Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers
who want to dig deep into what is going on in NCAA and international volleyball.
I'm your host Sarah Pavin, I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball world champion, former Nebraska
corn husker and a longtime pro both indoor and on the beach.
And I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international volleyball coach and stats guru.
Every time we think we're going to have a straightforward week, we are hit with some
absolutely shocking results.
And there were a ton of surprises this week, both from upsets to straight up like domination.
We watched a lot of one sided matches, some of which probably raised some eyebrows all
over the place.
So we are going to be taking a closer look at one of those matches in particular.
But both Kansas and Minnesota went 0 and 2 this week, so we're going to do a little analysis
on both of those teams as we head towards the end of conference play.
Let's get started.
This week, Utah crushed BYU 3-0.
BYU was missing Claire Little, but that doesn't help with the end result.
We also had Illinois upset number 20 USC in 5 and number 6 Stanford crushed 16 Georgia
Tech in Palo Alto.
We've talked about BYU a few times.
We've also talked about how integral Claire Little is to their team and having her missing.
Wow.
The game against Utah was not even close.
And I think that that just goes to show how important she is.
I agree with that.
I'm curious as to why she didn't play.
We weren't able to find anything about that as of yet.
But if it's something serious, we'll definitely report it on that next week.
We will be talking about this match in depth later.
But number 7 Wisconsin was absolutely incredible against number 3 Penn State.
And they absolutely demolished them 3-0.
And as we said, both Minnesota and Kansas dropped both their matches this week.
So let's dive in and take a closer look at each one.
Minnesota had two home matches this week.
Earlier in the week, they lost to unranked Washington in four sets.
And then on the weekend, they lost to number 12 Oregon three straight.
What are you thinking when you're watching Minnesota?
I had lots of thoughts about those two matches in particular.
I had several thoughts after kind of diving into the match from a statistical standpoint.
And my feel as I watched the match was that they didn't establish the middle of the court
very well and they didn't run their middles.
And when I looked at some of the set distribution, we had only 16% of the sets going to their
middle hitters, which probably is a little low, especially if you're playing good blocking
teams because you're just the middles just aren't a factor.
Now I understand that that's not all on the center because they're also not passing well.
Their middles were relatively efficient at 3-0-8 as a group, but they just need to run
them more so that all of the load is not on the outside hitters.
I think that passing is a massive issue for Minnesota.
They're getting served off the court.
They cannot, they're not controlling their service reception well at all.
And I mean, you alluded to this, it's really affecting their ability to run the middle.
The middle of the court is almost non-existent for them.
And on top of that, they don't have a really strongly established back row attack.
So you're just seeing balls and high balls, might I add.
We're not running like particularly quick tempo by any means.
It's just like loopy sets to both pins and it's really, really easy to defend.
I felt watching Shaftmaster set that it was really easy to pick up where she was going
to set the ball.
When everybody in the gym knows where the ball is going, it's really easy for the blockers
and the defense to set up and it makes life on your setter so much harder.
And again, I'm not going to place all of that at her feet because the passing isn't great,
but sometimes when you watch her set, it doesn't seem like she's putting in a ton of effort
to get to the ball, to get square, to hide her decisions.
She's just focused on trying to deliver a hittable ball, which is a good thing and it's
something you want in your setter, but against really good teams, it's just not enough.
I mean watching her set, it is pretty clear where she's going.
Some other setters, you know, they get to the ball quick, they're jump setting off of
two feet.
They're looking the same every single time.
I don't know if it's a timing issue.
I don't know if it's a speed issue, whatever it is, but like it is pretty clear when she's
going to set outside versus behind and especially when she's setting the middle, you can read
it from a mile away.
It's tough and the team is passing poorly and the out of system sets are not being put
in a consistent location either from anybody on the team.
And I will say I am like so perturbed at how the Minnesota Libero sets.
This is me like technique police here, but if you want to deliver a consistent out of
system set, you need to almost feel like you're sitting in a chair, get that much load in
your legs and you are lifting completely with your butt and your quads.
There should be minimal arm movement because when you're swinging your arms, that is when
the ball is taking off everywhere.
And I see the Libero for Minnesota who sets a lot of balls completely swinging her arms
at everything.
There is no leg being used whatsoever and it's driving me crazy.
I mean I think there's a lot of issues with Minnesota right now, specifically in the last
couple of weeks when we've watched them.
I think a lot of it just stems from a lack of...
Urgency, I would say.
I think that's the right word.
You watch them pass, they're not communicating seams particularly well.
You watch them play defense, they're not following in their hitters and coming back out and resetting.
It almost looks like everybody is doing the bare minimum to do their job and they're not
coming together as a team.
And if you look at the last two matches they played against Washington, they had six service
aces and 11 errors, but Washington had 13 aces and two errors.
So everything else was almost the same, they completely lost that part of the game.
And then you watch them play Oregon, they were 14 blocks to six and Minnesota is supposed
to be a good blocking team.
Watching it, it feels like they're fighting the game in general and they can't ever get
all of the pieces to fit and click at the same time.
I mean if you're going to get blocked straight down, that's one thing, but this week in particular
I saw the Minnesota hitters get blocked and those balls land in the middle third of the
court depth wise.
If you are not getting blocked straight down, that ball needs to come up and at the very,
very minimum there needs to be one or two players on the ground to get it up.
It's unacceptable, I'm sorry, for balls to be blocked and land in that middle third as
consistently as it happened.
I agree.
And I think that that's a microcosm of everything that's going on.
Everybody on that team needs to be a little better, 10, 15% and that will build towards
them as a team putting a better product together.
You mentioned that Minnesota's defensive strength is their block.
I agree because they do not dig anything as a team.
Do you want to score a point on Minnesota?
Tip the ball.
Tip the ball in the middle of the court, tip the ball down the line, tip it wherever you
want it will land.
They are not picking up anything defensively.
And again, this is one of those areas where the stats are a little bit deceiving because
they're digging on par with the teams that they're playing, but they're not getting the
same quality transition opportunities outside of that.
And they get respect as a blocking team because of their reputation.
So hitters will go around, they get some digs, but they're not converting on them and they're
not taking care of the digs in a way that gives them multiple options in transition.
Or even a set sometimes.
Somebody might get a hand on the ball, but if the setter is diving and punches the ball
into the bench, that is not a good dig.
And it probably counts as a dig on the stats, but I don't know how many times we've watched
them recently where we're like, tip the ball and then the person tips and they score.
It's almost a guaranteed point.
I will say the one bright spot for me having watched them over the last couple of weeks
is Julia Hansen.
I think she has played well.
I like her as a hitter.
She's very dynamic.
She jumps well.
She's aggressive.
I think she's been their best player.
I think she's got a higher ceiling than we've already seen at this point.
If I'm Minnesota, I'm going, okay, this is a player that we can continue to build the
program around.
So that for me has been the one bright spot.
She is definitely their most consistent player right now.
She jumps very well.
If she jumps and contacts the ball at the height that she is capable of, I think she
could be scoring at such a high percentage.
Sometimes she does let the ball drop a little low.
And I don't know if she's looking, waiting to see something, if she feels uncomfortable,
whatever.
But if she is fully extended, she could go over top of a lot of blocks.
I agree.
When she's coming in, she finds a rhythm and it's off the ground through the swing without
any delay or any hitch.
She scores very, very well.
So hopefully that rhythm will continue to come for her.
We have watched Minnesota play many times this season.
We watched them early in Big Ten play and we've watched them a lot in the last few weeks.
I hate to say it, but I feel like Minnesota was playing much better as a team when Alex
Azevedo was playing as opposed to Paige Wooker.
And since Paige Wooker has been playing, Minnesota is a completely different team.
And I don't want to like, this is nothing against Paige Wooker, but based on my observations
when she was injured versus now when she's playing, it's so much different.
And I'm curious whether that decision is, she's a vet, we know what we get with her,
we're going to give her a chance to kind of come back in and find her rhythm after the
injury in hopes that she's going to help out in the tournament.
But I would agree with you.
She's not passing well.
I think a lot of the passing problems start with her first contact and she's not scoring
either.
She yeah, it, she is not bringing a ton of positive touches to the floor and you know,
hopefully in two weeks that's different.
But if Minnesota doesn't figure out their first contact, it's going to be a long rest
of the season for them.
So that brings up the question that I had for you.
What do you think Minnesota needs to do to give them a chance at doing well in the tournament?
They need to put their best passers on the floor.
I think they're big, they have size.
I don't think shaft masters the most agile setter, but she's a threat in the front row
when the passes are tight.
She needs to be part of the offense.
That's when you see her being the most engaged and the most excited to play and that team
runs through her.
If she's not a part of the offense, it just doesn't look right.
So I would focus first touch, let everything else flow from there.
When shaft master attacks on a good pass, I love it.
When she does the little cutesy side set over from the 10 foot line, like no girl, you're
6'3".
Hit it.
Use that height, use your hitting ability, get up there.
Like don't do this cute stuff because it doesn't work.
It's not efficient for you.
Just like let's play into your strengths here.
A few weeks ago, I said in one of my hot takes that Minnesota has no business being the number
14 seed and I'm sorry, but I am reinforcing that statement.
I'm standing by it.
They have gotten worse, I think, since I said that.
So I'm asking again, how the heck are they holding on to this ranking?
Because we're definitely looking at Texas and Wisconsin wins here and like we are way
past that.
So let's hope that Minnesota can figure their passing troubles out and start to gain a little
momentum towards the end of the Big 10 season.
Kansas was another team that had a bit of a rough week.
Their road trip to Arizona did not go well as they dropped a four set match to number
11 Arizona State and they lost in five to unranked Arizona as well.
Those two losses were their only defeats in Big 12 play and because they've now lost two
games they have relinquished the lead of the Big 12 to Arizona State.
So we have also watched a lot of Kansas this season.
What is your analysis of the team right now?
I feel like I'm going to sound like a broken record on this one, but I truly believe that
success starts in the middle and the last time we watched or we talked about Kansas,
we talked about how good their middles were and how much they controlled the middle of
the court and I broke down the last two matches that they played and so in these last two
matches they only set the middle 19% of total team attacks, which is more than Minnesota
that we just talked about, but they on a whole run the middle generally 25% before this week.
So I know you look at that and say, you know, five or six percent is not a ton, but when
you look at the overall feel and establishing the middle, it makes a difference because
the blockers are thinking I've got to be I've got to stay I've got to follow that middle.
It makes them a fraction late outside.
It makes life easier for the outside hitters and then on top of the decrease in setting
the middle, both middles were incredibly ineffective in these last two matches.
So on a banjo hit 179 in those two matches versus 415 on the season before coming into
these two and Reese Patak hit 030 on these two matches versus 313 on the season.
So not only did they get set less, they weren't scoring and the teams they played against
both Arizona teams will go to the pin.
We're going to life make life miserable for your outside hitters and they just couldn't
get it back.
And I will say credit to Kansas.
They did try and run the middles early in the matches, but it just didn't work.
It never they never connected.
Like obviously, you know, Reese Patak started playing like partway through the season, earned
the starting spot on a banjo has been very effective.
We have actually only watched Kansas play when they've been playing home matches.
And those two middles have honestly been like leading the team.
So I don't know, like rough week for them.
It could be any number of things because clearly they've been performing this season.
Kansas hasn't dropped a match in Big 12 play until now.
It was really interesting watching because on perfect passes, Cameron Turner would not
set the middle in front.
She set the middles on slides on perfect passes.
But every time she was running the middle, when they were in front of her, it was only
from off the net or from a less than perfect pass, which we saw her trying to establish
the middle early in matches and it wasn't effective.
They were making a lot of errors and then she was forced to go away from them.
But my thought was when you get a perfect pass, like maybe run the middle then early
in the game, because not only are you giving your your outside hitter some freedom as the
match goes on, but you're helping your middles get into a rhythm by forcing the sets to them
from off the net, especially early.
You're kind of making life challenging for them to to get into a rhythm.
And then it just causes this huge cascade of things kind of falling apart for them.
Watching Turner set and I think I've watched four or five matches of them now.
Her tendencies to me seem to be coming verbatim from a setting handbook.
So you watch she comes off the net to the 10 foot line.
She tries to push the middle, like you said, but she doesn't set them when they're in
rhythm.
And so it's like, hey, yes, you need they need to respect your block when the passes
off the net.
And then she's always reversing the flow.
So she's moving forward.
She's setting back to the right side.
If she's moving back, she's pushing it to the left side.
And while these are guiding principles, it seems like she plays them 100% of the time.
And so even when you're doing the right thing in that regard, you're not playing with any
feel, you're not paying attention to whether your hitters are in rhythm.
It doesn't look like she feels the match.
It looks like she's making her set selection completely based on the situation.
I mean, I had El Nadi was pretty on fire this week.
And so when the middles weren't scoring and when Cameron Turner was in the front without
a right side attack, you saw her using El Nadi so much.
And it was just it almost felt like, okay, well, the middles aren't working.
So I need to give you every ball.
If a player is hot, like for sure, like use them.
I think that could have been avoided, you know, if on a perfect pass, she would just
run a basic set in the middle and it doesn't even have to score.
But like if your middle is making solid contact, that helps rhythm.
It's just like a lot.
It's a very little thing, but I think it makes a big difference as you were saying as the
matches progress.
So we talked about the middle numbers being down, and then you look at them as a whole.
So as a team, they hit 220 this weekend versus 297 how they normally hit as a team, even
with Ana Banjo hitting really, really well.
And then you look at her numbers specifically, she got 33% of the team sets this weekend
compared to El Nadi.
33% of the team's swings this weekend versus a 24% distribution that they normally get.
And we talked about Kansas's strength earlier in the podcast, and it was all about balance.
It was about all five people getting sets, not knowing where they were going.
And that just didn't happen this weekend.
I wouldn't say that Kansas played poorly this week.
Like watching the matches, there weren't any glaring issues that it was like, oh my gosh,
like they were terrible at this.
Like obviously the middle attacking, we noticed it, their numbers weren't as good.
But it's they didn't play poorly as a team.
I do however think that there are some issues that they will have to resolve if they want
to beat the top, top teams.
And I think number one is their setter, Cameron Turner, is a liability at the net.
Yes.
There's no other way to put it.
The left sides that she was lined up against for both Arizona teams had a field day.
Oh my gosh.
Every time Cameron Turner was blocking, they were just going up, hitting line.
And they had career matches.
Jordan Wilson from Arizona had 37 kills against Kansas hitting 465.
And guess who she was matched up with?
For at least two rotations, I believe it was Cameron Turner.
And you're going to see teams do that to them more and more frequently.
As there's more video, as teams are prepared, as you play better teams who have the ability
to run that ball out to the pin and hit down the line, it's going to happen again and again
and again.
And they're going to have to figure out a solution to that.
The other thing that I believe Kansas needs to improve to play top teams or compete or
beat top teams is I don't think they serve tough enough.
I completely agree with that.
If you look at their serving on the weekend, they had nine service errors to one ace versus
Arizona State.
Those numbers don't say everything because they also weren't putting them in a ton of
passing trouble.
But it's a little bit of a microcosm.
You're missing a ton of serves.
You're not able to put pressure on.
You feel like you just have to get the ball in.
That ratio of error to aces affects your mentality as a team because you're not getting the results
that you expect to.
I mean, we have talked about this at length, but the other piece is the production from
the middle.
In the matches that they lost this week, both Arizona and Arizona State had moments of brilliance
from their middles.
I don't think it was sustained necessarily by Arizona.
I think their middles were very effective in set one, which is very important.
If a middle is going to be good at any time, be good at the beginning because it keeps
people thinking.
But luckily, the outsides picked up the slack as the match moved on.
And then Arizona State, Claire Jeter, Cole Heade, both of them were very good.
And so you're seeing in these two matches, the middles just aren't keeping up with their
opponents.
So my opinion is if Kansas wants to go far in the postseason, they need to figure out
a solution for when their setters up in that they need to increase the service pressure
and get teams in trouble because across the board, they are pretty small.
Yes, both of their outsides are like five, nine, five, 10.
Then you've got Turner.
The middles are big, but it's like you need to take away some options for your block.
And they need to get consistent attacking numbers from their middles.
Kansas does have a really tough schedule to end Big 12 play.
So I think we will see some of these issues maybe try to be exploited or come to light
in the next couple of weeks.
So honestly, I like that they're planning tougher teams heading into the postseason
because things are just going to get harder.
I would much rather start the season easy, easy quotes and work into the difficult matches.
So I'm like primed and ready to go for the tournament.
So we'll see.
We'll see if they make any adjustments, if they work on things.
But I think this is a good opportunity for them.
I would agree to go undefeated is never a great thing in my opinion.
So you had a really good start to conference play.
You lost two matches.
You've got five matches left against some good opponents.
You have a chance to figure out what went wrong this weekend, try and address it and
figure out what strategy you're going to use in the tournament.
It's in their hands.
So we've reached our feature match in Wisconsin and Penn State.
And to be honest, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.
What do you mean?
I wanted to see Wisconsin have a response to getting kicked by Nebraska.
And I was curious what we were going to see from them coming out and playing another team
that was ranked ahead of them.
I was really looking forward to this match.
And while I was incredibly impressed by Wisconsin, I was very disappointed in how Penn State
played.
And the first set was a little bit back and forth and was tight and was good.
But Wisconsin just rolled Penn State in the second and third.
I'm pretty sure every fan who follows Big Ten volleyball has a similar feeling to you.
I think eyebrows are probably raised all over the place.
I think everybody was probably excited for this match.
And yes, was Wisconsin absolutely impressive?
One hundred percent.
But Penn State was equally as unimpressive in my opinion.
First of all, I have been critical of Charlie Furbringer in certain podcast episodes that
we've had.
I will say she ran an excellent offense.
It was very impressive.
And she was great not just from a setting standpoint, but like all facets of her game were very
good.
So I feel like I need to start off with that because I have been critical, particularly
of her out of system setting.
So she did great.
Offensively, she made tons of great plays.
She served aggressively.
I loved the way she utilized the offense and her different players.
Kudos to her in a tough match after a bad loss.
Great response.
Wisconsin hit 465 as a team and only made three hitting errors the entire match.
I'm sorry, as Penn State, you have to take that personally.
There's no way a team should be able to get those numbers on you.
I understand you might have been a little sheepish after losing in three at home to
Nebraska.
Completely understand.
Also completely understand wanting to redeem yourself, prove yourself, make a point against
an equally highly ranked team to follow that up.
But this was a statement.
It was, it was absolutely crazy watching this happening.
I know this isn't true, but you watched Wisconsin play so well and watching Penn State, it didn't
look like they prepared for the match at all.
I fundamentally disagreed with what I saw them trying to do on the court.
Let's talk about Penn State and then we'll dive into Wisconsin and kind of dissect the
difference between what happened with Nebraska versus this because it was night and day.
The thing that I saw and we talked about this as the match was going on, they just looked
at the stats.
I don't think they watched the Nebraska match.
If you watch that match back, they went after the 5-6 seem to start.
They challenged the passing left side, they made that player work and then at the end
of sets, they went at the young inexperienced libero and she didn't pass well.
Penn State going at her right from the beginning allowed for two things.
One Franklin poached a whole bunch of balls.
She was almost passing on the sideline when she was in six and the libero was in one and
you allowed her to pass a whole bunch of balls and find a rhythm in that match, which Nebraska
never did.
They did not mix up their serving strategy at all.
The passing left side was covering almost half a court by themselves because Penn State
didn't challenge them at all.
As you said, the reason Nebraska's game plan was so effective is because they let the young
freshman libero sit there all set and not pass a ball.
They were making the left sides work so hard to pass, work outside and attack, leaving
the libero there to just hang out and guess what?
It iced her because when crunch time came, she was in zero passing rhythm and then all
of a sudden the pressure's on, she hasn't passed a ball all set and now you're expected
to?
That is why Nebraska was effective.
Penn State just let the left sides off the hook.
The only thing the attacking left sides had to think about was scoring.
That is it.
And not only scoring, Wisconsin was in system all match.
Charlie ran a good offense, but she was allowed to run a good offense because she was walking
in and making sets.
The passes were perfect.
At some point, Penn State needed to understand that their strategy was not working, that
Wisconsin was in rhythm all match and they needed to try something else because I'm sorry,
if Wisconsin has all three options to hit all match, you won't beat them.
All four.
You won't beat them.
Just try serving the passing left side or serve in between zone five and six.
Just try it.
Or maybe serve the middle short, take away that option, serve the passing left side short.
You were serving the libero, leaving all attacking options completely free and easy for every
single point.
You didn't even try to take an option away, not even once.
It was mind blowing.
To me, that was a case of somebody looking at a stat sheet and going, all right, this
is what we're going to do.
The other thing for me, we've talked about it before and Jess Merzuch has had an incredible
season so far, but we have talked about the fact that Penn State has one go-to hitter
and they do not run a balanced offense.
It has worked for them up till now.
She has been outstanding.
This however, definitely plays into Wisconsin's strength, which is their blocking.
When you have one attacker that you set over 50% of your balls, it plays into their strength
and you didn't even try to change anything.
The crazy thing to me too is your second best scorer, Taylor Trammell, you were running
her on a 31 right into Anna Smerec and Carter Booth's block.
You didn't even try to run her on a quick behind.
You didn't keep her right in with the setter.
You didn't run her on anything.
Trammell is incredibly effective at running that 31.
It is her bread and butter attack, but guess what?
You need to prepare for the eventuality that the other team knows that and that they are
going to shut it down.
And let me tell you, they shut it down and she just kept running the same thing.
Move her around.
It was absolutely wild to me that Penn State just kept trying to run the same thing, the
same routes over and over and over again without changing anything.
You essentially allowed them to put their two best blockers right in front of both of
your best hitters and they didn't even have to move.
There was no spread.
There was no, we can literally stand here and take care of both of your best hitters.
It was an awful offensive strategy.
Let's run both of our top attackers right into your top two blockers and then you can
take care of both of them at once and you don't even have to worry about it.
And I mean, there's something to be said for trusting that your best players will get the
job done, but you're running into a great team.
Both of those players are phenomenal blockers.
You need to have a secondary strategy as a coaching staff if things go poorly and you
need to be prepared to make an adjustment and they were not.
Well, that's what I was just going to say.
Volleyball is a game of adjustments and it's great to go into a match with a plan, but
you have to have a feel for how the game is progressing and you have to have a good understanding
of what the other team is doing to you and make some moves on the fly.
And Penn State did not do that.
It was insanity to just see them trying the same thing over and over again.
Finally in the third set, they had to move Jess Murzik away.
They completely flipped their rotation to get Jess Murzik lined up with Charlie Furbringer.
I'm sorry, but as a go to hitter, if you have to rotate me away from a block, that is mortifying.
That is mortifying.
Jess Murzik could not find a way to score.
We have seen her hit high and deep.
We have seen she's not a player that goes up and hits crazy angles.
We've said that in previous podcast episodes, but her strength comes from her ability to
reach high, swing high and deep.
I'm telling you, I think she hit straight into the meat of the block every time.
Straight.
Wasn't looking for hands, wasn't hitting high.
It was hitting Anna Smreks left hand and Carter Booth's right hand right where it met.
Girl, you need to find a way to score here.
Izzy Stark should have moved that set about a foot off the net for her from her normal
set.
Normally you can go up and swing for hands when the ball's in that location if the blockers
aren't 6'9 and 6'7 and very good blockers.
Move the ball off from your normal set so you can go up.
You'll get the same visual of the block hands in front of you and you'll have a little bit
more space to work with.
Again, to me there were no adjustments.
They just kept trying to do the same thing without changing anything.
At the beginning of the second set, Wisconsin just started running away with it.
I think at one point it was like 15-2 or something like that.
The solution, because Jess Merzuch was having just a really tough time, the solution was
to put Merzuch on the right side and then to make Izzy Stark play left side.
Well, guess what?
In transition, guess who got the ball?
Anna Smreks.
We're talking Izzy Stark, the setter blocking.
It was just kind of mind boggling watching the panic ensue.
It felt panicked, the coaching staff had no idea how to get out of trouble.
Top that off, they had zero blocks as a team.
Nothing went well for them.
I understand you have matches like this where nothing goes right, but it can't be this match.
You can't play somebody who you might play to get into the quarter or the semi-finals
of the tournament and put that performance on the floor.
When you look at your schedule, you circle three or four matches in the season and go,
we need to peak for this match.
That should have been one of them.
I understand the schedule is heavy.
I understand you're playing a lot of matches, but there are certain teams that you need
to be preparing for the entire season.
If you're in the Big Ten, you're watching every single one of Nebraska.
If you're in the top half, let's say, if you're competing for that Big Ten championship,
you are watching Nebraska play every match.
You're watching Wisconsin play every match.
You're watching Penn State play every match.
It's not just, oh, we played yesterday, let's try to throw something together.
I'm not saying that this is what happened, but that's what it looked like happened.
Yeah.
Clearly, their staff prepared for the match, but whatever you did was not effective.
Okay, moving on to Wisconsin.
Completely different team than we saw last weekend against Nebraska.
What do you think some of the big differences were?
I think it was passing.
You allowed Charlie Furbringer to run an offense, and you weren't putting her under duress.
They controlled the ball.
They controlled the first pass.
Let me tell you, when Wisconsin has three options as a threat, they're very hard to
beat.
And my big takeaway was that they ran the middle, but again, that all stems from the
pass.
It was very challenging for Charlie Furbringer to run the middle against Nebraska because
the passing was just so bad, but they were able to run the middle, and she was able to
get into a rhythm running them.
So when the pass maybe wasn't perfect, she was still forcing them because she had developed
that rhythm early in the match.
See, it's actually interesting that you say that because that's how it felt watching the
match, but they still only ran the middle 15% of the time.
And so this is the thing for us.
How many sets did the middles get in this match though?
Because in the match against Nebraska, the whole middle got 13 balls.
So they got 15.
What?
Yeah.
But this is...
But they were an option.
And that's the difference to me, right?
And let me clarify that 14 balls does not include the rotations where Anna Smirak hits
out of the middle.
So Crawford and Booth got that number of sets in those three sets.
However, to your point, both of those middles can attack, and when they are a close option,
you have to honor them as a blocker.
And so I personally think they need to run the middle a little bit more, especially against
good teams, but the fact that they're a threat opens everything else up.
We mentioned Wisconsin's strength as they're blocking.
They got 11 blocks in three sets.
Uncoverable blocks too, might I add.
Those things were hitting the ground before the hitters were.
They were locked in and Penn State made it easy for them to get those blocks.
Smirak and Booth were phenomenal at the net.
Nothing got past them.
And when Charlie was digging as well as she is, Smirak could leave that line for the attacker,
cover more of the cross court, and Charlie was making digs.
They executed their game plan flawlessly against Penn State.
They're going to need to continue to do that and continue to put service pressure on, because
if they can get a solid block up on outside hitters against other teams, life is miserable
for those hitters.
I will say for Wisconsin, this was a really important match for them.
How they responded as a team after what Nebraska put them through at home was important.
They needed to have a response in this game and to be able to do it against another top
ranked opponent in the Big Ten, this is a confidence win for them as a team.
They executed at a high level.
They attacked, they blocked, they played well.
They feel really good right now.
And I'm very curious to see what the game in Lincoln looks like now.
I was critical of Lola Schumacher last week.
I did not think she played well.
I think her passing trouble down the stretch was a big reason why Wisconsin gave up runs
of points at the end of sets against Nebraska.
But I will say she was much improved this week.
Was it because she was getting served so much more?
She was able to get into a rhythm?
Is it because she knew the ball was coming to her?
Like I don't know what it was.
She did take care of business from a serve receive perspective and was much better than
she was against Nebraska.
And I think this is going to be one of the keys for Wisconsin this year.
You've got two freshmen in important positions and your supporting cast is experienced and
they need to be able to put those two in a position to be successful with as little stress
as possible.
They need to pass well for Charlie.
They need to help Schumacher in the rotation.
Don't give her too much to start because teams are going to come and pick on them.
I mean, I'm assuming Nebraska will use a similar game plan.
I'm curious.
I mean, you said you're curious to see what happens now.
I don't know if it'll be a different story because I can't see Nebraska letting the left
sides off the hook from a passing perspective.
Give them complete credit.
Big turnaround.
They cleaned up some issues that we had discussed in the Nebraska match.
Honestly, I think Penn State strategy or lack thereof definitely helped them fix some of
the issues we saw against Nebraska.
But it'll be interesting to see.
Well it's time for my favorite part of the show.
Game time.
And we are going to play verify or veto today.
Are you ready?
I got five questions for you.
You will either verify the statement or veto the statement and give me the reasons for
your opinion.
OK.
Let's get on. Kansas goes less than 500 in their last five matches and they have remaining
on the schedule TCU 18, Baylor 17, K-State unranked, BYU at 21, and Iowa State unranked.
Oh man.
Just quick thinking.
TCU, Baylor, and BYU all have super powered left sides in Melanie Parra, Elise McGee,
and Claire Little.
The fate of Kansas will depend on how those teams decide to line up those hitters.
I think if they line them up with Cameron Turner it will not go well for Kansas.
But my thought is if I'm those coaches I believe that each of those three hitters can score
no matter who is up there and so that they will probably put their lower producing left
side up against the setter which definitely favors Kansas or plays into their favor.
Will they lose all three of those?
I think they'll beat Iowa State.
I think they'll beat K-State.
No.
I think they'll win at least one of those three.
I'm going to say Vito.
I would agree.
I think they're going to go one and three in those matches but they'll put them over.
One out of three?
Yeah.
Okay.
Number two.
Fourth place in the Big Ten looks like it's going to come down to Purdue or Oregon.
They play one last time before the tournament.
Oregon finishes ahead of Purdue in the standings.
Oh man.
Okay.
So watching Oregon they have one very strong middle.
She's big.
She's going very fast really well.
She was going very effectively.
They also have Mimi Collier as their go to left side.
When I think about Purdue both of their middles are strong blockers.
Their left sides in Chacoin and Hudson are very good offensively.
I mean I think the standings are probably going to come down to that match as you kind
of alluded to.
I think Purdue is going to come out on top.
I'm going to Vito that one as well.
Okay.
Number three.
Wisconsin's loss to Nebraska was an anomaly.
They are a legitimate contender for the national championship.
Whoa.
Maybe this can be my hot take for the week too.
So this is my hot take.
I actually think that the Penn State match is an anomaly for Wisconsin.
I have watched Wisconsin play many matches this season and I have not seen them look
like that at all until the Penn State match.
Maybe the Nebraska match was like lit a fire that they needed and like they've completely
changed I don't know.
But based on the evidence that I have and the observations I have made of that team
all season and I said it a few weeks ago.
This Wisconsin team is not the team that we have seen in recent years.
They just are not that dominant.
The other thing to think about too is the NCAA is going to set it up to make sure that
not more than two teams from any given conference get to go to the final four.
They want diversity among the conferences.
Given how I'm assuming the tournament is going to be set up they're going to have to go through
either Nebraska or Penn State to make the final four.
I think it's going to come down to how that all plays out.
I don't think they will defeat Nebraska to go to the final four.
I think if it comes down to Penn State because of Penn State's reliance on Jess Merzik if
they have to go through Penn State I think they have a chance of making the final four.
But there are too many variables that have to go their way to even make it there and
then to win once you're there I don't think they're going to make it.
Veto.
I need to come up with some other questions.
You've been vetoing them all.
But I verified like every single one when we started this game like way back.
True.
At least you're consistent.
Number four.
The race for the number one spot in the ACC is heating up and as we look to the end of
November Pitt is going to have a rematch with Louisville in Louisville on November 27th.
Pitt remains the number one team in the ACC going into the tournament.
So Louisville and Pitt have lost one match each in ACC play?
Correct.
Right now both teams are 13 and 1.
Oh dang.
My assumption is that's the match for first place in the ACC.
I think Pitt is a stronger team than Louisville but there is something to be said about playing
at home.
There's clearly animosity between those two teams.
Oh dang this is a good question.
No.
I have made the statement here before that I think that Pitt is going to win the national
championship so I need to stick by that.
I'm going to say verify.
Last question of the game.
Number five.
Jess Merzik's performance versus Wisconsin takes her out of the running for player of
the year.
Well first of all I don't think she'll win player of the year unless they make the final
four and even then it depends on who else makes the final four too.
Do I think it will come down to that one match?
No.
Veto.
You can't deny the fact that she's had an outstanding season.
She was terrible against Wisconsin don't get me wrong but I don't think that that will
derail her hopes of winning player of the year.
I think if she doesn't make it to the final four that will derail it.
Fair enough.
Well that's all the questions I had for Verifier Veto for today.
I would love to hear other people's perspective on those questions and what the general consensus
is.
Alright you guys kind of heard my hot take in the Verifier Veto segment but Adam has
a hot take this week.
I saw several middle on middle solo attack block situations this week.
I am seeing middle blockers jump straight up when they're one on one in the middle.
My hot take is you're doing nothing.
No middles hit straight to six.
They assume that somebody's going to be there.
They see your body.
Middles if you're one on one you need to pick away and you need to take some space away.
It sets up your defense so that you know which way you can shift and who's responsible for
what.
Jumping straight up in the air on a one on one in the middle specifically on a 51 is
more or less useless.
I can 100% get behind that hot take.
You just watch and their arms go in the air and the middle hits the five.
If you want to funnel them to the libero that's fine but drop a hand one way give them a different
look they can see your body move your hands do something other than just take that space
away.
Middles blocking in the middle should not look like a middle blocking the outside.
Outside blockers if you're a pin blocker you need to go over straight because your middle
is closing to you.
If you're a middle closing to the outside you're just creating a wall.
Your defense knows where to go.
If you are a middle playing a one on one against another middle attacker pick a side.
Thank you for saying that it has been driving me crazy as well.
Is it a hot take or is it just facts?
I would like to argue that that is not a hot take and everybody needs to take note.
Every time you see a middle pick a side they either get a stuff block or the defense makes
a dig because they actually know what their responsibilities are.
Thank you.
All right coming up this week we've got a lot of matches that we are excited about.
So Kansas as Adam mentioned earlier is hosting TCU and Baylor this week on Wednesday and
Saturday respectively.
We have USC taking on Wisconsin on Thursday and Oregon on Sunday.
Florida State has got the heavy ACC schedule this week and they are traveling playing Pitt
on Friday and SMU on Sunday.
And finally we have Nebraska and Minnesota facing off in Lincoln on Thursday.
This will be a very interesting test for Minnesota given the week they've just had.
You know what I didn't even want to put this on the list I'm not going to lie because
I feel like Minnesota is really going to fall in the ranking and I don't think it's going
to be an outstanding match but like why not?
You know why not put it down?
That concludes this week's episode of Volley Talk.
There's always something shaking in the volleyball world and we hope that you enjoy this little
fix.
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