A couple Buffzone articles with the season only 3 days away from starting (on the road at Oklahoma against Northwestern State) -
Direct link-
http://www.buffzone.com/volleyball/ci_31237632/alexa-smith-looks-ignite-cu-volleyball-offense-2017
Also-
http://www.buffzone.com/ci_31233391/alum-nicole-edelman-aids-injury-depleted-cu-volleyball
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I was at the scrimmage. Just a few main observations (As always, have to preface this by saying I have
very little technical knowledge of volleyball, so everything below should be taken with the proverbial "grain of salt".)-
1) Injuries
The 1st thing I always look for at these pre-season scrimmages, especially in these less publicized sports,
is injuries, and as the 2nd article linked to above indicates (as did Coach Mahoney's video interview in the above Nik post) , the injury situation does NOT look good going into the season. (Note- thankfully, I didn't see any indication of
major injury (casts, boots, etc.) on any of the 4 young women who didn't play, so hopefully none of the injuries is too serious. (They were all wearing long sleeve warm-up jackets or sweats, so I guess they could have issues with shoulders, elbows, etc. that I wouldn't have been able to see. Also, of course, both concussion and hidden knee injuries (ACL's, etc.) often aren't apparent, but definitely do occur in volleyball; hope none of the young women are dealing with those.)
From the article-
"
The Buffs went through their intrasquad scrimmage shorthanded, as Stephanie Shadley, Taylor Joachim, Frankie Shebby, and Anyse Smith all remained on the sideline due to injuries. Shadley, a senior, ranked second on the team last year in kills.
"Right now, we're not expecting any of them back (next) weekend," Mahoney said. "But it's not out of the realm of possibility that a couple of them could be there."
"
With all 4 of those players being offensive players, and 2, at least based on their experience (returning starter Shadley and transfer Shebby) being my off-season best guess for the likely starter at the Outside (left-side) Hitter #2 (OH2) position, looks like the Buffs deepest position going in may not be that strong or settled to start the season. IF none of the 3 injured OH's are available, I assume by default (maybe she would be playing anyways?) sophomore Justine Spann, who was often 1st OH off the bench last season so thankfully already has some nice live match experience, will start as the OH2 this weekend. (Assume the other option if necessary (Ms's. Smith and Spann better stay healthy!) would be to move one of the right-side hitters (Hayes, Dorrell or Demure (if she's not setting)) over to the left-side.)
2. Re the setter position-
- The 3 expected options at the position, true freshmen Brynna Deluzio and Jaden Newsome and redshirt freshman transfer Emily Demure were thankfully all playing, so hopefully healthy. With NONE of them having ever having played an official point of college vball (I must admit kind of scary as a Buff fan, especially for the "quarterback" position of volleyball), I assume the coaches may try them all out at different times, at minimum early this season.
- Just based on the scrimmage, my GUESS is Ms. Deluzio may be the one to get the 1st start. This is very much a guess, and is just based on my noticing she ONLY played on the black team for all 3 sets during the scrimmage, which was the team Coach Mahoney coached (Asst. Coach Maes coached gold), and was the team that only kept current players on it. (Asst. Coach Sanders and former Buff Nicole Edelman had to step in and play as hitters due to the 4 injuries, and always played on the gray team. I believe all the other players except Ms. Deluzio and Alexa Smith moved between the black and gold teams between each set.)
- With Ms. Deluzio being a little shorter (5'9") than Buff 5-1 system setters in the recent past (for those who don't know- a 5-1 is where one player sets for all 6 rotations), I assume a 6-2 system is also possible, in which case I'd guess they might (???) go with Ms. Demure as the 6 rotation player who plays right-side hitter while in the front row and takes over setter duties in the back row (like Gabby Simpson, when healthy, last season), with Ms. Deluzio playing and setting in the back row when Ms. Demure was in her front-row rotations. (I only guess Ms. Demure would be the likely other setter in a 6-2 because she also has a lot of hitting experience from her high school days, while I believe (???) Ms. Newsome has always been more of a "pure" setter. Being a redshirt, Ms. Demure also at least has more practice experience at the college level last season while at Penn State.)
- In spite of her height, I would not rule out a 5-1 system with Ms. Deluzio, however, as she looks very athletic, and she actually starred as an outside hitter in high school (Division 4A Florida state player of the year and 2nd Team All-American last season). Therefore, she would have lots of experience with blocking while in the front row. (As I understand it, one of the main reasons teams use a 6-2 is that one or both of the setters aren't good enough blocker to survive long point runs while they're in the front row. Also want to add that, of course, height, like in basketball, obviously isn't the be all and end all in volleyball- One of my favorite non-Buffs to watch play all-time in the Pac 12 was just graduated and VERY athletic (not much of a liability blocking-wise while seemingly chasing down every out of system ball, including some in the crowd) Penina Snuka, and she played a 6 rotation setter role much of her college career at Arizona (and was Pac 12 Setter of the Year last season), and is 5'6".)
3) Libero/ Defensive Specialists
Re the other position(s) that will definitely filled by a new starter (with Cierra Simpson's graduation)- libero and (if they need one) defensive specialist- I didn't follow too closely, but believe all 3 of the main options, transfer senior Branen Berta, junior Gabby Carta-Samuels and sophomore Rachel Whipple, wore the libero jersey for 2 sets while either on the black or gold teams, and I don't even have a guess as to which one(s) may be more likely to start as the libero in game 1 of match 1, or see time as defensive specialist (if the Buffs even use one). As with setter, I'm guessing all might get at least some playing time in the early season matches.
