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Post by wiscvball on Oct 1, 2006 15:25:36 GMT -5
14-12 Minnesota
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Post by wiscvball on Oct 1, 2006 15:26:08 GMT -5
Gophers win game 5 15-12!
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Post by rudepa on Oct 1, 2006 15:27:13 GMT -5
Yay!! Way to finish.
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Post by wiscvball on Oct 1, 2006 15:27:18 GMT -5
MSU in the net on match pt... glad the gophers were able to pull it out... that would have been an UGLY loss come tournament seeding time.
Now things get interesting for Minn/UW with PSU/OSU/Purdue and each other in the next 3 weeks.
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Post by spikerthemovie on Oct 1, 2006 15:27:30 GMT -5
Who would have thought this would be the match to see this weekend? YIkes.
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Post by rudepa on Oct 1, 2006 15:29:15 GMT -5
I didnt think this would even be close. Gophers look great offesively! Need to step up the defense before playing teams like WI, PSU
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Post by st15 on Oct 1, 2006 15:29:56 GMT -5
Oh well. At least MSU played well, and hitting .302 in a five game loss isn't too bad!
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Post by snickers on Oct 1, 2006 16:14:17 GMT -5
Hartmann set a great match for the Gophers. She was connecting very well with her middles. Looked like her injury wasn't too bad, so hopefully she'll be back at full strength next weekend.
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Post by Revellowski on Oct 1, 2006 16:35:40 GMT -5
Hartmann was injured in game two when Johnson banged a ball off her hand. She was going up to save an overpass and she was tooled off the back of her hand. Her eyes were welling up pretty well and she shook it off for most of the match. By game 5 with the match on the line it kept getting worse and she made some mental errors. She was either incredibly indecisive or her hand was killing her because she made a few setting errors in a row to get Michigan State back into the game. It was hard to tell if she was nervous or really hurt but she was crying after the ball handling error call. Hebert took her out and Bowman set the last few points.
I have to say that I'm really impressed with the overall improvement of Rachel's hands not to mention the connection she is finding with Jones and Nelson. Our middles were on fire tonight because they had some beautiful hittable balls. Just keep on making those to reach high and they can get the kills.
The 2 keys to State's success was to serve Minnesota short(many balls went to Bowman to take her out of the offense) and hit line. The setter was pushing the ball out and the outsides were just punishing the ball down the line. Instead of going after the ball on the tight sets Minnesota was still choosing to block angle. They could have had some straight down roofs if they'd taken ball. Instead the State outsides hit some kills straight down in front of the ten foot line.
I also thought there were some pretty poor coaching decisions made. Why put Katie V. in at the end of game 2 when she hadn't played the whole game(and after she had a horrible game 1). She gets a set on game point and tips it over because she hasn't swung at the ball for a while and State easily converts to win it.
At the end of game 5 Wilber gets put in for the first time in the match and serves up an error. Nelson had about 3 aces prior to that so I don't see why she would have been pulled for a cold bench player. Then to torture us more he puts in Fallon for the first time in the match. At least she got her serve over. I question decisions like that. It's like "hey, I've got an idea, let's put someone in that's completely cold and see what she can do". At least we won.
Michigan State is very good by the way. Better all around team than Michigan. Much better setter than Michigan. Tough start to conference play but don't look like a bottom dweller to me. Cathy George is taking them in the right direction.
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Post by snickers on Oct 1, 2006 17:02:33 GMT -5
Saw signs of the injury at the end of game 4 too. It seemed like her one hand lost strength and/or was creating a lot of pain, so she had to overcompensate with the other hand, sending some of her outside sets way too tight. And by game 5, even her middle sets were slow off the hands. Man that must be painfull. Give her even more credit for fighting through it and playing a very good game. She was so on with her middles......jones and nelson were in heaven and hitting well over .400. Get some well-deserved rest, Rachel!
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Post by bomber on Oct 1, 2006 17:13:33 GMT -5
I didnt think this would even be close. Gophers look great offesively! Need to step up the defense before playing teams like WI, PSU Nice 5 game win for Minnesota, but their middles combined only get 6 blocks in a five game match?? And eight total team blocks? And even more amazing, the Gophers get outblocked decisively by the Spartans, who are among the worst in the conference in that department. Basically, because MSU has no effective middles. I think ruder's observation above about having to step up their defense is a bit of an understatement. The Gopher's present tune won't play so well when PSU and the Badgers come calling. (And neither will running 79 of your attacks thru the middle offense.)
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Post by mydearwatson on Oct 1, 2006 18:43:44 GMT -5
Bomber, why give the Gophers any fodder to feed upon? Let them be and wait for real competition come along.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2006 19:14:23 GMT -5
I missed game 4 and the middle of game 5, so keep that in mind.
bomber's comments are way off base. This may have been the first match this year where the defense was sub-par. OFFENSE has been this team's problem.
So there's good news and bad news about this match, but I think you have to give MSU some credit. And you have to be encouraged that the offense is coming around.
And, please, do not put PSU and Wisconsin in the same category. But I'll give Wisconsin this much: they are beating up on some of the teams Minnesota is struggling with. I wouldn't have expected this from what I saw in Madison. But let's not get carried away, bomber.
Finally, what's wrong with running your attacks through your middles? Especially if they are hitting .500? Seems smart to me.
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Post by abcd098 on Oct 1, 2006 20:19:14 GMT -5
It is heartening to see MSU being competitive with some good teams like Purdue and Minnesota, but on the same token it is really frustrating to see them losing these 5-games that are so close. Vanessa King has had some really good stats in these tough matches. I have yet to see her play, but I hope she is really this consistent. Also, this is Jessica Hohl's first subpar match of the season really. One good thing was to see the blocking improve. It seems like MSU can't put a match together; they always have brightspots but there is something lacking to give them the win.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2006 20:31:25 GMT -5
I think it's safe to say the difference in this match was the middles. I don't want to push that too hard, however, since MSU could have won this match with a couple of breaks.
If that position can be improved, they could make some noise.
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