Midseason thoughts and Match Notes for Hawaii/U$C

[L. Ravi Narasimhan]

Dear r.s.v.-ers,

It is now more-or-less midseason. Comments follow on Hawaii, USC,
UCLA, and a few other schools. I have been attending, charting,a nd
commenting for a while now and I think it is time I put up some observations,
predictions, and SWAGs for others to take potshots at. It seems only
fair.

Hawaii defeats USC in four games
15-9, 15-9, 10-15, 15-8
23 February, 1996

Men's volleyball may properly belong in small venues, but, it is
possible to push things to extremes. The Rainbows of Hawaii played a
spotty match and came away with their second win in two nights against
the University of Sexy Cheerleaders. I had hoped to attend both
matches, but, the first was moved from 7pm to 4pm to avoid conflict
with the USC-UCLA men's basketball game. Whether by design or by
decree, the volleyball venue was the tiny North Gym rather than the
usual Lyon Center. Fans could not have been pressed any closer together
without the benefit of clergy.

The visitors have yet to lose a match this season and it is a rare
event when they so much as drop a game. The Trojans have size and
competent personnel yet lack the whole-match focus that appears common
to the bottom-half of the MPSF.

As coaches look for taller and taller players, Mike Wilton of Hawaii has
chosen to go for speed and agility rather than pure size. If his team
knows that they are undersized, they certainly don't play like it. A
big part of their success is the most fearless trio of Israelites
since Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego took on Nebuchadnezzar in the
Cuervo Golden Idol Sinai Invitational.

Hawaii came out with Pichel serving first, Katz, Tune, and Milo in the
front row, Sivan Leoni in middle back, and Aaron Wilton at the other
swing. USC's lineup was unusual in that the setter Steve Loeswick started
left-front with Eric Seiffert in the middle and Chris Giugliano
rightside. Swing hitter Russell Brock was right back next to Szilard
Kovacs. Gabe Gardner, a "technique" hitter/swing rounded out
McLaughlin's complement.

Hawaii passed better and served tougher than USC with a mixture of
hard jumpers, jumpfloaters, and flats. The very low-ceiling favored
Hawaii. Milo got most of the serves, neither middle attack got going
early, and Katz was off his form. USC called timeout after a brief
run got Hawaii from 3-3 to 6-4. The Hawaii jumpserve eventually took
effect as Gardner and Brock had considerable troubles getting the
balls to Loeswick. This gave Hawaii's block a chance to get in on the
action. Milo was especially effective with Katz close behind.
Gardner shanked for 10-5 and the second timeout, Milo aced for 11-5.
USC staged a minirally behind Seiffert's serve and competent blocking
forcing a Hawaii timeout at 11-9. Milo fired an ace at Gardner and
went back to him again, forcing a shank into the crowd for game point.
Tune then lobbed a flatseve at Brock for another shank and game.

USC shifted two positions and came out with Seiffert serving. Good
move since four of their preceding nine points came with him at serve.
Hawaii answered with a one man shift putting Milo at right-back.
Hawaii's blcok got more active but USC's passing also steadied
allowing them to establish a good sideout rhythm. Kovacs at 6'10"
could have been a bigger presence in the middle but he did force the
block to take him seriously on reasonable passes. His armswing is
slow compared to a Brian Moore or a Chris Harger and he doesn't put as
much pop on the ball. Tied at four, Giugliano forced a bad pass by
Wilton causing Katz to go over the line on a high D ball. Katz went
over many times during the match. Tune then got stuffed for 4-6 USC.
Gardner returned the favor with a pair of leftside errors. Kovacs
vs. Leoni continued to be a mismatch. USC called timeout down 8-7 and
eventually went down 11-8 as Loeswick set the invisible rightside
hitter. Katz ripped an ace for 12, Pichel and Milo each scored on
serve, and Tune aced for the game, 15-9.

The Trojans were playing competent ball to this point. Careless
errors got the better of them. Bad passes, mistimed sets, tall hitters
slapping balls out against a much smaller block, and so forth. The
passes were by far the major contributor to Hawaii runs. Both teams
lined up as in game one for the third. Hawaii then collapsed early.
On Seiffert's serve, Katz hit a rightside ball out, Wilton mirrored,
and USC enjoyed a 5-0 lead. USC passed exceedingly well, Hawaii's
commit blocking was not paying off as Loeswick was able to find good
matchups. Gardner redeemed himself somewhat by serving tough
including an ace. Katz went over again on a D for 8-0 USC.

Jason Ring came into the fray for Rick Tune, USC pushed up to 11-3 on
Seiffert's serves. Katz continued to get far too many sets and that
story was hardly news, the block was mostly expecting it. I commented
somewhat jokingly a couple of weeks ago that Katz lets serve tosses
drop to see which way the stter broke. Maybe it is not an entirely
stupid statement. Loeswick steadfastly refused to break until it
looked like the ball was coming into play. I also thought I heard the
Trojan coaches yelling at him to stay put. Pichel was a hitter's
target but he responded by serving the Bows back into the match. Down
5-14, Hawaii scored 6-10 behind Pichel's serve which set up blocks and
transition opportunities. Gardner finally scored in transition to
force game four.

Hawaii started Ring left front, USC came out with Loeswick serving.
Ring was rusty in game three, but, warmed up considerably. Bad USC
passing set up some more errors and allowed Hawaii to read a little
more on the middles. Brock got aced Milo for a timeout at 5-2, 6-8
followed quickly thereafter. As Ring got back into the flow, the
Trojans gave up the ghost. Some occasional scoring prolonged the
match for a few minutes. Wilton clobbered an overpass for game
point,and Gardner got double blocked on the leftside for the match.

Ersatz scouting report

In the three matches I have seen them play, Hawaii's middles don't
seem to be a large part of their offensive scheme. UCLA, especially,
likes to have a potent middle attack whereas Hawaii uses the motion to
set up others, most notably Katz. Against LMU, UCSB, and now, USC,
the 'Bow middles appear to favor hitting in the general direction of
approach. I have watched all three matches from an oblique angle and
not the endzone so I can't be certain of this. It is easier to see
the initial trajectory of the ball from the back line. My observation
is based on where the balls are dug up. Certainly this did not seem
to be the case in their match against UCLA early on in the season.

Hawaii needs Ring against the cream of the crop. He is a much more
versatile attacker than Tune and can hit a greater variety of middle
sets as well as pipes and Ds. Leoni is a tough server and not a bad
blocker. His grunting, however, is annoying. Exclamations of that
magnitude may be understandable in the throes of passion or after
receiving a rocket-assisted wedgie, but, not on every middle approach.
The better teams seem to block him or dig him without excessive effort.

Wilton and Milo are very good passers although I don't know if they
have been tested. USC did not serve consistently tough, but, had
success when they did. Both are excellent combination hitters and usually
get set when they come in behind the middle. Both will cutback if
required on the x. Against USC, Katz moved between the primary
passers (Milo left and middle front) to help pass the jumpserve. He
did a creditable job, passing high and into the middle front as beach
players so often do.

I'll reiterate my concern for the young Mr. Katz. He gets set close
to seventy times every match. I had him at 26 kills, 10 errors on 62
swings for an average of about 0.22. He was going over the line a lot
on D balls and USC read his D-tip effectively. To my untrained eye,
this spells trouble for Hawaii down the road if the kid's arm tires
out. Players of Katz's caliber are good for the game. It is in
everyone's interest, Hawaii friend and foe alike, that he stays healthy
and plays all the way through the season.

As far as hitting options go, Katz gets most sets in transition as well
as on bad passes. The rest of the offense centers around Katz
plus the front row swing with the middles serving mostly as x-bait,
especially when the opponent is siding out well or scoring. If Ring
is available, he can be the extra backrow option that will be hard to
contend with.

Pichel has not shown the tendency to set a guy after a mistake.
I was most likely flat out wrong with my initial assessment.

Hawaii's fans throng to every match. They can dish it out, but, they
can't seem to take it. The chants of "Nice girdle Sivan!" were back
again and the Rainbow supporters took offense. Typical scenario:

HF: "SERVE AN ACE BOWS! THEY CAN'T PASS! OH OH! BLOCK THAT BALL!
MAHALOSHAKAWAKALAKATIKITIKI <conch!>"
USCF: "Nice girdle Sivan!"
HF: "HEY SHUT UP MAN, THAT'S NOT FUNNY!"
and so forth.

UCLA is winning matches and looks poised to make a run at Hawaii. The
Bruins have the jumpservers to pin Hawaii down and Stein Metzger is a
marvelous setter who can run the kind of spread-out offense that will
be needed. Tom Stillwell and James Turner appear to be the
starting middles. I see Stillwell as the better blocker, Turner as
the quicker and more powerful hitter. Stillwell's armswing is unusual
and despite his overall quickness he doesn't hit as hard as he might.

In order for UCLA to win, they'll have to keep Wilton and Milo moving
all over the floor to pass. Pure jumpserves won't be enough, some
tough floaters down the sidelines and the occasional short ball will
be necessary. I have not yet Hawaii pass overhand, much credit to
them for their manly serve receive.

Conversely, Hawaii will be able to pick on Fred Robins. He is
learning the ropes at swing but needs to get a lot better and a lot
more consistent. Metzger can only compensate for so much and he'll
need to be able to move Turner all along the net to keep the Hawaii
defense honest.

I am assuming Paul Nihipali will play opposite but I may be way off.
If there is a weakness in his game, it may be his windup which is
volleyball's equivalent of Juan Marichal. I saw some of the preseason
Hawaii match on tape and it appeared that the small block was able to
slow him down, if not stuff him entirely.

UCLA likes to keep Nihipali and the middles warm. I have Stillwell
down has hitting mostly in the middle of the court regardless of
direction of approach whereas Turner mixes it up. All three can tip
effectively if required. Brian Wells can hit a mean combination. It
might be good for the Bruins to have him hit the second option from
more than the middle of the court. I'm guessing they'll use Turner on
all sorts of middle sets if the passing allows it.

Looks like Stanford is struggling to find a lineup and now has to
contend with Brian Moore's injury. I can't say more since I haven't
seen them play after the UCSB tournament. I am looking forward to
their traditional Spring Break swing to the southland.

USC has the personnel to beat the elite. Gardner is shouldering a
heavy load for a newcomer, he makes a lot of mistakes but shows
promise of being an excellent player given time. It appears that they
don't have two solid passers to free up room at opposite for Gardner.
One might argue that he should be in the middle with his size.
Seiffert deserves his starting spot at one middle blocker and there is
no other place to put Kovacs. Loeswick kept his team in it to the
best of his abilities. I was impressed with his agility and his
ability to get the ball long distances with reasonable location. Some
of his D balls were low, allowing the Hawaii defense to eat the hitter
alive.

Irvine is a happy-go-lucky team. They, too, need to settle down a bit
and believe in their abilities to contend against the elite. They
absolutely cannot afford any lapses in concentration. It is also not
clear if they have a floor-leader. This bit them
against Northridge and almost cost them the preseason match against
Pepperdine. I gather from reports that they let chances slip away and
only eked out a win against Loyola Marymount in five games.

Loyola Marymount and SDSU: I wrote about them earlier and haven't seen them
play since.

Pepperdine: I refuse to take seriously any team that receives serve
as they do. Ptui.

Charting happenings

The Hawaii/USC match marked the first time I was able to rate almost
every pass along with the hitting play. Rather than making notations
on the chart, I wrote it on the side along with the result of the
play. ie. +5 4 7 b x == Wilton passes perfectly, leftside set to
Milo, blocked, opponent scores point. Milo got 62 serves to Wilton's
54. Both passed very well with a few lapses here and there.

My hitting averages compared pretty well with official stats for Katz,
Ring, Wilton, and Milo. I had Leoni at 7 kills, 6 errors on 17 swings
gor 0.06. I had Tune at 4 kills, 2 errors on 12 swings of 0.16.
Official numbers were 0.1 and 0.4 respectively. Much of this is
obviously the effect of minor errors in small number statistics. But,
I definitely have Tune down for two errors in the middle including one
ball blocked and that is the difference between my numbers and the
official stats. Thanks to the Hawaii staff for making the numbers
available, it is nice to have them.

--- Oski
King of Babble-on
--
Ravi Narasimhan
Dept. of Physics, UCLA
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~oski