Mar 30 2007
BYU men’s v-ball is showing it’s collective immaturity
Earlier in the season, I wrote an article gushing about how this year’s men’s volleyball team would win the national championship based on their early consistent play and domination of opponents. Was that really this season? Is this the same team that was routinely sweeping opponents whilst barely breaking a sweat?
Last night at the Smith Fieldhouse, BYU scratched out a tough four-game win over a much less talented Long Beach State squad. Having not seen the team play for an entire month, it became easy to recognize why BYU mysteriously dropped a couple of matches on their month-long California tour of inferior opponents. BYU is plagued by the same type of inconsistency that has defeated other talented squads in the last several years.
It starts at the setter position. Yamil Perez has all the tools to be great, but at the moment he has a problem staying sharp as the match progresses. Last night he was spraying balls all over the gym again. It was like spotting Los Coyotes (inside joke for the ‘01 Trippers) 5-6 points per game, turning routine side-outs into tough battles or hanging his hitters out to dry with no chance to beat the block. Even the most casual observer could tell when Yamil put the ball on the money because LBSU couldn’t touch BYU on those points. In fact, I remarked to Jacob that Yamil could set Yosleyder Cala on every single point if he would just set it high enough for Cala to go get it above everyone else–they couldn’t get anywhere near high enough to block it. I’m totally serious about that.
Another problem continues to be service errors. Ivan Perez had seven all by himself, which is inexcusable. At one point in the match, the Pyramids couldn’t do anything right on offense…when the Cougs got the stinkin’ serve in! Long Beach was completely discombobulated, but BYU kept hitting serves out and allowed LBSU to stay in the game. That’s the only way LBSU got the game 3 win.
Barring a miraculous mental transformation by the team, I don’t think BYU has the stuff to take down the top teams in the MPSF. It’s especially sad because Ivan Perez and Russell Holmes are two sure-fire 1st team All-Americans this year and it’s a shame to waste their talent like this. Holmes just broke Ryan Millar’s record for solo blocks in a season with 23, no small feat when you consider that it was ten times easier to do before the RSE (rally scoring era).
So, to sum up: I’m underwhelmed with the state of BYU men’s volleyball. Young team? Yes. Talented? Yes. Long way to go? Yes. Time running out? Yes…
2 Responses to “BYU men’s v-ball is showing it’s collective immaturity”
I was pondering the youth of the team the other day and I decided to check out the roster. This year BYU will graduate two seniors: Scott Cox who plays a reserve role, coming off the bench to serve, and Bryan Stewart who does not play. The only other senior on the roster is Jonathan Charette who is red shirting this year and has one more year of eligibility. The cougars usually start three freshman, with 4 regular contributors. They are a really inexperienced team.
That said, I don’t think it would matter if the leadership from the upper-classman was more solid. I just don’t see it coming from Ivan, and the team captain Holmes was relatively quiet on the court until recently. He might be more of a leader in practice, but I don’t see it on the court.
The Friday night game was more of the same. Inconsistent. Well, until the last few points of the final game. BYU looked like blocking and spiking with control came as easily as breathing. I don’t care what LBSU did, they weren’t going to touch BYU. I don’t know where the desire came from, but they FINALLY looked like they cared about winning the game. (Maybe they the coaches offered the team “real fruit smoothies if they won the game. And they won the game.”