2024 Penn State Season News
Apr 15, 2024 15:36:30 GMT -5
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Post by psuphdstudent on Apr 15, 2024 15:36:30 GMT -5
Some of my observations from the game:
- Boy am I excited about Izzy. She was the most impressive player(in my opinion) that I saw on the court yesterday. I wasn’t here yet when Micha was on the court but I would imagine it feels something similar to this. She can fling the ball from one end of the court to the other pretty accurately and she can get to ball quickly and looks to be comfortable setting off of one foot.
- We have some really live arms on the court. Caroline, Cam and Jess are a scary trio of pins. The amount of firepower they can dish out can be really scary. I like Jess’ tempo from the back row a little better than last season it’s a bit quicker. The way I saw the game was Cam was more terminal and is our best server, Jess was given more of the recycle balls. Caroline looked to struggle a bit hitting from the left she was blocked a lot on that side (but a little more on that later). But from the right, man she must had some tips from her dad cause girl is strong.
- Taylor was great offensively and defensively. I love that we used Taylor a lot in the offense at Pitt. When there was runs orchestrated by PSU, Taylor was usually involved. Maggie needs more time with Izzy I think. But from warm ups, when Maggie gets a ball she likes, she wallops the bajeebus outta that thing. What I like from Maggie is that she seems to be very smart, there were a couple of times when the connection was off but she found ways to score. She also serves pretty well. The team as a whole is also getting more positive block touches.
-Defense looked pretty decent from the most part. There are some kinks to tune out but Gill is so so so good. Ava and Joce subbed for Cam in the back row and passed pretty well and had a few exciting digs. Anje was a very stable passer and subbed in when Caroline or Alexa was in the back.
Now you might be thinking, I’m so complimentary of the team, how did we lose then if they’re so great? I have two words, Rachel Fairbanks. When this girl went back to serve, she would go on runs upon runs. Every single time it wouldn’t fail. She went on 7pt serving runs twice (I think) and won them the 3rd and the 4th. There has to be something with her serve that the team really struggled with. It’s not the team was bad at passing, it was really JUST. HER. SERVE.that they struggled to pass. This is kinda why Caroline was blocked so often because the passes were so kinda off that Izzy could only set her and Caroline was always against a set block on a side she wasn’t used to.
Now I’m not saying Pitt was bad or it was only Fairbanks that was good, they’re a good team; they made FF last year, but boy those sets would’ve turned out much differently if Fairbanks didn’t serve because we have pretty good leads in set 2 and 4 and could’ve won 3.
But hey, it’s a scrimmage, did a 50+ year old man from Pitt trash talk at us unprovoked? Yes? Did the classless Pitt students flip us off? Yes. But it was a good game and the team showed such great promise 🫶🫶
- Boy am I excited about Izzy. She was the most impressive player(in my opinion) that I saw on the court yesterday. I wasn’t here yet when Micha was on the court but I would imagine it feels something similar to this. She can fling the ball from one end of the court to the other pretty accurately and she can get to ball quickly and looks to be comfortable setting off of one foot.
- We have some really live arms on the court. Caroline, Cam and Jess are a scary trio of pins. The amount of firepower they can dish out can be really scary. I like Jess’ tempo from the back row a little better than last season it’s a bit quicker. The way I saw the game was Cam was more terminal and is our best server, Jess was given more of the recycle balls. Caroline looked to struggle a bit hitting from the left she was blocked a lot on that side (but a little more on that later). But from the right, man she must had some tips from her dad cause girl is strong.
- Taylor was great offensively and defensively. I love that we used Taylor a lot in the offense at Pitt. When there was runs orchestrated by PSU, Taylor was usually involved. Maggie needs more time with Izzy I think. But from warm ups, when Maggie gets a ball she likes, she wallops the bajeebus outta that thing. What I like from Maggie is that she seems to be very smart, there were a couple of times when the connection was off but she found ways to score. She also serves pretty well. The team as a whole is also getting more positive block touches.
-Defense looked pretty decent from the most part. There are some kinks to tune out but Gill is so so so good. Ava and Joce subbed for Cam in the back row and passed pretty well and had a few exciting digs. Anje was a very stable passer and subbed in when Caroline or Alexa was in the back.
Now you might be thinking, I’m so complimentary of the team, how did we lose then if they’re so great? I have two words, Rachel Fairbanks. When this girl went back to serve, she would go on runs upon runs. Every single time it wouldn’t fail. She went on 7pt serving runs twice (I think) and won them the 3rd and the 4th. There has to be something with her serve that the team really struggled with. It’s not the team was bad at passing, it was really JUST. HER. SERVE.that they struggled to pass. This is kinda why Caroline was blocked so often because the passes were so kinda off that Izzy could only set her and Caroline was always against a set block on a side she wasn’t used to.
Now I’m not saying Pitt was bad or it was only Fairbanks that was good, they’re a good team; they made FF last year, but boy those sets would’ve turned out much differently if Fairbanks didn’t serve because we have pretty good leads in set 2 and 4 and could’ve won 3.
But hey, it’s a scrimmage, did a 50+ year old man from Pitt trash talk at us unprovoked? Yes? Did the classless Pitt students flip us off? Yes. But it was a good game and the team showed such great promise 🫶🫶
