|
|
Post by nyline on Sept 25, 2022 9:59:50 GMT -5
I am new to this forum so may make some mistakes as I learn how to comment and post. Does anyone know why Hurts was in street clothes for the last to games? First off, Welcome to the Forum, psu1972 !!! I'm sure you'll be perfectly fine in commenting and posting. There are some members who really have alot of knowledge -- as former players and/or coaches. But there are more who, like me, have absolutely none. The one thing I hope all posters display is respect for each other and for the Penn State players and staff. That doesn't mean anyone should be immune from criticsim, but I believe a strength of the board is "playing nice" -- we try to make our criticisms objective, and not personal. And also try to keep in mind that we're talking about players who range from 18 years old to maybe 22 or 23. No information has been released. Could be some sort of injury or illness -- due to HIPAA constraints, Penn State essentially never comments on that -- or something else. But she was on the bench, and (I am told) rushed out to join the team celebration after the Indiana win. So that's a good sign. We may find out at some point, or we may not. It's an obvious question, but I hope we, as a forum, will resist the temptation to speculate (and that's not a criticism of you having asked the question -- all good!) |
|
|
|
Post by seeyajohn on Sept 25, 2022 13:06:39 GMT -5
So, I watched the replay. Michigan won again.
It was ugly. But we did score more points against Michigan than Rutgers did on Friday!
First: The Match
I thought that the Lions did not fall short on effort. Despite the beat down, they played hard throughout the match. Obviously, the setter/hitter connections for Penn State were not good and Michigan’s sets were on the money. Our outside hitters had a miserable night.
Angelina had a bad weekend in the front row. She hit better from the back row.
Zoe seemed to be determined to go cross court on every hit and Michigan played her for that angle and blocked her consistently. Alexa subbed in for her and scored on her first try by going line.
Cash played her usual game and hit hard and inconsistently. She is fun to watch but should at no time be involved in serve receive.
Our back row women made some nice digs, but our serving did not match Michigan’s. Michigan had more errors, but they also put us out of system more often.
Things are never as dark as they seem after a loss nor as bright as they seem after a win, but this was a bad match for the women!
Season Outlook:
When all our fifth-year players bailed after last season I was resigned to a bottom half season in the B1G. But Katie and her staff did a great job of recruiting transfers and sixth place in the Big Ten seemed a reasonable target.
Then the weekend in Minnesota happened and I began to think that fifth place was in the cards. But we just lost big to Michigan IN REC HALL! So, it’s time for a reassessment of reasonable hopes for the team this year.
This team is weaker on a position-by-position basis than last year’s team. The B1G might be a bit weaker overall. Still, it is hard to see us ahead of Neb, Minn, OSU and Wisky. Yesterday’s match suggests that Michigan might be better than PSU and Purdue has Hudson and just skunked Minnesota. Illinois has a pretty good team.
So, a reasonable objective is a top half finish in the B1G and a ticket to the playoffs to keep the Penn State participation streak alive. I think that such a finish would be a successful outcome for Katie and our women. As was true last year, PSU is not a national title contender but have the talent to pull off an upset (Stanford) or two or three and provide an entertaining season. I like their effort and plan to be a better supporter than I was last night when I turned the match off!
|
|
|
|
Post by traveler on Sept 25, 2022 13:22:43 GMT -5
...Fourth -- and I definitely don't have the analytic skill to know whether this is true -- but isn't it possible that in addition to all the other factors, that Michigan's coaching staff did a better job preparing their team than Penn State's coaching staff did preparing theirs? So maybe Penn State's staff simply had a "bad match." I don't really know (and that assessment is complicated because of the Rutgers factor -- I think Michigan's staff could scrimp on prepping for Rutgers, and devote extra time to prepping for Penn State.) THIS. |
|
|
|
Post by EnglishPennStateFan on Sept 25, 2022 15:30:22 GMT -5
Hey there nyline, good to hear from you! Your views are valid, of course. Although I do have coaching experience, my knowledge of the US collegiate volleyball system is extremely limited. I suppose my point about benching the players who won't be here in 2023 is based on the fact that when my school won the first of their All-England Championships in the 80's, it was a 2 to 3 year plan. When we first got serious about winning the nationals at 15U and 16U level, I didn't take anyone over the age of 14, other than a few older girls who were prepared to practice, mentor and provide opposition for the starting 6 (no liberos in those days). We had regularly reached last 8's and also one semi-final, but due to the turnover of girls leaving school at 16 we were never able to go that extra yard and win it. It was only when I sat down with a group of very talented girls aged 13 and 14 in September 1982 and said 'how would you like to be champions of England in two years time?' that the journey began to our first national 15U title in April 1985 followed by a 15U and 16U double in 1986. I know that English junior volleyball in the 1980's is a world away from collegiate volleyball in the 2020's but the principle of long term planning remains valid and because I believe PSU has very little chance of going any further than the sweet 16's this year, I feel we should be focussing much more on those players who will be here in 2023 and beyond.
|
|
|
|
Post by seeyajohn on Sept 25, 2022 16:48:49 GMT -5
Hey there nyline, good to hear from you! Your views are valid, of course. Although I do have coaching experience, my knowledge of the US collegiate volleyball system is extremely limited. I suppose my point about benching the players who won't be here in 2023 is based on the fact that when my school won the first of their All-England Championships in the 80's, it was a 2 to 3 year plan. When we first got serious about winning the nationals at 15U and 16U level, I didn't take anyone over the age of 14, other than a few older girls who were prepared to practice, mentor and provide opposition for the starting 6 (no liberos in those days). We had regularly reached last 8's and also one semi-final, but due to the turnover of girls leaving school at 16 we were never able to go that extra yard and win it. It was only when I sat down with a group of very talented girls aged 13 and 14 in September 1982 and said 'how would you like to be champions of England in two years time?' that the journey began to our first national 15U title in April 1985 followed by a 15U and 16U double in 1986. I know that English junior volleyball in the 1980's is a world away from collegiate volleyball in the 2020's but the principle of long term planning remains valid and because I believe PSU has very little chance of going any further than the sweet 16's this year, I feel we should be focussing much more on those players who will be here in 2023 and beyond. The cupboard and the shopping cart aren't real full for this year and next year so far. However, it still might make some sense to give more playing time to Alexa Markley and Katie Hurta. They are both likely starters on next year's team. |
|
|
|
Post by elliotberton on Sept 26, 2022 1:02:42 GMT -5
Hey there nyline, good to hear from you! Your views are valid, of course. Although I do have coaching experience, my knowledge of the US collegiate volleyball system is extremely limited. I suppose my point about benching the players who won't be here in 2023 is based on the fact that when my school won the first of their All-England Championships in the 80's, it was a 2 to 3 year plan. When we first got serious about winning the nationals at 15U and 16U level, I didn't take anyone over the age of 14, other than a few older girls who were prepared to practice, mentor and provide opposition for the starting 6 (no liberos in those days). We had regularly reached last 8's and also one semi-final, but due to the turnover of girls leaving school at 16 we were never able to go that extra yard and win it. It was only when I sat down with a group of very talented girls aged 13 and 14 in September 1982 and said 'how would you like to be champions of England in two years time?' that the journey began to our first national 15U title in April 1985 followed by a 15U and 16U double in 1986. I know that English junior volleyball in the 1980's is a world away from collegiate volleyball in the 2020's but the principle of long term planning remains valid and because I believe PSU has very little chance of going any further than the sweet 16's this year, I feel we should be focussing much more on those players who will be here in 2023 and beyond. Such an interesting discussion. The US college landscape has changed so much in the last two years, that it is difficult to know how to develop a program anymore. The current team is a perfect example of what can now happen-all but one starting player left, and yet now we have a very fairly experienced albeit totally different group on the floor each match. Significantly, playing for the future must now include winning currently, so as to be attractive to players who enter the transfer portal, as well as the traditional highly regarded younger player being recruited for their first college opportunity. Supplemented with financial opportunities, a school like Penn State should be a draw for good players seeking a new or first situation. But giving players floor time to ready them for the future while not giving the team the very best chance to win now, is I suspect not a good plan. In fact, a younger player who develops and becomes attractive to other schools might just transfer to another school if they feel that Penn State is not a highly successful program. In addition, Coach Katie is using and developing her younger players. Starck is a sophomore and Grimes is a freshman (er woman?). If Hurta and Markley demonstrate that they are ready, they would get more floor time. If the team continues to struggle, I am certain that the staff will not hesitate to give other players a go to see if fortunes can be improved. As others on this forum have suggested, the team has lost one match so far, and in general exceeded my expectations going into the season. It has been and remains my hope that the team will qualify for the tourney, and be well enough regarded to host the first two rounds. Getting to round 3 would be a good draw for transfers and new recruits, and show that we have a new coach who can breed success. |
|
|
|
Post by nyline on Sept 26, 2022 6:14:45 GMT -5
^^^^ This
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2022 8:12:02 GMT -5
That said, with all the accolades that the team has been receiving (or in Nick Saban's words - "rat poison") and in seeing the team chanting after the Indiana match (last night) that they were "undefeated"... it made me wonder how the team would handle all of the recent praise... whether it would ease the "hungriness" that was fueling the team during the non-conference schedule. You know, I'm happy you pointed this out. I had no idea, but now I know why they lost to MI. Yesterday, I was going to comment on how I'd hoped that the team was not drinking the cool aide and buying into the hype. Chants like that don't help a team. The team needs to stay humble and hungry in order to grind out wins. I vaguely recall a reporter asking Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee if his responses were prideful, and he responded that they reflected confidence. Confidence is important, pride is a disease. I just realized that Cliff Lee was not asked about his pride, but about his cockiness, and he said it was confidence not cockiness. Cockiness is ugly, confidence is beautiful, but there's a fine line between them. |
|
|
|
Post by pinkpanther on Sept 26, 2022 13:19:27 GMT -5
I've watched a lot of PSU volleyball, and I'm still processing what I saw on Saturday. I see the other posts in this and other threads reminding us that this is a "rebuilding" year, and I get that. I also get that our expectations for this team are always sky high, and we have to be realistic and temper those expectations.
I thought the match against Indiana was good -- Indiana played well, their setting looked excellent to me, and I did think, like others have said, that they gave us their best shot because of our tradition and their long streak of losses against PSU. The reason I say it was good is that even though PSU didn't play super well, we still pulled it out and didn't give up a single set.
I'm not sure what to think about the match vs. Michigan. I don't recall PSU ever, ever being swept at home by Michigan. I knew this would be a tough Big Ten match, but at the same time, I expect that, especially at home, PSU will expend a huge amount of effort to defend their home court. When the wheels started coming off in every aspect of the game in set 1 (bad passing, bad setting, hitting errors, service errors), I expected the team to push this to four or five, even if in the end they lost the entire match. I saw a few plays where players seemed to get down on themselves after an error, and while some of the subs provided some spark with a few plays in the third set, the fight seemed to be gone from the whole team in set 2 and set 3. So right now, I guess what I'm worried about is this vague unease I'm feeling about how we lost. That is, I can understand players having an off night and committing more errors than normal, I can understand the other team having a particular strength that hits on one of our weaknesses, but I still expect the home court advantage of Rec Hall and the long tradition of success for this team to count for something, and it really felt like it didn't.
So I guess while I'm trying to convince myself not to overreact to one loss, and to remember the quote that is famous around here about you not being as good as you think when you win, and not being as bad as you feel when you lose, I could still use some reassurance that is really true.
I appreciate this forum that allows me to ramble on like this to help process the loss, because I still do hope that on the whole, when I look back in December, I will be really happy with how things went overall.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2022 16:38:28 GMT -5
So I guess while I'm trying to convince myself not to overreact to one loss, and to remember the quote that is famous around here about you not being as good as you think when you win, and not being as bad as you feel when you lose, I could still use some reassurance that is really true.I credited the coaching staff for our undefeated record. I want to see if they can quickly get the team over the loss and prepared for their next game. That's key for future success. We are a little thin on the pins but have a talented team. It wouldn't surprise me if PSU knocks off Wisconsin. |
|
