NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

From a more analytical standpoint besides "screw the Badgers" the Texas setter looks like she is really struggling. Lot of height on her sets wither throwing off the timing of her hitters or letting the Wisconsin block get set. Needs to quicken up the sets a bit.

[wadesworld]

From a more analytical standpoint besides "screw the Badgers" the Texas setter looks like she is really struggling. Lot of height on her sets wither throwing off the timing of her hitters or letting the Wisconsin block get set. Needs to quicken up the sets a bit.

That's not on accident. They're letting their tall, athletic pin hitters find the block by setting a high ball and letting them go up and out jump the blockers. The bigger issue is she's not getting the sets out to the pin so the outsides have only 1 shot, cross court. Haven't seen many swings to the right side of Wisconsin's defensive court.

[melissasmooth]

sweeet! can't believe I was cheering for wisconsin. Great to see a big-time upset.

[farmdaddy]

sweeet! can't believe I was cheering for wisconsin. Great to see a big-time upset.

+1  That was a hell of a game! The Big Ten has been pretty loaded in volleyball this year.

[wadesworld]

Overthought myself.  It's a serve and pass game.  One team did it well, the other did it horribly.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

This just proves that no matter what the sport I cant stand seeing Wisconsin win. Go Penn St.

[StillAWarrior]

That Wisconsin-Texas match was a big surprise and a lot of fun to watch.  I found myself rooting for Wisconsin in spite of myself.  I guess my Texas hatred from my formative years in Colorado is stronger than my Badger hatred acquired at Marquette.  Or, maybe I just like underdogs.

I was surprised by how poorly Texas passed.  There were often several points in a row where Texas failed to get a good pass up off the Badger serve.  It doesn't always translate on TV, but there must have been some nasty float on some of those serves.  If it wasn't for a string of unforced errors in the third set, Wisconsin would have swept them (although it's hard to overlook all of Texas's serving errors in that set -- three in a row at one time).  And Carlini...wow.  Talented kid.

[wadesworld]

Would've predicted a Washington win over Texas in the National Championship.  I'm going to stick with it, even though Wisconsin has DOMINATED the first two sets against Texas.  The intermission really helps Texas here.  Wisconsin was owning every single facet of the game (even the block, despite the numbers saying Texas is dominating there, but really while they have more stuff blocks, they are also getting tooled on every other swing Wisconsin has and Wisconsin is not getting stuff blocks but is getting good touches that allows their defense to make an easy dig on every swing really).  Now it's like a whole new match, and Texas needs to get a sweep, which is far from out of the question.

I think the winner of Penn State and Washington takes the crown.

I guess I know nothing about volleyball...

That Wisconsin-Texas match was a big surprise and a lot of fun to watch.  I found myself rooting for Wisconsin in spite of myself.  I guess my Texas hatred from my formative years in Colorado is stronger than my Badger hatred acquired at Marquette.  Or, maybe I just like underdogs.

I was surprised by how poorly Texas passed.  There were often several points in a row where Texas failed to get a good pass up off the Badger serve.  It doesn't always translate on TV, but there must have been some nasty float on some of those serves.  If it wasn't for a string of unforced errors in the third set, Wisconsin would have swept them (although it's hard to overlook all of Texas's serving errors in that set -- three in a row at one time).  And Carlini...wow.  Talented kid.

Most likely yes.  I was shocked that Texas didn't go to a 3 person serve receive more, and that they didn't sub in defensive specialists for their pin hitters in the back row.  They didn't set many back row sets and weren't overly effective when they did set them, so why not get some stronger passers on the floor when you're being served off the court, and add a passer so you don't have to pass as much of the court.  Thought Texas was far and away outcoached.

Carlini is a stud.  It will be fun to watch the setting matchup.  Hancock had essentially the same freshman season 2 years ago that Carlini is having now.  Freshman of the Year in the Big 10.  Carlini is taller but Hancock is a lefty and moves the court a little better.  Hancock is definitely the better server and is more experienced.  Plus she's better looking and isn't a Badger.  So go Hancock/Nittany Lions.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Nice match.  Wisconsin fell apart in game 2 and at the end in game 4...I feel bad for them (I'm serious).  Some good volleyball

[MUfan12]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW2_A

[wadesworld]

I just finished watching the first set on DVR.  It amazes me that Carlini has such good location on her sets despite the fact that fundamentally she has some big flaws.  Gets the ball too far back on top of her head which usually makes it pretty tough to push sets out to either pin.  Still a lot of room for improvement, which is scary for everyone not named Wisconsin.

[StillAWarrior]

I just finished watching the first set on DVR.  It amazes me that Carlini has such good location on her sets despite the fact that fundamentally she has some big flaws.  Gets the ball too far back on top of her head which usually makes it pretty tough to push sets out to either pin.  Still a lot of room for improvement, which is scary for everyone not named Wisconsin.

It was a fun match.  Wisconsin had opportunities, but couldn't capitalize.  Those two missed serves at the end of the second set really, really hurt.

And Carlini is really good and fun to watch.  But I'm partial to left-handed setters and some of the attack options they present.  Hancock is also really fun to watch...and that top-spin serve is pretty impressive when she nails it.

[melissasmooth]

Can't wait for the men's season to start

[Jay Bee]

Can't wait for the men's season to start

I'm hoping keefe doesn't have pics for that.

[keefe]

Can't wait for the men's season to start

Why would we watch that?

[wadesworld]

It was a fun match.  Wisconsin had opportunities, but couldn't capitalize.  Those two missed serves at the end of the second set really, really hurt.

And Carlini is really good and fun to watch.  But I'm partial to left-handed setters and some of the attack options they present.  Hancock is also really fun to watch...and that top-spin serve is pretty impressive when she nails it.

While those obviously weren't the most opportune times to miss serves, I didn't like Kelly Sheffield's response to the question about the end of the 2nd set when they went into the intermission between sets 2 and 3 about it not being "rocket science" and the two missed serves being more or less killers.  If I were him I would've been more concerned about the fact that we (again, putting myself in his shoes) had the advantage of receiving at 24-24 and had 2 in system swings and couldn't put the ball away, and then had another in system swing and couldn't put a ball away down 24-25.  Obviously when you miss a serve you don't give yourself the opportunity to get a stop, but Penn State was in rotations 1 and 2, respectively, for those 2 serves and serve received pretty well as a whole throughout the match.  Rotation 1 can give teams some problems with the outside having to swing from the right and the right side being out on the left, and with the setter running up from the 1 corner (which is why I don't understand why Wisconsin wasn't serving the front row OH passing out of the right and making the setter set a pass coming from right to left, as she missed her serve short to the left side of the serve receive), but you still have 3 front row hitting options.  Rotation 2 is typically a pretty strong rotation for most teams.  Obviously I don't have Penn State's season side out efficiency by rotation sitting in front of me, but I would bet they side out between over 60% of the time in those rotations.

Set 4 was the one Wisconsin should be having nightmares about to me.  Set 2 Penn State tried to give away, jumping out to a big lead early but letting Wisconsin pull back quickly and then having a back and forth set for the rest of the set.  Set 4 Wisconsin had a big lead early but gave it up.