L’ville/ Kentucky and Wisky/Marquette

[PittMBA]

Both matches on national broadcasts last night.

It was interesting to watch future and past opponents playing each other and against the #1 ranked team.

My impression is that PItt is right there with Wisconsin and Louisville. Marquette gave Wisconsin a better fight than against us.

PItt seems more athletic in terms of court coverage defense than these teams- we get to a lot of balls that - at least watching last night - these teams just don’t get to.

Wisconsin is giant - but maybe a little lumbering - not particularly quick on defense - but really tall and powerful kills from their OHs. Great blocking team.

Louisville was dominant - but Kentucky just seems out of sorts.

Marquette really battled Wisconsin- kind of gave away the 3rd set with a chance to go up 2-1.

Great test for PItt tonight!

 

[KennyTheKangaroo]

I watched most of set 2 of that wisky Marquette game and I agree with your assessment.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

Both matches on national broadcasts last night.

It was interesting to watch future and past opponents playing each other and against the #1 ranked team.

My impression is that PItt is right there with Wisconsin and Louisville. Marquette gave Wisconsin a better fight than against us.

PItt seems more athletic in terms of court coverage defense than these teams- we get to a lot of balls that - at least watching last night - these teams just don’t get to.

Wisconsin is giant - but maybe a little lumbering - not particularly quick on defense - but really tall and powerful kills from their OHs. Great blocking team.

Louisville was dominant - but Kentucky just seems out of sorts.

Marquette really battled Wisconsin- kind of gave away the 3rd set with a chance to go up 2-1.

Great test for PItt tonight!

To my novice eye, the Louisville libero (Scott?) was an asset that they had last year that we didn’t. She and they got to a lot of balls that we didn’t. So if you’re saying we cover the court better this year, that’s encouraging.

 

[PittMBA]

To my novice eye, the Louisville libero (Scott?) was an asset that they had last year that we didn’t. She and they got to a lot of balls that we didn’t. So if you’re saying we cover the court better this year, that’s encouraging.

My read is this years Klika is a substantial upgrade at Libero from last year .

Also , VVG, Stafford. Dalton , Fairbanks our other back row players are improvements from last year digging and getting to balls that we seemed to struggle with last year.

VVG seems to have made substantial improvements in this area

 

[vantheman1976]

Both matches on national broadcasts last night.

It was interesting to watch future and past opponents playing each other and against the #1 ranked team.

My impression is that PItt is right there with Wisconsin and Louisville. Marquette gave Wisconsin a better fight than against us.

PItt seems more athletic in terms of court coverage defense than these teams- we get to a lot of balls that - at least watching last night - these teams just don’t get to.

Wisconsin is giant - but maybe a little lumbering - not particularly quick on defense - but really tall and powerful kills from their OHs. Great blocking team.

Louisville was dominant - but Kentucky just seems out of sorts.

Marquette really battled Wisconsin- kind of gave away the 3rd set with a chance to go up 2-1.

Great test for PItt tonight!

Nice summary...thank you

 

[pittdan77]

To my novice eye, the Louisville libero (Scott?) was an asset that they had last year that we didn’t. She and they got to a lot of balls that we didn’t. So if you’re saying we cover the court better this year, that’s encouraging.

Louisville had a lot of issues on defense last year because of the injury to DeBeer and the libero was a bright spot for them. Even in the tournament, they did a lot of subbing on defense that I think they would have preferred to avoid. If you watched the NC, you saw what a difference a really good libero like Zoe Fleck made with Texas.

Pitt looks better defensively this year and I've heard announcers in other games talk about how they are wearing teams down by forcing long rallies. I'm pretty sure that's what Fisher likes to do. You don't have to be overly aggressive on offense if you play good defense and you can force the other team to make their own mistakes.

 

[PittMBA]

My read is this years Klika is a substantial upgrade at Libero from last year .

Louisville had a lot of issues on defense last year because of the injury to DeBeer and the libero was a bright spot for them. Even in the tournament, they did a lot of subbing on defense that I think they would have preferred to avoid. If you watched the NC, you saw what a difference a really good libero like Zoe Fleck made with Texas.

Pitt looks better defensively this year and I've heard announcers in other games talk about how they are wearing teams down by forcing long rallies. I'm pretty sure that's what Fisher likes to do. You don't have to be overly aggressive on offense if you play good defense and you can force the other team to make their own mistakes.

This is well put . It’s interesting, Oregon kind of ‘out rallied ‘ us a lot last night . Oregon was just a tad better at keeping plays alive — kind of a mirror in terms of two teams that relentlessly keep the ball off the ground .