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Post by mnsports255 on Sept 25, 2014 10:44:04 GMT -5
I say a win's a win and I'm happy we got one last night! And I think the experience gained will pay off this season and next. Thanks for the good wishes, GoBucky. If I shouldn't be expecting a victory Saturday night, what should be considered a good performance by my Gophers? I always cheer for a victory and I think young teams often surprise us, but I agree with (R)uffda that my expectations this year should be somewhat measured. I just don't know how to do that. I think a good performance (for this current team we have) would be to try to crack 20 points in two sets. Not sarcastic at all, I think keeping it moderately close in 2/3 sets would be a good stepping stone. The only thing Minnesota has that could give Penn State fits is the Gopher block, which is extremely strong.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2014 10:50:36 GMT -5
Battle them. From the first point to the last, knowing that is how they will get better.
Sports are all about the challenge. Winning is a bonus. Meeting the challenge head on and competing to the best of your ability is the point.
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Post by rampageripster on Sept 25, 2014 11:06:10 GMT -5
Battle them. From the first point to the last, knowing that is how they will get better. Sports are all about the challenge. Winning is a bonus. Meeting the challenge head on and competing to the best of your ability is the point. WAS IT OVER WHEN THE GERMANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR!?!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2014 11:17:59 GMT -5
Right. Did Custer give up after Little Big Horn. Hell no.
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Post by sulo on Sept 25, 2014 12:48:22 GMT -5
Hey, Ruffda, have you heard or do you have any inside information as to whether they will again try to supress attendance against Penn State? I don't want to be supressed two matches in a row. What are we to do?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2014 13:02:30 GMT -5
I believe it's a fan-by-fan policy now. I'd have to see if you're on the list.
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Post by Wiswell on Sept 25, 2014 13:10:56 GMT -5
Battle them. From the first point to the last, knowing that is how they will get better. Sports are all about the challenge. Winning is a bonus. Meeting the challenge head on and competing to the best of your ability is the point. This is important: Don't let them get up early in the set, because you won't catch up (or if you do, they will just surge all over again). Oh, and Hancock will probably start in the serving spot. Hope that she zings it in the net, which she did 4 times last night (the only bright spot), giving the Badgers one of only 2 leads. You might have some success if you can hit off the slide and in the middle. On the right side, (r)uf dah, good luck. I know how the Gopher fans are feeling. Badgers spent a number of years in the wilderness. I am not convinced that they are fully out of the wilderness, but just getting lucky (UW's 2015 will be your 2014). Gophers do have a better block, but I wouldn't say that was the worst offense of the Badgers last night (no, they don't have one, but it wasn't overly exploited). Penn State's defense in the backrow was just lights out, and if you give PSU 4 times to get a point, they are going to get it. I think the scores will be closer than the Badger match, which was something like -17, -20, -21. But that wasn't really as close as it appears on paper.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2014 13:17:17 GMT -5
Minnesota is nowhere near the wilderness Wisconsin was in.
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Post by waxclinic on Sept 25, 2014 13:56:30 GMT -5
WAS IT OVER WHEN THE GERMANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR!?! Never gets old I know what I'm watching tonight. Love it.
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Post by waxclinic on Sept 25, 2014 14:09:11 GMT -5
Just seems like there's plenty to enjoy. But not if you're expecting something that they aren't. This. Agree 100%. I think some people are just disappointed because they think Minnesota is elite program and should be doing better. No, they are not elite at the moment. They probably should not even be ranked but I do like the direction they are going. Young players who have gotten better since last year (Tapps & Wilhite to name few) and couple really good freshmen plus promising players coming in (some confirmed, some just rumors at the moment). At least I'm excited.
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Post by spikerthemovie on Sept 25, 2014 14:26:29 GMT -5
This "shouldn't be ranked" talk is nonsense -- I haven't seen enough teams play to be certain but, based on what I've been reading (a lot), I'd say they're currently ranked about where they belong. Look at the top 25 ranking and find 25 teams you are confident are better than Minnesota. Good luck.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2014 14:44:46 GMT -5
And that's the thing about rankings. They are relative by definition. You can say a #17 team should be playing better than Minnesota, but they're still ranked relative to the rest of D1.
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Post by knowname on Sept 25, 2014 15:09:31 GMT -5
The worse thing that can happen is for the Penn State team to go into a match where they believe it should be an easy W. In Minnesota and Nebraska, that can't happen. Both teams need to be taken seriously and then let the rest of the season unfold. The old cliche, one match at a time.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2014 15:24:40 GMT -5
My gripes were that I've seen the Gophers play in person at every match they've played this year at home, as well as every away match that's had any sort of live video available, and this was by far the worst I'd seen them play all season, for the first couple sets. I think overall the level of play seemed to improve over the course of the match, the first few points of each set notwithstanding.
Luckily the Gophers figured out how to slow down Sekinger a bit, but then Mitchell came alive.
Wilhite had a triple double last night but she almost added another double - in errors. And she's not typically an error-prone hitter. She just couldn't avoid or tool a block to save her life, because her arm swing is just too slow to get through or around it, and certainly too slow to beat it. It was frustrating to see, because in the past couple matches I have seen her really improve that, or so it had seemed. I really worry about how effective her offense will be against an even tougher blocking team.
I do love this team, however, and I'm constantly impressed with how good they are blocking (Tapps and Wilhite especially, though Nora really had some great BAs last night as well!) and I think they're going to constantly improve.
My gripes last night were not that I think the team should be better than they are, but I was at least hoping for them to be as good as they actually have shown in a couple other matches this season.
The end of the match was actually pretty exciting, as both teams like to fight and I felt the level of play truly increased.
I also think Goehner had some really, really nice digs that went right to their target.
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Post by ugopher on Sept 25, 2014 15:28:17 GMT -5
My gripes last night were not that I think the team should be better than they are, but I was at least hoping for them to be as good as they actually have shown in a couple other matches this season. The other team might have something to do with that. Yes, some errors may have been bad but is it because the player was trying to do something to avoid a block? Or, to try a serve that is not her norm?
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