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Post by badgerbreath on Sept 26, 2014 14:05:57 GMT -5
Haven't been able to post till now as it was all I could do to watch this game between the wife and work - haven't had time to read through all the comments. So excuse if this is redundant.
First congrats to PSU...they played very well, especially Micha who absolutely schooled Lauren in this match. A real confident, mature and technically amazing display -- except for the serves. Until now I had not understood Sheffs comments about Carlini trapping hitters, but it was evident several times in this match. She's technically great, but not always perceptive enough, yet. I have a hard time remembering a case where I saw Micha do that. They would have been fun to watch were they playing anyone else. Congrats to the Lions.
That said, UW played their part in the lopsidedness of this result. As a team we played tentatively and without awareness, especially in the first two sets. Not only the lack of service aces, but also the lack of service errors suggested a team trying not to lose points rather than one trying to win points. We weren't particularly aggressive in our hitting either, which is a real problem when coming up against a solid defense. It seemed like every attack in the first set lacked in power and went right to the heart of the PSU defense, which barely had to work to get balls up.
Then, when we got a result we wanted, we weren't at the races mentally. It seemed that every time a pass was a bit overhit, Micha would dump it without challenge to the apparent surprise of the badgers, even though she often had no other option and is known to do exactly that. I was also surprised by how many times, when PSU was out of system, they managed to get a kill when attacking from a deep position by simply placing the ball in the deep court. UW did not seem to anticipate the kind of attack that would result from that situation.
I worried when I saw this mentality creep into our game now and again in preseason. In previous instances it has looked like overconfidence. This time it looks like the large crowd, all the build-up to the sell-out, the history with PSU caused the team to fall into the trap of not wanting to lose and make mistakes, rather than wanting to perform as well as possible. Maybe it was spillover from the end of the Washington match, though I doubt it. They should take heart that the last set was even, but they need to learn how to start and maintain a focus on performance, regardless of the circumstances, if they want to be considered on a level with PSU.
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Post by Boof1224 on Sept 26, 2014 14:34:02 GMT -5
Micha getting a little tricky with her dumps. The rainbow corner shot and the one posted in this thread were both to her backside. She wasn't looking at where she was going with it. Thought that was pretty cool
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Post by badgerbill on Sept 26, 2014 14:39:50 GMT -5
When do Badger fans think we will get to see Kriskova get the nod? Secondly, is her knee near 100%? My insticts say that if she is good to go, she will diversify the Badger offense and take some of the pressure off of our right-side attack. I will be going to the game on Sunday, a match the Badgers should win. Really would like to see them play with more fire.
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Post by badgerbreath on Sept 26, 2014 15:11:46 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the point of sticking Kriskova in for one point was on Weds...but I think Sheff will ease her in and this was the beginning. I expect to see a little more of her on Sunday, but she won't start.
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Post by badgerbreath on Sept 26, 2014 15:23:23 GMT -5
Micha getting a little tricky with her dumps. The rainbow corner shot and the one posted in this thread were both to her backside. She wasn't looking at where she was going with it. Thought that was pretty cool Lauren has pulled off that reverse no-look dump a couple times this preseason, and against Texas, but there was space to hit it into and she does it reflexively in response to a tough high pass. PSU was very disciplined/and or were not scrambled by UW attacks. Micha was pitch perfect in her decision making and accuracy. That deep shot was a bit of a hail Mary. She definitely knew where she was hitting it and why, but she was clearly relieved, maybe surprised it landed. Just one of those nights where everything you do goes right.
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Post by rainbowbadger on Sept 26, 2014 15:24:52 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the point of sticking Kriskova in for one point was on Weds...but I think Sheff will ease her in and this was the beginning. I expect to see a little more of her on Sunday, but she won't start. Sheff was out of time-outs and Ellen needed a break/chat.
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Post by volleypaul on Sept 26, 2014 15:35:30 GMT -5
Micha getting a little tricky with her dumps. The rainbow corner shot and the one posted in this thread were both to her backside. She wasn't looking at where she was going with it. Thought that was pretty cool Lauren has pulled off that reverse no-look dump a couple times this preseason, and against Texas, but there was space to hit it into and she does it reflexively in response to a tough high pass. PSU was very disciplined/and or were not scrambled by UW attacks. Micha was pitch perfect in her decision making and accuracy. That deep shot was a bit of a hail Mary. She definitely knew where she was hitting it and why, but she was clearly relieved, maybe surprised it landed. Just one of those nights where everything you do goes right. Micha had the same dump towards the end of the Washington semi-final game last season. If you go back to the recording, you can hear Karch Kiraly go "Wow!" when she did it.
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Post by badgerbreath on Sept 26, 2014 15:54:18 GMT -5
Yeah...I don't think it's a new trick...but it looks great.
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Post by badgerbreath on Sept 26, 2014 15:56:31 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the point of sticking Kriskova in for one point was on Weds...but I think Sheff will ease her in and this was the beginning. I expect to see a little more of her on Sunday, but she won't start. Sheff was out of time-outs and Ellen needed a break/chat. Ah...I see. That makes more sense. So she replaced Ellen...he wasn't trying her in Bates's position.
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Post by Boof1224 on Sept 26, 2014 16:16:53 GMT -5
Gonna be fun to see how season turns out and how both develop. Badgers fans excited to see what kriskova can do and psu fans the same for Washington.
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Post by Phillytom on Sept 26, 2014 17:03:44 GMT -5
Nice post. You may be right that Wisconsin was playing like favorites (conservative) and PSU was playing like underdogs (super aggressive). It did feel that way at times. But I think the thing to keep in mind is PSU was playing lights out VB, especially for September. When a team is clicking like that it's going to be hard for anybody. PSU may not be as good as they looked Wednesday night. The upperclassmen -- Hancock, Courtney, Grant, Gonzalez, Fuller -- are going to be rock solid great all year, absolutely no question. But the freshman and Whitney, who is relatively inexperienced -- they were so on it was just uncanny. I doubt they can keep up that level of play all year. Bottom line is Badgers looked really good to me. Ball control is outstanding, middle is strong, pins are strong. Blocking needs to improve but it will. Carlini was really good considering it wasn't her best night. I wouldn't count Wisconsin out for the B1G title. Haven't been able to post till now as it was all I could do to watch this game between the wife and work - haven't had time to read through all the comments. So excuse if this is redundant. First congrats to PSU...they played very well, especially Micha who absolutely schooled Lauren in this match. A real confident, mature and technically amazing display -- except for the serves. Until now I had not understood Sheffs comments about Carlini trapping hitters, but it was evident several times in this match. She's technically great, but not always perceptive enough, yet. I have a hard time remembering a case where I saw Micha do that. They would have been fun to watch were they playing anyone else. Congrats to the Lions. That said, UW played their part in the lopsidedness of this result. As a team we played tentatively and without awareness, especially in the first two sets. Not only the lack of service aces, but also the lack of service errors suggested a team trying not to lose points rather than one trying to win points. We weren't particularly aggressive in our hitting either, which is a real problem when coming up against a solid defense. It seemed like every attack in the first set lacked in power and went right to the heart of the PSU defense, which barely had to work to get balls up. Then, when we got a result we wanted, we weren't at the races mentally. It seemed that every time a pass was a bit overhit, Micha would dump it without challenge to the apparent surprise of the badgers, even though she often had no other option and is known to do exactly that. I was also surprised by how many times, when PSU was out of system, they managed to get a kill when attacking from a deep position by simply placing the ball in the deep court. UW did not seem to anticipate the kind of attack that would result from that situation. I worried when I saw this mentality creep into our game now and again in preseason. In previous instances it has looked like overconfidence. This time it looks like the large crowd, all the build-up to the sell-out, the history with PSU caused the team to fall into the trap of not wanting to lose and make mistakes, rather than wanting to perform as well as possible. Maybe it was spillover from the end of the Washington match, though I doubt it. They should take heart that the last set was even, but they need to learn how to start and maintain a focus on performance, regardless of the circumstances, if they want to be considered on a level with PSU.
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Post by gnu2vball on Sept 26, 2014 17:04:38 GMT -5
Question for Wisconsin fans: You played Washington and PSU back-to-back; how do they compare?
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Post by badgerbreath on Sept 26, 2014 18:40:33 GMT -5
Nice post. You may be right that Wisconsin was playing like favorites (conservative) and PSU was playing like underdogs (super aggressive). It did feel that way at times. But I think the thing to keep in mind is PSU was playing lights out VB, especially for September. When a team is clicking like that it's going to be hard for anybody. PSU may not be as good as they looked Wednesday night. The upperclassmen -- Hancock, Courtney, Grant, Gonzalez, Fuller -- are going to be rock solid great all year, absolutely no question. But the freshman and Whitney, who is relatively inexperienced -- they were so on it was just uncanny. I doubt they can keep up that level of play all year. Bottom line is Badgers looked really good to me. Ball control is outstanding, middle is strong, pins are strong. Blocking needs to improve but it will. Carlini was really good considering it wasn't her best night. I wouldn't count Wisconsin out for the B1G title. Haven't been able to post till now as it was all I could do to watch this game between the wife and work - haven't had time to read through all the comments. So excuse if this is redundant. First congrats to PSU...they played very well, especially Micha who absolutely schooled Lauren in this match. A real confident, mature and technically amazing display -- except for the serves. Until now I had not understood Sheffs comments about Carlini trapping hitters, but it was evident several times in this match. She's technically great, but not always perceptive enough, yet. I have a hard time remembering a case where I saw Micha do that. They would have been fun to watch were they playing anyone else. Congrats to the Lions. That said, UW played their part in the lopsidedness of this result. As a team we played tentatively and without awareness, especially in the first two sets. Not only the lack of service aces, but also the lack of service errors suggested a team trying not to lose points rather than one trying to win points. We weren't particularly aggressive in our hitting either, which is a real problem when coming up against a solid defense. It seemed like every attack in the first set lacked in power and went right to the heart of the PSU defense, which barely had to work to get balls up. Then, when we got a result we wanted, we weren't at the races mentally. It seemed that every time a pass was a bit overhit, Micha would dump it without challenge to the apparent surprise of the badgers, even though she often had no other option and is known to do exactly that. I was also surprised by how many times, when PSU was out of system, they managed to get a kill when attacking from a deep position by simply placing the ball in the deep court. UW did not seem to anticipate the kind of attack that would result from that situation. I worried when I saw this mentality creep into our game now and again in preseason. In previous instances it has looked like overconfidence. This time it looks like the large crowd, all the build-up to the sell-out, the history with PSU caused the team to fall into the trap of not wanting to lose and make mistakes, rather than wanting to perform as well as possible. Maybe it was spillover from the end of the Washington match, though I doubt it. They should take heart that the last set was even, but they need to learn how to start and maintain a focus on performance, regardless of the circumstances, if they want to be considered on a level with PSU. I'm not sure I would call it "playing as favorites." It felt more like "playing not to disappoint." They didn't want to let down that crowd and those expectations by making mistakes (it felt like -- gotta be careful here). That sort of implies a lack of faith in their own abilities, so there is still a bit of inferiority complex about the performance. Hancock's attitude is a good contrast...I'd argue that her serve was a neutral or even a net negative weapon for PSU in this match. But she didn't back down; that showed her aggressive intent. Attempting to avoid mistakes at this level is, of course, a mistake. Once you're on your heels like that, it's hard to regain initiative, especially against a team as good as PSU. In rally scoring, the set is over before you know it and your fighting to stay in the next. I feel sure this badgers team is good enough to compete for a B1G title. I'm glad that doesn't seem like a completely wacky opinion after this match! We're fundamentally sound, and still adapting to some new tactics, and a new position. Despite the experience, we also have some very young players in key positions, with more to come. But these ladies have to believe they are good enough...not just in their minds and in their words, but in their bones. To the point where they are not thinking about it, just doing it. PSU seems to have that belief right now, which seems justified based on their performances. Confidence is a funny, fickle, surprising thing, though. I'm not sure what happens over the whole conference season. (cliche alert) That's why they play it.
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roger
Sophomore
Posts: 211
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Post by roger on Sept 26, 2014 19:21:28 GMT -5
Two observations about the Carlini /Hancock discussion Assuming that Carlini is the next Olympic setter seems to suggest that Micha if in fact not up to International standards is not able to learn which defies her abilities and skill improvements over the 4 years that she has been at PSU.
The net cam for the PSU/Wisc. match reveals that Carlini does not cover attacks most of the time in fact while I watched she never did.
Micha on the other hand covers all the attacks. Does it matter?
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Post by rainbowbadger on Sept 26, 2014 19:25:22 GMT -5
Sheff was out of time-outs and Ellen needed a break/chat. Ah...I see. That makes more sense. So she replaced Ellen...he wasn't trying her in Bates's position. Nope. Kriskova for Ellen. There was a collective WTF from our area of the stands. Then we realized what he was doing when Chappy came right back in.
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