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Post by bucky415 on Oct 4, 2004 1:18:38 GMT -5
I agree with a lot of your comments about Wisconsin. Great players like Livingston are hard to find, and Wisconsin hasn't had a dominant hitter since she left. I also agree that the Badgers have been down partly due to the fact that they have not passed or played defense as well as they did in 2000-01. I didn't watch the 1997-98 teams much, so I don't really know about them. It isn't totally a break between the players Cook and Waite recruited, though. Waite got Meggan Kohnen and Sara Urbanek to transfer to UW (Urbanek following him from NIU), and they were strong passers and defenders. Also, I am sure both coaches helped in this, but Maastrict became solid in those aspects despite coming in as a middle and then moving to right side and then left side. The current Badgers don't have many all around players. Shaw, Odenthal, and Meierotto have all worked on their defense and passing and have improved in that regard, but none of them were playing back row today except when serving. The Badgers were playing Megan Mills for Odenthal and Amanda Berkley for Meierotto in the back row today, with Wack subbing for the middles. Thus, they had a freshman libero, two freshmen defensive specialists, and a converted middle (Carlini, except when she struggled for a while and Weidner replaced her) playing the back row. They were able to get the job done today, but they are unproven, while their counterparts at Minnesota and Penn State have certainly established themselves in the conference. I have really come to appreciate how valuable a player the all around outside hitter is. Wisconsin could really use another Erin Byrd. Of course, so could a lot of teams.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2004 9:39:22 GMT -5
This is interesting. Even the GameTracker shows PSU served out of rotation at 4-3 in game 5. Tortorello serves a point, PSU scores a point, and then SALYER serves. Nice job of officiating--especially since Minnesota was pointing it out to them at the time. Somebody obviously lost track of the libero. I heard PSU actually had 7 players (the libero jumped off the court) on the court when Sam served. Also notice that Jen Bowman serves a string of points to give Minnesota the lead, for good.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2004 9:55:37 GMT -5
This, by the way, was what the "big discussion" was about at 5-3 PSU.
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Post by LuckyVB on Oct 6, 2004 10:16:07 GMT -5
Russ Rose is a master at intimidating the officials. He's made it an art form.
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Post by foreignball on Oct 6, 2004 11:30:01 GMT -5
I agree with a lot of your comments about Wisconsin. Great players like Livingston are hard to find, and Wisconsin hasn't had a dominant hitter since she left....................... bucky415, I agree a 100% with your analysis but in connection to JC/PW recruiting preferences I’m still wondering why Badgers keep looking for big MB’s provided they have had problems back row? As we know defense/reception skill is more an exception than rule for those players.
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Post by LuckyVB on Oct 6, 2004 12:25:19 GMT -5
It appears to me that Waite is convinced that if he has a bunch of tall players they will block so well that the back row will be of little importance.
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Post by sIsam on Oct 6, 2004 12:39:16 GMT -5
It appears to me that Waite is convinced that if he has a bunch of tall players they will block so well that the back row will be of little importance. Unfortunately, most of the time it does not work this way and teams realize this at the end of the season....
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