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Mikey

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interview with Coach Crouch about moving family and how the AU family rallied around them upon arrival.  Talks about practice schedule and also about arrival of a 6'4' middle blocker from overseas.  I understand a fall schedule will begin on Oct 24.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...




  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/25/2020 at 1:10 PM, blakem said:

Does anyone know who the player is?

AUBURN, Ala. – Head coach Brent Crouch announced the addition of a pair of middle blockers, true freshman Lily Sumner and international transfer Elif Su Yavuz, for the 2020 volleyball season.

"Lily and F-Su both will shore up our group of middle blockers," Crouch said. "After working with Lily in practice the past month, she has displayed an elite ability to learn. She gets things fast! Already, I see her potentially seeing time as a server. As a transfer, F-Su has already played high level volleyball in Turkey. We expect her to compete for playing time as a middle right away. Both student-athletes are world-class people, too, and will contribute positively to the new practice culture that we are building her at Auburn."

Auburn opens the 2020 fall season on Oct. 21 against Florida inside Auburn Arena. First serve on the SEC Network is set for 7 p.m. CT.

LILY SUMNER
Hometown: Indianapolis, Ind.
High School: Park Tudor School
Club: Munciana
Height: 6-0
Year: Freshman

HIGHLIGHTS: Lettered four seasons at Park Tudor School … recorded over 1,200 kills during her career and averaged 5.0 kills per set … selected the team's most valuable player over all four varsity seasons … three-time all-conference, all-county and all-district selection … selected the conference player of the year over three consecutive seasons … three-time all-state selection, earning two first-team honors … selected offensive player of the year as a senior … an academic all-state selection … named a captain over her senior season … honored as the Park Tudor Crown Award winner, the highest award given to a student-athlete … ranked second in the state with 541 kills as a junior, averaging 6.0 kills per set … American Family Insurance Indiana IndyStar Player of the Week (Aug. 21-26) during junior campaign … won the conference championship her junior season … competed for Munciana club team, finishing runner-up at the 2019 18 Premier AAU.

ELIF SU YAVUZ
Hometown: Ankara, Turkey
High School: Ankara Maya Anadolu
Club: Halkbank SK. | Ted College SK.
Height: 6-3
Year: Junior

HIGHLIGHTS: Competed her freshman and sophomore seasons at Gazi University … Attended Ankara Maya Anadolu High School ... Competed for Halkbank SK. and Ted College SK. club programs.


 

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Article from AU Athletics site.  Mentions more aggressive play and growing pains.  Am I correct that there will be no fan admission?  

https://auburntigers.com/news/2020/10/12/auburn-volleyball-to-showcase-aggressive-style-under-first-year-coach-brent-crouch.aspx

 

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I like what he is trying to do, but this will be a big change and may not show results for a while. I also think the style will help recruiting down the road.

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I’m glad we finally made the change. I’ve watched a good bit of AU VB, but the past year or two was just too hard to watch.

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53 minutes ago, auburnphan said:

I am excited to see where he takes the program.  Greatest potential to be the next breakout sport at Auburn.  

Hope you are right.  I believe we get to see them on TV tomorrow night.  Since we are playing one of the top SEC teams it may not be a fair comparison at this early stage.  I would just like to see good effort, and minimal errors.  Make your opponent beat you; don't beat yourself.

According to this article there will be limited fans allowed: https://auburntigers.com/news/2020/10/19/auburn-volleyball-announces-attendance-safety-protocols.aspx

Edited by slot canyon
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Got smoked twice by UF but that's to be expected. Tough start but need to put that behind them and compete where they can as Brent is going to need time to build the cupboard.

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AU did seem to improve in the second match last night in terms in scoring more points and big reduction in errors. No doubt the Gators are a far superior team.   Our next match with SC may be our best chance to win a set or match.  We were picked SEC preseason to finish last at 13.  SC tied for 7 with Vols (who we play Nov 18).  Unfortunately, we play Kentucky Nov 7 the preseason #1.  I believe we have a couple of players out with injury.  I suppose looking at "baby steps", we need to win a set first and build on that.  

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i did not get to watch the two matches with South Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday but reading from the AU site it sounds as though we were "competitive"  in the second match and actually won the second set 25 - 21 (lost match 3-1).  Apparently, they had a AU record number of blocks for a 4 set match with 17.  In the first match on Wednesday AU lost with set point totals of 15-16-20.  Glad to see the team win a set and  play with some grit in the second match.  We will be way over matched in next game with Kentucky but currently, the objective is to continue to improve.

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  • 2 weeks later...
10 hours ago, jared52 said:

Man, I knew the new coach had his work cut out but only winning 1 set in the first 5 matches is something else.

Our conference record last year was 1 - 17.  Of the 18 matches played we were 0 - 3 in 12 of those matches.  Kentucky and Florida were picked preseason #1 and #2  so not exactly the teams you would like to play if you are trying to build some confidence. AU was picked last in preseason.  Our final match will be against the Vols who are 2-4.  If we could win a set I would consider it progress.  Yes we clearly have a lot of work to do.  

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16 minutes ago, slot canyon said:

Our conference record last year was 1 - 17.  Of the 18 matches played we were 0 - 3 in 12 of those matches.  Kentucky and Florida were picked preseason #1 and #2  so not exactly the teams you would like to play if you are trying to build some confidence. AU was picked last in preseason.  Our final match will be against the Vols who are 2-4.  If we could win a set I would consider it progress.  Yes we clearly have a lot of work to do.  

Yeah, I’m not expecting much this year. I really enjoy good volleyball and would love for AU to play good volleyball. 

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  • 1 month later...
6 hours ago, blakem said:

Ok I just started looking into this but our 2022 class for volleyball is stacked!! Crouch and his staff are already elevating the program!

How can you tell? What does one compare them too, when looking at volleyball recruiting compared to our past recruits and signees?

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Surprised none of the signees were from California...since he coached there, I'd assumed his contacts would have sent some here....we need some taller 'gals' at the net...6'0 and under won't get it in our league....I hope the 4 he signed make a positive impact for Auburn and they each enjoy their time playing and earning a degree...

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2 hours ago, tigerman1186 said:

Surprised none of the signees were from California...since he coached there, I'd assumed his contacts would have sent some here....we need some taller 'gals' at the net...6'0 and under won't get it in our league....I hope the 4 he signed make a positive impact for Auburn and they each enjoy their time playing and earning a degree...

I don't actually know but these may have been players recruited by previous staff who had committed to AU.  It would look bad for the university to turn their back on these players they had recruited.  I suspect the next class will be more his recruits.  He has been the HC since January.  I don't actually know if this is the case, but that's my take on it.

Here is a copy of something I posted 12/24/2019.  Some insight into recruiting areas.

Maybe a continuation of some of the observations in my post above.  Looking at the top 25 D1 teams at years end they are spread all over the country.  If there is any concentration I would say it is in the large state of Texas where 4 teams are represented; Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M. and Rice.  Otherwise there is quite a scattering of top 25 ranked teams (including Hawaii).  Looked for top VB producing states and will include a couple of paragraphs from 2015 MaxPreps article Toughest States to Win High School Volleyball State Title.  

"One reason it has become so difficult to win high school volleyball state titles in California, Kentucky, Texas and Indiana is because of parity. Another is the year-round club impact that is creating more talent and experience at an earlier age.
According to the MaxPreps Computer Rankings presented by the Army National Guard, 18 of the Top 25 teams come from California (six), Texas (seven), Indiana (three) and Kentucky (two). In the Top 50, 31 are from those states. And in the Top 100, more than half (58) come from Texas, California, Kentucky and Indiana. It simply doesn't get more challenging than that."

Although being tall would not be the only attribute of a good VB net player we could probably agree there is some advantage to being the one breathing the thinnest air.  I noticed that Stanford had  2 players listed at 6'6" and another at 6'5".  Their star outside hitter Plummer at 6'6" had 22 kills during their domination of Baylor in the championship game.  The Baylor roster listed  6'6" and 6'4" players.  Closer to home the #10 Gators have players listed 6'6", 6'7" and 6'8".  Auburn's two tallest listed players were a couple of outside hitters @ 6' and 6'4".  It would also be helpful to have a lot of fast twitch fibers, explosive jumping and good court vision.

Looked at April 2019 article from Volleyball Mag.com they had ranking to top 50 recruited high school players.  Some of the text follows: " And as usual two of the biggest states in the land, Texas and California, landed the most players on the list. The Lone Star State led with nine entries on the Fab 50, while California was right behind with eight."  " Stanford had the most Fab 50 recruits this time around with five, with Purdue, Ohio State, Nebraska and Oregon coming in strong with three each. Will these four find their way to the top of the VolleyballMag.com women’s recruiting class rankings that will follow in several weeks? Stay tuned."

Seems it would be an advantage for a coach to have a recruiting connection with the above noted states and a reputation of developing  talent to compete at the highest level. I don't know that AU can pull in a top tier coach.  May have to take a chance on someone who has shown promise at some lower level.  I would be satisfied with steady progress in that case.   

Edited by slot canyon
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I believe most of the 2022 commits are his:

Sarah Morton

Akasha Anderson

Kendal Kemp

Madison Scheer

Isabel Zimmerman

Note:There may be more but this is all of them that I am aware of.

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6 minutes ago, blakem said:

I believe most of the 2022 commits are his:

Sarah Morton

Akasha Anderson

Kendal Kemp

Madison Scheer

Isabel Zimmerman

Note:There may be more but this is all of them that I am aware of.

Also another thing is that Akasha, Kendal, and Sarah all have/do play with USA teams and play with girls committed to big volleyball schools like Nebraska and Minnesota.

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14 hours ago, blakem said:

I believe most of the 2022 commits are his:

Sarah Morton

Akasha Anderson

Kendal Kemp

Madison Scheer

Isabel Zimmerman

Note:There may be more but this is all of them that I am aware of.

Thanks for this.  Where was this info available?  I randomly looked up Zimmerman and find I am already a fan.  The video and bio have put me in her camp.

https://www.ncsasports.org/womens-volleyball-recruiting/missouri/liberty/liberty-north-high-school1/isabel-zimmerman

Image

Edited by slot canyon
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Just a tad on the players listed per blakem.

Sarah Morton from Indiana.  5' 6" Libero

Akasha Anderson from Virginia 6' 3" OH

Kendal Kemp from MN 6' 6" MH

Madison Scheer from MO.  6' 1" OH 

Isabel Zimerman from MO.  6' 1" OH

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7 hours ago, slot canyon said:

Thanks for this.  Where was this info available?  I randomly looked up Zimmerman and find I am already a fan.  The video and bio have put me in her camp.

https://www.ncsasports.org/womens-volleyball-recruiting/missouri/liberty/liberty-north-high-school1/isabel-zimmerman

Image

I just found all this info out through Instagram bios. I’ve also watched some YouTube videos on the players and looks like AHC Alex Dunphy is a GREAT recruiter.

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