I am an OU VB fan through and through but I believe one game may expose a better coach. Thus far I had bit my tongue (or finger) when I saw all the previous posts about last Sunday's loss. I was amazed at how quick some fans were to throw the girls under the bus for the loss. I don't believe I saw any posts questioning whether we were frankly just out-coached. If you look at the stats we hit sooooo much better than Western, but they still won. Did anybody see our service errors? 13!! Ouch...way too much in a match that is won by a point here and there. Coaches tell the girls what to serve. Shouldn't they have told them to serve more conservatively when we started racking up the errors? Also, when Western started to build the momentum and roared back winning two sets in a row, did our coach call any unique plays, bring in subs, mix anything up? Nope...we just kept setting the same kids over and over and doing the same things we did all season which although it had previously worked was not/is not going to work against a team that has studied us. Good coaches are going to scout us, figure out our weaknesses (yes...we have them, just like every team) and use that to our disadvantage. In turn, our coaching staff has to adjust to the other team during a match which we did not last Sunday. Dean inherited a GREAT group of girls. No question that he lead that team during the regular season to a 16-0 season...but I'm sure the other coaches in the MAC who have played against OU over the last couple of years probably wondered how much of our success was coaching and how much was these incredibly talented players.

How generous of you not to question facts. And could you share some more of your insight? You know how coaches think; that's valuable.

Why didn't he coach them to hit the ball *in*?

I'll have to take your word for that, I guess. The errors seemed to be a problem throughout the match, not just the last three sets. I just can't believe that the layers are being forced to serve where they are not effective. Has this not been a problem during the season as well? Haven't kept up with that. It's hard for me that any coach would require his players to keep serving to places that they can't do well.

We averaged 2.46 service errors per set for the season so in a 5 set match like the semis, 13 errors are less than one above the average. There is more to serving than location. By nature of the aggressiveness of a serve - jump vs. floater, there will be more errors by your aggressive servers. The stats clearly bear that out. Regardless, one more kill or one more block and we're not even having this conversation - that's how close this match was.

I really didn't think 13 service errors in a five-set match sounded like that many, and it seems the stats show that it is actually pretty typical. What was incredible was that Western Michigan only had two.

Totally agree Andrew.

16-0 in conference. When is the last time someone did that? I do not even think the Shondell tree accomplished that with the Ball State teams of the 80's and 90's. That is an accomplishment that got swept under the rugs by some shills who can't freeking think. UNDEFEATED in conference. In your first year. That is insane. WHo does that? After dealing with the some personnel changes and revamping the progam and introducing changes to the system yet still ends up perfect in conference. How is that not the COach of the YEar in the MAC. What a short sighted bunch of voters. Who are these idiots and what are they thinking. Just shows how stupid this conference is and how meaningless the awards they give out actually are.

sent to Phil Burwell, Director of Media Relations for the MAC (pburwell@mac-sports.com):

Mr. Burwell,

Maybe you can pass this on to those voting on the MAC volleyball coach of the year since it's not clear who to contact.

Please, tell them that from now on, just give the award to the coach who wins the tourney because that's what they did. Doesn't matter about the rest of the season. Give Colleen Munson credit for a cinderella weekend but one weekend does not make for a full season of play. Her team was a 5th seed. A new coach, Deane Webb, who had a few major holes to fill, found the answers and goes undefeated during the season. What a joke! Was it politics or stupidity or both? Check out the Ohio volleyball message board to see how upset people are and what they think of the unfairness from the MAC.

(it will probably blow his mind that there actually is a volleyball message board, given how clueless the MAC is about so many things)

"Angry parent" alert ... ha ha. If the "angry mob" (all of the hand-wringing re: COY result) showed as much compassion for the kids on the floor, this would be a better board (to be clear, many messages are positive). Point in fact, the NCAA tournament committee did not appear to be swayed by a 16-0 MAC regular season result -- but the MAC coaches should have been (?)

The MAC coaches vote on the Coach of the Year award. To direct your ire to the MAC conference media contact is silly and needless. FACT: Cats went 16-0 during regular season. FACT: Cats earned (deservedly) following MAC awards for said result: Player of Year, Setter of Yr, Defensive POY, 1st Team OH, 1st Team MH, All-Freshman Team - coupled with a solid bench/group of specialist(s). Maybe, just maybe, the other MAC coaches offered a vote reflective of 1) being jealous of OU's on-court success, 2) Cats' on-court talent (best OU team ever? ... as mentioned on this board at times), 3) Webb inheriting a "full" cupboard (see "envy") or 4) the MAC's best team losing a home court match (up 2-0) to a team they beat 3-0 weeks earlier.

Regardless, Webb will have more chances to win the mythical award; and a MAC tourney title would be a good place to start -- with his recruits, system, etc. Without question, a MAC tourney title (to validate the perfect regular season) would have earned Webb the COY ... and more importantly, the Cats another trip to the NCAA tournament.