New Year's Eve Q&A w/Talking Head: 2017, 2018, and more
Dec 31, 2017 12:25:22 GMT -5
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Post by nyline on Dec 31, 2017 12:25:22 GMT -5
We managed to corral Talking Head for one final time in 2017, for a Q&A. Here's the link: www.dignittanyvolleyball.com/new-years-eve-qa-with-talking-head-on-2017-2018-penn-state-coaching-vacancy/
And here's an excerpt:
And here's an excerpt:
We’re speaking today — the last day of 2017 — with Talking Head, who played D1 volleyball and has coached the sport for many years. (And who, surprisingly enough, looks nothing like the image we have used to depict TH for several years.)
DigNittany: It’s the last day of 2017. At the start of the season, it certainly wasn’t a given that the team would make the Final Four, and certainly wasn’t a given that Coach Rose would go to a 6-2 offense. But they did (and came within one “can’t-believe-that-just-happened” broken play from making the Finals) and he did. What’s your 2017 wrap on how the team performed?
Talking Head: From a coaching standpoint, the team didn’t achieve its goal — which was to win it all. But from an overall perspective, the 2017 season absolutely was a success, and one that was interesting — very interesting. Running the 6-2, which allowed Coach Rose to utilize both 6-0 Sr. RS/setter Abby Detering and 6-0 RS Jr. setter Bryanna Weiskircher — both terrific servers. The development of 6-2 Sr. RS/Opp Heidi Thelen (who earned AVCA Honorable Mention), and her transition from MB to rightside (she ended up hitting .360 overall for the season, and .350 for conference-only — both of which placed her 7th in the B1G) — that was certainly a success story. I think the emergence of 6-2 MB Tori Gorrell into a player who competed at a consistently high level (she hit .453 for the season and averaged 1.02 blocks/set) was a real positive. And you have to give a shout-out to 5-5 So. libero Kendall White, who elevated her game from an already high level, to where she was named 2nd Team AVCA All-American, averaging 3.76 digs/set. (For perspective, White is the first Penn State libero to earn All-America status since 2005, when Kaleena Walters was named to the Honorable Mention team, and only one other libero — Stanford’s So. Morgan Hentz, who was named to the 1st Team — earned AVCA All American honors in 2017.) It seemed that the more physical the match was (think Michigan State) the better Kendall White played. She certainly was a big part of the team’s success.
DigNittany: It’s the last day of 2017. At the start of the season, it certainly wasn’t a given that the team would make the Final Four, and certainly wasn’t a given that Coach Rose would go to a 6-2 offense. But they did (and came within one “can’t-believe-that-just-happened” broken play from making the Finals) and he did. What’s your 2017 wrap on how the team performed?
Talking Head: From a coaching standpoint, the team didn’t achieve its goal — which was to win it all. But from an overall perspective, the 2017 season absolutely was a success, and one that was interesting — very interesting. Running the 6-2, which allowed Coach Rose to utilize both 6-0 Sr. RS/setter Abby Detering and 6-0 RS Jr. setter Bryanna Weiskircher — both terrific servers. The development of 6-2 Sr. RS/Opp Heidi Thelen (who earned AVCA Honorable Mention), and her transition from MB to rightside (she ended up hitting .360 overall for the season, and .350 for conference-only — both of which placed her 7th in the B1G) — that was certainly a success story. I think the emergence of 6-2 MB Tori Gorrell into a player who competed at a consistently high level (she hit .453 for the season and averaged 1.02 blocks/set) was a real positive. And you have to give a shout-out to 5-5 So. libero Kendall White, who elevated her game from an already high level, to where she was named 2nd Team AVCA All-American, averaging 3.76 digs/set. (For perspective, White is the first Penn State libero to earn All-America status since 2005, when Kaleena Walters was named to the Honorable Mention team, and only one other libero — Stanford’s So. Morgan Hentz, who was named to the 1st Team — earned AVCA All American honors in 2017.) It seemed that the more physical the match was (think Michigan State) the better Kendall White played. She certainly was a big part of the team’s success.
