Ok, admittedly I may have somewhat of a bias because I 've watched my niece play against the older Krause many times in high school and club (almost always on the receiving end of a beating) and being she's a PA kid I like to see how she's doing. She always played hard and had great court vision as a setter. I thought she played well last year in in the beginning of the season and inexplicably her playing time diminished. This year she didn't play against North Carolina (which I thought was odd when things weren't going well with the folks that were on the floor) but played against Colorado and Stanford (which I watched) and I thought she was more than solid (especially in the Stanford match) against arguably the two best teams we played this year and the defense seemed to be much improved. Now she's disappeared again, playing limited points. I don't get it. It may be a coincidence, but it's as if the team plays better when she's on the court. Yet it seems she is on a really short leash.
I'll try here.
For the past few years that sub/back row role was saved for either a serving sub or more specifically a serving sub who has the skills to play in the 1 spot /setting/opposite defensive position. This is a position that players like Bryanna, Taylor, Abbie and Wilma have played and trained there whole career.
Due to lineup adjustments and needs in the passing game and the up/down play of our OH's passing/defense/hitting Coach Rose has realized he needs consistent help in the back row for not only defense but MORE importantly PASSING. This is why we see Keeton come in that sport everytime now for Heidi. She serves, plays defense and most importantly passes for 3 rotations and is doing a GREAT job at the last one which we need. None of the above options, Taylor, included have that skill set developed enough.
Lainy is also very similar to Keeton (skill set wise) and although she possesses a much better serve, she isn't as consistent,yet, as a passer. Therefore she is either coming in for Ali or Simone for serve, defense and passing.....but not as automatically as Keeton.
For now Keeton and Lainy seem to have locked up those roles - Keeton 100% of the time Lainy 25-100% for one of the OH's
That leaves ALL 8+ the DS's/back up setters to the role of once in awhile sub for either Ali or Simone (dependent on how the game or player is flowing or who Lainy is going in for) and usually for a brief stint.
If, however, we were to see a 6-2 at some point of the season then you would see both Abbie and Bryanna subbing and serving for an opposite (Heidi and
) and serving and playing back row exclusively.
That would change Keeton and Lainy exclusively to the OH's backrow sub role. If THAT happened you would see even less spot sub roles, imo. Those bench girls
aren't doing anything wrong its more about the needs of the team and lineup it seems we need to go with at this point.
But the players knew this going in.
Point is as we get into B1G play I expect far far less lineup manipulations. Ultimately our point scorers need to produce at a higher clip and much more consistently and the W's will be coming in much easier and cleaner.
again....semi-educated guess.
) and serving and playing back row exclusively.
