Just got back from the game. McCamish was pretty full and the energy was great. Great to see so many young kids and teens at this game and being inspired.
So the first set, we did what everyone's expected tho towards the end of the set, uga was closing in pretty close.
2nd set started as a disaster. We have a tendency of doing this the last few years. Win set 1 and drop set 2. At one point, we came back from a 13-19 deficit to then go down to the wire and unfortunately lost.
What's clear for the rest of the match is that Mendes/D'Amico/Bertolino stopped becoming effective. Mendes just could not get a kill and her spikes would be too weak or blocked. I'm trying to remember if how it was for Bergmann's freshman year in 2019... we had a pretty good run then after a disappointing start. Can we do the same this year?
The player combo that was working was Soares/Manyang/Mogridge. It's a mystery why Michelle brought back D'Amico and Mendes at the end of set 2 when the set was on the line (which we dropped).
Set 3, Michelle didn't bring in Soares and Manyang until uga was at 23 points. My friend that came to the game, his first volleyball game ever, commented "the coach really doesn't like to do subs, huh?"
Set 4, more good from Soares and Manyang. It's just frustrating when they have to be rotated out. We'd go up and get within 2 or even tie a few times, then fall back.
Some clear issues that are not new: bad first touch, which leads to not great sets, which doesn't give our hitters a good ball to make the kill - tho even with a good set, Mendes stopped being effective after the first set. I've said this last year - D'Amico continues to make sets that are too low esp when setting to the middle, which doesn't give good angles for our hitters. uga also stepped up and played with more vigor. Their blocking game clearly shined from set 2 on. Their #2 is a difference maker. Our usual expectations from Mendes, Mogridge, Pierce, and Bertolino didn't pan out and they were stuffed a lot of times or their spikes were defended well. Pimentel made some key errors sets on the line. Otene looked tired. uga is pretty good and we are not as good as what we'd like to believe... can't take away anything from them.
I think this was a good wake up call. We'll probably drop to 18 or 20 or something like that in the rankings. Forget about the ridiculous #6 ranking by Michella Chester (maybe that went to our heads). We're clearly not as good as that. However, let's believe our Lady Jackets will be back strong after this. Penn State and even Texas are having some bad games this year.
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