I recently spoke with a Division I college basketball official about the 'zero tolerance' policy toward complaints to officials. His reply, "you go to Syracuse and give Jim Boeheim a technical foul, and you're never coming back again." I remarked, "In other words, you're cutting your own throat." He answered, "exactly". More later.
Melrose blasted out of the gate with a 10-0 run. A combination of Jill Slabacheski aces, front row blocking by Rachel Johnson, and good passing gave them the edge. Stoneham's formidable Andrew Viselli took a time out and the Spartans rallied, taking three of four points, then taking away the momentum. Melrose won the opener 25-12 with only only six kills and one service error.
Set two was mostly Stoneham, as they tied the game at 2, 4, and 5 and took the lead permanently at six. Melrose went ice cold defensively with a series of defensive errors and the Senior Night revelers when up 14-7 and 20-12. As the game wound down, Stoneham seemed to tighten up, as their hits often found the net or out of bounds, as their young outside hitters' inconsistency showed. With the score 24-16, Melrose ran off six consecutive points to narrow it to 24-22. Stoneham then closed it out. Melrose had a pair of points taken away by the officials on very questionable judgments, but Stoneham deserved to win the game. Melrose had only seven kills.
Melrose had seized the initiative and energy for game 3. Melrose trailed 2-1, but rallied to 4-1, JNJ style, with Johnson & Johnson kills by Rachel (above). They went on a 11-1 rampage with good attacking offense, three kills for Sarah McGowan and one apiece for Athena Ziavras and improving Kayla Wyland who blocked very well up front. Stoneham struck back for four consecutive points, but then Melrose went on another seven point run to go up 21-8 into put away mode. Melrose had a dozen kills in the stanza, a lone service error, and five kills for Sarah and three for Rachel.
The Lady Raiders removed all doubt with an opening 8-1 salvo in game four. Game three appeared to take the air out of the Stoneham bubble, but the hosts rallied back to trail 11-7, as Melrose's offense went cold. But Melrose then ran out another 7-2 run to take a doubling 18-9 advantage. Down the stretch, it was more Rachel as she had four kills and an equal number of blocks in the final seven points.
Game analysis: This Tennyson quote comes to mind, "that which we are, we are, and if we are to be any better, now is the time to begin."
I will use a mathematical baseball analogy. Historically, the mean average of hitters is about .260, with a standard deviation varying. To have a .400 hitter, then you needed a seven standard deviation performance if one SD is twenty, which is highly difficult. As a system (e.g. volleyball teaching) improves, the standard deviation falls, making outlier performance less variable. As the broader level of play eventually improves, the difference between teams narrows. In other words, if you could continually improve all teams (in a system), then the differences among them would narrow.
If we were to break volleyball into component 'competencies', then we could list strengths and weaknesses.
- Serving: percentage in, service aces
- Serve receive (assess passing into zones, free balls)
- Blocking
- Digging
- Setting
- Passing
- Attacking (attack efficiency, attack errors)
- Team coordination
We could additionally break them down by not only 'strength', including maximal performance, efficiency, and consistency. That's what coaches do, but in a more 'gestalt' fashion, as they try to reposition their players' skills along the distribution...understanding that skills are non-Gaussian.
Melrose needed more "aggressive attacks", better first passes, and more consistent blocking. Better first passes occurred with Alyssa's full-time defense at libero. Sarah McGowan (above) provides more 'conscience-free' attacking and Kayla Wyland brings length and basketball-translated aggressiveness to the front row.
Overall, Melrose continued the 'trajectory' of improvement needed to enhance success short, intermediate, and long-term. There's still plenty of room for gains, but unquestionably, the overall play has moved along the continuum.
Brooke Bell made the highlight play of the season today, sprawling to dig a tip, and simultaneously tipping it to Sarah who finished the play at the net.
Seldom is volleyball officiating a decider of the game, let alone noticeable. The officiating DID NOT affect the outcome of the match in any way, but was the worst of any volleyball game I have seen all year as far as the number of "easy" calls missed. Missed calls impact not only the score but in-game momentum, that can be critical. Watch the tape on MMTV next week. Maybe the speed of the game outpaced the officials' vision.
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