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SEC VB outlook...
Posted on: September 19, 2023 at 12:38:28 CT
bluetiger_ MU
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With conference play starting tomorrow, a few observations:
Seems like the conference is breaking down into 3 tiers:
Tier 1: Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Auburn
Tier 2: Auburn, TAMU, Georgia and LSU
Tier 3: Ole Miss, Miss St, SC and Alabama
Yes, I left Mizzou off on purpose. Don’t have a handle yet on where we will end up. We are somewhere in between tier 2 and tier 3, is my prediction.
We are 8-3, have shown some good resilience, but there are obvious concerns. Lowlights were getting swept 3-0 by both Buffalo and Eastern Illinois. We also scratched out 5 set wins over Central Arkansas, Colgate, and Xavier. None of those team are remotely close to the top 35-40 teams in the country, so a glass half empty guy would say we could easily be 5-6 at this point instead of 8-3.
The only real test we had was #5 Louisville, and I thought that match was encouraging in some ways. Got blown out in set 1, but improved in each set after that, when we could have just folded against a far better team. Respectable in a 25-20 set 2 loss, then could have should have won set 3, which we lost 26-24.
I’ll be disappointed if we don’t finish above the 4 tier 3 teams in SEC play, so, at least 9th in the conference. Question is, can we finish above one or two of the tier 2 teams. LSU has struggled so far, but has played a decent schedule (far tougher than ours), split 3-2 matches with RV UCLA; lost 3-0 matches to #11 Creighton, RV SMU, and a good Northern Iowa team; and had an inexplicable 3-1 home loss to SE LA.
Georgia has a monster 3-1 win on the road at #13 Georgia Tech, but lost 3-1 to unranked San Diego, 3-0 to unranked FSU, and 3-0 to RV TCU. TAMU is 8-2, lost to #20 Houston and RV TCU, but beat a decent Northern Iowa team 3-0. Auburn is 10-1 against a fairly easy schedule, beat RV SMU, but lost at home to MTSU.
My head tells me finishing ahead of Georgia, TAMU, Auburn or LSU is a step too far this year, LSU is the most likely. Hope they prove me wrong.
Seems like the conference is breaking down into 3 tiers:
Tier 1: Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Auburn
Tier 2: Auburn, TAMU, Georgia and LSU
Tier 3: Ole Miss, Miss St, SC and Alabama
Yes, I left Mizzou off on purpose. Don’t have a handle yet on where we will end up. We are somewhere in between tier 2 and tier 3, is my prediction.
We are 8-3, have shown some good resilience, but there are obvious concerns. Lowlights were getting swept 3-0 by both Buffalo and Eastern Illinois. We also scratched out 5 set wins over Central Arkansas, Colgate, and Xavier. None of those team are remotely close to the top 35-40 teams in the country, so a glass half empty guy would say we could easily be 5-6 at this point instead of 8-3.
The only real test we had was #5 Louisville, and I thought that match was encouraging in some ways. Got blown out in set 1, but improved in each set after that, when we could have just folded against a far better team. Respectable in a 25-20 set 2 loss, then could have should have won set 3, which we lost 26-24.
I’ll be disappointed if we don’t finish above the 4 tier 3 teams in SEC play, so, at least 9th in the conference. Question is, can we finish above one or two of the tier 2 teams. LSU has struggled so far, but has played a decent schedule (far tougher than ours), split 3-2 matches with RV UCLA; lost 3-0 matches to #11 Creighton, RV SMU, and a good Northern Iowa team; and had an inexplicable 3-1 home loss to SE LA.
Georgia has a monster 3-1 win on the road at #13 Georgia Tech, but lost 3-1 to unranked San Diego, 3-0 to unranked FSU, and 3-0 to RV TCU. TAMU is 8-2, lost to #20 Houston and RV TCU, but beat a decent Northern Iowa team 3-0. Auburn is 10-1 against a fairly easy schedule, beat RV SMU, but lost at home to MTSU.
My head tells me finishing ahead of Georgia, TAMU, Auburn or LSU is a step too far this year, LSU is the most likely. Hope they prove me wrong.
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SEC VB outlook... - bluetiger_ MU - 9/19 12:38:28