In a match like this every small thing matters.
I have been critical of OSU since the beginning of the season. I did not think they were a very disciplined offensive team, I believed they were a poor blocking team, and they have both setter and non-setter problems especially in transition.
Last night they committed 35 hitting errors and hit .123, were not well-prepared blocking or defending Florida’s backrow attack or overload playsets. I believed I heard one of the OSU coaches calling out downball?
They will have the exact same problems next year defensively if they do not improve their defensive speed. They play all six rotations with two slow edge blockers and 1 slower edge defender in the rightback. When teams figure out how to take advantage of this transition points will be hard to come by.
Their defense against Carlton made zero sense especially since she only hit two balls towards the right sideline. Who on staff said “hey she’s only hitting .160 and we can help Podraza who’s struggling with her accuracy get to the net faster to help her with her transition setting.”
Or, who on staff, said “hey they just scored five break points in a row when we were in rotation 1, let’s not start the third set in the same rotation.” Or who on staff said “let’s change the arrangement and have Bukulic hit and block on the right and Londot hit and play on the left?” It did not look (the whole year) like they had this rotation fully worked out in case they couldn’t score. They have run the same two playsets all year and Florida, and for that fact Purdue knew and took advantage.
The reason why it looks like Londot does not have any rhythm and cannot hit with full power running a slide in rotation 1 is because when the ball is served to Zone 5 she takes steps out of bounds to her left before she starts moving to her right. She’s moving the opposite direction adding more steps to the longest part of the court, why add more steps? Seems to me an important detail given she’s your most important scorer.
I would say that Podraza isn’t the most effortless mover, with that being said, more than a handful of times when Mckissock was serving against OSU’s rotation 2 towards zone 1 Podraza turned her back on the serve, for setters that have trouble tracking the pass from this area of the court, or do not have efficient footwork this is a disadvantage. It matters.
I’m also curious about who was calling serves? Monserez from the onset struggled with her accuracy especially to the left pin, but OSU served almost 70 balls into zone 5 and 6?
Did anyone on the staff recommend a serving and defensive substitution for Witte to defend the setter dump or tip or better coverage in rotation 3? Did they have one prepared? Maybe Moore? Or maybe Have Gruensfelder play leftback? Just spitballing.
I’m curious about how much discussion OSU had about their coverage system given Florida’s season blocking numbers? Simply running or crashing to cover a hitter likely means they were no preparations made for transition after a covered ball.
The announcers were correct, Oldenburg coaches exactly how she played, high emotion. If she used the “us against the world, or no one believes in us” card , to her credit, the team bought in, but the team needed a coach (coaches)to make strategic adjustments not emotional pleas. Overly emotional teams don’t generally fare well in high level competition, the 4th set was a good example of this.
I said I would reserve judgment on the teams quality after the stretch between Minnesota and Purdue. OSU finished with a 4-4 record against teams with a winning record including losing three of the last four.
They were never a top 10 team given their strength of schedule, but certainly a top 20-25 team.
