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Buffs Suffer Tough Loss Against Siena

Pathetic showing. This weekend should have been a sweep of the 4 matches for the Buffs.
 
It's going to be a long season for CU...

For the past couple of seasons, Kritza's teams have had one key piece missing that kept them from having any success. This year is no different.

Her first year as head coach, the team had no ball control what-so-ever. CU goes out and recruits several liberos/ds to help with passing. Last year, the team was starting from scratch. The entire team was either a transfer or freshmen. (The high turnover casts a bad light on CU in the volleyball community.) New system/new players = 6 - 20 season. Kritza responds by recruiting a Top 25 class (but there are no true OHs in the class). This year, CU needs a 2nd outside hitter in the worst way. The Lindow experiment was tragic. Ortiz isn't ready. The light switch partially clicked for Alexis, but they keep forcing Ortiz into the game at the expense of Alexis's development. Schroeder taking 50+ swings isn't going to get it done in the Pac-12. How many players does CU have on the roster, and they only have 1 proven outside hitter. I can't wait for the Santos switch to the outside, while Lindow/Blaha man the middle.

CU's two losses are to UC-Davis and Siena. Just wait until USC, Stanford, Washington, etc. roll into the Coors Events Center. It's going to get ugly.

My prediction is 3 - 19 in conference play (and several transfers at the end of the year to make room for the incoming recruits). I think we are two years away. The scary thing is that I think Kritza is starting to parallel Kathy McConnell-Miller's coaching career. I think they are both well-spoken, but KMM (and Hawkins) were just used-car salesmen. How much time does Kritza get to turn CU around?
 
I just watched some of the CU at Fordham match, with CU winning 3-0... third match in this tournament weekend. At least we now have one key answer to part of what has been going on the past few matches.....starting CU setter Alyssa Valentine was out due to a concussion. She was back in for the Fordham match and CU looked like a much different team. Buffs had lost match 2 earlier today. They have one more tomorrow so could come away with a 2-2 split of the 4 matches. I had been wondering why CU was playing with its 2 backup setters.

We saw more balanced attacking with Valentine playing .... Schroeder still had the most swings at 30 but OH2 Emily Alexis played the entire match and took 22 swings, connecting at a .318 hitting percentage, with MB Nikki Lindow seeing 15 swings and connecting at a .333 percentage. Thats pretty good playing. Overall the Buffs hit at a .287 mark. Hopefully these players can now all stay healthy!
 
I just watched some of the CU at Fordham match, with CU winning 3-0... third match in this tournament weekend. At least we now have one key answer to part of what has been going on the past few matches.....starting CU setter Alyssa Valentine was out due to a concussion. She was back in for the Fordham match and CU looked like a much different team. Buffs had lost match 2 earlier today. They have one more tomorrow so could come away with a 2-2 split of the 4 matches. I had been wondering why CU was playing with its 2 backup setters.

We saw more balanced attacking with Valentine playing .... Schroeder still had the most swings at 30 but OH2 Emily Alexis played the entire match and took 22 swings, connecting at a .318 hitting percentage, with MB Nikki Lindow seeing 15 swings and connecting at a .333 percentage. Thats pretty good playing. Overall the Buffs hit at a .287 mark. Hopefully these players can now all stay healthy!

I'm glad that we're figuring out our rotations and developing some chemistry.

I've been upset with the results to far this season, but I believe in Kritza's vision.
 
..... Last year, the team was starting from scratch. The entire team was either a transfer or freshmen. (The high turnover casts a bad light on CU in the volleyball community.) New system/new players = 6 - 20 season. Kritza responds by recruiting a Top 25 class (but there are no true OHs in the class). .....
I'm curious where you got the information about the recruiting class being a top 25 class. From the context in your post, I assume you are talking about the class of 2011 (i.e. the current freshman class). From the only source I have for volleyball (prepvb.com), the 2011 CU class was not ranked. That site ranks the top 30 classes. They also then list 25 "Highest Honorable Mention" . Finally they list 40 more "High Honorable Mention". CU did not appear anywhere in those lists. So, according to prepvb.com at least, there were at least 95 colleges with recruiting classes better than CU's class.
 
I'm curious where you got the information about the recruiting class being a top 25 class. From the context in your post, I assume you are talking about the class of 2011 (i.e. the current freshman class). From the only source I have for volleyball (prepvb.com), the 2011 CU class was not ranked. That site ranks the top 30 classes. They also then list 25 "Highest Honorable Mention" . Finally they list 40 more "High Honorable Mention". CU did not appear anywhere in those lists. So, according to prepvb.com at least, there were at least 95 colleges with recruiting classes better than CU's class.

It was info reported on where our 2012 class is at this point.
 
.....Between the new facility and new conference, the Buffs upcoming recruiting class is expected to be ranked in the Top 10........
Well, Buffnik, you might just be right about this.

The source I use for high school VB info (prepvb.com) has just finished coming out with their rankings of the 2012 senior class HS players, with the rankings based on the players perceived potential as college players. They rank a "top 100 senior aces" and then a "next 150".

CU has 6 players who have verballed for the class of 2012. (And in VB almost all sign where they initially verbal) Four of those (an outside hitter, 2 who are setter/right side hitters, and a middle blocker) are all ranked in the "top 100" at positions 92, 46, 38, and 26 respectively. The other 2 verbals are both defensive players and are both ranked in the "next 150" part of the list. This is a downright allsome recruiting class.

Consider that, on the current CU VB roster, there is only one player who was ranked in the "top 100" as a HS senior and that is JR Kerra Schroeder who was ranked somewhere in the 60's. There are also 3 other players who, when they were high school seniors, were ranked in their classes "next 150" grouping... FR Kelsey English, SO Hannah Walker, and SR Anicia Santos. With Santos finishing her eligibility after this season, that leaves CU with 3 returning players for next season who got this level of recognition coming out of high school. And they will be adding 6 more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is one heck of a potential talent improvement.

But before anyone gets too excited, this is whats needed year in and year out to have any chance in the PAC 12. Consider that Stanfords entire 2012 class (5 players) is ranked in the top 10!!

*****************

Copied into here at BeBe's suggestion. I wish I knew how to not have things be defaulted to the date stamp order instead of being able to put it in the order I want. This really should be the post after BeBe's at #15 instead of at #12. (I say this in case we have a 2* mod who knows how to do it, because I'm clueless.) - nik
 
OK. My bad. It sounded to me like MOBuff was talking about the 2011 class.
 
OK. My bad. It sounded to me like MOBuff was talking about the 2011 class.

MO might have been or might have mis-spoke. The 2011 class was solid and definitely an improvement from where we had been, but it wasn't a class that was going to turn heads in the Pac-12. 2012 is going to make them sit up and take notice.

I look at it like I do basketball. Will our WBB classes be at Stanford's level right away or our MBB classes there with Arizona? Nope. But they are looking like they are setting us up to be able to compete with them. And when you can compete, you can have breakthrough seasons.
 
Nik, I just posted info on the 2012 class in the "VB & Practice Faciliity" thread since that was where we had previously been talking about the recruiting class. Check it out. You may want to move it here.
 
Nik, I just posted info on the 2012 class in the "VB & Practice Faciliity" thread since that was where we had previously been talking about the recruiting class. Check it out. You may want to move it here.

:thumbsup:

Post #12
 
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