Sandman32

I disagree with your analysis of Borders game. Penn State had plenty of hitters last season, but Mica Hancock was as much of a scoring threat as any of them. Also, I think our region has some great setters. Talkers - NDA Bush - Ryle Borders - Boone Co. Atwood - Conner Noll - SHDS I'm sure someone can make a case for Freppon - NCC, & Ogle - Beechwood too

Tasha is not a newbie coach... and Hailey Bush isn't a below average setter.... if their team was capable of more offensively it would be being done. I have no doubt that they are operating at the ceiling of their teams capabilities. Why they have chemistry issues I don't know. But you don't win games offensively by engaging your middles unless they're Rachel Adams, you win by setting your outsides. They have two good ones in Bush and Stinson. Stinson led the team in kills last season. Bush is a beast. Figure out how to feed the OH and things will turn around.

doing my best impersonation of lawnboy, I wrote the following recap Freshman Game - a very competitive match, going three sets, with Saint Henry earning the victory. JV - St. Henry ruled this from start to finish, winning in two. Varsity Game 1 As the score would indicate, this one was a back an forth battle from the beginning, with the Colonels jumping out to 15-10 lead. After a timeout, the Crusaders regrouped and tied the match at 17 all before making it 17-19 in their favor. Dixie however would not got away and reclaimed the lead 21-20. That was as close as they would come to victory however, as they fell to the Crusaders serve for the final point of the match 23-25. Game 2 This one saw St. Henry take control from start to finish, and was never in question. The Colonels seemed to lose all confidence for most of the match. Game 3 The next set appeared to be headed the same way as its predecessor, as the Cru jumped out to an early 12-6 lead, and then expanded to 16-8, before Leah Metzger made a kill and went to the serving line. At the end of her run the Colonels had pulled to within a narrow margin, but the Crusaders quickly opened up the lead again to 21-16. To their credit Dixie would not go away, and began to gain enough momentum to force St. Henry into taking a late timeout. In the end the effort served to be too little to late, as the Crusaders held on to a 25-20 victory, earning them the top seed in the 24th district. With the loss Dixie is now the 3 seed in the district, and will face Villa Madonna in the first round.

Nice synopsis as always.

It was a fun tournament, though I absolutely hate the parking situation! To make matters worse on Saturday they had something going on outside on the field (either a Soccer or football game). Driving into town from Columbia Pkwy I saw a new housing development which would have been a great site for a new school. If they had bought that land they could have moved either the middle school or high school down there and then torn down a few walls at the current location and built a massive parking structure. lol

I don't think we were questioning that she would be or is good. Our comments were about the expectations most of us had based on statements people had made about her transferring in. Add to that that she is from Texas, where volleyball is HUGE and the expectations were probably out of line for anybody. In no way do I think anyone was trying to say she's not a very talented vball player.

Who is the D1 girl not playing school ball?

Sorry, didn't read the question so I edited. LOL, There are several D1 Players sprinkled across NKY who play HS. None that I know of who forego playing school ball. It's fairly normal to see them each year, though they're not falling from the trees. Speaking of which I watched Heidi Thelen play last night for Penn State against Wisconsin (DVR). As strong as they've been I was just thrilled that she cracked the starting lineup. It's nice to see local kids do well.

My opinion is that she was advertised a little too high. She's good but there are several middles I would place ahead of her that I've seen.

I'm not sure why, but Ryle has Zero team chemistry. I know that Stinson and Bush's volleyball IQ's are pretty high, but don't know much about the rest of the kids. I suspect that they aren't a very close team on or off the court.

I don't think I said that at all. Just because you belong to one team or the other doesn't mean you aren't impartial when it comes to performing a duty. Many officials have ties to schools, are you saying they aren't impartial? In volleyball, having kids do a good job of being line judges is a sense of pride for most programs. It's an extension of good sportsmanship. The other night we had a few kids who made some close calls against us during crucial moments. I was proud of them to make the call based on what they saw, and not the outcome, even if they were wrong. lol JK

They never have true officials line judge in volleyball unless its in the finals of a major tournament, such as State.

It's the only sport where when you resume where the coach says "Win the Timeout" . lol

Maureen is a great coach, and anyone who thought St. Henry would stay down for long wasn't thinking it through. I'm sure by Regionals they will be a clear #2 .

I used to think parents would be the right choice, as the kids doing line judging duty tend to be abused by fans and coaches, such as the Simon Kenton coach, but after years of club and school ball I'm not so sure. Let's just say that if a coach said half the things they say to the kids to a parent it could make for a very interesting match. lol To me the best solution is to have line judges be additional officials, but I'm sure the cost would be prohibitive.

Funny how momentum swings in an instant... lol I love reading your recaps.

Just to further illustrate your point, Metzger had 22 kills, 15 digs, and 7 Aces. Long had 16 Kills and 5 blocks.

I agree. They are good enough to help our team compete, but it takes a team to win. we have several young players who will help us in the future, but not this year... But I'll still cheer them on. They're learning. Maybe not at the rate I'd like or others, but there is no denying we're going in the right direction. The problem is that so is everyone else. lol Stop getting better People! jk

I'm going to say NDA in 3. Ryle hasn't been clicking all year, and even if they were I don't see it.

That's an apt description. A parent from WV told me that was the worst they'd played in a while. Dixie continually struggles to finish. At times we passed well, set well, and hit well,.... but only at times. I do believe that we are getting better, but have a long long Long way to go before you'll be able to measure it. Our Freshman and JV won in straight sets.

A little note about your pet peeve. Typically, most referee's will not call a double on first contact. And depending on the level of participants, they can be very lenient. From my observation, almost every time a setter is falling/stepping backward and the ball has any spin on it, your chances of being called are pretty good. Also, if the setter is chasing the ball it seems to be called more than if the setter is stationary. No referee wants to stop play an award points to the other team, so they have a tendency to try and let the kids win or lose the games if possible, which generally means letting a few doubles and lifts go by.

I saw that, hence the "again" part of my statement.

Dixie seems to be a tale of two teams this week, as is often when you have two 8th graders and a 7th grader in your starting rotation. On Tuesday against Villa passing was a huge problem and at times definitely had that deer in the headlights look, but on Thursday the Colonels put together a much more cohesive game. Both Ludlow and Villa are of similar talent levels in my opinion. Villa serves and passes better, while Ludlow hits better. They won't play again till later in the season but I'd give the edge to Villa. The first two sets began with a close back and forth before Dixie was able to pull ahead at the end, winning 25-19, and 25-17. In the third set Dixie put its foot to the floor and closed out the night in convincing fashion, 25-10. Fr. Leah Metzger led the Colonels with 16 kills and 9 digs. Sr. Kylee Fowee had 6 digs and 7 Aces.

I'd be a fool to say that Dixie's problems will be fixed this season... I do think they will salvage a bad year and come in 1st or 2nd at the District Tourney and advance to Regionals. Passing is our Achilles heal at the moment. Eventually Matt Long will find or make a few adequate passers for us to be successful.

Polo..... This happened before Metzger, Long, and Coach Long (no relation), got to Dixie. I don't see it repeating very often in the near future. Dixie's problem at the moment is passing... once that passes everything will be alright.