Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers
who want to dig deep into what's going on in NCAA and international volleyball.
I'm your host Sarah Pavin, I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball world champion, former Nebraska
Cornhusker and longtime pro both indoor and on the beach.
And I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international volleyball coach and the resident
stat guy.
The final four is set and all four one seeds have survived their respective regionals.
There were some great matches played over the last few days, including a couple down
to the wire round of 16 matches.
We will be touching on those matches, but the focus of today's episode is definitely
going to be on the four regional final matchups and what we can expect on Thursday.
So let's get started.
All right so as Sarah said, we're going to go over the round of 16 matches.
I'm going to give a quick synopsis.
I've been told two sentences, it might be a little longer.
And Sarah's going to say whether she agrees with my assessment of the match or not.
Now we didn't watch all of them.
I think between the two of us, we watched six.
So six of the eight.
So we should be able to give a pretty quick recap.
So in full transparency, we missed the Stanford Florida match and we missed the Penn State
Marquette match.
So Adam will probably not be giving a two sentence round of of those ones unless he
checked the stats and saw something wacky.
I saw the stats.
So I'll give a quick a quick recap of those and we can go from there.
Okay, we don't want you guys to think that this is the regional semis weren't important
to us.
Like they definitely were.
They are worth noting.
So that's why we want to touch on them.
But we're just going to keep it short and sweet.
Otherwise we're going to be here for two hours.
As much as you may love that.
No, I'm just kidding.
Let's start with the Pitt Oregon match.
I thought that was this was going to be a little breezier for Pitt than it was.
Weezy breezy.
We had Pitt go 3-2 with Oregon.
And I think one of the things that worked in Oregon's favor was that they statistically
hold right sides to a very low hitting percentage in general.
And given Babcock is obviously a right side in their main point score, the matchup lined
up well for them.
I also thought that Oregon never gave up.
They kept coming.
They kept pushing.
They pushed hard.
They made great defensive plays.
They never played like they were not supposed to win that match.
And I thought that was really great to see.
And Pitt just knows how to win.
They were down in certain situations.
They kept pressing.
Their star players made plays at the end of sets to end up winning the match for them.
And I think it was overall a good win, even if it wasn't clean.
So Adam did more than two sentences there.
But I'm not sure if you noticed this.
He created the world's longest run on sentences to keep talking.
Very good at that.
Okay, I saw a few sets of this one.
As I was watching, I do remember the announcer saying it was commented on frequently.
Mimi Collier, they wanted to line her up with Babcock because she is a good blocker.
She causes problems.
I am going to say I agree with you.
From what I saw, there was one set that Oregon absolutely dominated Pitt.
And they gave them everything they could handle.
Yeah, I believe that was the second set and Pitt just didn't pass well.
They got aced a whole bunch of times.
They were out of system.
I believe Babcock made four or five errors in that set.
Just the wheels came off in general in that one.
Summary, really good fight by Oregon.
Hats off to them.
It was an entertaining match.
I think the execution got higher in sets three, four, five.
One and two were kind of back and forth.
Pitt was great in one.
Oregon was great in two.
I enjoyed watching that match.
Let's look at Kentucky, Missouri.
This one wasn't close.
I was really disappointed.
I wanted to see more from Missouri.
Kentucky did a great job of neutralizing Vernon.
They served well to one, took the middles away, loaded up on her, and she did not have
a great night.
Missouri needed her to be great and she wasn't.
I thought Ilyf played well.
The top three Kentucky hitters were close to or over 400.
They had a very balanced offense.
Kentucky was just better in this match.
More consistent, more balanced.
I can't refute the points you made.
I think the shock for me was that crown over looked to be completely off her game.
I can't just say that she looked nervous.
I will say that Missouri as a whole looked a little skittish and nervous, which is completely
understandable, completely normal, but I don't think they really ever worked out of it.
That is what is sticking in my mind from that match.
I think Vernon started strong and set one and then kind of petered out after that.
But overall, yes, a dominant performance by Kentucky and honestly I expected more from
that match.
Let's go to Stanford, Florida.
Stanford winning 3-1.
We did not watch this match, but it looked incredibly tight.
Three of the four sets were won by two points in overtime.
Sammy Francis had 36 attempts and hit 417.
Kennedy Martin hit 320 on 50 attempts.
It looks like it was a very well played, hard fought match and I'm guessing the star players
had to make plays at the end of those sets and Stanford came out on top.
The reporting I got from this match was from my bestie, Rachel Holloway.
If you're a Huskers fan, you know who I'm talking about.
She gave me the rundown.
She was saying that she felt that Cammie Miner's setting was inconsistent and she was trying
to push tempo way too fast out of system when Stanford was in trouble.
I trust her.
She was an outstanding setter.
I'll take her word for it.
But as we said, that's one of the matches that we didn't see.
Seeing the scores, I wish we had seen that one.
I would have loved to see Martin and Francis go head to head, honestly, because I'm assuming
they lined Sammy Francis up with Kennedy Martin.
Yeah, maybe I'll go back in the archives and check that one out.
We have nothing to do until Thursday.
So we'll go watch that one.
I know.
What are we going to watch?
Jumping to Purdue Louisville, Louisville 1-3-0.
Louisville was in system all night.
They were balanced.
All of their hitters were involved in the offense.
I thought De Beer played really well.
Purdue struggled to pass the ball, specifically their libero.
I didn't think was particularly good.
I will shout out Raven Colvin.
I thought she played really well for Purdue.
But overall, Louisville was just in system and scoring at will.
You think that we are married or something or spend so much time together because I haven't
disagreed once.
Shocker.
This was the other match that I had big hopes for.
The other, one of the other matches I had big hopes for, I will say I was very disappointed
with Eva Hudson.
I thought the makeup of these two teams was very similar in that they are powered offensively
by their two left sides who have a very similar like skill makeup, physical makeup.
Their middles, they rely on heavily for their blocking.
So I, you know, I thought it would be really interesting and I was very disappointed.
Maybe I'm being too picky, but like I said, I expected way more.
Yeah, the Purdue libero, Eva Hudson just didn't do it for me.
Penn State Marquette was another match I didn't watch.
Penn State winning 3-1.
I would say it was an efficient match based on looking at the stats.
Merzic 52 sets, Cameron Hanna 42 sets and hit 476.
Not shocking.
Penn State ran mostly to their outsides and their outsides scored efficiently and they
won.
I have no comments on this one.
I, Merzic has kind of been leading the way for Penn State all season.
Cameron Hanna has really stepped up in the later half of the season, putting up great
numbers.
Izzy Stark has been consistent.
So yeah, I don't know.
I would have been shocked if Marquette had pulled off the upset here.
So that's about what I expected.
Texas Creighton, Creighton winning 3-1.
I guess that's an upset, but not based on the standings, but I think based on people's
expectations.
Based on my bracket, it's an upset.
Okay.
Fair enough.
I'll start with Texas.
It looks like either the pressure got to them or they ran out of gas, having gone to two
consecutive finals.
Skinner had 62 attempts and only hit 194 and you knew she was going to need to have a great
game in order for them to win.
And she just looked off to me and I'm not going to put anything on her in terms of what
she was feeling, her pressure, whatever.
It was just off.
It wasn't the Maddie Skinner we've seen for the past two years.
And on the same side, Wenis hit negative.
I did think the Texas Middles were a bright spot for them, but you need one of your outside
hitters to have a game once you get to this part of the tournament.
And they didn't.
Creighton out blocked them 11-2.
They got points across the board.
They were very balanced offensively.
They won the Aces 8-3 and Creighton came to play.
They were gritty on defense.
They turned points.
They kept coming at Texas and Texas didn't respond.
I honestly think this match probably should have been over in three.
Creighton gave up a massive lead in the first set.
They had no business losing that.
I thought when they gave up that lead that they were going to lose the match.
That's fair.
Yeah, that is a huge momentum shift, but to their credit, they righted the ship.
They got back on track.
They built themselves massive leads in every set.
And I was very impressed with their outside hitter combo.
I thought they were outstanding.
Kendra Waite ran a great offense.
I thought her on-two choices were creative and aggressive.
I was very impressed with them.
I agree.
The Texas Middles.
We have been critical of how little they were running the middle mid-season.
But they were running and they were effective.
And I agree, Maddie Skinner looked off in the first set.
She looked tight, a little nervous perhaps.
But she worked into the match.
But yeah, that was the match that I was most excited about.
I know I've said it about every other match that we've talked about so far.
We're starting to sound like a volleyball broadcast where every player is the national
player of the year.
Every player is the best in the country at X skill.
But I'm just excited, okay?
Big difference.
But no, this was the one I was looking most forward to.
And Creighton busted my bracket.
But you know what?
If any team deserved it, they've had a great season, so it's fine.
Wisconsin, Texas, A&M.
If I had to pick a word, it would be surprising.
I did not think that this match was going to go to five.
Wisconsin is inconsistent.
I don't know how else to say it.
They hammered them the first set, lose the second.
Win the third big, lose the fourth.
End up winning the fifth in a close match.
But they just can't seem to play good volleyball for a whole match.
It comes in waves.
And you have one player play well and one player doesn't play well.
Something always falls apart in the set, it seems like, and they're fighting to find some
kind of rhythm.
The Wisconsin middles were really good.
They had 14 blocks.
But it was just inconsistent.
That's all I can say.
I got to give a shout out to Logan, Lednicki.
When I get lots of questions by email, Instagram, whatever, of what I mean when I talk about
a go-to hitter, and it is her.
So if you want to understand what Adam and I are talking about when we say either A,
a traditional opposite or B, a go-to hitter, it is her.
And she personified that in that game.
And my heart breaks for her because she had a swing to tie it up.
And she didn't score in her reaction at the end of that rally because it was match point.
She was devastated.
But like, this set, she was trapped.
And it just like broke my heart because like she wanted that swing so bad.
And she just was like put in such a bad position.
But that was an entertaining match.
It was much more entertaining than I expected.
And yeah, Wisconsin.
I will say Texas A&M came out to play an aggressive match.
They brought it from the service line.
They attacked the ball fearlessly.
They made 26 errors on the match, which is a ton.
But they were going to win that match their way.
And they were going to go down swinging.
And I have the utmost respect for that.
And finally, we had the Dayton-Nebraska match.
I was in and out of this one.
But from what I could see, I thought Dayton played about as well as they could have been
expected to play.
I think that they were working and executing at a pretty high level.
And Nebraska is just better.
I watched part of that match and thought, good for you, Dayton.
I think you can walk off the court and be proud of the effort that you put forward.
I mean, Nebraska looked terrible to me.
I watched this game from start to finish.
They looked, I mean, a term that was thrown around a lot about that match was disjointed.
They looked just off.
It was not pretty.
Harper Murray held it together for them.
She did play very well.
But Dayton, I mean, kudos to their setter.
She pulled her hamstring early in the match and came back.
She didn't want to leave the season.
She didn't want to leave anything out there.
And I have serious respect for that.
She fought through.
And she's clearly a leader for their team, which is why they put her back in.
I think Dayton has a lot to be proud of, for sure.
They've never been in that position before.
But it was just like a lot of pieces would have had to fall in their favor to win that
match.
And obviously Nebraska not playing well is is one of those factors.
But you know, I think the difference in skill level and experience and intangibles even
was just so great that the writing was on the wall.
But I think that Dayton, they made it respectable for sure.
All right.
Those two sentences turned into 29 per episode, but we tried to keep it short.
Hopefully that was a nice little recap for all of you.
If you guys watched all of those matches, I'm so proud of you and let us know if we
missed anything.
But for those of you who didn't get to catch everyone, I hope that was a good recap.
All right.
It's time for the main event.
We're going to look at the four regional finals.
We're going to talk about what we saw, what we thought overall impressions, what we thought
teams could do better.
We'll see where we end up.
Let's start with Pitt versus Kentucky.
What are the takeaways that you have just like right off the top of your head?
After watching Pickle five with Oregon, I thought that this one could potentially be
a knock down drag out fight.
Pittsburgh had it together.
They learned the lesson they needed to from the Oregon match and they did not take their
foot off the gas.
They were out to prove a point and it was fun to watch.
Okay.
This might be one of the first times we disagree ever.
All right.
I don't know.
Like, okay.
Watching the last couple matches, like the Oregon match and this Kentucky match, when
things are rolling and going well for Pitt, they have that confidence, the swagger, the
attitude, you name it.
But when they start to give up a few points in a row, the communication stops.
They aren't making that typical eye contact that I've been loving all season with them.
They look nervous and I understand being number one for the entire season, there is a natural
amount of pressure that you feel to like hold up your end of the bargain and like hold up
the expectations that all these that everybody has of you.
I obviously think that some of that has to do with the pressure they felt to make the
final four and the what if we don't?
I just think things got very quiet when and the energy completely disappeared when they
would give up runs.
I think that's a good observation, but I don't think it ever hindered their execution.
I don't think they were ever really in trouble.
They were down 22-15 in the second set.
If that's not in trouble, like I don't know what is.
I guess I look at the composure that they showed to come back and execute.
They kept their foot on the gas.
They never looked like they were worried about losing.
Things happened.
They did get down, but it was to me, it was serious.
It wasn't, it didn't look negative.
I didn't say negative.
There's a big difference when you score a point and you look relieved versus when you
score a point and you're like, hell yeah, we just scored that point.
Let's go.
And I think sometimes they scored points and it was almost relief.
And to be honest, I think this weekend their passing did break down a few times and in
the process, the communication broke down and I saw Fairbanks getting a little frustrated.
People were stepping into set balls that she was, should have been taking.
And like, I don't know.
It just, there were moments that looked a little less crisp than normal.
And don't get me wrong, I'm a huge pit fan.
I think they're going to go all the way.
I think they deserve to go all the way.
I'm just being honest with what I saw.
I guess I think about the Oregon match where they couldn't get it together and they couldn't
find their execution and they ended up going to five here.
They found ways to score when things weren't going well.
So you talked about the passing being off the net.
I thought specifically in the second set, Fairbanks did an amazing job of finding her
middles from the eight to 10 foot range off the net, right?
So they're loading up on the outsides when the pass doesn't go well, you're finding the
middles and allowing them to be productive.
I thought they're troubleshooting or they're problem solving in the match when things weren't
going well was well done.
Well, I mean, at the end of the day, you have got so many pieces that can score when you
need them to score.
I mean, you're not like some teams that have one super weapon that they go to nonstop.
Like you need a point, you can set Babcock, you can set Stafford.
If the pass is in range, you can set Bree Kelly.
Like you have options and they are blessed to have so many options when things do go
sideways.
I'm just saying.
Fair enough.
I thought it was a better match than Oregon.
I thought Fairbanks did a pretty good job managing those bad passes.
I thought Stafford struggled a little bit in this match.
I don't think she passed particularly well.
I think they picked on her.
I think they found a way to win.
I will also add in, I think Vasquez Gomez has kind of become a little bit of a liability
offensively.
I didn't notice that early in the season or even mid season, but in the last few weeks,
I've noticed how low her elbow is when she swings and it's almost like that roundhouse
swing.
And when she gets blocked, that thing is hitting the ground before she does.
It's coming back fast.
And so I feel like she is the last option offensively.
Obviously, she has the experience.
She holds the team together.
She's good ball control, good defense, like heartbeat of the team kind of player.
So she needs to be on 100%.
But you're seeing Blair Bayless, you know, kind of come in and attack for her sometimes.
And so I'm wondering how that is going to kind of work itself out in the final four.
Obviously, they've played Louisville several times already and have been successful.
But at the end of the day, winners find ways to win, even when it's uncomfortable.
And I know it may sound like I'm super critical of Pitt, whatever.
They found a way.
They made it.
And like, let's see if that like, lets them relax a little bit because like making the
final four is like one of the hardest things.
What did you see from Kentucky?
I have a lot of notes written down here about Kentucky.
I think set one was close.
But I think that there were some critical blocking errors made by the freshman, middle,
daily down the stretch.
The first one, there was this play that Bree Kelly ran a slide.
Olivia Babcock was in the back row on the right side and Vasquez Gomez was on the left.
And the young middle went and doubled up Vasquez Gomez.
I'm sorry.
No, how like what are you thinking?
At a critical point in the match, they overload and put their two best attack options together,
two options together.
And you decide I'm going to go with the last of the three options and leave their two best
attackers alone.
That was the first one.
And at the very end, she left Babcock one on one in transition, Pitt got a dig, Babcock
was in the back row and she went and doubled up on the outside.
When it's again, critical, it's transition, they are going to give the ball to Babcock.
You make sure that that woman has a double block on her every single ball.
And I don't know like what the discussions were on Kentucky side before the match, but
I feel like that should have been like play Pitt one on one.
Do not let Olivia Babcock hit without two blockers.
Sorry.
No, I think that's fair.
She's their best hitter.
They use her to get out of trouble and to score points when they need them.
You need to make her life difficult to beat Pitt period.
I will say the other thing and set one that I thought killed them.
They were trying to be aggressive with their serve, but they missed a ton.
Oh my gosh.
They missed six serves and they made seven attack errors in set one alone.
I wanted to rip my eyeballs out and it was 25, 22, 13 errors and you lose by three points.
Like why?
And they gave up a seven point run in the second set.
Kudos to Mallory Meyer for Pitt though.
The freshmen she came in delivered.
Anyway, that second set giving up that lead killed them.
They were, I was like, they're toast after this.
And this is what I loved about Pitt was that they just, they just didn't give up.
They kept going no matter what the score was, there was a belief that they could win and
they could execute.
And I really liked seeing that.
I will say shout out Brooke Baltimore.
I thought she played very well.
I think she attacked well.
She brings great energy to the floor for her team.
So I was very impressed with her.
Also Brooklyn DeLay, she's solid.
You know, the thing for me, like she scores her points.
She's going to score her points.
I felt like Pitt could have contained her a little more.
I didn't like their game plan.
I didn't like their game plan against her either because you could see it early when
she was trying to swing angle.
She was making errors and she started finding the line and there was like this massive run
of points at the only time she was scoring was when she was swinging down the line and
Pitt kept giving it to her.
And I was like, shut down the line, funnel her to your libero and Vasquez Gomez and Torrie
Stoffer like your two left sides in your libero who have great ball control, funnel them to
her.
You're going to probably force an error or have your three best players there to dig
her.
But they kept allowing her to go down the line and I was like, why?
Yeah, I didn't understand that either.
I thought the block should have taken that away and forced her into the shot.
She was least comfortable making at least that's what it looked like watching that match.
I have a couple other question marks with Kentucky.
Sure.
Number one, why is their libero jump setting every ball?
You're like five feet behind the 10 foot line in your jump setting.
Well the thing for me was they weren't perfect.
If you're going to jump set because you want to because it looks cool, you better execute
flawlessly or keep your feet on the ground and deliver a hittable ball.
You're not fooling anyone, you're not making the blockers make a different decision.
You're just doing it because who knows?
Or it's not like you're like, oh, I'm on the edge here.
I'm not a good like bump setter.
Let me jump into this to set with my hand.
No, you're literally in the backcourt jumping.
And that's the thing.
She didn't need to jump to get across the attack line.
I just didn't see a reason for it.
So that's my first question mark.
My second question mark was the fact that they're running their opposite Wilson in the
middle and their middle daily on the right side.
I'm sorry, I don't know if I've missed something throughout the season.
I know we didn't watch much of Kentucky, but that middle is very good at hitting in the
middle.
So I'm just like, why are you putting your middle on the right side and your right side
in the middle?
I'm wondering if it was to get Wilson going, to be honest, because she didn't have a great
night.
I'm wondering if based on her size and she actually looked pretty comfortable hitting
quick out of the middle.
I'm wondering if it was more about her and less about the middle.
Maybe she did.
Wilson did hit well out of the back row, though.
I was pleasantly surprised with that.
Yeah, but overall, she only hit 150.
She had seven kills, four errors, and most of her kills, like you said, were from the
back row.
I thought she struggled in the front row, which is why I think maybe they did that.
Pitt did a really good job of pushing Kentucky deep on serve receive.
You and I mentioned it like very early on how shallow Kentucky was standing on serve
receive.
And Pitt finally found that depth where they were catching them high and Kentucky was not
doing a good job of like opening their hip and like angling their platform.
They were like, like standing straight up and getting caught high.
So something I thought might be interesting and I was thinking about while I watched that
match and their serve receive depth is their first assistant coach, Ben Josephson, coached
men's in Canada and then went on to have a stint with the men's national team.
And generally you see men pass float serves a little higher in the court because they're
strong enough to take it with their hands and the net's a little bit higher.
I'm wondering if that's his influence and they're trying to make that work or if that's
just something that they've identified they can be good at.
But I thought Pitt did a good job of taking advantage of that and really serving at their
chest and forcing them to pass off on that.
That definitely screams men's volleyball to me because when Babcock would serve, the whole
server see formation would step back.
And that's also what you see in men's volleyball is spin servers.
The formation steps back so they can play the balls in front of them and then float
serves they step up because they want to be able to control it with their hands.
Women's volleyball is not the same.
And I really do think that is his influence.
I obviously can't say for certain but I just had that feeling too.
Women's volleyball is not the same.
The women are very tall and the trajectory that women can get on those float serves,
they're coming down fast and nothing against female passers but you don't often see women
have that same control server receiving with their hands.
There are exceptions obviously Megan Hodge was one of them.
You didn't see Kentucky try to take any passes with their hands.
Yeah they just got jammed up.
And I mean I can speak from experience I've practiced with some of your professional teams.
Most women outsides are about my height and I will tell you that ball is coming hard and
fast and it is it's tough to do.
One thing I think Pitt is going to have to be better at in the final four if they expect
to win is their out of system setting.
Emily Stafford when they were digs I didn't think she did a great job of putting her hitters
in a good spot to score.
When they have transition opportunities and she's setting she needs to do a better job
because you're going to need to capitalize on those opportunities.
Don't you guys think we're just Debbie Downers this whole time?
So well listen I've loved watching Pitt all season.
I think they're the best team in the NCAA if they show up and play.
I'm a huge Stafford fan.
I just don't think she had her best game in that match and I think that they're going
to win.
I still think they're going to win but these are the things in my opinion that they're
going to have to do to be successful.
Like you said Fairbanks runs the middle off the net.
She's one of the best in the country at it.
Olivia Babcock is solid.
She's another example of that traditional right side go to hitter mentality.
She does not tab like she is coming at you which I have so much respect for.
So you know hopefully they'll they'll show up.
I'm looking forward to seeing them play on Thursday for sure.
All right Stanford Louisville hit me with your thoughts.
We were pretty worried about Louisville after the UNI match last week.
But I will say it was a completely different team this weekend like I was very pleasantly
surprised with the team that showed up.
I mean we watched both of their matches but Stanford in particular I thought their middles
particularly P.K.
Kong played outstanding.
I thought they ran their middles offensively a lot more than we have seen and they were
more effective than we have seen.
I think Anna De Beer was steady solid as usual.
You know the usual suspects played well but the big difference maker for me in the elevated
performance was how involved the middles were on both sides of the ball.
I also thought that Maldonado Diaz had a really had a really good game and she's not usually
somebody they rely on in that regard.
She hit three eighty five on twenty six sets.
She was very good.
She was reliable.
It felt like Stanford was willing to let her beat them.
Like when you're game planning for a team you go OK we're going to we're going to focus
on this player we're going to focus on that player and you kind of leave one player and
you know from a coach mentality you're thinking you know if she beats us she beats us.
And I kind of felt like that was the role that Maldonado Diaz fell into and she rose
to the occasion.
I thought she was really good.
I agree she was pretty quiet in the first set but really stepped up in sets two three
and four.
I mean again last week we said if Louisville wants to do well moving forward they're going
to need better production from their right sides and their middles are going to have
to be used more.
And they did that.
Stanford and Louisville kind of switched passing abilities in set one.
Stanford was passing very very well putting a lot of pressure on Louisville with their
serve and then in set two that completely flip flopped.
Louisville started passing really well.
Stanford their server see completely fell apart.
The wheels fell off.
Louisville was just like flip flop from set one and two and like to Louisville's credit
they maintained it in sets three and four.
Yeah I felt like here you take one we'll take one and I will play a best of three and Louisville
just kept the momentum rolling after that second set.
I thought Stanford looked great in set one.
They got their middles going.
Sammy Francis was on fire.
She was scoring well.
Elia Rubin and E. Park Hurt were great.
And like I said passing was outstanding amazing connection with the setter and then the wheels
just fell off.
Well let's let's talk about this.
We've we've discussed this and I almost hate to talk about this because I have the utmost
respect for Cammie Miner.
But you alluded to it in their semifinal match about her not being able to connect with her
hitters out of system.
And I think we saw a lot of that in that Louisville match.
It started in the second set when the passing broke down.
And for me it never got better.
They looked like they were trying to push tempo all match no matter what happened.
And I'm not sure if this is game plan or I'm not sure if it's what they practice all the
time or they're just not used to being that far out of system.
But it looked to me like the outside hitters never had any options at a system.
Louisville would set two blocks up and the ball would come in so fast they just had to
make contact and they couldn't go sharp angle they couldn't go down the line.
It was you know swing and hope for the best.
And that's the first time I've watched her set and been disappointed.
And I hate I hate to say that because she's a senior.
She's been great all season.
She's a leader.
I just didn't think she executed.
We're equal opportunists when it comes to critiques.
So I'm sorry Cammy you're not immune.
Yeah I love her too.
I think she's a great setter.
I have a lot of respect for her.
I still I love her.
That pace that she was pushing to the outside.
You know what it has worked for them up to this point but you just saw they looked like
they were kind of dying inside a little bit.
And when you've got your the Louisville middles like working like that that's tough.
And I think it kind of translated even when the pass was good and there weren't many but
even when they were finding themselves in system the sets looked low to the middle.
They looked low.
The Sammy Francis Cammy Minor connection disappeared like that's when I knew things were bad was
when it just like nobody could seem to get a feel for it.
What was strange it looked like they were running Sammy really close to the setter when
she was running the slide and normally I've seen them push her out to the antenna or use
different locations to try and spread and open the block and she just didn't seem to
know where to go.
If the ball was off she couldn't go as far as she wanted to or there was no connection
there.
I mean it's definitely not all Miners fault.
They did not pass well they didn't put her in a position to be successful but I think
when you watch really good setters they're able to put their hitters in good situations
even when the pass isn't great and in my opinion that didn't really happen in this match.
And I mean we talked about it last time Louisville and Stanford played how it looked like Stanford
was varying the locations of their offense or along the net for everybody and unfortunately
I don't think they got into enough of a passing rhythm in sets two through four to be able
to you know try that again.
But yeah when things are going bad you should especially when the middle blockers for Louisville
are so big and they're so effective blocking like spread it like make them move don't allow
the blockers to bunch and not have to make any decisions or movement like you want to
create that movement to open things up and you didn't really see that and honestly another
thing that really frustrated me is how many Stanford did get a bunch of digs but how many
free balls they put back over the net after those digs like they weren't even able to
put their hitters in a position to swing in transition and that was so frustrating to
watch.
They just didn't look cohesive in this match.
It just seemed like everybody was on a different page when they were in system it wasn't clicking
that didn't happen very often when they were out of system hitters were early or didn't
know what tempo to expect.
They just never looked like they were all on the same page.
And then to flip that Louisville kind of looked like that in the first set but completely
cleaned it up in sets two through four.
They wanted to play that final four at home.
They learned they had a really rough time last weekend they learned their lesson and
they completely cleaned it up and I think that that's great.
Yeah you definitely saw and I think this is kudos to the beer.
She calmed them down.
She didn't have the best match offensively.
She only hit say only 200 on 45 swings but she got all of the junk and she was expected
to take care of it and I think that that lessened the load on the other hit other hitters because
you saw Maldonado Diaz go 385.
You saw Charity Looper go 346.
To me her leadership the presence that she brought the calmness that she brought after
that first set and then she had some great plays defensively passing wise offensively
in big moments she executed.
She is very good at finding those hands.
Little struggles from the service line but we'll let that go.
We will let that go.
You know I think if this is the Pitt the Louisville team that shows up next weekend or on Thursday
I think we can expect a great match.
I think so too.
I think if both teams play well Pitt is better.
They need to be able to do that and both teams have been up and down.
Both teams had pretty convincing wins in that last round.
Pitt had to fight through to find theirs.
Louisville lost the first set came back but I think part of what you said to me was you
know there's a lot of pressure to make it to the final four.
I think we're going to see a little bit more freedom on the court and I think this is going
to be a great match.
I think there was a lot of pressure on Louisville particularly hosting the final four to actually
be there and I think you know that is kind of what we saw in week one of the tournament
and I think they learned to embrace that pressure this week and I think now we'll see the reins
off and they're just going to be free because like mission accomplished they made it and
I know every team that is going to be playing on Thursday like their goal is to bring home
the national championship but you know Louisville did what they needed to do in being there.
So I think they will definitely be playing free.
I think the key for Louisville next week is whether they can get point production from
their right sides.
All right all right let's take a look at Nebraska versus Wisconsin.
What were your thoughts?
I was disappointed.
I feel like everybody's going to be so mad at us they're going to be like you guys were
so negative this week.
I'm sorry.
Well I know I think that there were a lot of a lot of good individual efforts but I
think there's a lot of pressure and I think my expectations for the games were really
high.
Nebraska had kind of walked all over Wisconsin all year and I was expecting a response.
I was expecting this match to go to five and it definitely did not.
I was expecting at least better than what was put on the court.
I will say that was a very hard match to watch.
Let's start with the bright spots though.
I think Taylor Landfair was a bright spot.
You know we've been talking about that second left side position for Nebraska has kind of
been a struggle all season.
We didn't know what was going to happen in conference play etc. but when it mattered
the second left side position showed up.
She picked a good time.
Absolutely and she's going to need to keep going.
I thought offensively she was very good.
She hit 267 and got 30 sets.
She was making good aggressive swings.
She was smart when she needed to be.
I was really impressed.
I think that was yeah I was really happy to see that come together for her.
I think Nebraska's defense was I mean it's always a staple for them but I thought that
it was relentless.
I'm going to go into broadcaster mode and I'm going to say Nebraska's defense was world
class.
It was world class.
I agree.
It was so good.
They don't let the ball hit the floor.
Defense is an attitude baby.
I couldn't agree more and it's actually so fun to watch them play defense.
They throw their bodies all over the place and throwing their bodies all over the place
is the fun part as a spectator to watch but the thing that I really like watching from
a volleyball perspective is how connected their block and defense is.
How well positioned their back row courts are based on the situation that's going on
based on whether the block is closed based on the hitters tendencies.
It's a symphony out there and how well they work together and sometimes you get a ricochet
touch and they chase it down and they go again.
It's amazing to watch.
Block defense is a system and the best teams in the world I don't care if you're playing
indoor I don't care if you're playing beach the best teams in the world their block defense
is like you said a symphony.
They are completely in sync.
They're in the same wavelength.
They know exactly what their responsibilities are.
They don't try to try to do more than that.
They will perform their duties to the best of their ability and then even more should
they need to and I think it was beautiful.
I think the defense doesn't get enough credit for the pressure it puts hitters under.
I was watching Wisconsin's hitters go up time and time again and have to take big rips and
big swings and they couldn't score they couldn't get the ball to hit the floor and that is
wearing as a hitter to have to work so hard to score one point and I think it needs to
be acknowledged that their defense is a nightmare for hitters to hit against especially when
they're not in system.
If they know they have two of four hitters two of three hitters available and their block
is set they're a very difficult team to score against.
I think another bright spot from the match was I think Charlie Furbringer did a pretty
good job.
I think her serving was very good that one-to-one serve.
She digs a lot of balls.
I think that she did a good job and her connection with Carter Booth has improved particularly
in the last month or so and you could see that she was trying to run the middle more
which I really appreciate so I think that was a positive.
And I would say watching her in this tournament I can understand why she was the top ranked
setter coming in this year.
I think her all-around game is very good like you mentioned her serving she was their best
server in my opinion defensively she does a really good job of reading hit versus tip
and picking balls up.
I thought she was pushing her team from an effort standpoint which probably shouldn't
be the case because she's a freshman you want your seniors to step up in that case.
Wisconsin did not make it easy for her I don't think they passed particularly well so you
know kudos kudos to her I've definitely seen an improvement in her from the beginning of
the season to now and that's all you can ask for I would agree with you I think well done.
Okay let's be real now so as in sync as Nebraska's block defense was I was really scratching my
head about Wisconsin's block defense I think in particular what their zone six defender
was doing so when Charlie Furbringer was in the front row the Nebraska attackers were
really working to go high line line seam kind of looking for that one six seam and then
when she wasn't or when there was the bigger block in the front row they were really looking
to go for that deep corner obviously they threw some tips down in the middle but like
deep corner or the five six seam what was what it looked like they were trying to aim
for with their attacks.
The position six defender just sat in six the whole time.
There was no situational awareness there was no adjustment there was no putting yourself
in a position to have the best probability to dig the ball.
If teams are going over Charlie whether it's Landfair who is really going for that deep
corner consistently or Murray put zone six a little shaded in the seam of the block and
drag your libero back to that deep corner and bring your front row off blocker a little
deeper to the ten foot line there you go and then you have a player come closer up for
tips to cover the donut and then if they're going for the corner like you can just shift
other ways but the zone six defender was just sitting there doing nothing.
I mean we don't have the greatest view on TV to be able to see how the defenses are
moving in situations I always prefer to watch a match from the back of the court but I didn't
notice any adjustments defensively as to what they were doing or the strategy or trying
to take things away.
I was confused.
Well and I'm sorry I will Harper Murray had a great weekend she played very well.
Absolutely.
But if in the course of a rally if she gets set multiple times she mixes up her shots
she if she gets set four times in a rally she's not hitting all four balls.
She will throw a tip down she'll roll shot into the middle like she'll alternate sometimes
but like it's like they were surprised whenever that happened and the number of roll shots
that she hit that just hit the ground with nobody there.
I was like she varies her attack she very rarely does the same thing three times in
a row.
It seemed everybody had their own individual responsibility on players but it wasn't working
together and I'm not sure whether that's because their block is generally so big or what the
thought process was but it wasn't cohesive and it was a stark difference to what you
saw on the other side of the net.
Two more things let me know what you think.
Number one both right sides for me in Beeson and Smrak not good.
Beeson I think has struggled since the PVF draft if I'm being honest and this NCAA tournament
she has like been on one like she has disappeared for me.
Do you think that's a direct correlation or just a random coincidence?
I don't know.
I hope it's a random coincidence and then Smrak like sure her hitting numbers look okay
but like the number she was a drill killer and what I mean is like there were so many
long rallies that ended with her passing a free ball over the net.
We're talking volleyball 101 here.
The big difference that I noticed in that match is when Nebraska was in trouble if they
were forced to tip if they were forced to give a free ball they gave it to Anna Smrak
because she has zero ball control and they were getting balls sent right back into their
blockers hands.
Wisconsin when they were in trouble they were just tipping over the block down the line.
Tip it to Taylor Landfair you guys.
The girl doesn't move on defense.
She's very often.
If there is any liability or a weak spot in the Nebraska defense it is Taylor Landfair
I'm sorry.
They did not give her any free ball they did not make her move for a tip one time and let
me tell you Nebraska's plan was not by accident.
You need to have an offensive plan against Nebraska because they are so disciplined.
They don't have many holes but you have to be able to exploit the ones that you can find.
They just didn't do that and I don't know you know again you have a freshman setter.
I don't know if you're just trying to find a rhythm and work it through but again and
I said this the last time they played Nebraska looked prepared to play Wisconsin.
Wisconsin looked like they were all hoping to have career matches individually.
To be fair they did change up their serving strategy.
They didn't just serve to zone one it looked like they challenged Harper.
They were they know I only served Harper.
I'm sorry you can change the strategy but they didn't execute.
They served Harper Murray in the middle third of the court.
They didn't make her move.
I know I said this before.
Harper Murray is not a bad passer.
She's just the worst passer on a team of very good passers.
You can't serve her lollipops and expect to get Nebraska out of system.
You've got to challenge her.
You've got to serve her seams.
You've got to move her short deep.
You've got to hit her in the chest and they did not do that.
They served the middle third of the court.
I don't know how many times I watched her just stand there stick her platform out and
go thank you very much.
Run Jackson.
Honestly I was very disappointed.
I think Wisconsin should be embarrassed at that performance.
You got blanked 9-0 on the season set wise to Nebraska.
I think part of it for me coming into this match was you have how many seniors on that
team the whole team pretty much.
You've lost.
You got swept twice in the season.
I was expecting a little more.
I'm not going to say what I was going to say.
Yes.
Pride.
But what I was expecting for me is they came out and they actually started the match pretty
well.
They were up 11-7 in the first set and then you saw hitting error from Franklin, hitting
error from Smrec, overpass from Orzull, 11-10 Nebraska never looked back.
You need your players to execute and make a stop or make a play and it seemed like Nebraska's
team was the only one making the extraordinary plays, winning the long rallies.
We've said it before.
I think Pitt and Nebraska are the two best teams in the country.
I'm not surprised Nebraska won.
I think they were going to win regardless of what Wisconsin team showed up.
I was expecting more fight.
Absolutely.
But I think the better team is moving on.
Now our last match and the reason we are recording this at 10 p.m. on Sunday night.
Yay.
Probably the most exciting regional final match was the we saved for last.
Penn State versus Creighton went five.
I thought this had a little bit of a Louisville match field tour where they went, okay, you
take the first set.
We'll take the second set and then we'll play for real.
It definitely was another flip flop situation for sure.
We saw Creighton struggle to pass in set one.
They made a ton of errors.
Norris could not get going at all.
And then in set two, the opposite happened.
Literal opposite.
And then it was a game.
So I thought we'll talk a little bit about the first two sets even though they just kind
of switched.
I thought the set selection for Creighton was really strange to start the match.
I know they didn't pass well, but they ran five or six back row balls almost right off
the hop.
And I will tell you, as a hitter, that's not fun.
You want to find a little rhythm in the front row before you start getting yost back row
balls that you have to score on against a good team.
It's a tough way to start.
It was definitely an interesting strategy to start.
And it was Ava Martin in the back row too.
Maybe that is what contributed.
And when Norris says was in the front row, maybe that contributed to her hitting struggles.
Who knows?
Hey, I'm in the front row, but just don't set me.
Where are we going?
Thanks so much.
Yeah.
That was something that stuck out to me early on watching the match thinking, oh, that's
tough.
Honestly, like I said, Norris has had struggles.
She didn't really come out of it the whole match, I thought.
No, she was awash.
She hit zero on the night.
She was eight kills, eight errors on, I think, 33 sets.
She needed to be better for them to have a chance to win this game.
I thought Ava Martin did okay.
But only okay.
I think all of their hitters only did okay.
And did their one middle get any sets at all?
So let me break this down.
We got Ava Martin had 53 swings, hit 132.
Norris says we talked about her.
Jaya Johnson actually had the best match of the team hitting 261, but only had 23 sets.
Like across the board, their numbers were not amazing and their team hitting percentage
was not very good.
Yeah, their one middle, Kiara Reinhart hit less than 100 as a middle.
Yeah, not the best.
I'm honestly shocked that this even went five sets.
But Penn State didn't really show up either.
I thought Cameron Hanna really struggled.
Yeah, Jess Merzick won them that match, in my opinion.
Jura Vicious like held her own.
I thought she did okay.
Yeah, she hit just under 300.
But she did good for her.
Those are good numbers for her, I think.
She only got 24 sets in five sets, which I mean, again, she was good when she got the
ball, but they didn't set her a ton.
Creighton just kept the ball alive.
They just their defense was outstanding.
They kept the ball off the floor.
And they put up some good block.
I thought they blocked pretty well.
Jess Merzick, when she brought it, Penn State won those sets.
She definitely had some up and down moments throughout the match.
Jura Vicious held her own.
But like I said, Cameron Hanna, I think struggled.
Mendelsohn looked like she was on a different planet, got taken out.
Yeah, she watched the game from the sidelines after that.
And honestly, the calmest and most collected player from start to finish for me was Izzy
Stark.
I agree.
And I thought Taylor Trammell did a really good job in that match as well.
But I will say something really interesting.
And we've watched Izzy Stark a ton.
And we both really like her.
First of all, I would just say, I really like watching the ball come out of her hands because
it's so clean and the trajectory is so good.
And it's just fun to watch as a pure aside.
But she puts her hitters in a great spot and she was an offensive threat.
She had 16 attack attempts.
And it's just amazing to see a freshman with so much composure and good decision making.
Creighton gave her opportunities and she said, I'm going to take them.
I don't care who else is there.
You're going to give it to me.
I'm going to take it.
And I thought that was awesome.
Well, I found it interesting because Kendra Waite is the setter that has the reputation
for being so offensive and so like such a threat at the net.
And I wonder if Izzy Stark kind of like put a chip on her shoulder a little bit and was
like, I'll show you.
So I don't obviously don't know Izzy Stark at all.
But just watching her move around the court and watching her interact with her teammates,
I could definitely see that being the case.
I think she undoubtedly won the setter offensive battle.
I totally agree.
I was shocked at how little Waite went on to.
Granted, Creighton did have some passing struggles, particularly as we said, in set one towards
the back half of set four and into set five.
So there was that.
Maybe she didn't have the opportunities that she normally does.
Yeah, I was impressed at seeing Izzy Stark just go for it.
I think it was interesting.
And I think that this plays a role in it.
They kept saying on the broadcast, hey, both of these teams are 30 and two or 32 and two,
whatever the record was, it was the same.
But it's not the same.
It's not the same level of competition.
And granted, you can only take care of what is put in front of you.
When you look at the divisions, Penn State has to beat better teams.
And I think, I don't think it was overall Penn State's cleanest match.
But in the fifth set, when it came down to it, they knew how to win and how to apply
pressure and Creighton just doesn't get pushed like that during the season.
And I think it plays a huge part.
I think it makes a massive difference.
And there's nothing Creighton can do about it.
But it's reality.
Thank you for saying that.
I was getting I was like, just shaking my head every time the announcers were like,
oh, yeah, both of these teams are 32 and two.
And I'm like, it is a very different 32 and two, you guys.
Like, I know Creighton had a heavy non-conference schedule.
Like they beat some very good teams.
I'm not trying to take that away from them at all.
They had some huge wins this season against formidable opponents.
But the in conference play, you cannot compare the big East to the big 10.
I'm sorry.
The what?
The other thing that I was just like, please stop saying this was they were like, oh, Creighton
has the second highest hitting percentage in the NCAA behind Pitt.
And I'm like, Lady Pitt plays in the ACC and they have the highest hitting percentage in
the country.
Like, what?
Like, can we not like good for Creighton?
Like that's awesome.
Great numbers.
But like, stop, stop it.
Moving on from the pet peeves of the match.
I will say since we're talking about it, I thought the announcer for that match actually
Paul Sunderland showed out he did awesome.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him.
He clearly has a volleyball knowledge.
And I've watched a ton of college volleyball over the last month and a half.
He's the best one I've heard thus far.
So kudos to you.
He was excellent on that play by play.
Back to the volleyball part.
I thought it was really interesting.
Jess Merzik has struggled down the stretch in my opinion.
I don't think she's played her best volleyball leading into the tournament.
You know, they've done well enough to win, but you haven't really seen her shine in my
opinion.
Well, teams have been putting their whole focus on her.
So.
And that happened in this match too.
They were prepared for her.
I thought she elevated in this match.
She you know, some of her teammates didn't have their best matches, you know, and you're
always going to bounce that out on a team.
Some people are going to play well, you know, some people aren't but they needed her to
be great today.
And she was.
And she had that angle swing hard in tough situations down pat and she was going for
it.
I think I've seen her tip a lot in the last.
I was just about to jump in and be like she tipped a little too much for me in certain
situations.
But when their backs were to the wall, she did not tip and I loved it.
Okay.
I know I keep jumping back to Creighton's passing, but after their struggles and set
one they did make a great adjustment and they moved their whole server safe back and I thought
their passing picked up substantially in sets two, three and at the beginning of set four.
I found it interesting that Penn State just kept trying to push that deep serve.
They didn't try to drop any inshore and I think those would have been really effective
because like they just kept going back to what was working in set one.
But I don't think they realized that Creighton had made that adjustment.
Well I think that's actually more common than you might think.
A lot of teams go hey we want to drive the passers back, we want to serve deep and flat.
I'm wondering how many of them are comfortable serving short in those situations and maybe
the coaching staff didn't pick up on it.
It's a good observation.
I'm curious how often they practice that.
Fair.
The other thing I noticed was when Jura Vicious was blocking and Izzy Stark was in the back
row.
Penn State had Izzy Stark coming under for tips and their position six defender was sliding
over into the angle leaving a solid third of the court open down the line.
I kept screaming at my TV just like, tip a quick ball down the line, tip a quick ball
down the line because they were, Penn State was giving that to the Creighton left sides
when Stark was in the back row and they did not go for it once.
They went for a couple line swings when the conditions were right which, but it didn't
happen.
Like I just, you just need to do a couple things to reset the defense because like obviously
Penn State planned, oh Nora Siss, Ava Martin, they like to swing deep angle.
This is how we're going to set up our defense but all you need to do as an attacker is take
the open area a couple times to make that defense reset and then you can go back to
what you love and have it open but they didn't do that.
So that point that you made and I know we talked about this already about seeing what's
open and taking it to reset the defense.
I think Izzy Stark did a really good job of that.
You saw the blocker shading to the outside when she was in the front row and when she
saw that movement she would dump or she would attack the ball or she would push one back
to make the defense reset and open up for her hitters and Creighton had opportunities
to do that but just didn't follow through.
I thought Penn State was a little bit up and down throughout the sets.
It had a little bit of a Wisconsin vibe to me in terms of playing well, kind of letting
their foot off the gas and Creighton played better.
When she comes to shove down on the fifth set they had the experience.
Jess Merzuch really stepped up.
She played well.
I really liked what Izzy Stark did and they managed to pull out the win and I mean they
just beat Nebraska.
I don't think the odds are in their favor with that matchup coming up on Thursday but
they're going to be confident because they've just done it and it's a neutral location so
it could be a very good match if...
Is it a neutral location though?
The Nebraska fans travel very well.
Okay, well it's not the Devaney Center.
We're on equal ground now.
Everybody made it to the dance, the big final.
I think in this particular case it will be interesting to see if landfare can have a
great match for Nebraska and what happens with Beeson.
Those are the two question marks for me.
Otherwise Nebraska is pretty set and standard and you can count on them and it will be interesting
to see how Penn State does if both Cameron Hanna and Jess Merzuch play well at the same
time.
And I'm going to add in another piece.
We saw last time these two teams played they really focused...
Nebraska focused their defense on the Penn State outsides, Jess Merzuch in particular.
Caroline Gervishas and Mendelson going off was not on their bingo card so I'm curious
A, if those two former Huskers are going to come out with that same attitude and chip
on their shoulder to prove a point and B, I wonder if...
I mean they have a few days to prepare.
I wonder just how in depth they're going to go with their defensive preparation so they're
not caught off guard again.
Yeah, Mendelson will need to be better than she was today.
Their replacement Jordan Hopp did a serviceable job but she hasn't played a ton.
She doesn't have a lot of experience.
But Mendelson's going to need to show up.
So this week might be my favorite week that we've had.
There was so much good high level volleyball.
It was really fun to hunker down for four days and just watch matches.
We're coming to the end of the show.
We've got the final matches...
Not the end of the show.
We're still going to continue the podcast.
The end of the show being the NCAA Final Four for women's volleyball.
We're going to see two matches on Thursday and the finals are on Sunday at 3pm Eastern.
We've got the ACC and the Big Ten.
It's guaranteed those two conferences will meet.
On Thursday we'll see Pitt and Louisville.
I think that's going to be a great match.
Then we'll see Nebraska play Penn State.
That one to me could go either way and it could be a really good match.
So we'll see what happens.
But I'm looking forward to Thursday and finally on Sunday.
I think both of these matches have the potential to go the distance.
I'm hoping for good volleyball.
You know, we've seen some blowouts.
I just hope both teams play.
All teams kind of play to their potential so they can walk off the court proud of themselves
and with their heads held high.
But play begins at 6.30pm Eastern time on Thursday so be sure to tune in.
I am very excited.
I cannot believe the NCAA women's season is coming to a close.
But we're going to soak up what's left of it.
That concludes this week's episode of Volley Talk.
There's always something shaking in the volleyball world and we hope you enjoyed this
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