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Post by rainbowbadger on Apr 16, 2014 19:41:46 GMT -5
Are they playing a regular match? I would be curious to find out more about the Seattle tournament. I hope he discusses that. Yes, regular match. We're up 18-14 in set 3. |
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Post by Wiswell on Apr 16, 2014 19:52:28 GMT -5
Twitter says there are 700 there! Wow!
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Post by rainbowbadger on Apr 16, 2014 20:00:26 GMT -5
Seattle tourney is the first of a 4-year series. Maryland is the other B1G team. Group will play here in 2015, at USC in 16, and Maryland in 17. This year, we'll play USC on a Thursday, Washington the next day, then come home and host PSU on the following Wednesday to kick off the conference season.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2014 21:34:45 GMT -5
Can anyone give insight into how the match was tonight, por favor...
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Post by rainbowbadger on Apr 16, 2014 21:46:14 GMT -5
Good match. Sweep. Yeah! And a great crowd: 710, according to Twitter, which is more than some programs get in a fall match.
Marquette played some scrappy defense and found the holes in our block (which was kind of porous at times this evening), but they pretty much took themselves out of the match with unforced errors, both hitting and serving. I don't know the Marquette players that well, and I wasn't really paying attention to who did what on their side.
Don't get me wrong, there were some tense/ugly moments on the Wisconsin side, but it was really good to see our players taking risks and stretching. Haleigh is serving. Ellen is playing back row, working on her ball handling and back row attack. Deme is passing on rotations where she's in front (last year she wasn't a primary passer unless she was in the back row). Courtney is passing more also. LC is working on her attacking. Fricano is getting match time experience, and is having some flashes of brilliance. I like her hops, and she is good at finding the back corners.
During the Q&A, Morey spoke pretty articulately about spring play and how it's different from fall. The point is to stretch and be uncomfortable, that it shouldn't feel like December, which is all about strategy and winning. She said they were struggling with that as a team early in the spring, and they had to have some meetings to get their minds around the different objectives of springtime.
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Post by rainbowbadger on Apr 16, 2014 21:55:23 GMT -5
Oh, another thing: There was a lot of discussion during post-match Q&A and amongst fans after the match about people wanting fan buses for road trips this fall. A couple of fans volunteered to take the lead in coordinating the trips and have put together a website so people can sign up: badgervbfanbus.com. Jessica Yanz said she will send it out in the bulletin, but I figured I'd spread the word on here as well. It would be AWESOME to load up a couple of buses and head to Champaign to - ahem - repay the Illinois students for their enthusiasm last year. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2014 21:56:47 GMT -5
Yeah, twitter is always an accurate source for attendance.
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Post by dorothymantooth on Apr 16, 2014 22:12:06 GMT -5
Seattle tourney is the first of a 4-year series. Maryland is the other B1G team. Group will play here in 2015, at USC in 16, and Maryland in 17. This year, we'll play USC on a Thursday, Washington the next day, then come home and host PSU on the following Wednesday to kick off the conference season. heck, Washington wouldn't play PSU and turn around and play Washington St. UW is going to play SC and Washington and come home and play PSU? At least we know who has bigger cajones. |
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Post by rainbowbadger on Apr 16, 2014 22:30:22 GMT -5
Yeah, twitter is always an accurate source for attendance. Well, this is per the Wisconsin VB Twitter, which I believe was being operated by one of the communications folks sitting with Diane, so I'm going to roll with that number. |
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Post by rainbowbadger on Apr 16, 2014 22:33:42 GMT -5
Seattle tourney is the first of a 4-year series. Maryland is the other B1G team. Group will play here in 2015, at USC in 16, and Maryland in 17. This year, we'll play USC on a Thursday, Washington the next day, then come home and host PSU on the following Wednesday to kick off the conference season. heck, Washington wouldn't play PSU and turn around and play Washington St. UW is going to play SC and Washington and come home and play PSU? At least we know who has bigger cajones. The Badger players want it. Sheffield said it tonight: Nobody on this team came here for easy wins. They want to prove themselves. And the bigger the stage, the hungrier they are. #BringIt, as they say on the Twitter. |
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Post by bucky415 on Apr 17, 2014 2:11:51 GMT -5
Sorry for any non-match related Spotted Cow caused typos. Anyway, I had two major take aways from this match. First, Wisconsin has a lot of room for improvement and some questions still unanswered if they want to get where they are going. Second, that said, Wisconsin is good. I didn't hear what Sheffield said at the start of the q and a session, but he mentioned someone was under the weather, and it would make sense that it was Blake, given that the others who didn't play have been injured. If that is the case (really the best case scenario when a player is missing from a match), I hope she gets well soon. At any rate, I thought it was actually a pretty clean spring match from the Badgers, given how those often go. The biggest concerns remain finding another passer (Thomas and Chapman were kind of hit and miss, with Thomas starting out well and being a bit shaky late), and the health of the team. Thompson had her leg wrapped and was clearly not at 100 percent, although she did make some plays. I thought that the middle offense for the Badgers in general was a bit off tonight, as Carlini's connections with them were not up to their normal standards. There were also more split blocks than you would like, but I am guessing UW outblocked Marquette in the match. That said, I think Nelson is on her way to becoming a really strong blocker, and I just hope Thompson can get more healthy to get where she can be as well. It wasn't glaring, just not as strong as you would like. There were some "unforced" Marquette errors that were the result of set blocks.
Otherwise, Wisconsin did some impressive things tonight. They served much more effectively than Marquette, which killed itself with some service errors at the end of the third set. Chapman's serve is becoming a real weapon and ignited a big run that broke the second set open. Their passing wasn't great, but it didn't give up many aces and generally gave them a chance to score. I thought all the pin hitters did pretty well. Chapman was aggressive again when she had something to work with, hitting the ball as hard as I have ever seen her hit it for an emphatic kill to end the first set. Morales and Thomas also were effective with their swings, showing that they have the potential to improve on their offensive showings of last year and that they don't want to be replaced. The x-factor, however, is Fricano. She is still pretty raw, but there was something new tonight with her getting the majority of her swings from the left side rather than the right. She still looked awkward on a couple of out of system attacks, but she does have this thing going for her as an attacker. I think it may be an advantage when you can consistently jump higher than the blockers and hit over them. She was doing that tonight. The floor defense from the Badgers was uneven, but Carlini did a good job of digging out slide attacks and there were some good digs all around. They also just seem to show a big jump in court awareness from last season, keeping some balls in play that they wouldn't have in the past, especially on broken plays and hitter coverage. It wasn't perfect, as there were some spring plays where they looked like the Keystone Cops, but they had more impressive ones that I recall. The Carlini ridiculous play of the night was when she was running way off the court to chase down a ball and made a perfectly placed back bump set to Chapman for a back row kill. I don't know how to sell that type of stuff to get the casual fan interested, as it may not look as awesome on first glance as the emphatic kill, but even a dolt like me who has watched the sport for a while and isn't great at setter evaluation has to be impressed there.
As for Marquette, they have to do better in the serve/pass battle. I think White may be the guy to ask on this, but I was wondering if the topspin jump serve is worth it in terms of getting points unless you have someone at the Hancock (own class) or Bricio level. Marquette didn't do well with those tonight given the errors they had, and I have to wonder if it is worth it over time. Otherwise, they seemed to be a victim of what UW tries to do with tough serving and also because they weren't always able to transition well when they did get digs due to what was being sent at them. I wasn't too impressed with their new setter, Nilles maybe, as she was inconsistent with placement, sometimes good but also off a little quite a bit. The ball control didn't help. One thing I will say, however, is that Bailey is impressive. I could easily see her being an All-American if Marquette has good seasons down the line. She is maybe a bit undersized but has good vision and power and has all the shots. Gosh is a pretty athletic lefty, but the Badgers, to their credit, did a good job slowing her down tonight. All in all, I thought the match kind of backed up what I saw the teams to be coming in, Wisconsin as a pretty good team, and Marquette as a team that could be in the top 25 but probably outside the top one or two groups of teams. In general, while I think they made a good hire here, I hope they can find some stability in the administration of their university and athletic department. I think their conference affiliation makes a lot of sense for them, so I hope it works well for the schools involved. I really mean no offense to those schools, but I don't see Rutgers and Maryland as good adds for the Big Ten because they are so far away from the league's traditional footprint.
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Post by bucky415 on Apr 17, 2014 2:15:30 GMT -5
Also, I have to give Sheffield credit for the four year revolving tournament with Wisconsin and Maryland playing USC and Washington. I think it goes along with his expectation of consistent excellence year to year, but I have to think it would be better in 2014 and 2016, when the Badgers will expect to have more experienced teams, than in 2015 and 2017, when they will be younger. There is no shame in losing to those teams, but it could be a challenge to get wins for a young team with a challenging league slate as well.
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Post by Wiswell on Apr 17, 2014 8:14:29 GMT -5
Oh, another thing: There was a lot of discussion during post-match Q&A and amongst fans after the match about people wanting fan buses for road trips this fall. A couple of fans volunteered to take the lead in coordinating the trips and have put together a website so people can sign up: badgervbfanbus.com. Jessica Yanz said she will send it out in the bulletin, but I figured I'd spread the word on here as well. It would be AWESOME to load up a couple of buses and head to Champaign to - ahem - repay the Illinois students for their enthusiasm last year. I'll be at U of I in a couple of weeks. Maybe I should load up on some Illini gear (cheap, of course)...to toss off appropriately. Yeah, twitter is always an accurate source for attendance. Well, this is per the Wisconsin VB Twitter, which I believe was being operated by one of the communications folks sitting with Diane, so I'm going to roll with that number. They have people using clickers to count attendance, so I think it's a reliable number. More reliable than the "attendees" during the season, which is tickets sold. |
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Post by Wiswell on Apr 17, 2014 10:02:00 GMT -5
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Post by rainbowbadger on Apr 17, 2014 10:09:50 GMT -5
"Taking a look at Marquette’s roster, you would not be able to find one player older than a sophomore and there’s good reason behind that because the Marquette volleyball program’s first year was last season. But in just their first season, the Golden Gophers impressed, going 26-6 and winning the Big East." What? |
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