what a rough ridin' embarrassment
the block was rough ridin' worthless all night
hitting was atrocious, completely lack of court awareness, complete lack of innovation. KU could return the majority of our hits with one player on the court.
Yeah that's a passing issue not a hitting issue, the defense was bad. If you don't pass you are hitting 4 balls all night long.
yeah I was discussing the hitting in relation to passing with my GF who has a higher vbiq than me. She did note that there were many passes which left Donahue searching for any kind of a way to get it to a hitter.
But the hitting when good sets were in place were unimaginative and predictable. There were honestly series in the 2nd and 4th sets where KU could have had one player on the court to dig the hit. Same spot, just awful.
Did you see Donahue's great backwards tip set in the 2nd? Pure genius.
I really don't know how Porubek is seeing all that much time. Very lazy play from here tonight. Poor footwork getting to places, reaching way too much, poor service.
Some of that KU defense is attributable to scouting. Bechard is Fritz's mentor, he's well aware of what we run because he taught her. They have always played us tough relative to their inferior talent. The defense, if played well can force hitters to hit at certain spots at that point its up to one or two back row players, depending on where you're attempting to force outside hitters to defend that place, somedays are better than others. I haven't seen KU outside ood our match to know how they are defending but I'm guessing that they are aggressively blocking line while fanning the other front row player wide & short leaving 2 back row players to defend a lot of court playing the angle off of the middle blocker.
The best way to beat this defense is to feed the middle quicks so that the blockers have to hesitate when going outside. When your passing is trash your hitting is predictable and blockers can force you to hit to the middle of the floor.
BTW Lila is our second best hitter, I love her one of my favorite players ever. Her issue isn't laziness its frankly her fitness or lack thereof.