#1 Penn State at #9 Michigan State - 11/01/17 - 7:00 pm ET

There is movement on an hourly basis in the RPI!    Florida's sweep is in the RPI update so far today.  They are currently now #3

Add Thelen to the list for another solid performance!

I was impressed by the "team" nature of this win. Contributions from everyone who played including extended time for Pierce and Holcomb and yet another kill by Reed. Gritty with tons of digs, long rallys, improvised kills revealing how calm the ladies can be, and for the most part, excellent serve receive. Meanwhile, our serve stressed MSU early and often. Coach pushed buttons, and great results followed.

When did Cami May go in?

The fourth game was an object lesson on how a seemingly in-hand game can go south in a hurry. Penn State was up by seven points or so, maybe 13-6? Then all of a sudden they're down 13-14? Looking back at that gives me a greater appreciation for why Coach Rose is cautious with who he subs in and when. It really isn't over until it's over.

After that match, who couldn't have a deeper appreciation of Kendall Pierce-I-mean-White? She's just wowing me now. But...has anyone noticed how she does a back-bump-set to Lee? I realized as i watched last night that this is becoming a classic of White's, and I'm not sure I've seen anyone else do it.

Another match observation: after the dust settled, I noticed 4 PSU players hit over 300, with 2 of them, Abby and Haleigh, in mid-to-high 400s. Only 1 MSt player, Garvelink, hit over 300.

As to Cami May, all the stat sheets show she was in. Let's go to the video...

volleyballmag.com/ncaa-volleyball-110217/


NCAA tabs Penn State, Nebraska, Minnesota, Stanford as top four: Those are the coveted spots heading into the NCAA Tournament, because the top four teams, should they survive the first two rounds, get to be regional hosts.



The NCAA Division I volleyball will meet in person to select the NCAA Tournament bracket, but in this case visited by phone to come up with this list, doing so only for matches through this past Sunday. So it does not include Florida’s victory at Kentucky.



They came up with this, with records followed by NCAA RPI:

1. Penn State, 21-1, RPI 1

2. Nebraska, 18-4, RPI 4

3. Minnesota, 21-2, RPI 2

4. Stanford, 19-2, RPI 7

5. Kentucky, 19-2, RPI 3

6. Florida 18-1, RPI 5

7. Texas, 17-2, RPI 6

8. Washington, 18-5, RPI 9

9. Oregon, 14-6, RPI 10

10. Wisconsin, 15-6, RPI 8



“The whole intent of releasing the top 10 is to spark conversation and debate and get everyone excited about NCAA volleyball,” said Lisa Peterson, the chair of the committee who is deputy athletic director/senior women’s administrator at Oregon.



“All 10 of these schools and all the other teams we considered are playing incredibly well right now and it’s so great for the sport that our conversation took twice as long as we thought it would to get the top 10.”



Peterson said “the only thing easy was Penn State at No. 1. Everything else was a debate.”



Veteran Penn State coach Russ Rose, whose team gave Stanford its two losses, said “It certainly has ramifications, because it’s the volleyball committee that’s responsible for seeding and selecting teams for the tournament.”



Rose knows that being a top-four host team is no small thing.



“In this age of saber metrics one could do a study on the winning percentage of people who are hosting,” Rose said. “We’ve won as a host and we’ve lost as a host. But certainly it’s challenging late in the year — unless you’re chartering — to go travel and play. Last year Stanford was the only one who was able to win on the road in the regionals. They had a veteran team.”



So does Penn State, but Rose reminded how unpredictable the rest of the season and the tournament can be.



“I think six teams in our conference could win the national championship,” Rose said. “And I think Florida, Kentucky for sure, and Texas and Stanford and I’m sure there’s somebody else in the Pac-12 that I don’t know about and there’s probably some team out there laying low that’s really good.”


The Nittany Lions won in East Lansing 27-25, 25-19, 25-27, 25-21 as Haleigh Washington and Simone Lee had 18 kills each.



Washington hit .444 and had two digs and three blocks, while Lee had five digs and three solo blocks. Ali Frantti had 13 kills, and ace, seven digs and a solo block and setter Abby Detering had nine kills, hit .471, seven digs and three blocks.



Michigan State (16-6, 9-4) got 16 kills from Autumn Bailey, who had 14 digs. Alyssa Garvelink had 14 kills and 11 digs and Brooke Kranda had 13 kills.



“Michigan State’s really good and they have six seniors on the floor,” Rose said. “And they do some things we had great difficulty defending and I think other people have also had great difficulty defending. They’re big, their confident at the net. We played well for two and a half, three games, and we were fortunate that we didn’t fade.”



MSU coach Cathy George had praise for Penn State.



“… but I was proud of the fight I saw in our team tonight,” George said. “We fought back at every turn, even in the fourth set when they jumped on us early and led by seven points, we battled back to tie it.



“These are the games you get in the Big Ten. I thought the fans were treated to some exciting rallies and some really entertaining volleyball. We’re disappointed that we couldn’t pull it out, but I think that we still have lots of good things to build on and we’re going to get back into it tomorrow to prepare for Northwestern.”