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Post by SportyBucky on Sept 22, 2014 8:32:14 GMT -5
I think Wisconsin wins in 3 or 4. For some reason, I think Frantti is going to really struggle this match. For as well as Penn State has been playing the last several weeks (ridiculous hitting percentages, dominating sweeps), I think playing Wisconsin in a very hostile environment will shake this young team. Plus, Wisconsin is coming off of a weekend where they beat a top 10 team in USC and nearly upset Washington. Led by Carlini, Wisconsin will be angry and focused. The x factor could be Haleigh Washington. This will be her first big match, and if she is dominant offensively and can slow down the slide, Wisconsin might be in for a long night. We'll see what happens, I think Wisconsin is going to come out fired up and be very hard to beat. I rarely if ever saw a PSU team ever get rattled in any hostile environment. It what they expect every time they travel. It's one of the key ingredients to winning the B1G. Soooo...nah....not worried there. I doubt if Washington will have that much of an impact in this match. The PSU should absolutely go after Bates on serve receive. Not sure the Wisconsin team has the pin hitters to match up and sustain a win here. As good as Carlini is not sure she can will it herself and her tips didn't fall last year against Psu. Wisconsin so strength is through the middle and running those very effective slides. As PSU is a better serving team this year they will have to try to jam that option up as much as possible . I forsee a PSU victory in 3 or 4. Have you watched WI play? Yes, Thompson (MH) is a strength but our OHs have been pretty good and Thomas has been even better. Thomas was pretty unstoppable last few matches. Not sure how PSU is a better serving team, but I'll take your word for it. Micha's serve has been lackluster so far and their ace ratio is down, but whatever.
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Post by NittanyVolley on Sept 22, 2014 8:40:44 GMT -5
I rarely if ever saw a PSU team ever get rattled in any hostile environment. It what they expect every time they travel. It's one of the key ingredients to winning the B1G. Soooo...nah....not worried there. I doubt if Washington will have that much of an impact in this match. The PSU should absolutely go after Bates on serve receive. Not sure the Wisconsin team has the pin hitters to match up and sustain a win here. As good as Carlini is not sure she can will it herself and her tips didn't fall last year against Psu. Wisconsin so strength is through the middle and running those very effective slides. As PSU is a better serving team this year they will have to try to jam that option up as much as possible . I forsee a PSU victory in 3 or 4. Have you watched WI play? Yes, Thompson (MH) is a strength but our OHs have been pretty good and Thomas has been even better. Thomas was pretty unstoppable last few matches. Not sure how PSU is a better serving team, but I'll take your word for it. Micha's serve has been lackluster so far and their ace ratio is down, but whatever. Lackluster? Really? Wow, you haven't been paying attention.
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Post by c4ndlelight on Sept 22, 2014 8:47:24 GMT -5
I like Penn St. in 4, with at least 1 set not being all that close. Penn St.'s physicality will be a different kind of match-up problem for the Badgers, and I'm pretty confident that Russ will find enough cracks in Wisky's passing to take their middles out of the game.
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Post by SportyBucky on Sept 22, 2014 8:52:23 GMT -5
Have you watched WI play? Yes, Thompson (MH) is a strength but our OHs have been pretty good and Thomas has been even better. Thomas was pretty unstoppable last few matches. Not sure how PSU is a better serving team, but I'll take your word for it. Micha's serve has been lackluster so far and their ace ratio is down, but whatever. Lackluster? Really? Wow, you haven't been paying attention. She hasn't been serving at the same clip as last season, at least in the matches I've seen. Similar to last season, she appeared to be starting off slowly. That being said, E IL, DePaul, E Carolina, and IL-Chi weren't televised. She's also not the only server. True stats on serve will bear out when they play a tougher schedule week in, week out. They've played UCLA and Stanford. That's it.
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Post by bballnut90 on Sept 22, 2014 9:33:17 GMT -5
Hancock is averaging 1.2 aces per set this year. Not sure how that can be considered lackluster.
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Post by Boof1224 on Sept 22, 2014 10:09:55 GMT -5
I rarely if ever saw a PSU team ever get rattled in any hostile environment. It what they expect every time they travel. It's one of the key ingredients to winning the B1G. Soooo...nah....not worried there. I doubt if Washington will have that much of an impact in this match. The PSU should absolutely go after Bates on serve receive. Not sure the Wisconsin team has the pin hitters to match up and sustain a win here. As good as Carlini is not sure she can will it herself and her tips didn't fall last year against Psu. Wisconsin so strength is through the middle and running those very effective slides. As PSU is a better serving team this year they will have to try to jam that option up as much as possible . I forsee a PSU victory in 3 or 4. Have you watched WI play? Yes, Thompson (MH) is a strength but our OHs have been pretty good and Thomas has been even better. Thomas was pretty unstoppable last few matches. Not sure how PSU is a better serving team, but I'll take your word for it. Micha's serve has been lackluster so far and their ace ratio is down, but whatever. We are talking about same Hancock right? Psu? She has something like 49 aces so far. I don't know how that's lackluster
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Post by canda on Sept 22, 2014 10:30:52 GMT -5
The only concern I have is Hancock trying to do too much. This is what happened against Stanford, when she tried to "sneak" some shots over the net to score, and was blocked each time.
As for the person who was concerned about PSU's young team performing well before a hostile crowd, the Stanford crowd was pretty lively, and the young players were fine. Wisconsin's game atmosphere, admittedly, will be off-the-charts in comparison.
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Post by Phillytom on Sept 22, 2014 10:34:42 GMT -5
American and Kansas are good teams and those were hard fought matches. They were very fortunate to not drop a set (or two) vs. Kansas. RE atmosphere at Wisconsin -- from everything I have heard they LOVE going on the road to loud raucous venues in the B1G. That is one of the reasons so many great VB players choose to play in the B1G. It is a huge selling point. Yeah winning on the road is difficult, but make no mistake, the teams LOVE these road trips to play big time matches. Yeah, at some points in the season they're tired and it is really disruptive to their academic schedule -- i.e. flying to Wisconsin on a Wednesday night??? Re Hancock serving, her serve has been fine this year. It's how it always is -- some nights it's off and some nights it's on. It is the nature of the beast. If it's on at Wisconsin it will help -- as it did last December. But don't overlook PSU's other servers. PSU has a bunch of good jump-floaters. PSU's serving might be better than last year overall. Whitney has a really wicked looking serve that we are just starting to see for the first time. Lackluster? Really? Wow, you haven't been paying attention. She hasn't been serving at the same clip as last season, at least in the matches I've seen. Similar to last season, she appeared to be starting off slowly. That being said, E IL, DePaul, E Carolina, and IL-Chi weren't televised. She's also not the only server. True stats on serve will bear out when they play a tougher schedule week in, week out. They've played UCLA and Stanford. That's it.
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Post by badgerbreath on Sept 22, 2014 10:37:24 GMT -5
I don't anticipate that there will be any real massive breakdowns, but it will come down to one team managing to serve and pass a little better. Saying that, what home court provides for certain is a little extra urgency and energy to the home team, which can affect dynamics of a match tremendously.
A big problem UW had against PSU in the finals was belief, IMO. It's the residual price of underachieving for 6 years previous. The badgers came out tentatively for the first time in the tournament, did not really serve aggressively, and we lost the first set decisively because of it. We never could set our defense. We slowly clawed back to our way of playing and were looking at a 5th set until a service error handed the ball the Hancock. Margins are small at this level and you can't give anything away, not to mention a whole set. UW needs to have faith in our game and let it play out. I think the girls are going to be a bit angry that the let their concentration slip at the end of the UW match. We'll see if Sheff channels that.
I do believe PSU will target Bates. And Sheff will stick with her, because he believes in showing faith in players in a game. I think that element of his style is one of the things that contributes to this team's unusual spirit. We need that spirit, we simply don't have the riches of talent on the bench that PSU has to replace one porr performer with somebody else. I think Carlini is of a similar mind to Sheff. I can't count how many times during the tournament she fed a hitter who had just been blocked or who just made a mistake. Deme at the end of the Texas match comes to mind immediately, but it happened throughout the tournament with several hitters. I believe Sheff has something to this effect during a presser. She really tries to show faith in her hitters, and keep them on board, but she sometimes fails to set the really hot hand more often.
I've picked the badgers in 4, because I think people are overestimating the difference between these teams. PSU wins the first set, because UW will be over stimulated and loses the next 3. Based on prior experience, my predicting that makes it almost certain not to happen.
As for who has the toughest schedule, I think it's a fools errand. Teams in the B1G grow, and sometimes regress, so much during the season that it's hard to really say.
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Post by NittanyVolley on Sept 22, 2014 11:05:44 GMT -5
A big problem UW had against PSU in the finals was belief, IMO. It's the residual price of underachieving for 6 years previous. Where Penn State is concerned, Wisconsin has been underachieving for a lot longer than six years. Penn State is 43-7 all-time vs. Wisconsin.
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Post by akbar on Sept 22, 2014 11:12:49 GMT -5
I have read some very well thought out posts so far. Both sets of fans seem to have a fair amount of respect for each others game. Any team with a high caliber setter will hang around no matter what the other team brings so I certainly don't expect a blowout.
What a way to open the B1G season. Wow! Best of luck to both squads.
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Post by bucky415 on Sept 22, 2014 11:15:22 GMT -5
A big problem UW had against PSU in the finals was belief, IMO. It's the residual price of underachieving for 6 years previous. Where Penn State is concerned, Wisconsin has been underachieving for a lot longer than six years. Penn State is 43-7 all-time vs. Wisconsin. Huh? That is similar to what the records of basically everyone in the Big Ten except Nebraska look like against PSU. The only times I think that Wisconsin lost to a clearly inferior PSU team were in road matches in 2000-01, when the Lions were down.
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Post by paloalto on Sept 22, 2014 11:27:30 GMT -5
I have read some very well thought out posts so far. Yes, I agree. It is a pleasure to read a thread like this. Wisconsin VTers have always been some of the most reasonable posters on the board. Do Pelc and Dorothy have a truce to stop posting on volleytalk? My uneducated opinion is Wisconsin’s consistency will trump Penn State’s physical front row at this stage of the season. Also, you can never underestimate home court advantage.
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Post by NittanyVolley on Sept 22, 2014 11:38:04 GMT -5
Where Penn State is concerned, Wisconsin has been underachieving for a lot longer than six years. Penn State is 43-7 all-time vs. Wisconsin. Huh? That is similar to what the records of basically everyone in the Big Ten except Nebraska look like against PSU. The only times I think that Wisconsin lost to a clearly inferior PSU team were in road matches in 2000-01, when the Lions were down. When have the Lions been "down"? They've never finished lower than #3 in the Big Ten and they've done that only twice. A bad year for Penn State approximates a good year for Wisconsin.
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Post by NittanyVolley on Sept 22, 2014 11:56:00 GMT -5
Huh? That is similar to what the records of basically everyone in the Big Ten except Nebraska look like against PSU. The only times I think that Wisconsin lost to a clearly inferior PSU team were in road matches in 2000-01, when the Lions were down. When have the Lions been "down"? They've never finished lower than #3 in the Big Ten and they've done that only twice. A bad year for Penn State approximates a good year for Wisconsin. Actually, I'm wrong about that. After a little research I discovered that when Penn State didn't finish first in the Big Ten, in almost every instance they still finished ahead of Wisconsin. So, a bad year for Penn State is almost always better than a good year for Wisconsin. Hey, I'm always the first to admit when I'm wrong. Sorry I overestimated you, Wisconsin.
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