[olderthanIusedtobe]

Texas sweeps Nebraska! There will be no repeat for last year's National Champ, and no Big 10 team winning this year. Nebraska is almost as bad as Penn St., so this makes me happy.

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Stanford wins 3-1! Finally another National Championship for a Pac 12 school. Really hard to believe Stanford hasn't won it all since 2004. Now their 7th overall, tied with Penn St. for most by any school.

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Kind of a shocker today--Stanford coach John Dunning announced his retirement. Went out on top. Highly coveted position, will be interesting to see who they get as a replacement. Team is loaded with talent for next year.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Well that snuck up on me. Volleyball season started already. I watched a few minutes last night and a few minutes tonight. Huskies hosted a 4 team, round robin tournament over the weekend. They swept Pitt and St. Mary's but lost 3-1 to Creighton. Bummer. Season is early, lineup is subject to change, but looks like the coach isn't standing pat despite last year's successful season and bringing back every major contributor. 2 new middle blockers look to be the starters, one a hotshot freshman and one a Sr. that transferred in from Oklahoma. One of last year's starters was just filling in, she'd never played the position before and has moved back to her natural outside hitter position. There are a bunch of OHs to choose from, looks like that rotation is not firmly established yet. The coach has hinted he might go back to a 6-2 rather than a 5-1. Also in what seems like a surprise to me, 3 year starter at OH Tia Scambray has been moved to libero, at least in the early going. Oregon knocked off Nebraska Friday night. I'm always happy to see the Huskers lose, even if it's to the Ducks.

[trestle]

What do you watch them on? I used to have the PAC-12 network but got tired of paying for the extra tiers in order to get it.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

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Haven't been able to watch any of the matches. UW won the rest of their non conference matches, mostly against patsies. Some of the matches appeared to be closer than they should of been based on scores. Team is still a work in progress. They did beat a Cal Poly team that is fairly good from what I gather. Also beat a previously undefeated Maryland team, but I have no idea how good the Terps actually are. Multi year starter Crissy Jones hasn't played yet this season, been out w/ an injury. When she returns it will be interesting to see what happens to the rotation. Redshirt Sr. Carly Dehoog, who has had a hard time finding playing time during her career, has appeared to be the most consistent and best hitter all year for the Dawgs. I would hate to see her get pushed aside. Freshman middle blocker Lauren Sanders has been pretty good too. Surprisingly last year's Pac 12 player of the year Courtney Schwan has been relatively ineffective hitting so far this year. Not sure what the deal is. UW begins Pac 12 play Wednesday at Wazzu at 6, match is on Pac 12 Network.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

First match I've been able to watch this year. UW won 3-1. Fairly hard fought. Jones was back, she looked great. She and Dehoog carried them early. Schwan had a rough night but was huge at the end of set 4. The blocking was good for both teams. Huskies struggled to get much offense from any of their middles. Mims from WSU was a beast. If you didn't know better, you'd never guess that Scambray was playing libero for the first time, she looks like a natural back there. Stanford-Cal and USC-UCLA are on now, it's rivalry night to start Pac 12 play.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

There is some kind of weird fluke of scheduling this year--UW's first 4 conference matches are on the road. That doesn't seem right. I guess the end of the season should be back loaded w/ home matches at least. Anyway after beating Wazzu they went to Tempe to face ASU. Had to battle back from 0-2 deficit to win 3-2. Tonight they dropped the first set at UCLA but won the next 3. Sunday they play at USC. They have not had a home match since Sept. 2nd. They will finally have a home match again Oct. 6th against Utah. More than a month...that's just weird.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Sigh. UW got swept at USC last weekend and looked bad doing it. Hosting Utah tonight they are down 0-2 at the break. Have some injuries and a makeshift lineup. The setter Tanner is out, and OH Schwan is limited and only playing a little in the back row. They've switched to a 6-2 from a 5-1 (using 1 Sr. setter who has barely played during her career and 1 Fr. setter). Scambray has been moved from libero back to OH. Last year's libero McPherson is back in the lineup. Dehoog has been their best player all year but she's having a bad night. Jones looks terrible. Fr. MB Sanders is playing great, Scambray and Julye are decent. The other MB Hazelwood is invisible. Frustrating to watch. Both sets were fairly close, they got behind late, then scored 3 or 4 straight to tie it at 24, only to lose the set in the end. Almost would rather not see them rally if it's all in vain. I think they need to shake the lineup up. Get Hazelwood out and put in Niece, maybe try to get Bajema in the rotation at OH, do something different. What they got ain't working so far.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

Well I didn't expect that. Dawgs have battled back to force a 5th and deciding set. Dehoog came to life and Scambray and Sanders are continuing to play well. Not getting much hitting from anyone else. The blocking has stepped up in set 3 and 4. Utah has several players that can just hammer the ball. Doesn't seem like UW has anyone that can put the ball down with that much authority. But they've won two straight sets so something is working.

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Darn it. 16-14 Utah in the 5th set. First win ever for the Utes in Seattle. Dawgs desperately need a win against Colorado on Sunday.

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Wow. UW just dropped a 5 setter at home to Oregon St., one of the bottom teams in the conference. Had previously swept Colorado and barely pulled out a 5 setter against Oregon. Dawgs just aren't very good this year. Return everybody from last year's conference champion, but somehow got significantly worse. Their starting setter is out injured currently, but there were problems before that, really don't know what's going on.

[trestle]

I discovered that while my cable service doesn't include the PAC-12 Network on my tv, it provides it through an app on my phone. I caught some of the games on Friday night and thought Colorado looked good against USC and that OSU looked better than their record. I haven't seen the UW yet but looking at their roster, they seem loaded with seniors and freshmen. It could be a long year but hopefully they're building a new core.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

UW almost beat Stanford on The Farm on Thursday, dropped a 5 set match after leading 2-1. Kind of a heartbreaker. Best they've looked for a while. Play at Cal today, should be able to win but you never know. Oregon St. is rising fast. Stanford is still undefeated at 10-0 halfway thru the conference schedule. Utah (somewhat surprisingly) is right behind w/ only 1 loss. After that a bunch of teams are lumped together w/ 5 or 6 conference wins (USC, Oregon, UCLA, UW, Oregon St., Colorado), and then a few teams mired in the basement.