2018 PSU Women's VB Thread

[PSU&Trout]

Question for those more knowledgeable than I .... has Russ lost his fastball these days?

Knowledge limited but yes and no. yes he has lost some key recruiting battles in the last year or two. (I believe two of Stanford's players were lost in recruitment) But even so he had the best class last year by some reports and he is a very very good coach. So there is that

 

[Chickenman Testa]

“Watchability Factor”?
IMO - which probably doesn’t mean much - if Women’s Hoops is a “1”, Women’s Volleyball is a “10,000”.

OTTOMH, aside from Field Hockey, I can’t think of a more painful sport to watch than Women’s Hoops. I’m not sure how much one would have to pay me to spend an afternoon watching Girl’s basketball - - - - but it would be a sizable sum.
Women’s Volleyball, OTOH, probably would only rank below a handful of Men’s sports..... and probably at the top of the list among Women’s.

Watchability means a ton - perfectly explains why people bother to watch Ladies Figure Skating in droves during the Olympics.

The Volleyball uniform is well constructed. Kudos to the committee that chose it as the standard

 

[PSUdraw]

Professional is starting to become a very well payed gig the overseas leagues which also could be a factor in this as for WBB the US has WNBA but most of these players play in overseas leagues as well for money so maybe volleyball is more profitable career.

 

[dcf4psu]

I also enjoy watching the LPGA tournaments. The competition is good and for many competing the "uniforms" are also very well constructed.

 

[MrDibbs]

A few thoughts from someone who "watches" a lot of volleyball...
The difference in this final match (IMHO) was PSU 's inability to make good passes off of service reception. Bryana Weiskircher sometimes had few options for setting and then Stanford's block took control. Remember that a block can be effective if it slows the ball enough for your defensive spec to get a quality contact to your setter and that results in your team's kill.
This has been a PSU Achilles Heel seemingly forever.
I am quite happy with this team's season long development. The young kids really grew over the year and with some focused strength training in the off season (off season in volleyball?) and development of Gabby Blossom in the setting role, i expect bug things for the future.

Just a comment to the post about club volleyball ... my youngest played club starting at age 12. Her first couple years, she played on the club's "lesser regarded" team for the age group. I went to all her tournaments and they won maybe half of their matches while the #1 team always won gold bracket. Lot of parents weren't happy, but I ignored their whining because I could see individual skills being developed in ALL the kids. As the season concluded, these kids were getting it and it was a lot of fun.
Daughter worked her way to the upper level team, was a decent high school player (hard to be great at outside hitter when you are 5 ft 6 in tall) and now coaches middle school where she teaches high school biology. She coaches the same skills that she learned in lower age group club and it works.

If you are watching 5 straight balls hit the floor with no movement, especially after a month or two of "practice", look elsewhere for a better organization that develops those individual skills.

 

[anon_xdc8rmuek44eq]

PSU is the reason Women’s Volleyball in the B1G is so competitive. Until Nebraska joined, everyone else was fighting for second. Minny, Wisconsin, etc. owe Russ and PSU a debt and it’s made the sport and conference the team much better.

Last night’s loss was extremely frustrating because we have the talent. Part of me wishes they would get rid of rally scoring where service is at a decided disadvantage. But would make televised matches that much more frustrating.

 

[anon_xdc8rmuek44eq]

Professional is starting to become a very well payed gig the overseas leagues which also could be a factor in this as for WBB the US has WNBA but most of these players play in overseas leagues as well for money so maybe volleyball is more profitable career.

If you follow any previous ‘elite’ players on for PSU on social media they’re all playing in Europe. Along with other B1G stars.

 

[PSUFBFAN]

Watchability means a ton - perfectly explains why people bother to watch Ladies Figure Skating in droves during the Olympics.

The Volleyball uniform is well constructed. Kudos to the committee that chose it as the standard

Nothing can replace watching Penn State football, but from a pure "enjoyable use of my time perspective", Russ' team is pretty close (especially during tournament time).

The athleticism is unbelievable - I am in awe of some of the digs and spikes these girls are capable of doing.
The on the court action is fast and furious.
Minimal TV timeouts.
The pace of play proceeds consistently throughout the match. Nothing is worse than men's college bball where it can take 20 minutes of real time to play the last 2 minutes of a game with all the timeouts, official's reviews, tv commercials etc. Close to unwatchable for me at times.

 

[MrDibbs]

PSU is the reason Women’s Volleyball in the B1G is so competitive. Until Nebraska joined, everyone else was fighting for second. Minny, Wisconsin, etc. owe Russ and PSU a debt and it’s made the sport and conference the team much better.

Last night’s loss was extremely frustrating because we have the talent. Part of me wishes they would get rid of rally scoring where service is at a decided disadvantage. But would make televised matches that much more frustrating.

I vaguely remember the days of "side out scoring" A team needed to serve to score a point, if the other team served and your team earned the side out, your team then served and if you won the rally, your team got a point. A match between evenly skilled teams could take a long time...15 points won the "game", win by 2 points. Best of 3 games.
If there was still side out scoring, volleyball would never be televised and would be nowhere as popular as it is today.
Of course back then the rules of play were a lot different than today. Much stricter about hands calls, no libero, serve contacting the net was a fault.
I prefer today's game and it will evolve into a better game than what we see today.

One thing that I see little of anymore is the "cannon" serve ... think of Micha Hancock, Alyssa D'Errico and now Jonny Parker. Hard serves with top spin. Players/coaches have developed float serves that behave like a knuckle ball and are very hard to pass well because of the movement.

Yes, Midnighter, PSU does have the talent. The first one and three quarter sets last night tells us that they will be a future force to be reckoned with. It will be a lot of fun to watch these kids grow up.

 

[Nitwit]

We don’t lose nearly as much as we did coming into this season. With Kendall White back and Gabby Blossem taking over for Brianna, plus Parker, Hurd, and the other underclassmen returning next year, we should be right there again competing for the Big10 and national championship. This team improved a lot during the season, and I expect a good bit of carry over into next year.

 

[PSU&Trout]

Nothing can replace watching Penn State football, but from a pure "enjoyable use of my time perspective", Russ' team is pretty close (especially during tournament time).

The athleticism is unbelievable - I am in awe of some of the digs and spikes these girls are capable of doing.
The on the court action is fast and furious.
Minimal TV timeouts.
The pace of play proceeds consistently throughout the match. Nothing is worse than men's college bball where it can take 20 minutes of real time to play the last 2 minutes of a game with all the timeouts, official's reviews, tv commercials etc. Close to unwatchable for me at times.

Really spot on. I used to watch tons of BB mostly men but also women . Now the game is as slow as football. Seem like 10 minute TOs. One forgets who is palying. VB is so more "watchable".

 

[GregInPitt]

that makes no sense, IMHO. The score was 4-2, PSU, after the challenge. PSU went on from there to lead 16-11, and 20-16, yet ended up losing the set 23-25. I don't think the challenge, or how they played after the challenge, were any factor in the 2nd set.

I'm not sure if there's any one play that changed the set. PSU did seem to lose some focus after the back-to-back service aces by Stanford, which seemed to be caused in part by confusion between White and Reed as to who was responsible for playing them/that part of the floor.

I do.

Yes, they did go on to lead for a while after that in the 2nd set. But the long delay for the challenge seemed to break the momentum, including the success they had blocking up front which they did not seem to be able to recover.

They had an energy and enthusiasm that showed in their faces as they methodically played out the 1st set and then into the 2nd set. But their body language seemed to change after the long delay.......

 

[Sproul]

I really thought Taylor Leath would be better. In hindsight, it may have been better to develop a younger player than to have her be a one and done. When it came down to it in set 4, Russ subbed her out. Then put her in at point 23 just so she wouldn’t end her college career on the bench.

 

[Bylion]

I really thought Taylor Leath would be better. In hindsight, it may have been better to develop a younger player than to have her be a one and done. When it came down to it in set 4, Russ subbed her out. Then put her in at point 23 just so she wouldn’t end her college career on the bench.

I agree with your post. The experience that would have been gained would have been priceless. On another not, I was happy to see Tori Gorrell com oh the bench and play extremely well both weekends

 

[tboyer]

The dynasty is over. There are more high-level teams in the B1G and even on the East Coast, so PSU has to battle for players a lot more than they had to 10 years ago.

Also, Rose is getting up in years so there is naturally uncertainty there about whether PSU will continue to be elite (don't worry, it will, but it doubtless has caused Rose to lose some recruiting battles). The hiring of Salima Rockwell four years ago as associate head coach was a great hire, but it appear that Rose was at least thinking about turning over to the reins and that may have affected recruiting (and then of course as it turned out Rockwell was the one to retire).

They had a good season this year, the freshman class played up to expectations, and with a little bit better play earlier in the season, they could have been a Final Four team or even made the finals.

They lost a couple of matches that they could have/should have won. Ohio State in 5 sets early in the season and the real bad one was Purdue in 5 sets on Oct. 27 AT HOME!

If they'd won those 5 setters instead of lost them, they could have been 3rd in the conference and probably a 5 or 6 seed instead of 8, which would have meant not having to face Stanford in a regional final at Palo Alto.

This team was not going to beat Stanford or Minnesota and maybe not Nebraska, but they could have beaten anyone else at the end of the year.

The future is bright, though Rose needs another great recruiting class to keep pace with the top tier competition. He can't rely on one great class every 4 years; it's not enough.

 

[Nitwit]

We don’t have a Cael like dynasty but Russ has us among the top programs in the country every year. It’s a fun sport to watch and our ladies will make another run soon.

 

[PSUcup1]

Nothing can replace watching Penn State football, but from a pure "enjoyable use of my time perspective", Russ' team is pretty close (especially during tournament time).

The athleticism is unbelievable - I am in awe of some of the digs and spikes these girls are capable of doing.
The on the court action is fast and furious.
Minimal TV timeouts.
The pace of play proceeds consistently throughout the match. Nothing is worse than men's college bball where it can take 20 minutes of real time to play the last 2 minutes of a game with all the timeouts, official's reviews, tv commercials etc. Close to unwatchable for me at times.

there is another team that competes in Rec Hall that is pretty damn exciting to watch ... you should check them out sometime.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

The future is bright, though Rose needs another great recruiting class to keep pace with the top tier competition. He can't rely on one great class every 4 years; it's not enough.

From this year's team, PSU loses to graduation:

- Nia Reed - OH
- Taylor Leath - OH
- Bryanna Weiskircher - S
- Kayleigh Hoffman - DS

Reed will be a big loss, as she was PSU's best scorer this season. Weiskircher will also be a big loss, as she was PSU's setter. Leath was a nice one-year addition to the team. She played well at time, and was inconsistent at other times.

I'm not exactly sure how Reed's points will be replaced by PSU. Allyson Cathey is the most likely candidate, at least from the current team, though Jonni Parker is likely to be a more consistent scorer next year, and PSU may also consider moving a MB to OH, as they have some flexibility there with Tori Gorrell, Serena Gray, Kaitlyn Hord, and Amanda Phegley to play MB.

Predicting how productive freshmen will be is always a difficult task. PSU has a strong class of OHs joining the program for next season. Hopefully at least one of the following will step forward:

- Gabi Bailey (6' 1", Westborough MS)
- Lauren Clark (6' 0", Armstrong, MN)
- Sydney Ferguson (6' 3", North Stafford, VA)

Gabby Blossom is expected to take over for Weiskircher as the setter. I believe she was the top-ranked setter in the 2018 recruiting class, and has had a year with the team to prepare for the role.

 

[NitneLiun]

Sometimes you add by subtracting. Honestly, I'm not sorry to see Leath and Weiskircher go.

 

[4INSBU]

Sometimes you add by subtracting. Honestly, I'm not sorry to see Leath and Weiskircher go.

Brianna had it tough early in her carrer following Micha. Middle of her carrer we struggled at Libero, and serve recieve. This year with White at Libero she has looked better as I think our serve recieve game has been better. With all that said I agree it's time to move on, and we'll see what Gabby can do next year.

 

[tboyer]

If you follow any previous ‘elite’ players on for PSU on social media they’re all playing in Europe. Along with other B1G stars.

It doesn't pay much, but you can keep playing volleyball and live in Europe. Not a bad gig for a young person right out of college. The upper tier leagues play pretty competitive volleyball so it's a good way to keep skills sharp and get experience for the national team. No place to do it in the US.

 

[NitneLiun]

It doesn't pay much, but you can keep playing volleyball and live in Europe. Not a bad gig for a young person right out of college. The upper tier leagues play pretty competitive volleyball so it's a good way to keep skills sharp and get experience for the national team. No place to do it in the US.

Some of the lower tier leagues like Germany, Poland and Switzerland don't pay much and don't attract the elite players, but some of the top U.S. players have become millionaires playing in Russia, Italy, China and even Korea. Destinee Hooker was paid an enormous amount by a Korean club as soon as she turned pro. Nic Fawcett also did very well financially in Korea.

 

[NitneLiun]

The All-American teams were just released. Penn State is well represented.

First Team
Kendall White, Jr.

Third Team
Jonni Parker, Fr.

Honorable Mention
Serena Gray, Fr.
Kaitlyn Hord, Fr.
Nia Reed, RS Sr.
Bryanna Weiskircher, RS Sr.

Only two freshman made it as high as Third Team. Jonni Parker was one of those two freshman.

 

[Lion8286]