Mercy 3 Newport Central Catholic 0

[Lawnboy13]

Game 1 Mercy 25-7

Game 2 Mercy 25-16

Game 3 Mercy 25-15

 

I was not there, so I'm waiting for VBallBlue to fill us in.

[VBallBlue]

Game 1 was a runaway for Mercy. They jumped on NC early and never let up. When NC did get an attack opportunity, Mercy either blocked the attack or the back row defense dug it up. NC didn't have the size at the net to stop the Mercy hitters.

 

In game two, I agree that NC buckled down and played better. They jumped out to and early lead but lost it at 4. I believe this highlights the weak point for Mercy--loss of focus. As a team, they get a little sloppy when they don't feel they need to play as hard to win. This has cost them when playing both Assumption and Mother McAuley this year. However they came back and stretched the lead to 21-9. I'll disagree at this point with Lawboy's correspondent that Mercy is 4 deep at each position. Once Mercy started subbing out, they lost most of their offense and size in the front. Hitting/blocking not as strong and the backrow had to work harder. Garvey had to put a couple back in to close out the game. NC played their best of the night in this one. They outhustled Mercy to start and never gave up. It took the Mercy starters to finish the set.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure what happened in game three. NC didn't seem to be in the game. Mercy jumped out to an early lead and used the opportunity to sub early and often. The starting setter sat this one out and the backup OHs and middles played most of the way. As Lawnboy said, the wheels fell off the bus for NC. It was 22-8 at one point and they didn't have the fire they showed in game two.

 

My takes, NC has a good solid team. Backrow played well but didn't have much help from the blockers. Where have all the big blockers from NC gone? I know several years ago they had quite a few.

Mercy, when the starters are in, has a front row few can contend with. Size, verticals, hitting power. A strength over last year is that they mix it more. Last year they went to Crable too often and defenses could key on that. Mercy's backrow is good but not great in my opinion. Not as deep as it could be but sufficient if the blocking game is working. Nowhere near as good top to bottom as Assumption or ND from the matches I've seen. This should be their year at state, but you never know.

[Lawnboy13]

Nice report. :thumb:

[G1]

This is a good game for Ncc to schedule to find what they need to work on.