A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
Is it me or is that a much darker navy color on the shorts and tops? Anyway, looking forward to seeing these women in action this fall!
The athleticism and skill is amazing. PSU fans are really lucky because when you go to a volleyball match you are probably seeing future national team members and international stars. Your week in week out Big Ten matches are played at such an incredibly high level -- really amazing athleticism is just routine for these players.
What I really like about VB is that you're seeing great athleticism but a sport that absolutely depends on great teamwork and communication. And unlike football where the players are wearing helmets and far from the crowd, with volleyball you can go to Rec Hall and actually watch the kind of communication going on that is very often the difference in winning matches. Like basketball in that sense.
What I really like about VB is that you're seeing great athleticism but a sport that absolutely depends on great teamwork and communication. And unlike football where the players are wearing helmets and far from the crowd, with volleyball you can go to Rec Hall and actually watch the kind of communication going on that is very often the difference in winning matches. Like basketball in that sense.
PSU WVB picture day
1st photo left to right - Keeton Holcomb(Micha's number), Tori Gorrell, Jelena Novakovic, Wilma Rivera (Freshmen)
2nd photo (below left) - Carley Muller, Laura Broerman, Taylor Krause (Juniors)
3rd photo(top right) - Lara Caraway, Aiyana Whitney, Megan Courtney,Kendall Pierce (Seniors)
4th photo(bottom right) - Heidi Thelen, Ali Frantti, Bryanna Weiskircher, Nia Reed, Simone Lee, Lainy Pierce, Haleigh Washington (Sophomores)
1st photo left to right - Keeton Holcomb(Micha's number), Tori Gorrell, Jelena Novakovic, Wilma Rivera (Freshmen)
2nd photo (below left) - Carley Muller, Laura Broerman, Taylor Krause (Juniors)
3rd photo(top right) - Lara Caraway, Aiyana Whitney, Megan Courtney,Kendall Pierce (Seniors)
4th photo(bottom right) - Heidi Thelen, Ali Frantti, Bryanna Weiskircher, Nia Reed, Simone Lee, Lainy Pierce, Haleigh Washington (Sophomores)
Last edited:
In addition to being talented athletes, they are all beautiful young ladies. Go lions, continue the string. This team is loaded with talent.
Yeah it's really cool. They are amazing to watch. Know lots of people who never cared at all about volleyball(myself included) who when they started watching them were basically stunned. These are the stars of the sport and Rose should be in any argument for greatest collegiate coach of all time.
And Lainy Pierce, geez. Ok, that's all I will say there.
I am for sure. The Seniors look relatively business like and the sophomores, well, they are showing a lots of sass and attitude. Should be another fun year.
What is the teams early prognosis? Seem like a very sophomore dominated team in talent as well as numbers. Besides Courtney and Whitney, all sophomores will play the bulk of minutes. If so, they may be on another run if they can find a good setter. Micha won't be replaced over night. Any prseason polls out?
Most likely PSU will be in the top spot to start the season. As the defending National Champions and with all of the talent they have the pollsters will likely give them the preseason nod. They have a home match against Stanford and USC which will go a long ways toward determining who is No. 1. Stanford has most of their players returning, but Inky may not be ready to play in the match or, possibly, for the rest of the season. Out of all the top teams, Stanford may be given the top spot over PSU.
I would think PSU will be preseason #1, especially now that one of the Stanford stars is injured.
They play Stanford early and that will give some indication of how well they can compete with the elite.
PSU has the best array of attackers in the nation and I think there is little doubt in that statement.
Kendall Pierce, a senior, will also play a substantial amount of minutes and may be the libero.
Two big questions to answer is who will serve and how well will we serve receive and pass?
I would think the Pierce sisters are the libero and the primary DS in the back row. They were good last year backing up last year's starters and provided great depth. The question this year is how well can they and the currently inexperienced DS subs serve receive and make the first pass to the setter.
Weiskirchner would appear to be the setter as she has been committed for over two years prior to arriving, and redshirted last year. As apposed to lots of setters who were something else in HS (Hancock was an OH; Carpenter was a DS), Weiskirchner has been a dedicated setter for several years. She is 6' and thus a little taller than most setters. She has a year of experience setting in practice and was Lee and Franti's setter on Club Fusion.
However, Coach Rose brought in Rivera for a reason. Maybe it was to simply have a back up setter who had been a setter. Also, Rivera is LH which is a small advantage when you attack on 2 and she is large enough at about 5' 10" to see the floor.
Finally, back to the attackers. Courtney, Franti, Whitney, Lee and Washington are experienced front court players. Add on Thielen, Reed, Gorrell and the Serbian girl and there is almost too much talent.
I think coach will spend the non conference schedule tinkering with several combinations to reduce 18 down to a core of 10-12 who will see most of the activity after the conference season commences as well as identify the setter, the substitute back row players and the front row rotation pattern assuming that Courtney and Franti are six rotation players.
I would see PSU, Wisky and Nebraska being the most likely conference champion with scheduling having some factor.
I see only Wisky, Nebraska, Texas, Stanford and maybe one of the ACC powers being able to beat PSU nationally.
Of course, winning 6 straight matches with no error margin is a tough gauntlet.
The pairings in the regionals will be huge as, with no upsets, some of the above will have to beat some of the others in a regional final or two to get to the Final 4. Others will be paired with an opponent with less talent.
If PSU gets to Final 4, I would think we would be very tough out based on experience alone.
Unless there as been a scheduling change, we are not playing USC in the regular season. Stanford and Colorado are coming in to Rec Hall to play us and Illinois.
Thanks for the correction. I knew UCLA bowed out, I also knew, but forgot, that Colorado replaced them. Brain fart.
A
anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
Appreciate the thoughtful comments and insight! I would add that in addition to Hancock's excellent serve, we're also going to have to replace her leadership on the court, which was just as valuable.
Micha had her setting, her leadership, her serve and her ability to attack on 2 and almost always getting the point.
The leadership issue is a big one. Typically leaders are seniors.
However, I don't sense it is Whitney's makeup and maybe not Courtney.
Kendall Pierce may want a leadership role, but will have to earn it. I thought D'Errico was a leader in her days as the libero.
Fortunately, coach has some time to work it out.
We (PSU) have returning leadership, IMO, Courtney, Franti, and Washington demonstrated that.
I think Courtney can be a leader as can be Ali Frantti and Washington. What constitutes a leader? Micah was on the court 100% of the time. Can leadership be by committee?
Majority of dudes saying hi to our team=Is it me or is that a much darker navy color on the shorts and tops? Anyway, looking forward to seeing these women in action this fall!
FWIW in women's VB the defending champ is always preseason No. 1. The coaches/ACVA poll voters just do it that way by tradition.
Re setter, in this program all jobs have to be won. Without some inside knowledge I have no idea if Weiskircher has the inside track or it's really a wide open competition with Rivera. I know Rivera is also a big-time player and a lefty -- which is an advantage. Weiskircher has a 4 inch size advantage which is not a small thing.
Same with libero/ds. The Pierces played well down the stretch in touch matches last year, and Kendall is the upperclassman so you know she has a good shot. But Broerman, Holcomb and Muller were very highly rated back row prospects, and Krause and Carraway are excellent players with lots of time in the program. So I wouldn't count anybody out there.
I think we have every reason to be confident about libero/ds. Of course there will be a learning curve for whoever wins the playing time, but they should have enough talent to have good solid play -- if not great play -- in the back row. With back row, experience is really important, more so than front row.
Setter, you just can't know till they get into the season against tough competition. The last time there was a setter transition at PSU, PSU had a very highly rated setter prospect who just didn't work out -- so Kristin Carpenter stepped in to do the job (and won a championship) and then Rose was super fortunate that Hancock became available at the last minute.
I do think if you've got to break in a young setter, this would be a good year to do it. Courtney is like a coach on the field and one of Frantti's greatest strengths is her ability to terminate on subpar and out of system sets. Washington too is just so crazy athletic I think she can do a lot with suboptimal sets. So the front line does have the ability to erase some setter mistakes.
On the other hand, without the offensive threat that Hancock brought to the table, the PSU hitters have a much more difficult job this year. Their hit % could take a hit, especially in the early season.
Frankly, I they're set up to follow the pattern of recent years. Maybe lose to Stanford at the beginning of the season, maybe match up better with Stanford at the end of the season....
Re setter, in this program all jobs have to be won. Without some inside knowledge I have no idea if Weiskircher has the inside track or it's really a wide open competition with Rivera. I know Rivera is also a big-time player and a lefty -- which is an advantage. Weiskircher has a 4 inch size advantage which is not a small thing.
Same with libero/ds. The Pierces played well down the stretch in touch matches last year, and Kendall is the upperclassman so you know she has a good shot. But Broerman, Holcomb and Muller were very highly rated back row prospects, and Krause and Carraway are excellent players with lots of time in the program. So I wouldn't count anybody out there.
I think we have every reason to be confident about libero/ds. Of course there will be a learning curve for whoever wins the playing time, but they should have enough talent to have good solid play -- if not great play -- in the back row. With back row, experience is really important, more so than front row.
Setter, you just can't know till they get into the season against tough competition. The last time there was a setter transition at PSU, PSU had a very highly rated setter prospect who just didn't work out -- so Kristin Carpenter stepped in to do the job (and won a championship) and then Rose was super fortunate that Hancock became available at the last minute.
I do think if you've got to break in a young setter, this would be a good year to do it. Courtney is like a coach on the field and one of Frantti's greatest strengths is her ability to terminate on subpar and out of system sets. Washington too is just so crazy athletic I think she can do a lot with suboptimal sets. So the front line does have the ability to erase some setter mistakes.
On the other hand, without the offensive threat that Hancock brought to the table, the PSU hitters have a much more difficult job this year. Their hit % could take a hit, especially in the early season.
Frankly, I they're set up to follow the pattern of recent years. Maybe lose to Stanford at the beginning of the season, maybe match up better with Stanford at the end of the season....
Thanks for your great summary, as always. Quite and interesting season coming up. Micha was "so much" of the previous team. Almost the face of the team as hitter ,server, setter and all around leader and grit personality. All that could be hard to replace but then there is Courtney, as you note a coach on the court, and Ali who is the personification of mean grit, and Washington who obviously is there to have a great time and as you note again an incredible athlete . team could (a) not miss a beat, (b) be lost without identity or (c) something inbetween.
