AUSTIN, Texas — One of many pillars of First Level Volleyball Basis is introducing the most effective collegiate gamers to youth gamers. The annual First Level Collegiate Problem serves because the centerpiece for that endeavor, and followers in attendance for the occasion’s opening match Friday have been handled to 2 gamers on each ends of the spectrum: One a longtime All-American, and one a freshman who has the makings of a future famous person.
No. 13 USC of the MPSF received 21-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-21 and raised its report to 5-0 by defeating No. 14 Ball State (7-3) of the MIVA behind Wes Smith, 6-foot-10 freshman center from Encinitas, California, who has the physique of a robust security.
Ball State had some excellent news regardless of the loss, the return of 6-6 junior outdoors hitter Tinaishe Ndvazocheva. The native of Zimbabwe and 2023 honorable-mention AVCA All-American missed the Cardinals’ first 9 matches for undisclosed causes.
Saturday within the Austin Conference Middle, Ohio State performs USC at 1:30 Central, Stanford performs Ball State at 4 and UCLA performs Penn State at 6:30.
Smith, the cornerstone of a extremely touted USC freshman class, had 13 kills, hitting .579, and 4 blocks and a dig. Fellow freshman Caleb Blanchette, a 6-5 setter from Brentwood, Tennesssee, dished out 38 assists and had two blocks and three digs.
Ninth-year USC coach Jeff Nygaard stated Smith exhibits one thing completely different each time he steps on the court docket.
“He’s clearly a giant, bodily presence,” Nygaard stated. “He’s anyone that the opposite staff has to concentrate to. If our ball management places us in a scenario the place we are able to use him, different groups’ block has to concentrate to him.
“ … However now he’s including relentless defensive effort. He’s digging balls, he’s taking part in balls out of the web, he’s point-scoring from the service line. He’s studying and including volleyball worth at each flip. He simply continues to get higher and higher day-after-day.”
And, to make certain, Smith has loads of assist. The Trojans hit a tidy .317, and quite a lot of gamers acquired in on the enjoyable. Sophomore outdoors hitter Dillon Klein had 11 kills, an help, an ace, seven digs and three blocks. Senior center Kyle Paulson contributed 9 kills and eight blocks, one solo, and junior reverse Jack Deuchar additionally had 9 kills, three blocks and 7 digs.
USC held a 15-9 blocks benefit.
“We acquired some warmth from the center,” he stated. “We have been capable of finding them, and so they acquired the job completed for us, and I liked that a part of the sport.”
What Nygaard didn’t love was the primary set. Ball State, the Trojans’ hardest opponent so far, acquired forward by as many as 5 within the first set, and although USC rallied to tie the rating at 20-20, The Cardinals took 5 of the ultimate six factors.
USC recovered after that, and Nygaard was happy that his staff acquired stronger because the match wore on.
“I believed their (Ball State’s) sport, the type they performed was one thing we weren’t ready for or we needed to adapt to,” Nygaard stated. “We needed to make some blocking changes, which our guys responded to, executed at a excessive stage and we performed some gritty volleyball.
“It offers us confidence that we are able to see a staff that we would not know the whole lot they do or we are able to go in and simply have an open thoughts after which actually slim into, ‘Oh, that is what they’re attempting to do.’ Gaining confidence that the coaches could make game-time selections and the blokes can go on the market and know what to do in actual time and skim and react to the sport, that’s an actual good factor to have.”
USC may need been the winner, however Ndavazocheva was the star of the present, getting 23 kills (hitting .326) to go together with all six of Ball State’s aces, two blocks and 5 digs. He completed off USC within the first set with kills on two of the ultimate three factors, then helped the Cardinals get again into the third set with three consecutive aces to shrink a four-point deficit to 18-17.
“I feel he opens up the court docket rather a lot,” coach Donan Cruz stated. “I believed USC did job sort of beginning to key on him within the second a part of the match. However he’s so dynamic which you could get him balls in numerous conditions, and he does job scoring.”
Mentioned Ndavazocheva: “(My sport) has improved rather a lot … Within the USA, they’re so good at educating abilities. My coach, Donan, is so good at being particular with ability: hip actions, chin actions in passing. I didn’t know something about that. So I can say the ability side has actually improved.”
Sophomore outdoors hitter Patrick Rogers contributed 11 kills, however 10 errors, an help, a block and eight digs.
“We struggled to make good performs on the proper time,” Cruz stated. “Small, little errors in set two that I believed might have modified the entire momentum, and if we win set 2, possibly we’re out of there in three.
“As a substitute, we give USC an opportunity to sort of construct some momentum. And kudos to them. They sort of rode that wave of momentum and didn’t look again.”
Nonetheless, Cruz noticed rather a lot that inspired him, and he hopes extra of these traits present up in Saturday’s match towards Stanford.
“Even with that, which I might possibly grade our volleyball a ‘C’ at greatest right now, and we solely had an eight-point (mixture) differential,” Cruz stated. “That staff performed one in all its higher matches, I feel, and we solely misplaced in whole factors by eight. That’s acquired to be our constructive there.”
