am sure we will find our opposite, but it is a matter of concern since it is historically such a critical position for us. We do need to at least think about how things will be impacted defensively. Jourdan's blocking will be missed and we probably underestimate the effect it had on the rest of the defense. A couple of our players are versatile, so we could see a little bit of shuffling among the ones we already have.

[hughgs]

Well, no setter-middle tandem will ever quite have the chemistry of Carrie and Ali since they played with one another for so long. I do agree that increasing the attacking threat from the middle will be critical. Becci has such a sweet swing from the outside, but it may be better to keep her in the middle all of the time and allow Sophia to be more of an attacking threat from the outside. A lot will depend on whether our freshman middle is more of a blocker or a hitter. I am pretty sure that Claire is right-handed, but she is definitely a pretty good hitter along with stepping in nicely at the libero. If the freshmen defensive players are ready to go then maybe she can contribute elsewhere. I am sure we will find our opposite, but it is a matter of concern since it is historically such a critical position for us. We do need to at least think about how things will be impacted defensively. Jourdan's blocking will be missed and we probably underestimate the effect it had on the rest of the defense. A couple of our players are versatile, so we could see a little bit of shuffling among the ones we already have.

The setter-middle chemistry doesn't have to be at the level of what Duke had with Ali and Carrie, but the players do have to be comfortable with where the middle is going during "broken" plays. And that's something I certainly didn't feel Duke had last year with the freshman setter. Another point that helps the opposite will the effectiveness of the middle. Carrie had an uncanny ability to hit balls around the block that were just off the net. That forced the middle blocker to always key on her since one never knew when she would get the ball. That, in turn, helped Sue to see a lot of solo blocks and really contributed to her success that year.

For the opposite it's not necessarily a critical position but Duke needs consistency. Duke uses the opposite to help free up the outside hitters in a secondary fashion. With a consistent opposite Duke can force the blockers to go man-to-man (rather than zone) and increase the chances that the outside hitters will have single blockers. Without a consistent opposite defenses can shade blockers to the outside and force perfect Duke to have perfect passing in order to create offense. With a consistent opposite Duke can throw poor passes to either the opposite or the outside and still have some threat of an attack.

I think Duke will be fine defensively. There were a lot of players that saw touches in the back row last year so there's no reason to think that Duke will have fewer players back there. If Duke is able to upgrade the offense with an improvement in their fourth attacker then I think that Jolene will sacrifice a little defense for a much more potent offense.

[awhom111]

The team opened the season with a 5-set thriller at Wisconsin on Friday. Filling in the vacancies left over from last year's team, Amanda Robertson moved from only playing in the back to being involved all around as the opposite while freshmen Christianna Gray and Nailah Waterfield filled in at the middle and back respectively. Rachael Moss and Sophia Dunworth each had 16 kills while Gray was effective in a small number of attempts. Becci Burling did not have her strongest offensive output ever, but she contributed to 11 blocks, including 3 on her own. The defense was pretty solid.

The team continued their tournament with a sweep in the morning, but I will have to find the details for tomorrow's update.

[awhom111]

The team split games on Saturday. The morning sweep of South Dakota was very strong and every player got to see some action. The second game was tougher as they faced Ohio. After a close first set, the team dropped the next two. The theme of the tournament was the attacking threat that developed on the outside. The defense was not as strong against Ohio as it has been.

[hughgs]

The team split games on Saturday. The morning sweep of South Dakota was very strong and every player got to see some action. The second game was tougher as they faced Ohio. After a close first set, the team dropped the next two. The theme of the tournament was the attacking threat that developed on the outside. The defense was not as strong against Ohio as it has been.

The loss to Ohio cannot be attributed to sub-par defense against Ohio. Duke had more digs than Ohio with a slightly smaller kill percentage. Against Wisconsin Duke had 2 less digs but still managed to win so I would submit that sub-par defense cannot explain the loss against Ohio.

In explaining the Ohio loss two statistics stand-out to me. First Ohio had a huge number of aces (12). Second, Ohio had a large number of block assists which implies that Ohio was able to put a double block on many of Duke's hitters. Together, they suggest that Duke's serve receive wasn't very good and for those of us who've watched Duke over the years, when Duke can't serve receive they can't win.