2019 PSU WVB Thread

[Tom McAndrew]

PSU women's volleyball makes a big deal about their alumni weekend. It took place this weekend. They were celebrating PSU's 1st national championship team (1999), and 12 members of the team returned for the event. Below is a clip from their championship set.



And a bit of a reminder of why we enjoy this program -- something that BTN tweeted out:

 

[Tom McAndrew]

 

[PSU&Trout]

Great thread Tommy Mc !

 

[UncleLar]

PSU women's volleyball makes a big deal about their alumni weekend. It took place this weekend. They were celebrating PSU's 1st national championship team (1999), and 12 members of the team returned for the event. Below is a clip from their championship set.

Ran into a few of them at the Adam's Apple after the game. They can still party like 20 years ago too.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

Ran into a few of them at the Adam's Apple after the game. They can still party like 20 years ago too.

20 years later, and most of them are looking pretty good

 

[Tom McAndrew]

 

[Tom McAndrew]

 

[Tom McAndrew]

PSU plays Wisconsin on Wednesday nite, with the match to be broadcast by BTN

The Badger Herald: All-American Retake remains hungry following summer with Team USA

Daily Collegian: Penn State women's volleyball is back on the road to preserve its win streak against Wisconsin

 

[fairgambit]

View embedded media

Who could have envisioned the day when the Pitt women's volleyball team would be ranked ahead of Penn State and have the same number of first place votes (1) as Stanford?
From what I have seen they are a very good team, but not of Championship caliber. They have a fairly easy run through the ACC, and may get a high seed at tournament time, but I don't see them getting past the regional semifinals. Time will tell.

 

[ILLINOISLION]

Who could have envisioned the day when the Pitt women's volleyball team would be ranked ahead of Penn State and have the same number of first place votes (1) as Stanford?
From what I have seen they are a very good team, but not of Championship caliber. They have a fairly easy run through the ACC, and may get a high seed at tournament time, but I don't see them getting past the regional semifinals. Time will tell.

Well, their sweep at Rec Hall two weekends ago is something that not even the best teams in WVB are able to pull off very often and the rematch two days later that PSU won was as even a match as there could be.

That said, there are a lot of good and very good teams this year. But you need to be good or very good AND be lucky. Time will tell if Pitt has luck on their side. (Luck = getting a borderline call.....getting a break on a net ball.....avoiding key injuries.)

 

[flash86]

After seeing them in practice scrimmage against PSU in spring, I thought a few things about Rec Hall match: (1) Pitt has a very strong opposite and middle hitter; (2) Pitt played out of their mind that night; (3) every break - tape shots/serves, tips, calls, etc - went their way; and (4) PSU was off. I think both teams moved toward the mean in the Piit home matchup.

But no excuses: championship teams don’t have off nights, and Pitt is good - relatively new coach doing great job - but I think our schedule will lead to better team development and tournament success.

 

[fairgambit]

Well, their sweep at Rec Hall two weekends ago is something that not even the best teams in WVB are able to pull off very often and the rematch two days later that PSU won was as even a match as there could be.

That said, there are a lot of good and very good teams this year. But you need to be good or very good AND be lucky. Time will tell if Pitt has luck on their side. (Luck = getting a borderline call.....getting a break on a net ball.....avoiding key injuries.)

Pitt has been playing loose. They had no pressure playing us as even Pitt fans I know expected them to lose. They will not get a serious test in the ACC unless it comes from Florida State. I hope I'm wrong and we meet up with them again in a Regional Semifinal, or Final. I like our chances.

 

[NoVa Lion]

Who could have envisioned the day when the Pitt women's volleyball team would be ranked ahead of Penn State and have the same number of first place votes (1) as Stanford?
From what I have seen they are a very good team, but not of Championship caliber. They have a fairly easy run through the ACC, and may get a high seed at tournament time, but I don't see them getting past the regional semifinals. Time will tell.

Well, based on those two matches Pitt is better than us so I guess you don't see us as having ANY chance of getting past the regional semis. Just saying.

 

[Beachwineguy]

Well, their sweep at Rec Hall two weekends ago is something that not even the best teams in WVB are able to pull off very often and the rematch two days later that PSU won was as even a match as there could be.

That said, there are a lot of good and very good teams this year. But you need to be good or very good AND be lucky. Time will tell if Pitt has luck on their side. (Luck = getting a borderline call.....getting a break on a net ball.....avoiding key injuries.)

It's because Pitt's volleyball team plays better than they actually are.

 

[fairgambit]

Well, based on those two matches Pitt is better than us so I guess you don't see us as having ANY chance of getting past the regional semis. Just saying.

I did not make myself clear. We will be challenged in our conference schedule and have the opportunity to improve. I expect us to be a much better team at tournament time. Pitt will face light opposition in conference. Improvement will be more difficult for them. Beyond that, this program has been tested yearly in the NCAA tournament and knows what it takes to make a deep run. Pitt has never advanced beyond the 2nd round. They may surprise me and get to the final four, but I still think they won't make it past the regional semi-finals.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

 

[Tom McAndrew]

tonight @ Wisconsin, 9 pm EDT, on BTN

 

[Nitwit]

Iowa is up 19-10 on Minn in the first set. They look surprisingly strong but Minn has a couple of players sidelined with injuries.

 

[CattyGuy51]

PSU takes the first set 25-23 over Wisky.

 

[TheGLOV]

Up 17 - 12 2nd.

 

[TheGLOV]

ugh 19 - 18 cheese heads

 

[Tom McAndrew]

PSU went up 21-20 in the 2nd set, but ended up losing the set, 23-25. Match is tied up, 1-1

 

[interrobang]

Wisky has a 6'8 chick, jeez

 

[CattyGuy51]

Wisky wins set 2

 

[OhioLion]

I don’t normally post here, and don’t want to come across as a whiner. However, watching on BTN, the announcer seems to have more excitement in her voice when Wisky does well. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

OL

 

[interrobang]

Man, PSU is just totally out of sorts. Can't hit, can't block.

 

[TheGLOV]

It is going to be a very UN-Russ Rose like season with this young team.

 

[TheGLOV]

I don’t normally post here, and don’t want to come across as a whiner. However, watching on BTN, the announcer seems to have more excitement in her voice when Wisky does well. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

OL

I sense that as well.

 

[RCotto18]

How the hell did they just forget how to serve and receive a serve mid match?

 

[walleye38]

Boy did we stink up the Wisconsin arena in volleyball tonight. We looked worse than Rutgers.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

I don’t normally post here, and don’t want to come across as a whiner. However, watching on BTN, the announcer seems to have more excitement in her voice when Wisky does well. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

Isn't Salima Rockwell one of the announcers?

 

[fairgambit]

L⁸

It is going to be a very UN-Russ Rose like season with this young team.

Awful night of volleyball.

 

[RCotto18]

This is as poor of a performance as I’ve seen in years, to be frank.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

PSU kind of fell apart in the 4th set, and lose 13-25. As such, they lose the match, 1-3. Wisky has some talent, but not a great showing by PSU.

 

[ILLINOISLION]

U G L Y !

 

[UncleLar]

I don’t normally post here, and don’t want to come across as a whiner. However, watching on BTN, the announcer seems to have more excitement in her voice when Wisky does well. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

OL

It's your Penn State/BWI DNA. Apparently you can't be a poster here without complaining about how all the TV announcers and officials have it in for PSU.

BTW - you do realize that one of the announcers was the Nittany Lion legendary great Salima Rockwell, don't you? I seriously doubt either her or her broadcast partner were going to be rooting for the Badgers.

 

[OhioLion]

Isn't Salima Rockwell one of the announcers?

BTW - you do realize that one of the announcers was the Nittany Lion legendary great Salima Rockwell, don't you? I seriously doubt either her or her broadcast partner were going to be rooting for the Badgers.

To answer both of you, no, I did not know who the announcers were. That doesn’t change my mind that, IMO, the play-by-play announcer showed more excitement when positive play by Wisconsin.

OL

 

[MrDibbs]

I agree about the announcer, but that doesn't bother me -

I would tend to give a lot of credit to the Wisconsin coaching staff and players for the drastic turnaround in the match. Kelly Sheffield is another pretty darned good volleyball coach in the conference.

Parker had an outstanding set 1 and the emphasis went to the middle hitters in set 2. I thought Wiscy was on the brink of collapse when the ladies had the 5 point lead at 17 - 12, but for some reason, they let Wiscy back into the set.

Volleyball is a funny sport. Once things turn sour, the momentum really builds against your efforts. It just seemed that from that 17-12 advantage, everything that the PSU ladies did turned to $hi&. They looked like a 15 year old club team at times

They will struggle in conference - that's not necessarily a bad thing because it is a competition. Nebraska, Minnesota, and Illinois are all top flight teams along with the Boilers. The next level down will make everybody work for a victory - look how close Iowa came last night vs. Minnesota None of these teams will go through the conference schedule unscathed.

I will trust Russ.

 

[Ski]

The lack of outside hitters is going to hold this team back. Last year, Reed was the only outside that could dominate a game at times. With her gone, there are no dominant OHs on the team, thus the middles have been getting fed a lot more this year. Russ will get the full potential out of this team, but most likely it is going to bow out of the NCAA tournament in the round of 16. A great finish might get them into the round of 8.

 

[PSU&Trout]

To answer both of you, no, I did not know who the announcers were. That doesn’t change my mind that, IMO, the play-by-play announcer showed more excitement when positive play by Wisconsin.

OL

so- ?