The Panthers play the winner of #2 Texas vs #10 Nebraska that is about to begin on ESPNU.
WVBall plays the 2nd game on Thursday (approximately 9:30 pm EST)
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Hard to say. Texas is not playing well right now, and the last game Washington took them to 5 sets, but I still think, unless there is some major reason why not, you’d rather play the lower seeded team. Eggeslton from TX probably the best player on the Court too. I also don’t want to play a team that would have won two games in a row down 2 sets.
Nebraska seems pretty good at everything, not really elite at anything. We are going to have such a big advantage hitting against either of these teams. Just have to serve and pass.
At their best Texas might be the best team in the country. Nebraska is good, and they are playing well, but their best is not as good as Texas' best.
And Nebraska is an elite digging team. I should have said that. But Pitt can’t complain about their draw if we get Nebraska. I think Pitt can score a ton of points on blocks against Nebraska
The National Semi-Finals has 2 teams from the ACC (#1 Louisville and #3 Pitt) and 2 teams from The Big Ten (#4 Wisconsin and #10 Nebraska).
Thursday night on ESPN:
7:00 pm - Louisville vs Wisconsin
9:30 pm (approximately) - Pitt vs Nebraska
Thursday night on ESPN:
7:00 pm - Louisville vs Wisconsin
9:30 pm (approximately) - Pitt vs Nebraska
I thought Texas was tall, but Nebraska is huge. And yet, their shortest player, Rodriguez, was the best player on the court. I have never seen so many great digs. Texas actually was trying not to serve her, but she moved around late to thwart that strategy.
Texas which served so well every other time I saw them made a ton of service errors. Their best server was solid, but the 4’9 server who was so deadly against Baylor had 5 service errors in the first 3 sets. Plus, both Fields and Eggleson had poor matches for Texas. Fields had 3 service errors in a row. I think Texas had 14 service errors in the match. That’s a lot of free points to give up.
Texas would have been a tougher matchup for us because of their center blocker, Butler. She is humongous and consistently stuffed Nebraska when they tried to set middle. She didn’t need help either. But. I thought Texas was not in great physical condition. Butler, Eggleson, Fields and O’Neal — all of their frontline players — had to be rotated frequently and Texas lacked continuity as a result. O’Neal made 3 really nice plays in a row in set 2 — a block and two hits for points — and came out immediately afterward. Why?
Two of Nebraska’s tall hitters are freshmen. I think the longer the tournament goes, the more likely they are to remember they are freshmen and fall apart. Hopefully on Thursday night. Nebraska is really good defensively but despite their height didn’t have a lot of great spikes against Texas. They tried more to place the ball — perhaps intimidated by Texas’ blockers.
It will be very tough but I think if Lund is at 100%, Pitt can win it.
I hope Paul Sunderland will be on the broadcast. He is so good and so knowledgeable.
Only one other ACC team made the final four before, florida st in 2011. Now they have two in one year. Glad to see our Olympic teams excelling as we have grown into the ACC.
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They mentioned on last nights broadcast that stivrins had a twisted ankle or something. I hope that it lingers around for a few days. She wasn’t an active hitter yesterday from what I saw
As I was watching this match, I was comfortable with how Pitt would have matched up with Texas. Nebraska is a very different team. Probably the best defense that I have seen in the tournament. Pitt hits with tremendous power so it will be an interesting match up, Pitts power against Nebraska's D.
Texas had several key service errors and replace d their starting setter midway through the 2nd set. They were just out of sorts.
I love our middle attack against Nebraska.
Agree. The middle would have been a lot tougher to attack against Texas. I’m wondering if the speed of our attack will hurt Nebraska’s defense, which was great against Texas. Just like the quick sets make it hard to set up a block, will they make it more difficult to get into defensive position? Obviously, you can’t get into position until you see where the strike is going.
Our middle attack can be somewhat hit and miss. Better with Nwokolo and Gray. I think Fairbanks also feeds the middle more and better. With her setting, the pace of the attack is better. Fairbanks is a seriously good freshman.
I think Gray will be a key. I suspect Nebraska won’t double Lund because she looked injured against Purdue. I think they will try to double Member-Mensah instead. That should leave Gray free. If she, Nwokolo and Fairbanks can do some damage, we should be okay.
This is the first Pitt women's team in any sport to reach a national semi-final! Congrats ladies!
Hell, we've had 2 teams at all make it to the national semis in a team sport in the last 7 months. Prior to that, we've had 0 since 1941.
