(VB) Ongoing Volleyball Thread

My opinion, but I wish she had not come back out on crutches and the large brace on her leg. I think that deflated the team as they looked and saw the reality.
I feel the worst for Stuckey, but also for the team and Mary. We really had a chance this year if everyone stayed healthy.

 

just what might be tomorrow.

 

not sure what they showed on tv, but doc clerked ACL and sent her immediately to locker room…comes out later with knee immobilized and crutches….I’d be shocked if it wasn’t.

Tough loss, but great atmosphere today. Props to Wisconsin, their defense was amazing. The number of digs they had on what seems like sure kills was impressive.

Losing Stucky is a huge blow, but season isn’t over. Got to clean up service errors though

 

ACL injuries are pretty easy to confirm. A quick lower leg stability check will confirm. The MRI is used for extent of damage. Seen too many tears and had 3 myself. Sucks when it happens

 

New Program Attendance Record!

10,323

Gators Volleyball on X: "LARGEST CROWD IN PROGRAM HISTORY! Thank you, Gator Nation! #GoGators https://t.co/2VWy28BtDb" / X (twitter.com)

Sold Out!

Kudos Gator Nation! You did great!

 

Alexis Stucky to have MRI today to determine the extent of the knee injury:

Wise on Stucky's Injury: 'It did not look good' - Florida Gators

CMW praises Kennedy Muff for having the "guts" to step in and perform against the #1 team in the nation after having played her career at the D2 level with Flagler. The undersized Muff will be the answer at S moving forward.

UF needs all hands on deck. Gabby Essix and Kira Hutson need to be ready this week for the start of SEC play at 10-1 Auburn on Friday night. I still can't believe Essix played so little against the Badgers.

 

Okammor what great, though, and with Dixon now playing a lot at the middle, Essix's time was limited. Essix has been more consistent than Okammor in the past, but the last couple of matches, Nnedi has looked really good.

 

I'm thinking UF uses Essix and Okammor at MB and moves Dixon back to her natural position at OH if Kira Hutson's shoulder doesn't allow her to play. Against Wisky, UF needed more height on the outside.

Neither Essix nor Okammor can consistently help with the outside moving forward as their strength is MB.

I'm not advocating for Fitzpatrick to stay on the bench, but her height deficit was taken advantage of by Wisky.

 

All valid points. Okammor has really come on, though, and I think Mary Wise is going to play her more as long as her performance is at this level. Dixon can play either position and she's willing to help anyway she can, so that does give the coach more flexibility. Fitzpatrick gets the most out of her ability and when Hutson got hurt, she stepped up big time. And although she's undersized for the OH position, there are very few teams that have the dominating size up front that Wisconsin has. She's going to be relied on a lot to score and if we come up against another giant front line, maybe Coach will make some adjustments to compensate. I still hate that Beason went to Nebraska and Kelley went to Pitt, as they were excellent players. Although the chemistry on this year's team has seemed special. We'll see if it stays that way without Stuckey providing the glue to it all.

 

I 100% agree on Okammor. I was advocating for her to get PT before CMW started giving it to her.

As I recall, I wanted to see both Okammor and the new freshie who hasn't seen the court yet, 6'4" Madi Gravlee whose mother played for CMW back in the early 90s. Gravlee is from a sports family as her father was on the UF football team. Madi also plays beach volleyball.

In any case, there will have to be adjustments made this week to move forward. I'd hate to see UF drawing it up in the sand again as CMW put it in the article on Stucky and Muff today.

 

I agree, AC is excellent against most teams. She is talented and athletic.

Unfortunately, UF beat another tall team in Stanford with a 6'3" player starting, Kira Hutson, and lost to an even taller Wisconsin with a 5'11" player who the Badgers targeted.

Think about this for a moment. CMW described Kennedy Muff as an undersized setter in the article this morning. Muff at 5'10" is almost the same height as Fitzpatrick. CMW loves AC Fitzpatrick, but she knows she too is undersized for her position. Maybe UF should move Fitzpatrick to setter for her athleticism and move Dixon back to OH. With her talent, AC could pull this off and it would allow an additional hitter on the front row that Muff cannot provide. Dixon originally made the position change to MB to make UF better. Maybe Fitzpatrick can do the same.

To be sure, some changes will have to be made. It'll be interesting to see what CMW and staff come up with for Auburn on Friday. Auburn was ranked #24 last week and then followed that up with 3 wins to improve to 10-1. Time is of the essence for coming up with a plan to make this team without Stucky and Hutson the best it can be.

 

I couldn't get the TV feed in London, but the radio broadcast made it clear there was a big dropoff. They weren't knocking Kennedy Muff, but just pointed out that the sets weren't as spot-on as before, and sometimes weren't to the best attack point, and that it's a lot like losing your quarterback midgame. There's an adjustment for everyone. I thought that was a very incisive comment.

 

Yep. With her, we were about to vault to #1.

 

9/18/2023 AVCA Volleyball Ranking:

DI Women's Volleyball Rankings - AVCA Rankings | NCAA.com

1. Wisconsin
2. Nebraska
3. Florida
4. Stanford
5. Louisville

No way I'd have Stanford over Louisville with their 2 losses even though Stanford won the 5-set thriller at Louisville. Stanford was 11 votes shy of passing Florida. Give me a break coaches.

Yesterday, I rightly predicted the top 3, missed on 4 and 5, but how was I to know the coaches would screw up with Louisville and Stanford.

The coaches have Texas at 9 with a 5-3 record.

Minnesota is at 12 with a 4-4 record.

Tennessee (9-1) at 14 and Arkansas (10-2) at 16 are not being given the respect they deserve from the coaches:

The Vols have beaten some good teams plus played Wisky to the wire in Madison. The Vols beat Boston College 3-0, San Diego 3-1, and Marquette 3-0. San Diego beat Texas and Marquette gave Wisky fits before going down 3-1.

The piggies lost back-to-back matches to Wisky at home with one match going to the wire. The piggies have beaten Michigan State 3-0 and Michigan 3-0.

Kentucky is ranked 22 with only 2 wins. The Wildcats played the hard pre-SEC schedule, but only won 2 matches. No team should be ranked with a 2-6 record.

Ohio State is just as bad of a ranking at 21. The bucknuts have a 3-6 record.

Auburn came in at 24 again with a 10-1 record after a 3-0 week. The Gators play at Auburn on Friday night. The Tigers beat SMU 3-1 and Florida State 3-1 in Tallahassee, but Auburn needs to schedule up overall if they are to be taken seriously in the rankings.

UF plays NR Georgia 9-3 next Sunday in Gainesville. Other than the upset win over Georgia Tech last week, the poodles have lost against the competitive teams they played. The poodles 3 losses are to TCU, Florida State, and San Diego.

 

Any update on Stuckey?

 

you ought to cover the radio show as a weekly feature for those of us who don't get it. sad to confirm stucky as season ended.