Volleyball beats Stanford, To Elite 8

Submitted by formerlyanonymous on

The #13 seed Michigan defeated #4 seed Stanford tonight in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Volleyball tournament. Michigan won in 4 sets by scores 25-18, 23-25, 25-22, and 25-11. Michigan came out with their highest focus level all season and it showed.

In set one, Michigan's big players, Alex Hunt, Juliana Paz, Veronica Rood, and Lexi Zimmerman all came out on fire. Michigan registered only one hitting error with a hitting percentage of almost .535. Hitting percentages are like batting averages in baseball. A .333 percentage is very good. .535 is unreal. We did it.

We had balance on offense. Hunt was surgical on the outside. She cut blocks right and left.  Paz was powerful, blowing through blocks for kills. Veronica Rood got the attention from Lexi that she should, providing a distraction for the Stanford blockers, opening up the outside. Lexi was perfect on the set, but she was also a force on the block. The first set was only close because Michigan was pushing hard on the serve, leading to 4 extra Stanford points.

In the second set, Michigan jumped out to an early lead of 5-2, but Stanford came back to tie the game at 8. Stanford got their block going, especially on Hunt, but Michigan managed to slowly cut the lead down and even tie the game at 23. Down 23-24, Michigan let a serve by that looked to be out. It was ruled to have landed on the line and Michigan lost the set. The call was close, and that play ended up being the difference.

Set three saw Michigan return to dominating. Michigan had two different 7 point leads in the set, mainly thanks to a couple of runs by Rood and Hunt. Stanford managed to bring the game back to a one point Michigan lead at 20-19, but when Rood rotated back into the front, it was set over. Michigan pulled away and won.

Set four was all Michigan. Stanford's wheels began to fall off as they had back to back serve receive errors against both Paz and Donhoff. They never really got "in system", meaning they never were able to get into a normal bump-set-spike rhythm. Michigan steam rolled over the Cardinal to open the set 16-3. From that point, Michigan traded off points to the final 25-11 score.

Bullets:

  • Lexi Zimmerman was great all night. Her sets were crisp and clean. Her blocks were timely and huge (I think she had more than the 2 assist listed in the gametracker). She did a great job of mixing the sets. She incorporated everyone in the game plan and didn't force too many 2's (quick hits by the setter instead of actually setting the ball to another player). Lexi has forced a lot of 2's lately, and today she definitely let Rood/Bower be the change of pace attacks.
  • Alex Hunt's hitting from the left side won the match for Michigan. In the first and third sets, she was splitting blocks, pinpointing her hits to go off the block, and just smashing the ball. Her 18 kills lead the team
  • Juliana Paz had a great night with 15 kills, 3 service aces, and a solo block. Despite these numbers, Paz really wasn't a huge part of the game. Her .250 hitting percentage was lowest of the major contributors, and might have overshadowed just how good she played. The two service errors also looked pretty bad, but those happen.
  • Veronica Rood needs to be cloned. With middle blockers, you almost always have two of them in your rotation at any time. This way, you have one in the front at all times (the other is usually subbed out by the libero). When Rood is in the game, Michigan can't be stopped offensively. Rood's blocking on the season isn't quite as impressive as most other middle blockers in the BigTen, but her offense is top of the line. Her quick hits (zero sets) and her slide/cutting hits when she moves to her right then hits are money every time.
  • Megan Bower, like Paz, had a quiet set of kills as well. Bower totaled 9 on 17 attempts for a .471, but her bigger contribution was a change of pace in set 3. After Stanford really started to key in on Hunt and Paz, and with Rood subbed out on the back row, Bower had a strong kill from the opposite side that helped get Rood back into the front row quicker. That was a big swing in the game.
  • Karlee Bruck really struggled in this game. She had 3 kills and 3 hitting errors in 15 attempts for a .000 percentage. She seemed a bit slow to the block (but registered 2 block assists) and was also off on her attacks. She did do really well on a couple of one-on-one plays at the net where the ball came down up for grabs.
  • Sloane Donhoff and Maggie Busch both played excellent defense today and contributed quite a bit at the line. Donhoff had 4 service aces (2 errors) and Busch had an ace (1 error) from the serving line.

With the win, Michigan advances to the Elite Eight and will play the Hawaii Wahine tomorrow night (11:30pm ET) in Palo Alto. Earlier today, the Wahine defeated an Illinois team that finished ahead of Michigan in the BigTen. Illinois looked flat, but Hawaii did what they were supposed to do and didn't make errors.

Hawaii appears to be a team very much like Michigan in that they are aggressive, focus on their serving game, and rely on a pair of hitters. This should be a really good, really tight game. Hawaii is a power program in the WAC, comparable to Boise State in football, but with a much longer track record of success in the NCAA tournament.

I'll update this with media information as I get it. I think the game will be streamed again, but I'm not sure.

Go Blue, Beat the Wahine.

I love that there was already a "Stanford Sucks" tag.

Comments

redwings8831

December 12th, 2009 at 1:10 AM ^

Great win!! According to the bracket on ncaa.com, all four of the elite eight matches will be on ESPNU, beginning at 4 EST with Penn State and ending with us at 11:30 EST.

Big E

December 12th, 2009 at 1:14 AM ^

Lexi owned Stanford's middle blockers all night. They seemed confused and were always late in closing their blocks. She really makes Hunt and Paz so hard to stop on the outside. While Bruck's statistics weren't all that great, I think she still had a solid match. Some of the battles she won at the net seemed to come in key spots, and really helped Michigan maintain the momentum.

Is it just me, or does it seem like the Michigan block has gotten very good, in a big hurry? All season, it seemed like they couldn't block anyone, and now they seem to be getting key blocks at great times.

All in all, a great match. So happy with the way they played tonite. I hope they've got another big match in them tomorrow for Hawaii.

By the way, at the end of the stream, the (horrible) announcers mentioned there will be no streaming tomorrow, only the TV broadcast on ESPNU at 11:30 EST.

GO BLUE -- BEAT THE RAINBOW WAHINE!

VictorsValiant09

December 12th, 2009 at 3:35 AM ^

I really started following Volleyball last year (my senior year), and now this year.

This team has the coaching, the talent, and has battled all year long. They seem to have just the right amount of chemistry to beat anyone.

We took PSU to five sets. No one had even won one against them all year. But we also had some really bad losses at PSU, and at Ohio State. Those seem to be flushed out of the system now.

Can't wait for the match tomorrow.

Go Blue!

jamiemac

December 12th, 2009 at 9:45 AM ^

Love it......looks like I will brewing some coffee tonight

Love the coverage. great stuff FA. i wonder if this shouldnt be on the front page, however? But, its not like the diary is hard to find or figure out what its about.

Wide Open

December 12th, 2009 at 9:49 AM ^

Stanford sucks. It is the fact of the universe. Why ask why?

Meanwhile, PSU is up to a 99-match winning streak. If we ended their streak in the Final Four I could finally have a reason to cackle with knowing glee.

Michichick

December 12th, 2009 at 11:52 AM ^

I was at Cliff Keen last weekend for the opening rounds. I was concerned about playing Stanford, after Michigan had come out flat and Ohio U. won the first 2 and took us to 5 games. But Michigan looked fantastic last night, almost like a different team. They were all over the floor. The intensity on defense was as good or better than it has been all year, and the offense was spectacular, as FA has well summarized.

Michichick

December 12th, 2009 at 11:51 AM ^

Illinois (#5 seed) beat Michigan twice this season in conference play. Hawai'i will probably be out for some revenge, too. The last time the teams met, our unranked Wolverines beat #10 ranked Hawai'i in the opening match of their 2007 Rainbow Wahine Invitational in Honolulu, which we went on to win.

UM has had a decent season in the best volleyball conference in the country to get ready for the tourney, while Hawai'i swept the WAC regular season schedule and conference tourney. Explains why despite its 30-2 record, UH is the #12 seed in the NCAA Tournament. UH did beat seeded UCLA and Stanford this year, but lost to Cal (#9 seed) and Texas (#2 seed), both of whom are playing for regional championships tonight. Should be a great match.

GO BLUE!