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2025 PSU WVB Thread

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bdgan

All-Conference
Oct 12, 2021
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bdgan said:
Ladies are in trouble against Kansas. They seem a bit sloppy and uninspired.
Click to expand...
Somehow PSU comes back to win in 5 sets.

My biggest observations:
  1. PSU stubbornly kept taking hard swings right into the block of 6'7" Zelenovic. They didn't take many angles or try to get touches until the deciding game.
  2. PSU had more success with Mendelson attacking the middle.
  3. Jurevicius played with an attitude. Sometimes reckless but also some huge kills.
  4. Kansas did a much better job hitting to open spaces.
  5. PSU struggled with 1st contact which led to a lot of out of system plays.
  6. Kansas had more service errors which might have made the difference.
 
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Tom McAndrew

Tom McAndrew

BWI Staff
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Oct 27, 2021
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I didn't see the match, as I had to attend the meeting. I watched a short bit of the video of the match that I posted in this thread. With those caveats:

- glass half empty: what a mess, PSU got blocked far too often, the talent on the floor should never had come so close to losing tonight
- glass half full: PSU just battles like hell, CJ hit much better than she did in the Creighton match, PSU won when KMart (Kennedy Martin) had a subpar match
- Hitting: PSU - .257; KS - .302
- Blocks: PSU - 14; KS - 29
- Kills: PSU - 72; KS - 70
- KMart hitting - .170
- Sellman hitting - .111
- CJ hitting - .393
- Hopp hitting - .211

It will be interesting to see how PSU builds off of this match. They do have a lot to work on. They were blocked far too frequently, and did not execute successfully enough blocks of their own.
 
T

TheBigUglies

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Oct 26, 2021
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I watched the match after switching over from the Phillies game. The former Nebraska coach pointed out that Kansas was taking advantage of certain personnel positions PSU was in. When Stark was up front they had Stark and Sellman and another player stacked on the one side and Kansas kept serving to that stack where Sellman had to pass the ball to Stark running up to the setters position and Sellman didn't have enough time to get to the OH position to get a good swing in essentially give Kansas a free ball. The passes weren't in a place where stark could set the MH most of the time because Kansas was floating them deep on the serves. Once PSU get out of that rotation their offense performed much better. Exciting and frustrating match to watch but they are finding their way with all the new players and once they get find their mojo will get much better. It is good for them to fight thru adversity this early in the season as it will help them down the stretch. Looking forward to another exciting season.
 
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bdgan

All-Conference
Oct 12, 2021
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Tom McAndrew said:
PSU got blocked far too often
- KMart hitting - .170
- Sellman hitting - .111
- CJ hitting - .393
- Hopp hitting - .211
Click to expand...
Zelenovik huge at 6'7" and she had a ton of blocks. It seemed to me that PSU kept hitting hard at her instead of using more finesse and making her move.
 
P

PSUSignore

All-Conference
May 29, 2001
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bdgan said:
Somehow PSU comes back to win in 5 sets.

My biggest observations:
  1. PSU stubbornly kept taking hard swings right into the block of 6'7" Zelenovic. They didn't take many angles or try to get touches until the deciding game.
  2. PSU had more success with Mendelson attacking the middle.
  3. Jurevicius played with an attitude. Sometimes reckless but also some huge kills.
  4. Kansas did a much better job hitting to open spaces.
  5. PSU struggled with 1st contact which led to a lot of out of system plays.
  6. Kansas had more service errors which might have made the difference.
Click to expand...
#1, #2 and #5 are directly correlated. When out of system most sets are going to go to the pin, which is where the KU block was having success. Also worth noting the KU players from Europe have pro experience, despite being new to the team as played up by the broadcast. I'd expect them to be quite skilled as they showed. Sellman had a rough night but the best way to fix this is to get a 3 point pass to open up the other hitters as options for Starck. With bad passing Starck is put in a rough spot and it make her job very difficult, she'd have to force some sets when she and/or her hitters may be out of position.

BTW, Cook sucked as a color commentator and multiple times was openly cheering on the mic for KU. On a BTN broadcast for a Big 10 team vs. a non conference opponent. I guess he's still mad PSU is the better program. I wonder how BTN feels about one of their employees rooting against the Big 10 on the air?

Regardless, it was good to see the team gut out a win that they probably shouldn't have. There will be many coaching opportunities coming out of last weekend and the team will be better for it. Nebraska looked great already, so we are going to have a battle on our hands for the conference.
 
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bdgan

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PSUSignore said:
#1, #2 and #5 are directly correlated. When out of system most sets are going to go to the pin, which is where the KU block was having success. Also worth noting the KU players from Europe have pro experience, despite being new to the team as played up by the broadcast. I'd expect them to be quite skilled as they showed. Sellman had a rough night but the best way to fix this is to get a 3 point pass to open up the other hitters as options for Starck. With bad passing Starck is put in a rough spot and it make her job very difficult, she'd have to force some sets when she and/or her hitters may be out of position.

BTW, Cook sucked as a color commentator and multiple times was openly cheering on the mic for KU. On a BTN broadcast for a Big 10 team vs. a non conference opponent. I guess he's still mad PSU is the better program. I wonder how BTN feels about one of their employees rooting against the Big 10 on the air?

Regardless, it was good to see the team gut out a win that they probably shouldn't have. There will be many coaching opportunities coming out of last weekend and the team will be better for it. Nebraska looked great already, so we are going to have a battle on our hands for the conference.
Click to expand...
I recall Cook heaping a lot of praise on PSU.
 
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J

JoePaMajorCFBrecord409Ws

Freshman
Jun 26, 2025
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Tom McAndrew said:
I didn't see the match, as I had to attend the meeting. I watched a short bit of the video of the match that I posted in this thread. With those caveats:

- glass half empty: what a mess, PSU got blocked far too often, the talent on the floor should never had come so close to losing tonight
- glass half full: PSU just battles like hell, CJ hit much better than she did in the Creighton match, PSU won when KMart (Kennedy Martin) had a subpar match
- Hitting: PSU - .257; KS - .302
- Blocks: PSU - 14; KS - 29
- Kills: PSU - 72; KS - 70
- KMart hitting - .170
- Sellman hitting - .111
- CJ hitting - .393
- Hopp hitting - .211

It will be interesting to see how PSU builds off of this match. They do have a lot to work on. They were blocked far too frequently, and did not execute successfully enough blocks of their own.
Click to expand...

I saw the match on live broadcast - no VB expert, but what stood out was the lack of PSU blocks at the net as well as their front-line defense getting out of position such that they gave up multiple dinks as defenders had drifted out of their assigned areas. Your numbers confirm that PSU had more than enough kills relative to Kansas, what was missing, and brought their hitting % down relative to Kansas was the lack of their own blocks (i.e., their lack of blocks relative to Kansas increased Kansas' hitting % relative to PSU).
 
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J

JoePaMajorCFBrecord409Ws

Freshman
Jun 26, 2025
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PSUSignore said:
#1, #2 and #5 are directly correlated. When out of system most sets are going to go to the pin, which is where the KU block was having success. Also worth noting the KU players from Europe have pro experience, despite being new to the team as played up by the broadcast. I'd expect them to be quite skilled as they showed. Sellman had a rough night but the best way to fix this is to get a 3 point pass to open up the other hitters as options for Starck. With bad passing Starck is put in a rough spot and it make her job very difficult, she'd have to force some sets when she and/or her hitters may be out of position.

BTW, Cook sucked as a color commentator and multiple times was openly cheering on the mic for KU. On a BTN broadcast for a Big 10 team vs. a non conference opponent. I guess he's still mad PSU is the better program. I wonder how BTN feels about one of their employees rooting against the Big 10 on the air?

Regardless, it was good to see the team gut out a win that they probably shouldn't have. There will be many coaching opportunities coming out of last weekend and the team will be better for it. Nebraska looked great already, so we are going to have a battle on our hands for the conference.
Click to expand...

Kansas is significantly better than their ranking (#14) imo. They have a frront-line, libero and setter that can challenge everybody they play.
 
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@jayhimes

@jayhimes

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Oct 12, 2005
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Tom McAndrew said:
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Bad loss. Inexcusable that Izzy gives them the match with a net serve. She is great, but you have to get the ball over the net in that situation. KSC played her bench, but TCU lost their captain and we still couldn’t pull out the win. Jess loss was a huge loss. Kennedy Martin is for real, but she has not replaced Jess—yet.
 
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PSUSignore

All-Conference
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This team has a lot of work to do. Serve receive has not been good. We only have one hitter we can rely on (Martin) and even with a good pass we still don't seem to be getting the middles involved enough to take pressure off the pin hitters. But the passing was so bad, opportunities for the middles weren't going to be what we wanted anyway. Both OH are inconsistent, making lots of unforced errors and can't seem to hit around the block effectively enough. Right now we are riding Kennedy Martin as much as possible, she had nearly 100 attempts between yesterday and today, but we need some more diversity to beat these other good teams.

Fortunately it's early but lots of work ahead.
 
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J

JoePaMajorCFBrecord409Ws

Freshman
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@jayhimes said:
Bad loss. Inexcusable that Izzy gives them the match with a net serve. She is great, but you have to get the ball over the net in that situation. KSC played her bench, but TCU lost their captain and we still couldn’t pull out the win. Jess loss was a huge loss. Kennedy Martin is for real, but she has not replaced Jess—yet.
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She also put a 3rd contact dink into the net ending PSU's 5th Set comeback - PSU had scored 4 straight points and made it 12-10; Izzy's inexcusable unforced-error into the net on a simple 3rd contact dink made it 13-10. Then a couple sideouts later, she served it into the net.

Very weak blocking at the net again and just an insane amount off unforced errors... long way to go for this team.
 
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KingLando

Junior
Nov 29, 2021
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These losses will help them later in the season. They've been playing quality opponents while trying to reload. There's definitely flaws but they have time to work on them.
 
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