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Post by kiyoat on Oct 7, 2019 10:17:00 GMT -6
This week the Yotes are the lone team with an early-week match. I've actually been pretty impressed with the league's ability to schedule consistently with an odd number of teams (9). Every week there is one Tuesday match, then Friday/Sunday matches for the rest of the teams. This goes back to Douple's comment about not getting hung up on having exactly 10 teams. He said that the biggest obstacle to regular scheduling was facility conflicts limiting availability, specifically Hockey. Makes sense. I've gone a little softer on Douple now with the St. Thomas pick-up.... So the Yotes play the rival Jacks in Brookings tomorrow. Tuesday 7PM @ SDSU (video$$) (stats)Massey prediction: Yotes win 3-0 Friday 7PM @ NDSU (video$$) (stats)Massey prediction: Yotes win 3-1 I agree with the predictions. Yotes could sweep both, but NDSU has been good at times this season. It's too bad that the XDSUs, UND and Denver have pay-to-watch streams. I've been very appreciative that PFW, Omaha and ORU have gone to free streams for most or all sports. ORU's is YouTube based, so you can easily stream it to a smart TV or Roku. I'm sure the revenue has to be taken into account, but for many fans the free streams are a real boon.
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Post by kiyoat on Oct 8, 2019 9:33:11 GMT -6
Jacks players to watch: Although the Jacks' offense overall is one of the worst in the league, they do have a great OH in Mackenzie Hennen: #3 Mackenzie Hennen, Sr OH 5' 11" 3.47 Kills/set (#5 in Summit) 3.9 points/set (#5 in Summit) 2.87 digs/set (#12 in Summit) 0.27 S Aces/set (#12 in Summit) Her hitting% isn't the highest in the league, but she is heavily targeted, like CeCe Madison at ORU, Isabella Sade at Omaha, or Juhnke here. All of these heavily-targeted players have hitting percentages outside of the top ten of the conference. Maybe that is a function of blockers being able to key on them, or it might be that powerful hitting comes with a slightly higher error rate. I have no idea, but Hennen will likely score a good share of the Jacks' points. Her dig numbers are also impressive for an OH. As an undersized hitter with good dig numbers, she is probably a 6-rotation player, like Dotseth was for us last year. Always on the court. Good server, too. #5 Tatum Pickar, So DS 5' 3" 3.82 Digs/set (#6 in Summit) She was a JC transfer from North Dakota State College of Science, where she let the nation with 7.26 Digs/set. Great pick-up for them this offseason.
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Post by kiyoat on Oct 8, 2019 9:38:47 GMT -6
As for the NDSU match on Friday, I'm starting to worry a bit about that team. When you filter out just conference matches from the Stats on the Summit Website, NDSU is ranked #1 or #2 in most stats. That means that they have been playing much better recently. About the only thing they don't rank highly on is blocking, so hopefully we can take advantage of that.
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Post by yoteforever on Oct 8, 2019 10:40:58 GMT -6
Volleyball is a funny sport. It’s like many others in the sense defense paves the way for offense, but unlike other sports there’s distinct ebbs and flows of how teams play. One pattern is you start slow, improve as you go and become more competitive. That’s not us. Another pattern is for a team to literally play its best volleyball right out of the shoot. Decent athletes with strong competitive personalities. I don’t think that’s us either. Another pattern is when you’re good, you beat people early that might not be as good as you and also teams sprinkled in that are as good as you but don’t play them match after match after match. Then you plateau somewhat for a stretch of time and not play as sharp as you have been but still win the majority of your matches if for no other reason than you have superior talent. It’s just plain tough to play at an elevated level each and every match. As the season starts winding down the team refocuses on the final prize....conference and tournament championships. I think that’s who we are. Grind it out and then hopefully put the pedal to the metal as we approach the finish line.
Talent wise, nobody in this league matches up. Coaching wise, the same. We should win the league and then have to play our butts off out in Denver again to overcome the home court advantage they have. I like who we are.
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Post by sdyotefan on Oct 8, 2019 21:57:44 GMT -6
Great job Lady Yotes with your 3-0 sweep of the bunnies in brooktown!! Keep the streak going!!!
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Post by kiyoat on Oct 9, 2019 4:34:07 GMT -6
Looks like the match was relatively well-attended at 587. They had been averaging less than 100. One of the privileges of being the front-runner is never playing a conference match in an empty gym.
NDSU has been averaging over 700, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see over 1,000 at the Friday match. Same goes for when we play @ UND.
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Post by GoYotes on Oct 9, 2019 7:36:29 GMT -6
Looks like the match was relatively well-attended at 587. They had been averaging less than 100. One of the privileges of being the front-runner is never playing a conference match in an empty gym. NDSU has been averaging over 700, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see over 1,000 at the Friday match. Same goes for when we play @ UND. Couldn't tell much from the limited TV highlights, but looked like there was a fair amount of red in the crowd.
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Post by announcerbob on Oct 9, 2019 22:21:44 GMT -6
The Lady Yotes have a critical match on Friday night when they take on NDSU. Coach Williamson has the team playing pretty well as was evident by the match against SDSU. NDSU appears to be playing much better since the conference season has started (as Kiyoat pointed out). I believe the Yote defense (blocks and digs) will go along ways in determining the outcome. During the SDSU match the team appeared to have reduced the serving errors and if that continues I like the chances of the team coming out with a positive result. The team just seems to find ways to fight through adversity. Their depth at nearly every spot on the floor makes them a more difficult team to beat. The Yotes have senior leadership but also throw in some youth in the rotation as well. I like the way Coach Williamson is using a rotation of Harms and Gerdes getting both players some valuable minutes and also finding time on the court for Aimee Adams when need be. Having personally witness many games this season I believe the team keeps improving in many aspects of their games and I do not think we have seen them play their best quite yet. I want the Yotes to come out right away on Friday and take the energy out of the building and bring home a win on Friday!!! Go Yotes!!!
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Post by kiyoat on Oct 11, 2019 3:45:22 GMT -6
Match moved to 6PM due to weather.
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Post by kiyoat on Oct 11, 2019 14:30:38 GMT -6
The stream is premium, but the AUDIO is free...
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Post by yoteforever on Oct 11, 2019 18:47:58 GMT -6
Going to a 5th set. Tied 2-2
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Post by yoteforever on Oct 11, 2019 19:04:41 GMT -6
Coyotes win in 5. Fell behind 5-4 then ran off 11 straight I believe. Tough win
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Post by announcerbob on Oct 11, 2019 19:31:23 GMT -6
Wow... they did it again!!! They gutted out a tough win on the road. The held their opponent to a hitting percent of less than .200 again. The might be 13 in a row!!! The Lady Yotes had 3 with 10 or more kills but more importantly they had 5 players with more the 10 digs. Nothing more to say than Yotes Win!!! Yotes Win!!!
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