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Post by elliotberton on Sept 10, 2017 12:39:35 GMT -5
Couple of thoughts about this competition. The Olympic Channel coverage was great. The play by play announcer knew his stuff and it is always great to listen to a gent with a British accent. He pronounced names well, made observations that one does not often hear, and improved my understanding about what was going on.
Also, the camera angles in this tournament were special. There were overhead views, a net cam eye view, shots from behind and slow motion focus on individual players. Thus I could see much more about player movement and angles than with the traditional mid court side view.
I know it is ridiculously early in the Olympic cycle, but Meghan Courtney, with her all around game, has a real chance to stick with the national team. I feel she may end up filling Jordan Larsen's role when that worthy finally is done playing. Meghan played libero pretty well in this tournament, but not quite well enough to seize the role full time. By match 3 she was in as the "returning" libero, while Wong Orontes came in as the "defensive" libero when US was serving. I had never seen that done before, but now realize that Japan has been employing such a system at least recently.
This tournament did not feature the best 6 or even 5 women's teams in the world. We were missing two or three countries that would be ahead of several of the participants in this Grand Champions Cup. That said, it was a good chance to see where this group is at, and integrate some needed new blood. As I mentioned after the Grand Prix, our team has quite a ways to go in order to be ready to compete for an Olympic medal.
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Post by Millennium on Sept 10, 2017 14:20:06 GMT -5
Yup, I agree, I think Team USA has a long way to go before they can be considered competitive enough to make a run at Gold in the Olympics, but it's still very early in the quad. I'm really hoping Micha can improve and make the Tokyo roster in 2020, I really think she and Courtney can be factors on the team.
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Post by traveler on Sept 11, 2017 11:59:15 GMT -5
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Post by elliotberton on Sept 11, 2017 13:59:30 GMT -5
Well then this is an opportunity for growth. If Carlini (or any other setter really) is ultimately selected over Micha, we will all root for her to do well for "our" team. Frankly, the national team is filled with former rivals, and if anything, their success demonstrates how truly remarkable Penn State's consistent performance at the top of the BIG has been. I loved watching Annie Drews, Wong Orantes, Tori Dixon, the Tapp twins, the Rolftzen twins, etc. show the skills I respected when we played against them in college.
I have been wondering how much influence the National Team has on Coach Rose's thinking. (Probably not much). Kiraly has been carping because the college programs use so many specialists. This year, we are developing our seniors to be more like 6 rotation players. Probably just a coincidence but maybe our staff gave that point a little thought before deciding how to proceed with this years' group.
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Post by elliotberton on Dec 21, 2017 12:39:10 GMT -5
So, since I am jonesing, I scanned the US National Team site. Turns out Maddie Kingdon had 52 kills on 110 swings in a 5 set match in the Korean League. I hope she found an ice bath after that one. Meanwhile, Micha's Italian Serie A team is just under .500. But the brief write up from last week indicated that Micha was a sub in her team's last match. There is a nice picture of Micha in her colorful uniform. I thought Italians took fashion seriously.
Finally, I saw nothing about Megan Courtney's current condition. Here's hoping that she is able to get back on the court and resume competing with the National team.
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Post by nyline on Dec 21, 2017 13:22:34 GMT -5
So, since I am jonesing, I scanned the US National Team site. Turns out Maddie Kingdon had 52 kills on 110 swings in a 5 set match in the Korean League. I hope she found an ice bath after that one. Meanwhile, Micha's Italian Serie A team is just under .500. But the brief write up from last week indicated that Micha was a sub in her team's last match. There is a nice picture of Micha in her colorful uniform. I thought Italians took fashion seriously. Finally, I saw nothing about Megan Courtney's current condition. Here's hoping that she is able to get back on the court and resume competing with the National team. She was at the Final Four. I didn't speak with her, but she appeared to be moving around without any difficulty (granted, there's a big difference between walking around without difficulty and playing Olympic caliber volleyball). |
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Post by nitneliun on Dec 21, 2017 17:38:10 GMT -5
So, since I am jonesing, I scanned the US National Team site. Turns out Maddie Kingdon had 52 kills on 110 swings in a 5 set match in the Korean League. I hope she found an ice bath after that one. Meanwhile, Micha's Italian Serie A team is just under .500. But the brief write up from last week indicated that Micha was a sub in her team's last match. There is a nice picture of Micha in her colorful uniform. I thought Italians took fashion seriously. Finally, I saw nothing about Megan Courtney's current condition. Here's hoping that she is able to get back on the court and resume competing with the National team. She was at the Final Four. I didn't speak with her, but she appeared to be moving around without any difficulty (granted, there's a big difference between walking around without difficulty and playing Olympic caliber volleyball). Now that you mention it, I was kind of ticked off that Karch said nothing about her during the FF. The camera focused on Inky a couple of times, while Megan was sitting next to her and talking to her. They talked up Inky but said nothing about Megan. |
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Post by nyline on Dec 21, 2017 21:49:03 GMT -5
She was at the Final Four. I didn't speak with her, but she appeared to be moving around without any difficulty (granted, there's a big difference between walking around without difficulty and playing Olympic caliber volleyball). Now that you mention it, I was kind of ticked off that Karch said nothing about her during the FF. The camera focused on Inky a couple of times, while Megan was sitting next to her and talking to her. They talked up Inky but said nothing about Megan. Fair criticism. |
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Post by stillkicking on Dec 22, 2017 5:11:36 GMT -5
Now that you mention it, I was kind of ticked off that Karch said nothing about her during the FF. The camera focused on Inky a couple of times, while Megan was sitting next to her and talking to her. They talked up Inky but said nothing about Megan. Fair criticism. You have to wonder sometimes about that |
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Post by traveler on Dec 22, 2017 11:16:20 GMT -5
OTOH, Courtney's been a Karch favorite. But her standout performance at NCAA's was 3 years ago, Inky just last year; and Inky was much discussed during the tourney because of the gaping hole she left on graduation. Karch/producers were constantly trying to reach uninitiated audience (don't know why) about just what VB is; I suspect they didn't want to reach back for other players that might seem too inside volleyball. If it makes all us feel any better, we are so inside that we are not the target audience of ESPN's WVB National Championship coverage! We're elite! And finally, Megan is BAE.
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Post by toomuchvb on Dec 22, 2017 15:44:33 GMT -5
OTOH, Courtney's been a Karch favorite. But her standout performance at NCAA's was 3 years ago, Inky just last year; and Inky was much discussed during the tourney because of the gaping hole she left on graduation. Karch/producers were constantly trying to reach uninitiated audience (don't know why) about just what VB is; I suspect they didn't want to reach back for other players that might seem too inside volleyball. If it makes all us feel any better, we are so inside that we are not the target audience of ESPN's WVB National Championship coverage! We're elite! And finally, Megan is BAE. Noticed the Big Ten Women’s Sports Report last week went to great lengths to promote women’s volleyball and the value of growing the sport. Liz Tortorello-Nelson spoke very passionately about the importance of continuing women’s collegiate volleyball programming through that show and televised matches. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2017 16:14:26 GMT -5
OTOH, Courtney's been a Karch favorite. But her standout performance at NCAA's was 3 years ago, Inky just last year; and Inky was much discussed during the tourney because of the gaping hole she left on graduation. Karch/producers were constantly trying to reach uninitiated audience (don't know why) about just what VB is; I suspect they didn't want to reach back for other players that might seem too inside volleyball. If it makes all us feel any better, we are so inside that we are not the target audience of ESPN's WVB National Championship coverage! We're elite! And finally, Megan is BAE. Noticed the Big Ten Women’s Sports Report last week went to great lengths to promote women’s volleyball and the value of growing the sport. Liz Tortorello-Nelson spoke very passionately about the importance of continuing women’s collegiate volleyball programming through that show and televised matches. I like the job Liz does. I wish she'd done more PSU games on the BTN. |
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