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Post by nyline on Oct 11, 2015 7:20:44 GMT -5
My guess, and it is only a guess, is that Frantti has played backrow for two reasons (not necessarily in this order): 1) to prepare her for next season, when Megan graduates, and 2) to give the team another backrow offensive option. This may not look like past PSU teams, and that may be partially a function of coaching, but Russ Rose didn't suddenly lose his coaching ability -- his extraordinary coaching ability. What he did lose was Micha, and Dom, and Lacey, and Nia. And next year when he loses Megan and Aiyana, what will Russ do? Novakovic? Reed? Dear god. We Penn State fans have been very, very spoiled. We may still be. Or maybe not. |
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Post by seeyajohn on Oct 11, 2015 9:24:18 GMT -5
It is always the case that fans overreact to big wins and surprising losses. The scary thing here is if Megan can't play. That would move national championship chances from OK to remote.
But the loss does not mean that the team is even close to hopeless. It seems to me that the 2010 national champions once lost back-to-back matches at Indiana and Purdue and lacked a true setter. Yet somehow they pulled it together and romped to the national title.
Finally, even if this team does not contend for the national title, I must agree win nyline. We are definitely spoiled!
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Post by cross5 on Oct 11, 2015 10:55:04 GMT -5
I'm not really overly worried. Even last year we had some awful play and then found our stride the 2nd half of the B1G season.
This is a very young team and maintain focus every time out , every point and over multiple games is NOT easy and is really only gained through experience.
Only Megan Courtney is the one player who has played every point front row and back row.
Kendall has only come in sporadically in her 3 years.
Aiyana is only a finisher for 3 rotations.
After that we have sophomores and Freshmen.
I think we are going to be ok.
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Post by nyline on Oct 11, 2015 10:55:13 GMT -5
It is always the case that fans overreact to big wins and surprising losses. The scary thing here is if Megan can't play. That would move national championship chances from OK to remote. But the loss does not mean that the team is even close to hopeless. It seems to me that the 2010 national champions once lost back-to-back matches at Indiana and Purdue and lacked a true setter. Yet somehow they pulled it together and romped to the national title. Finally, even if this team does not contend for the national title, I must agree win nyline. We are definitely spoiled! They did lose back-to-back to Indiana and Purdue -- here's the link to our write-up: Lost Weekend: Purdue and Indiana Drop Nittany Lions
And an excerpt:
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Post by nyline on Oct 11, 2015 11:58:09 GMT -5
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Post by psumaui on Oct 11, 2015 13:56:24 GMT -5
We didn't look good in the passing department last night and I can take that loss and move on but possibly loosing Megan Courtney hit me harder. I really feel for her as I know what it feels like to get injured your Senior Season. I'm hoping it is not serious.
Did anybody else notice that the up ref hesitated on every point before calling who won point? It was like he was afraid to make call himself and totally relied on down ref and line judges to make calls first. I'm not even going to get into the mass of bad calls from that match.
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Post by nyline on Oct 11, 2015 14:59:21 GMT -5
We didn't look good in the passing department last night and I can take that loss and move on but possibly loosing Megan Courtney hit me harder. I really feel for her as I know what it feels like to get injured your Senior Season. I'm hoping it is not serious. Did anybody else notice that the up ref hesitated on every point before calling who won point? It was like he was afraid to make call himself and totally relied on down ref and line judges to make calls first. I'm not even going to get into the mass of bad calls from that match. Yes, I noticed that too. I thought it was odd. |
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Post by tillie1014 on Oct 11, 2015 15:12:37 GMT -5
Why is Franti in the back row?
Who do you suggest would replace her?
Seems like last year she was a bully there.
Not ready to give up on RR and company because of some shoddy play and unexpected losses.
Problem is becoming clearer and clearer so mow the Wizard take sit on
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snj
Sophomore
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Post by snj on Oct 11, 2015 17:12:09 GMT -5
I am somewhat surprised by Nyline's optimistic perspective in his writeup of the NU match. And the other optimism expressed here. NU played well last night and won because they were the better team. PSU has much more talent but they did not play as an effective team, synergistically in all phases of the game, and have not done so in many sets recently. If Megan is out for more than a short time they will have real issues. If NU can defeat PSU so can other second division Big Ten teams. I thought Nyline and I both saw a lot of chaos last night, he posted last night that it was difficult to watch, perhaps he feels differently today? The coaches seem to have a huge challenge figuring out how to get this group of players to be a high performing unit.
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Post by nyline on Oct 11, 2015 19:11:54 GMT -5
I am somewhat surprised by Nyline's optimistic perspective in his writeup of the NU match. And the other optimism expressed here. NU played well last night and won because they were the better team. PSU has much more talent but they did not play as an effective team, synergistically in all phases of the game, and have not done so in many sets recently. If Megan is out for more than a short time they will have real issues. If NU can defeat PSU so can other second division Big Ten teams. I thought Nyline and I both saw a lot of chaos last night, he posted last night that it was difficult to watch, perhaps he feels differently today? The coaches seem to have a huge challenge figuring out how to get this group of players to be a high performing unit. I don't know that I'm necessarily optimistic -- and if Megan is out for an extended period, it is a huge loss -- akin to Stanford losing Inky. My feeling (and it admittedly is more feeling than analysis) is who knows? I wouldn't rule this team out just yet. And absolutely, it was hard to watch last night. They were all out of wack, as Joe Paterno used to say. But this was the first B1G road trip for a very young team. They played well overall against Illinois. They weren't able to maintain that focus against Northwestern. Maybe that's as good as it gets for this team. But anyone who wrote off the 2010 team at exactly the same point in the season turned out to be wrong. I'm in a wait-and-see mode. |
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Post by nyline on Oct 11, 2015 19:14:33 GMT -5
Why is Franti in the back row? Who do you suggest would replace her? Seems like last year she was a bully there. Not ready to give up on RR and company because of some shoddy play and unexpected losses. Problem is becoming clearer and clearer so mow the Wizard take sit on I think you are using the same tablet as me. "Problem is becoming clearer and clearer so mow the Wizard take sit on." You lost me at "clearer and clearer." ☺ |
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Post by bob2061 on Oct 11, 2015 22:32:31 GMT -5
I think the other Big Ten coaches have discovered a definite flaw in PSU's defense caused by too many back row marginal players. As Megan tried to cover for them it created situations where players were out of position and couldn't make defensive plays. In long rallies the problems would get even worse. I think we simply have a SHORTAGE OF very good back row defensive players. Once opposing coaches have seen how we struggled against Minnesota and Nebraska, they are employing the same tactics with amazing results as seen in the Northwestern match. Sadly there may be no immediate solutions without major improvements in back row player skills. I hope the coaches can find a quick fix to our latest meltdown on the court.
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snj
Sophomore
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Post by snj on Oct 11, 2015 22:59:13 GMT -5
Curious what Club Coach thinks, perhaps Nyline can connect with him sometime in the next week or so.
Keep all fingers crossed that Megan is not seriously hurt.
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Post by bob2061 on Oct 12, 2015 0:01:00 GMT -5
Curious what Club Coach thinks, perhaps Nyline can connect with him sometime in the next week or so. Keep all fingers crossed that Megan is not seriously hurt. Is it ok if I pray the doctors can help Megan heal ASAP?  |
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Post by cross5 on Oct 12, 2015 6:41:17 GMT -5
I think the other Big Ten coaches have discovered a definite flaw in PSU's defense caused by too many back row marginal players. As Megan tried to cover for them it created situations where players were out of position and couldn't make defensive plays. In long rallies the problems would get even worse. I think we simply have a SHORTAGE OF very good back row defensive players. Once opposing coaches have seen how we struggled against Minnesota and Nebraska, they are employing the same tactics with amazing results as seen in the Northwestern match. Sadly there may be no immediate solutions without major improvements in back row player skills. I hope the coaches can find a quick fix to our latest meltdown on the court. I would have to say that this wasn't really the major problem in the NW game. The team's inability to terminate the ball, put up a consistent block and serve a tough ball was far more. Look, the B1G is WAY stronger than it was last year. There are a myriad of factors involved her and to point at one would be not correct. PSU 2015 is firing on 4 cylinders at best in almost every B1G match and it isn't the same 4 cylinders in every set......that is the problem. On Saturday is was maybe 2 cylinders. We have terrific players but they haven't found their collective game yet. They will. |
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