2024 PSU WVB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
What a comeback. PSU was reeling but turned things around to go up 2-1.
Slow start to set 4. IMO PSU is relying too heavily on Murzik. Get Hannah and Mendleson more involved.
Jurevicius has been good.
Jurevicius has been good.
Can anyone on PSU serve a ball in? Creighton has hit PSU serves that were going out.
Free points. At least make them set and return the damned ball.
PSU wins Set 5, 15-7!!!!!
They win the Regional Final, and are returning to the Final Four
They win the Regional Final, and are returning to the Final Four
Whew! It was a struggle but they got it done.
Think of service errors as the DL jumping offside.
Drives me crazy.
I was rocking, out of my chair and yelling.
Thursday will be crazy.
I’ll be a basket case Saturday at noon!!
WE ARE….
Drives me crazy.
I was rocking, out of my chair and yelling.
Thursday will be crazy.
I’ll be a basket case Saturday at noon!!
WE ARE….
It was frustrating to watch. The coaches call the location on the court where the server is supposed to serve to. I guess PSU's coaches wanted deep serves, as they kept trying that. (They didn't try a lot of deep in the corner, which offers a little more depth when the serve is from the center, but I guess the coaches had a reason for not going to those two locations.) A lot of the serves in college are knuckleball serves, which can float a bit. I don't know if all or most of the balls that were out of bounds were knuckleball serves, but they certainly didn't seem to be top-spin serves.
What made it even more frustrating was that Creighton had a lot of success, particularly in Sets 2, 3, & 4, in short serves. I'm always surprised when those handcuff a team, but they can be successful when executed well, which Creighton certainly did.
I was worried about Creighton, and judging on tonight's contest, it seems my concerns were warranted.
Thursday will be even tougher. PSU will face Nebraska in a semifinal. Yes, PSU defeated Nebraska at Rec Hall at the end of the season. But Nebraska is really good, and swept a really good Wisconsin team earlier today. Plus, Nebraska will have revenge on their mind, after the regular season match.
This season of PSU WVB has been a real joy to follow. Coach CKS came into a tough situation, and has worked really hard to return PSU WVB back to their past glory. But the B1G has gotten even tougher, and it takes time to rebuild a roster. I thought PSU WVB would be very good this season, but they've already exceeded my expectations, and have only two losses on the season (to Pitt and to Wisconsin). I'm sure I'll be squirming a lot during Thursday's match, and cheering or groaning at the TV. Hopefully, PSU can get a win, and advance to the final, but it will take a peak performance from them to attain that.
I understand the frustration with the missed serves but a “just get it in” serve becomes a perfect pass which gives the setter 3 or even 4 hitters to choose from and an almost certain side out. Even when taking the missed serves into account, they still do better serving tough.
Same here Tom. Creighton looked really good against a strong Texas team.
This season has exceeded any expectations (except maybe their own) and they have been a lot of fun to watch. They’ve made good use of the transfer portal in the past couple of years but have started building up their base of younger players too, including setter Izzy Stark who is having an awesome freshman year. From what I understand (second hand), many/most of the elite college volleyball recruits commit a couple of years before they graduate HS. It takes a new coach like KSC those first couple of years to start getting the high level recruits into your program.
Hoping this is the start of a good run for the team!
Creighton upset KU in BB a week or two ago and for the majority of the match tonight I thought they were gonna rip my heart out again.
PSU had fun in sets 1 & 5 but were outplayed in sets 2-4. Still surprised PSU was able to steal set 3.
Kudos to BOTH teams.
AND
Yeah, 13 PSU service errors…..but it seemed more like 31!
AND
All 4 #1 seeds made the FINAL FOUR, believe they said the last time this happened was 2008.
PSU had fun in sets 1 & 5 but were outplayed in sets 2-4. Still surprised PSU was able to steal set 3.
Kudos to BOTH teams.
AND
Yeah, 13 PSU service errors…..but it seemed more like 31!
AND
All 4 #1 seeds made the FINAL FOUR, believe they said the last time this happened was 2008.
AT this level, teams are accepting of missed serves due to the need to get opposing teams "out of system". Now when you miss them and how often is another matter.
Creighton put a scare into PSU because they adjusted for the PSU serves and began passing better and attacking successfully as a result. PSU on the other hand was not good passing and could not side out consistently enough to keep control of the match. But they showed me something in the 5th set and need to bring that commitment to playing defense to the final four or it will be an early exit.
Agreed on the season already being a success. They can build around Stark for the next few years and be a threat for the final 4 every year. Nebraska and Pitt are the class of this year's final 4 and PSU will have to play especially well to have a shot to pull this off.
Penn State has been particularly good in the fifth set this year, especially at Rec Hall. They act and play like they’ve been there before and expect to win. The other part of this that often gets overlooked is the other team gets tight, experiences the pucker factor, and self doubt since most teams don’t have the playoff history of PS. Working with college students over the past 40 years, lack of self confidence holds many of them back.
Yes, that was evident with Creighton last night. It won't be against either Nebraska or Pitt. PSU has a punchers chance here and the situation with our coach would make for a wonderful story if they can pull it off.
I watched Creighton beat Texas on Friday afternoon. They soundly beat Texas and they were strong all over the court. My gut feeling was that if the PSU women didn't play their best that the journey could very well end in Rec Hall.
I give a lot of credit to Creighton. They effectively took Camryn Hannah out of the picture scoring wise and their block was pretty darned effective.
Kudos to the coaching staff who made a sub at MH in set 2 or 3. Jordan Happ for Maggie Mendelson. Jordan (who didn't log a lot of minutes all season) stepped-up and performed very well.
Looking forward to Thursday. Should be 2 great matches.
I seriously do not think that anyone expected PSU to be final four team. Congratulations to the players, coaches and staff.
I give a lot of credit to Creighton. They effectively took Camryn Hannah out of the picture scoring wise and their block was pretty darned effective.
Kudos to the coaching staff who made a sub at MH in set 2 or 3. Jordan Happ for Maggie Mendelson. Jordan (who didn't log a lot of minutes all season) stepped-up and performed very well.
Looking forward to Thursday. Should be 2 great matches.
I seriously do not think that anyone expected PSU to be final four team. Congratulations to the players, coaches and staff.
Perhaps this is partial confirmation. For reference, Coach KSC tweets this out when they get a commitment.
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