Weekly Review: #10: Appetizers

#6 posting 10.26.2008
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WEEKLY REVIEW #10: Appetizers
This was another short week for viewing teams. I will be able to see more contests this week with my team out of action. The Henry Patriots ended their season with Fridley sweeping. The Henry season really didn't end until Saturday when the freshman team finished their tournament schedule by finishing third in the Minneapolis city tournament. This was an improvement over the start of the season. At the start of the year against Mpls. Southwest in the two sets Henry scored 3 points total. On Saturday vs SW in the first set Henry's freshmen got 6 of 8 FBSO's in one sequence.

As far as the tournaments leading up to the main event---the state tournament---most of the action centered around appetizers. The real meat and potatoes get underway on Tuesday. The matches I saw this week were lopsided affairs with the trends pointing to an early night.

There are no contests tomorrow that have been listed. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday are going to be chock full of meaningful match ups. More on that as the days approach.

NUMBERS THAT MATTER
What is more important? Going on the attack or not making mistakes?
In the last month the teams that I have charted that have earned 14 or more points (aces-blocks-kills) the record is 14-3 with a % of .824.
On defense, if a team allows 7.5 points (missed serves, miss hits, ball handling/violations) or less the record is 13-4 with a % of .765.
If a team manages to score 12 points or less the overall record is 0-12 .000.
If a team gives away 10 points or more the record is 0-4 .000.

TEAM OF THE WEEK
Prior Lake took down Buffalo on Tuesday and then beat #10 Eden Prairie on Friday. The Lakers slammed the door on the Bison with only one run of 3 or more points and a FBSO % of .741. Each set ended up as double digit wins. Only one rotation didn't crack the .600 mark. Five players had 7 or more points showing the diversity of their attack. And the Lakers use only one senior. Next on the menu for the Lakers is #1 and defending state champ Shakopee. PL has already faced the Sabers in the Missota conference and were swept by the Sabers on September 18. The Lakers record is 20-8. Oddly enough one of the losses for PL this year was to Stillwater, the other team I saw this week, in the Coon Rapids tournament.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Taylor Stippel of Stillwater gets the nod. The Pony senior had 15.5 points in the win over North St. Paul in the 4AAA quarterfinals. Stippel scored on all facets with good jumping ability for blocks, a solid serve, and quicks and slides for kills. Stippel is listed at 5-11 but jumps better than that.

The rest of the team:
RH Sami Kemper, Prior Lake
S Kayla Zeno, Stillwater
MH Taylor Stippel, Stillwater
MH Emily Holte, Prior Lake
OH Emily McDonough, Stillwater
OH Brittany Thompson, Prior Lake
L Katelyn Berens, Prior Lake

The fact is the matches I saw this week were pretty one sided. I am working off the top 50 list, and have 3 teams to see in the top 25 and 14 to go in the top 50. I won't get to all of them due to the schedules loading up on certain days.

Next up: tomorrow.