Match Thread: PSU @ Maryland, Wed. 9-29-21 8 pm ET

Couldn't watch last night, thanks jojonito for the play by play. Looks like I missed a good one!

I remember in the Olympics, one of the refs started calling the "throws", really tight.  He was being inconsistent, cuz few of the other refs were calling as tight as he was.  Sunderland got really mad because of the inconsistency.  I really dislike allowing the throws, but, if you're going to allow them, be consistent. That's the way the vast majority of refs are calling it, so everybody's gonna do it.

I think it's a lot like dribbling in basketball.  

In the pre-Iverson era, "Your hand had to remain completely on top of the ball. It made crossovers and other dribble moves extremely difficult to do without being done illegally and being called a carry."

Nowadays, a carry like that is never called.

Any updates on this development?

I watched pretty closely after the one that was called (which I agree was a throw), but I think she did change up her technique after that call.  The later one that looked like an "Iverson" I think was more of a wipe, where she used her fingertips and "wiped" her hand across the ball.  So I don't think she got away with things later in the match -- I think she did make adjustments based on how that was being called.

What I was noticing is that, starting in set 3, MD serve receive was much less successful.  Whether that was a result of better PSU service, or simply MDs receivers finally giving  in to the stress is impossible to judge.   As always, weak serve receive means a more predictable offense and hence a better chance for the PSU block. 

I was very impressed by MD's OHs.  For the first two sets these relatively short players showed an array of shots that had our block and defenders in a great deal of difficulty.  Later in the match, when the MD OH's were getting set farther from the net, they had fewer options and Allie and Cait could set up to eliminate certain angles, putting Jenna in a surer position to dig. 

All of that said, Jenna was an absolute demon.  She just looked faster than everyone else on both sides of the net. She was credited with 7 assists, several of which were earned cleaning up our poor passing.  

Overall, this was a very gutty and resolute performance by both teams.  MD is obviously a much improved group and there were so many outstanding rallies.  As the announcer said, was a very fun match to watch.

If I had to venture a guess, maybe she did not want to play against her former team. Then again this is a totally uninformed and uneducated guess.

Erika is a graduate student. So, I don't think her absence relates to academics.