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Post by ironlions on Oct 19, 2009 10:46:28 GMT -5
Why is the women's volleyball team so bad? Is it a lot of youth? They are usually a very good team.
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Post by stillalion on Oct 19, 2009 12:49:50 GMT -5
Volleyball is a young team this year. There are no Seniors - and just two RS Jr's.
However, I think the issue goes deeper then us being young this year. In the last 5 years we have averaged to be an under 500 team in the WCC. Going back 10 years we are around a 600 team (again - in WCC). And this year we are certainly going to be way under 500.
It seems to me that we have been running a middle of the road team for a long time. I can only speculate that the administration is happy with middle of the road. It's a clean program. It doesn't cause problems. Everything runs pretty smooth (at least from an outside prospective). Coach has been here longer them most of his players have been alive. There seems to be no desire to rock the volleyball boat. Not that I can blame them. Volleyball doesn't bring in much money.
I wouldn't expect any break out performance from volleyball any time soon - with or without a young team.
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Post by sullivanfieldfan on Oct 20, 2009 22:23:52 GMT -5
Awful? Alert2 and Stillalion both comments were pretty quick on the trigger. Stillalion at least qualified his comments somewhat. Watching the team play myself, this year "awful" is still an adjective that wouldn't come to my mind. I agree the team is young and I'm sure that cross is a burden when confronting older, veteran teams. The Lions are in the midst of a seven match losing streak, no fun for sure but their overall record has just dipped below 500 for the first time. Unfortunately it might stay there this year but there are worse things. The WCC has always been a first rate VB conference with four or five going to the tournament every year. The Lions have been near the top of the conference for a long time, gaining nat'l rankings, tournament slots etc. There are 330 division 1 WVB teams, our RPI is 153...and right now maybe middle of the road. But hardly middle of the road in the last ten years. I watched, and from what I saw, first class would be a much better description. Last year was the first time the team finished below 500 in Coach's tenure. There are always a lot of reasons for a slump or losing season not all of which are in the control of the coaching staff. No matter what you do sometimes you don't win. Of course I think the administration is happy with the program, the last thing they want is problems. The coaches are doing their best and get the most from the team. Stratos clearly out coaches his counterparts, there is no reason in my view for anyone to rock his boat as long as he wants to man the tiller.
WVB may not be able to reach everyone's reasonable or unreasonable expectations in the near future but I think this team will improve and do well as it matures.
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Post by sullivanfieldfan on Oct 20, 2009 23:27:53 GMT -5
Stillalion, you asked why the Peppers don't field a Men's Soccer team. I'm sure it was a Title IX decision. The Peppers decided to keep Men's Volleyball. I believe they are the only WCC school still with MVB. LMU decision to drop MVB was a similar choice. Title IX and the advent of parity for NCAA womens sports had severe and often program ending repercussions for a lots of men's programs. For example in the PAC 10 mens soccer conference now there are only 5 Pac 10 schools left with mens soccer teams. They were forced to add San Diego State to get a balanced number of teams.
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Post by sullivanfieldfan on Oct 23, 2009 22:40:30 GMT -5
Unbelievable! Maybe it's time for your rabies booster? No one needs to make excuses for the VB team. They're 8-11. So what if they have a losing streak. I'm sure they feel worse about it than anyone else. Time to support the team and coaches, rather than cut and run. The match last night was close and competitive. But we didn't win. The first game went to overtime and we lost. If we had won that game who knows if that would have changed everything. If we would have won the match would you be saying the coach has to go? What happens if we lose another? I know, crucify him on Regent's Terrace. I doubt the coach is losing any sleep worrying about what you think about his performance, to me he looks focused on more important things like the team. If you're waiting for him to be fired, I wouldn't hold my breath.
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Post by sullivanfieldfan on Oct 27, 2009 22:10:43 GMT -5
Saturday was a good day for WVB. It didn't start that way as the women dropped the first game to USF. The young Lions fought back though and won three straight games to win the match. You could see their confidence growing as the match progressed and they began to pile up the points. Even when the Dons fought back in the fourth game the Lions battled and held them off to secure the win. Nice win for the team and staff!
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Post by stillalion on Oct 27, 2009 23:02:28 GMT -5
Sullivan - I have been off the board for a little while so I haven't been able to comment on your v-ball thoughts.
First and foremost - I am not calling for anyone to be fired over lack luster performance of the team over the past few years. I think the university likes the team the way it is and likes the staff we have in place. Also, all the players I have ever talked to seem to be stand up women and doing their best to represent themselves and LMU in the best way they can.
However, I think we should at least admit that the only W/L record that matters is the WCC. We don't play a tough pre-season schedule. (Granted we played UCLA this year but that was about it). Once we are playing top teams in pre-season, I will give them credit for those wins when I evaluate the team. In the mean time, I think we play teams to give us some practice and to boost our W/L numbers so we can look good at the end of the season even when we don't do well in league play.
And, I do agree with you that the WCC is a pretty good conference for V-ball. Actually, I guess that's my main beef. As far as I see it LMU has the ability to be a top tier program. We are in a great location for volleyball and volleyball talent, we are in a good conference, and we have had some success in the past. But, as I said, for the past 5 years we are under 500 in league and for the past 10 years we are just over 500. We are a middle of the pack team that every once in a while has a break out year that puts us near the top of the WCC. (Our last WCC crown was 13 years ago).
I will happily revise my previous definition of the team as "awful". I over stated it - they are not "awful". They are average. And even being a young team - I don't think we should ever be average in volleyball. LMU should be fighting in our good years to be in the top 20 and in our "rebuilding" years we should be top 75 at worst. I think we have the capability of that type of program.
Next year we will have a few Seniors and a few more experienced Juniors playing and I am afraid we will not be fighting to win the WCC. And when that happens - we won't be able to blame a "young" team for our record.
Hope I'm wrong.
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Post by stillalion on Nov 1, 2009 10:24:33 GMT -5
In positive news - Cross Country has given us 2 points to take the lead 3.5 to 2.5. The next match up is Volleyball at home Nov 13th. Hopefully Friday the 13th brings us some luck! Go Lions.
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Post by sullivanfieldfan on Nov 4, 2009 2:38:34 GMT -5
Stillalion, I'm happy to hear that your not campaigning for anyone's scalp. I think that would be a mistake. Even though Alert2 says he agrees with your analysis, I think he still has his long knives out. The WVB team's record this year, I agree is disappointing and that is primarily because of our poor won loss record in WCC contests.
But, I find it hard to imagine that the coaching staff/administration planned a preseason schedule knowing it would be needed to balance out our sub par conference record in advance. Why then schedule Santa Barbara and Pacific who regularly field strong teams. You can't take credit for beating UCSB one year and bemoaning the fact we lost another year to a weak sister. For tough recent opponents, last year the Wisconsin match comes to mind, we lost in the fifth set by a few points to a top program. Our win over Hawaii away the year before was definitely not padding for our stats. I think there is more to team development than just scheduling tough teams.
Would we schedule 10 preseason games against the likes of Nebraska or the Pac 10 if we could? Maybe. But that's unrealistic if not an impossibility.
At the beginning of the season, I believe the coaching staff had higher hopes for the program this year. Even so, I'm sure they realized the team had a need to develop and step up and perform in several critical areas to be successful. We have some very talented VB players. On any squad there are a lot of moving parts that determine success or failure. And that difference sometimes can be quite small. I don't think we are that far away from success. The staff is searching for the right combinations and answers. Hopefully they and the team will find it in the near future.
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Post by stillalion on Nov 15, 2009 20:27:22 GMT -5
LMU loses at home to Pepp in V-Ball, so they get 1.5 points to take the lead 4 to 3.5.
The race is on. It will really depend on Basketball I think. If one team or the other gets some road wins in Basketball it will be hard to stop em.
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Post by fanblade on Nov 15, 2009 23:42:03 GMT -5
Basketball and Baseball will be very important if we want to come out ahead. Baseball is interesting as one team will likely have an advantage every other year because we only hold one series a season either away or home.
M & W Tennis is usually dominated by Pepperdine nationally so those points may be lost if we want to forecast. But the Lions Tennis teams have been improving.
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Post by stillalion on Jan 10, 2010 12:25:41 GMT -5
At this point the PCH Cup will be nearly impossible for us to win. The Basketball losses at Pepperdine robbed us of some needed 1.5 point games.
Basically, the problem for us is that Pepperdine is a national tennis powerhouse. I don't know how long ago it has been since we took a win from them in tennis but it has been a long while. I don't expect anything to change this year.
SO - that gives Pepperdine 3 more point guaranteed.
Right now the score is 3.5 LMU to 6 for Pepp.
Add 3 more for the tennis wins and you have 3.5 for LMU and 9 for Pepp.
Here are the remaining games that we would have to win:
W. Basketball at LMU. If we win the point total would be 4.5 to 9 M. Basketball at LMU. If we win the point total would be 5.5 to 9 Swimming at a Neutral site. If we win (and that one is a toss up year to year) the point total would be 6.5 to 9 Golf at a Neutral site. If we win (and we seem to go back and forth) the point total would be 7.5 to 9 Baseball at LMU game one. If we win the point total would be 8.5 to 9 Baseball at LMU game two. If we win the point total would be 9.5 to 9 Baseball at LMU game three. If we win the point total would be 10.5 to 9
We win the cup!
If we lose any one of these 7 games. ANY ONE. The total will be 9.5 to 10 (at best). They win.
So, (unless there is some sort of Tennis miracle) we must sweep the next 7 games against Pepp to win this cup.
A tall order indeed.
Good Luck Lions!
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Post by dedicatedlionfan on Jan 19, 2010 21:27:50 GMT -5
we can do this for sure!!!! I do not see any reason why we can't come to do this!
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