2019/20 off-season Buff volleyball news & awards

[WBBBuffs]

I have more hope for a season after this interview. Time will tell if the precautions and testing work.

 

[AztecBuff]

Still no full season schedule (hopefully within the next 2 days or so?), but per https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/1/18/general-weekly-calendar-volleyball-and-tennis-open-seasons.aspx we at least know the 1st scheduled opponent- the OSU Beavers are (hopefully) coming to Boulder to play the Buffs this Friday and Sunday Match times are still listed as to be determined.

 

[WBBBuffs]

I don't know how to link anything from Instagram but there was some video of the scrimmage from this weekend there.

 

[AztecBuff]

 

[AztecBuff]

A couple things quick:

Forgot to mention re the clip in the above tweet- starting at the 27 second mark or so, what a beautiful 20-30 yard overhead backwards bump set by Jenna Ewert to the perfect location for the hitter!

Also, wanted to note from what I've heard- volleyball is going to be only sport in the Pac 12 that's going to require masks during competition. (I was watching a podcast that included Oregon's coach, and he was saying something to the effect that he has never seen his freshmen's faces in person since they started school. It's only been in things like Zoom calls he's fully seen their faces.)

 

[AztecBuff]

The schedule has now been released.

Hope the team can SAFELY compete this season!



Article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/1/19/colorado-volleyball-schedule-announced.aspx

"
BOULDER – Colorado Volleyball is coming quick, the Pac-12 announced the conference-only schedule for all Pac-12 opponents Tuesday morning with matches beginning Friday.

This season teams will travel to one site and play the same team twice in a row, similar to what is being done in professional leagues around the country. The Buffs kick things off hosting Oregon State Friday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. and will play the Beavers again Sunday at 11 a.m. All games will be live on the Pac-12 Networks.

The second week matchup for Colorado was set to be against the defending national champion Stanford, but Santa Clara county regulations have put a pause on all athletic action. At the moment the pair of matchups is canceled with no room for rescheduling.
...

Date	Opponent	Location	Time
Jan. 22	OREGON STATE	Boulder	7 p.m.
Jan. 24	OREGON STATE	Boulder	11 a.m.
Feb. 5	CAL	Boulder	7 p.m.
Feb. 7	CAL	Boulder	12 p.m.
Feb. 11	Washington State	Pullman, Wash.	7 p.m.
Feb. 13	Washington State	Pullman. Wash.	12 p.m.
Feb. 19	WASHINGTON	Boulder	1:30 p.m.
Feb. 21	WASHINGTON	Boulder	3 p.m.
Feb. 26	Oregon	Eugene, Ore.	TBD
Feb. 28	Oregon	Eugene, Ore.	11:30 a.m.
Mar. 5	UCLA	Boulder	7 p.m.
Mar. 7	UCLA	Boulder	12 p.m.
Mar. 12	Arizona	Tucson, Ariz.	6 p.m.
Mar. 14	Arizona	Tucson, Ariz.	1 p.m.
Mar. 19	UTAH	Boulder	7 p.m.
Mar. 21	Utah	Salt Lake City, Utah	TBD
Mar. 26	ARIZONA STATE	Boulder	7 p.m.
Mar. 28	ARIZONA STATE	Boulder	12 p.m.
Apr. 1	Southern Cal	Pasadena, Calif.	TBD
Apr. 3	Southern Cal	Pasadena, Calif.	TBD

"

A few notes:

• The huge news for general volleyball fans is Stanford, 2 time defending NCAA champion and winners of 3 of the last 4, is cancelling, at MINIMUM, its 1st 2 weekends of play (I assume due to their home county having some of (if not) the most stringent Covid-19 restrictions in the country). In addition to not hosting the Buffs, they also cancelled their season opening weekend matches at USC.
• Because of the Stanford cancellation, the Buffs are currently scheduled to have 11 home matches and 9 home matches.
• Included in the quote above, the schedule there shows the games against USC being in Pasadena for some reason. However, the actual schedule (https://cubuffs.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule) shows it on their campus, as usual at the Galen Center. I'll assume the later is correct until I hear differently.
• Interesting to me that, in spite of minimizing travel seeming to be a major goal in the schedule, they still have the matches against CU's designated "rival", Utah, as a home and home. (Right now, Utah is scheduled to host Stanford in early March. HOPEFULLY by then the Cards will be able to play. If not, wonder if the schedule will be adjusted so that both Buff-Ute matches will be in Utah so that both teams overall, are playing 10 at home and 10 away.)

 

[WBBBuffs]

Stanford's women's basketball team is playing all of their games on the road and staying in a hotel outside of their county. That is also where they practice. I am surprised the Athletic Department is not doing that for the defending national champions.

My big disappointment with the schedule is when I put the matches in my calendar, many are being played at the exact same time as the WBB games for the rest of January and February.

 

[AztecBuff]

Forgot to mention re video coverage of the matches (from scanning the schedule):

• Every home match is listed as having a live video stream, except for the 2 matches in February against Washington, which are scheduled to be on one or the other Pac 12 Networks.
• Right now, anyways, the only away matches showing live streams are the two at Arizona. (If I recall correctly, even in recent "normal" seasons, streams often got added at the "last moment", so hopefully it ends up that the majority of away matches do have some type of live coverage.)

Edit - Wanted to add, I just looked at the Pac 12's release about the schedule (https://pac-12.com/article/2021/01/...ly-schedule-upcoming-womens-volleyball-season), and they aren't listing any matches after February 21st in its list of televised matches. Hopefully, some later Buff matches will be televised as they start developing their TV schedules for late February - early April.

 

[BeBe]

The Utah home and home is questionable. I looked at the Utah schedule ad they show the 2 matches with Colorado are both in Utah. So one of the schools has it wrong.

 

[AztecBuff]

The Utah home and home is questionable. I looked at the Utah schedule ad they show the 2 matches with Colorado are both in Utah. So one of the schools has it wrong.

Obviously a year for flexibility. I'd GUESS they might re-look at the home and home thing if the Utes aren't able to host Stanford (dependent, of course, on what other unforeseen things Covid-19 related within the conference) so as to make the overall home and away # of matches as even as possible for all teams that are competing.

I do want to add that, at least as of now, Utah's official schedule (https://utahutes.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule) also shows the Buff matches as home and home.

 

[AztecBuff]

Pre-season Pac 12 poll and All-conference selections:

• Congrats to Ms. Ewert. Hope she continues to back up her selection with ever-improving play during the season, and maybe help some of her teammates also earn the much more important POST- season recognitions!
• Buffs are selected to finish 8th in the Pac 12. Hope they exceed that, and with the youth and new pieces in play, along with more experience from last season's high-performing freshmen, there's definitely potential to do so! (For those not aware, in normal years, an 8th place finish would give a Pac 12 team at least a 50%/50% chance of being selected to the NCAA Tourney due to the strength of the conference. However, a couple guesses I've seen this season think it will probably take, at minimum, a top 4 or 5 finish to make it this season, even in the elite (Pac 12 and Big 10) conferences. This is because the NCAA last Sept. requested/ dictated (due to the pandemic) that all Olympic sport NCAA championship tournament fields be cut 25%, so this year's tourney will only be 48 teams in total, with 30 of those being set aside for conference championships, so only 18 at-large berths anticipated. In normal years, there are 32 at-large berths (64 total tourney less 32 conference champions).)

Direct link to article - https://cubuffs.com/news/2021/1/20/volleyball-ewert-named-preseason-all-pac-12.aspx

"
BOULDER – Colorado Volleyball junior setter Jenna Ewert was named to the 2021 Preseason All-Pac-12 team, the conference announced this morning along with the Pac-12 Preseason Coaches Poll that tabbed the Buffs in eighth.

Ewert is the first CU player to be named to the Preseason All-Pac-12 team since Naghede Abu and Alexa Smith in 2018. Ewert has led the Buffs in assists the last two season and had a team-high 14 double-doubles last season. She led CU to a 5-0 start and a win over then-ranked No.5 Illinois last year. Ewert finished the season named an All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention.
...

2020 PAC-12 WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL PRESEASON COACHES POLL

RANK	SCHOOL (First-Place Votes)	PTS
1.	Utah (9)	119
2.	Washington (1)	100
3.	Stanford (1)	99
4.	UCLA (1)	98
5.	USC	81
6.	Washington State	71
7.	Oregon	59
8.	Colorado	51
9.	Arizona State	41
10.	Arizona	34
11.	California	26
12.	Oregon State	13

...
"

 

[Gramburglar]

Why are volleyball players wearing masks during gameplay and other sports are not? This is solely observed for Allbuffs homepage pictures.

Personally I see volleyball no difference compared to football in the cardio realm of collegiate sports. I would argue that football is closer contact and a higher COVID risk to more athletes.

Swimming and wrestling are probably the only collegiate sports that cannot compete with a mask.

 

[AztecBuff]

Why are volleyball players wearing masks during gameplay and other sports are not? This is solely observed for Allbuffs homepage pictures.

Personally I see volleyball no difference compared to football in the cardio realm of collegiate sports. I would argue that football is closer contact and a higher COVID risk to more athletes.

Swimming and wrestling are probably the only collegiate sports that cannot compete with a mask.

The reason given on some telecasts I watched is that volleyball is considered a little safer virus-wise than other sports like football and basketball, so it's the only sport that, by wearing masks, is able to be put in a lesser (intermediate level) risk category, which doesn't require as much testing as those other sports. (Basketball and football, for example, would still be considered high risk sports even if they did wear masks.)

Note - I went and looked quick at a couple Big 10 highlights from last week (since the Pac and B10 seem to be the closest in how they've handled the pandemic), and their players on the court were not wearing masks. Like we've seen in other sports, both conferences look to be requiring masks for players not on the court. Although even there it looked a little different, as I noticed the Buff players not on the court looked to be socially distancing from each other, while the Big 10 off court players looked to be standing together beyond the bench seats, which is typical for all vball teams in non-pandemic times.

It was also interesting to me in Sunday's Buff match where the players (especially the setters) looked a little extra exhausted after a few long rallies, which I assume was at least a little hurt by the mask wearing. It seemed they gave the players a little extra time between points after those rallies, while volleyball is usually pretty "bang bang" from the end of the prior point to the next serve. (I'd be interested to hear if there are any special instructions Pac 12 teams and officials have been given this season allowing longer breaks between points in cases of long points due to the aerobic loss from mask wearing.)

 

[AztecBuff]

Wanted to briefly note that an NCAA committee has decided that the whole NCAA Volleyball Tournament at the end of this season will be contested in Omaha. Per the release linked to below, it's scheduled to be held from April 13th-24th.



Direct link to release - https://www.ncaa.org/about/resource...ng-3-national-championships-one-location-each

 

[WBBBuffs]

I have watched a couple of Big 10 matches this season (because I get the Big Ten network) and they are not wearing masks.

So Nebraska gets the home court advantage once again.