Wicked Ag I don't question and I completely respect your Vball IQ, but we respectfully agree to disagree. It happened this year prior to the season and it had nothing to do with a kids ability or preparedness to play at this level. One of the kids was recovering from a prior surgery, which I don't know much about, but another mutually departed in August over gassers who had been on club teams who won multiple open national championships. I've said my piece on the coaches and from here on out I'll sit back and watch along with many others who are very tied to Vball. Vball skill and understanding of how to win and compete > gassers any day of the week.

That is on the new staff. The old staff was gone in December

That's my point.

flintdragon said:

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Is there a good source of recruiting news? How have we been recruiting the last 4-5 years? There is so much talent in Texas coming out of high school, it's hard to believe we are in the situation we are in.

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Those are former coaches recruits and not necessarily will make it to campus under the new staff.

And the Corbelli's recruited more than just Houston. Patterson is from Arizona. Davis and her younger sister are from Florida. Two players this year alone are from Weatherford. Houston Skyline however does have some connections to the program

Smada93 said:

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Wicked Ag I don't question and I completely respect your Vball IQ, but we respectfully agree to disagree. It happened this year prior to the season and it had nothing to do with a kids ability or preparedness to play at this level. One of the kids was recovering from a prior surgery, which I don't know much about, but another mutually departed in August over gassers who had been on club teams who won multiple open national championships. I've said my piece on the coaches and from here on out I'll sit back and watch along with many others who are very tied to Vball. Vball skill and understanding of how to win and compete > gassers any day of the week.

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I do not understand gassers and mile runs in volleyball. I coach a dynamic stretch and then put a ball in their hands and do volleyball moves at a quick pace but that is me.

As for off season different things can be done so I won't argue with what they did.

Wicked Good Ag said:

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flintdragon said:

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Is there a good source of recruiting news? How have we been recruiting the last 4-5 years? There is so much talent in Texas coming out of high school, it's hard to believe we are in the situation we are in.

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Those are former coaches recruits and not necessarily will make it to campus under the new staff.

And the Corbelli's recruited more than just Houston. Patterson is from Arizona. Davis and her younger sister are from Florida. Two players this year alone are from Weatherford. Houston Skyline however does have some connections to the program

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That's good. That list that was posted was pretty much all Houston Skyline and HJV with a couple from other cities.

Great offensive performance by the Aggies in a sweep of Auburn. The team hit like .400 for the match. I thought our serve was solid from all of them. They hit the back third of the court keeping a team built on a fast paced offense off track.

Florida winning at SC in five will make the 3-7 be up for grabs in conference. Not to look too far ahead but next week the Tennessee match will be huge

5 set win over Georgia

Aggie are in a five team bunch for spots 3-7 in the conference. We have lost one five setter to Florida who is in the top two and one to SC who is in the same mix as us

Hans has taken a firm hold in SEC player of the year but we would have to b in the very top I would think for her to get the honor. She has elevated her game in regards to out of system play and making better decisions when the block is solid in front of her.

Our middles have improved their effiecency tremendously over the past couple of weeks and the connection which wasn't there last season with a new setter and even at beginning of this season.

If we play like this we are in good shape to be in top five and possible NCAA berth. Still have to get better at service errors and serve reception

But this was a great win on the road where we have struggled with only one other win in a true road game

Wicked, do you have any estimate what it would take for us to get an NCAA bid? We'd probably get sent right to Austin for a first or second round exit, but I would think that making the NCAA's would be a big step for a team that was below .500 last year.

Last week we were at a predictive RPI of mid sixties which won't get you in. That said the logjam between 3-7 will be the teams who have a chance to get in

We have to win at home all our matches besides say Kentucky and then win another two on the road and that would get us with about 10 losses for the season. That might be enough. Our non conference wasn't awe inspiring compared to our start in conference

I would say we have to finish third in conference and hope. Our resume isn't that great. Currently 6 teams from SEC are projected

Kentucky
Florida
South Carolina
Missouri
Tennessee
Georgia

With Alabama and TAMU on the outside looking in.

The thing is we got our next three matches against teams currently thought to be in the field

Wicked,

Thanks for your quick response. It does look like this three game home stand is a good chance to make a statement. Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama coming to visit us, followed by Missouri on the road. All those teams seem to be in the tournament at this time or really close to getting in.

Hope our ladies can come through. For a post season opportunity, this may be it.

RPI Futures came out yesterday and has us at #54 ending with a 19-11 overall record. Not enough to get in at all. Now we can get to 20-10 or even 21-9 would change things but the loss to Missouri State and two losses to Oklahoma hurt us The SEC still has the ability to canibalize itself in the middle which would hurt us. We honestly have to be above that grouping at least slightly.

It is funny. If we had played the same non conference as last year with the same record and played this years conference currently and as projected then we probably are in the top 20 and in hosting material. We played one real legitimate top ten team in preseason this year and got spanked

huge weekend for TAMU VB. a split between Tenn and Kentucky at home will keep the NCAA hopes alive. Two losses and it is probably over for the season even with a strong finish after that. Too much to overcome. Two wins and we have a shot at second in the conference and will probably at worst finish top five in conference and our RPI will take a huge jump.

Tennessee gets their outside hitter probably back for this match but we have played well at home sans the final sets of the Missouri State match

Tough loss likely takes us out of NCAA consideration. Kentucky on Sunday hasn't lost a set in conference play and we have to beat them. Passing was pretty bad tonight and we made some valent comebacks but lost those sets

We had the lead 20-17 and lost set three 21-25 and then in set five down 5-8 we came back to take the lead 11-10 before giving away four points in a row

Hopefully we can rebound and play well against Kentucky because I don't think without a Kentucky win in Sunday we will have any shot with ncaa without a signature win

Edit. Kentucky has lost three sets in conference play. Without a win sunday we would have no top 25 wins and even if we run the table only two top 50 wins assuming that a couole of teams dont drop that we have to beat on the road.

That was the worst performance I have seen from them this year by far and that includes the meltdown against Missouri State.

How do you have your starting RS not play a point as a RS and the other right sides hit negative -.250 for the match and lose in five??

By having 33 hitting errors as a team. Hit about .100 from the outside and play some of the worst defense collectively

The fact we only lost in five the way we played shows how much of a difference their actually should be between us and Alabama.

The decisions made in terms of lineups baffled me and everyone I talked to around me that know Volleyball. Hell if you are going to start Hans on the back row at least let her be the server in set five.

But I said I didn't know if we would be better this year than last but our record would be better due to SOS. I was leaning towards better. Not so sure

End of rant

Coaches are in over their heads

Where are we as a program?

We are not in the RPI Futures (predicted rest of matches) top 75

The following programs in Texas alone are

5 Texas
22 Texas State
24 Baylor
28 Rice
46 SFA
52 Texas Tech
72 UTSA

in the SEC

9 Kentucky lost at home in 5
11 Florida lost on road in 5
26 Missouri today on road
32 South Carolina lost on road in 4
36 Tennessee lost at home in 5
45 Alabama lost at home in 5

other opponents in top 75

13 Penn State lost on road in 3
39 Pepperdine won at home in 3
67 Ohio State lost on road in 3
68 Indiana won on road in 3

Other than the blowouts against Penn State and Ohio State we are competitive but not able to get over the hump against top SEC competition.

Another loss in five sets against Missouri. Haven't watched the match yet, did notice that Austin-Roark had the most kills and a .440 hitting pct. At least they are developing a middle attack

I only watched the fifth set and we played very tentative and still made unforced errors.

They did come back and win the 4th set . Probably worn out the last set - as has happened before - typical

of a youthful team !

Nice 4 set win over Auburn ! Holly hot ! Would not like to be on the receiving end of one of her slams !

Will be at the game tomorrow in Knoxville. Have seen Tennessee play a few times this year. They've improved. Hoping we'll put on a good show!

1st set to tenn (21-25). lots of unforced errors, especially in service and receipt.

2nd set to tenn (12-25). as score indicates, just a disaster set. Really terrible game and it really wasn't due to great tenn play.

3rd set. AGGIES! 25-23. Played better though still many errors. After a really terrible 2nd set, Austin-Roark was probably our key player in this set.

4th set. tenn wins 3-1. 19-25. Tenn played better than they did in the 1st 3 sets. Lots of unforced errors again for the Aggies, but frankly they just got outplayed IMO in this set.

Back row struggled a lot tonight across all sets. Just not a good match, really for anyone.

The sad thing is, the SEC is not a strong volleyball conference. Outside of Kentucky and Florida, and an occassional good year from Tennessee or Missouri, the conference is weak. It's not good volleyball.

Similar to football, there is a severe difference in athletes and level play outside the top 5-7 teams. The talent level actually drops quite a bit outside of the top 3. It's unfortunatet that Stanford and Minnesota will likely meet in the semi finals this year, and they are arguably the two best teams in the country.

We would be in the bottom fourth of the Big 10
We would be in the bottom 3rd of the PAC
We lost to Oklahoma twice who is in the bottom half of the BIG 12

Is anyone surprised by that right now? Outside of Hans, I'm not sure any other players would start on most top 15-30 teams right now.

We have some solid players, but it's going to take time for this staff to really build a foundation. I know we want a quick fix, but we took on a long term plan bringing in a top assistant. She is going to make mistakes but we are betting on the recruiting and her continued ability to learn. I don't think it's appropriate to pick on any specific positions/players, but an above average player in one position would potentially be a 5 win swing at least this year.

Looking forward we need pin attacking. Hans is done next year and OH2 hasn't met production standards as well as the revolving door at RS. Conner will continue to develop and the middles are freshman and a sophomore. We will need help at libero next year, Howser did much better than I anticipated this year especially from serve receive.
Our top recruits for next year are pins. If they can step in we could make a real run for top 4 in conference next year. If we put out the same lineup next year but can finish a bit better we will be about the same. The SEC is improving from the bottom up and is the third or fourth best conference depending on the week. Us and the BDF switch places in conference RPI over the season. We are worlds behind the PAC 12 and Big 10 as a conference however.
To win we have to have Hans play her all conference game and anothe pin to do well. The middles are carrying their weight although a bit more neutral swings (neither kill or error) than usually happens out of the middle

100% agreed. I will say that the girls do work hard. They're hustling, they're going after balls, they're taking aggressive swings ... I honestly look at that as a sign of a solid coaching job. Right now, we look like some of the better mid major programs (as far as height/ how dynamic we are) vs a Texas, Florida, Nebraska, Penn State, Kentucky. etc. We've had almost a decade+ recruiting well behind that tier (at least as far as top tier talent).

One thing to remember about Volleyball recruiting is that many of the top 16 year olds are already committed (or down to a very narrow list).

In state, we're competing against:

• Texas (dominant program that every young girl has grown up watching. Great pipeline into TAV - girls grew up seeing those kids in the gym for club practice and now they are on TV)
• TCU (program that is building quickly and is also in a big city/close to home and plays in a solid volleyball conference)
• Texas State/Rice/Houston/Baylor/Tech/SMU, etc are on another tier imo. We should be beating these programs consistently on head to hands. (honestly, I think we've done fine in this category)

I think our bigger problem over the last 5-10 years is that we've let talent get out of state to Kansas and Oklahoma. We should consistently have a top 25 program when you consider the access to Dallas/Austin/Houston, three of the top club regions in the entire country. (including San Antonio w/ Austin) We're going to lose some kids who just want to get away from Texas and play in Hawaii, Arizona, Oregon, etc; but, I've talked to enough kids/parents who wanted to play at A&M, but it just didn't end up working out. Hopefully we can start turning that around.

Our coach was instrumental in the pipeline for kids going to Kansas so that may be something to look forward to in the future.

I will always give a pass to coaches until they recruit the time of kid that fits the system they want

That said I haven't seen a huge movement from last year to this year. Corbelli's got a tough break last season with the roster and personnel especially against a huge SOS we had but if the program wants to move forward it needs some more dynamic players to be recruited. This is where I hope to see the new coaching staff shine. We have the pieces if the 2 top 100 recruits make an immediate impact next season AND the culture changes to where we can finish sets and matches. We have played the best in conference to five many times falling short. Reverse our win loss in five sets against those better teams and we are in great shape and that could be the case next year

I unfortunately don't think things will change overtime with this staff even with recruiting their own players. Talent there is not great but isn't bad, but there are decisions made that make no sense when it comes to personnel. The head coach needs to be the "head coach."

Smada93 said:

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I unfortunately don't think things will change overtime with this staff even with recruiting their own players. Talent there is not great but isn't bad, but there are decisions made that make no sense when it comes to personnel. The head coach needs to be the "head coach."

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?

What to say anymore ?? We can't win the fifth set. We play too conservative to start the fifth set after somehow winning set four which we had no reason doing. We were out of subs with them having set points and two DS players on front row.
I don't know if Brookah Palmer is injured, in the dog house or coaching staff completely having a brain fart but we were able to come out and win set four somehow then completely lay an egg in set five.

We have completely changed our lineup so many times over the last few matches trying to solve an end game problem. The lineup isn't the problem lately. The inability to finish is. But we have made some weird decisions in regards to lineups that don't make sense statistically. We hit under .075 from the outside with over 100 swings and the only player hitting effectively all night is pulled twice
serving specialists missed 10+ serves which used up at least 6 subs in the fourth set to max out the subs in the set. If they can't even get the serve in then let the middle do it and at least we will save substitutions