watched usc cal game. first set not very good as receiving and passing was terrible. they picked on leah and obvious why. serves to mostly leah all match. then it puts the setter in poor position and maeder is not a great setter anyway and the htters had a difficult time. second set was much better with in system passing. they only had 13 kills but 7 service aces out of their 10 total. usc helped with service errors as well. The third and fourth sets they stayed close but firepower of usc made it difficult. last set, cal only had one error on hitting, but again passing and setting made it difficult to get hitters good swings. maeder is ok as setter but sets were inconsistent even though she has been main setter. This match jensen set alot more than whole season. she is much better digging and serving but is only 5'8 and blocking suffers if she has to block. on good passing and setting, she will rotate to back. they never gave up. still playing hard. they are getting better with the three freshman playing alot and well. areas of improvement are receiving and passing and defending better. setting can be better but will need a new setter if maeder does not set more consistently. if they play like this may have a chance against ucla. I doubt playing more of cal's reserves will help them. seeing some of them last year and the senior and lefty player is ok. not better than the freshman that are now playing more. if cal can continue to improve through the rest of the season and get a couple of really good recruits, Sam may stay one more year. IMO hard to recruit an outstanding volleyball coach to Cal.. it would be a young outstanding potential assistant coach or established middle level head coach. we will see.

1-59 in our last 60 conference games.

CalFanatic said:

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1-59 in our last 60 conference games.

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make it 1-60. lost to oregon who is very very good. again receive passing was at times very poor. our freshmen middle blockers just a tad slow giving oregon one on one and setting was good but too many poor sets. and then oregon gets the ball and puts it away. virtually no quick middle sets dejardin the freshman OH is starting now and playing very well. she receives much better than leah. grote is playing very well. our defense other than tara desa needs to be better. our setter needs to really improve alot for next year. Cal has played alot better but oregon and stanford are so much better than rest of conference. both are top 10 nationally. i hoped Cal could get one set off oregon and will hope they can get one set off stanford this weekend. at least there is some light at the end of the tunnel, lest pretty dim. only one senior.

LodeBear said:

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CalFanatic said:

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1-59 in our last 60 conference games.

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make it 1-60. lost to oregon who is very very good. again receive passing was at times very poor. our freshmen middle blockers just a tad slow giving oregon one on one and setting was good but too many poor sets. and then oregon gets the ball and puts it away. virtually no quick middle sets dejardin the freshman OH is starting now and playing very well. she receives much better than leah. grote is playing very well. our defense other than tara desa needs to be better. our setter needs to really improve alot for next year. Cal has played alot better but oregon and stanford are so much better than rest of conference. both are top 10 nationally. i hoped Cal could get one set off oregon and will hope they can get one set off stanford this weekend. at least there is some light at the end of the tunnel, lest pretty dim. only one senior.

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Totally agree, LodeBear! Aside of DeSa, we need more consistent play from the defensive specialists and our setters. I have no idea how good a setter Lau is, but it might be an option to Maeder who can then be converted to a setter/opposite since she's a lefty.

I watched the replay of the September match against Stanford when Cal lost in straight sets (23-25, 21-25, and 22-25), but Cal was very competitive, Surprisingly, our serve receives and passing were good with Grote hitting .261, Taumoepeau hitting .412, and Schmidt playing 6 rotations. DeJardin was hurt and did not play. They even had Grote hitting from the back. After losing to Oregon State in full sets, the team's performance went south until they started to play better but lose in full sets in 5 straight matches.

Hopefully the two committed 2023 players OH 6'3" Ashley Li and Kansas #4 ranked MB 6'2" Sawyer Thomsen can contribute right away. Ashley Li and Sawyer Thomsen. In addition, we'd welcome walk-on defensive specialists.

LodeBear, I truly appreciate your thoughts, especially since my opinions are strictly that of a concerned fan. Have a Happy Thanksgiving with your ohana.

So, we go winless in the PAC 12. Either that coach is gone or we can definitely say there is something horribly wrong with the players, or the coach, or the AD, or all of them. I was not able to watch the match on tv, but am watching USC/UCLA now. Huge crowd on hand. How was CAL/evil side?

EastIsWest said:

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Note for our AD:

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we used when we created them."
-Albert Einstein


Coach Sam is 1-67 Since Nov 10 2019.

That 10-4 PAC12 start in 2019 was primarily with the players recruited and coached by Jenn Carey who got robbed by giving her job away to Sam.
After that first string of losses, team quit on coach Sam. At the first opportunity they transferred out. Six transferred with two years of eligibility left. Two more just disappeared from the roster. Assistant coach loved by everyone leaves the program. The players that stay, close down and endure until they graduate because of UCBerkely badge not because of love for the team or coach. It all shows on the court

With six transfers still at Cal, we win more than 1 game for sure. This year we probably have at least one on All Pac Team and one or two on All Freshman Team. We have some great new recruits - give them a coach they deserve.

Team is fine - the conference record is not

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Total
JC SC SC SC SC SC
Colorado 10-10 5-15 8-12 6-14 12-8 31-49
Arizona State 5-15 9-11 6-14 7-13 7-13 29-51
Arizona 11-9 5-15 10-11 8-12 6-14 29-52
*Oregon State* 2-18 3-17 5-13 3-17 2-18 13-65
California 7-13 10-10 1-21 0-20 0-20 11-71

* Coach to "retire" at the end of 2022


With the surprise cash surplus in Athletic Department budget, we can afford to let Sam go.
Jim Knowlton made his choice last time. I understand his thought process at the time and choosing Sam over Card's Assistant (who would've been much better fit with his meditation and zen philosophy) Which brings me back to the opening quote. We didn't get the winning coach we all thought we did -it's time to move on

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Mahalo for your informative post! I used to annually stop by the WVB office because of Jenn Carey who was the setter at Hawaii, which is my second favorite team. The last time happened to be in 2018 when she became the HC, but I haven't been back since because of the pandemic and my advanced age. Can you fill me in on your comments that I bolded? If you prefer, you can send me a DM. Following the Rainbow Wahine is presently my only salvation with the demise of Cal WVB, football, and MBB. Aloha!