For whatever reason it’s 11 am tomorrow.So take note of that.
Syracuse match
- Thread starter Black Panther
- Start date
11:00 is not surprising...and makes sense.
-I believe the team left for Boston early Friday.
-They have 2 full time jobs - as students and athletes.
-They played Friday night in Boston and did not return to Pittsburgh.
-On to Syracuse where they stayed Saturday night.
-There's really no reason for them to experience down time on a Sunday morning, waiting for a 1PM start time.
-11AM may seem early from a fan's standpoint, but I'm sure both the players and coaches would like to "get out of dodge" as early as possible and return home.
-I believe the team left for Boston early Friday.
-They have 2 full time jobs - as students and athletes.
-They played Friday night in Boston and did not return to Pittsburgh.
-On to Syracuse where they stayed Saturday night.
-There's really no reason for them to experience down time on a Sunday morning, waiting for a 1PM start time.
-11AM may seem early from a fan's standpoint, but I'm sure both the players and coaches would like to "get out of dodge" as early as possible and return home.
I was thinking, boy wouldn’t it be a great slot of programming for the ACC Network? But no, back to theiInternet. I don’t get it.
No Fairbanks today, no huge surprise there playing a weak Cuse team and she was limping a lot on Friday
Our backups are better than their starters.
As I think we expected....convincing win by Pitt. Some numbers...
- Another 3 - 0 sweep.....average margin of victory/set was 11 points.....a 25 - 14 average win/set. It was never competitive....even with Fisher resting multiple starters.
- Syracuse only produced 10 pts/set....and gave back 11 pts/set to Pitt. Pitt produced 18 pts/set (slightly below average) and gave back only 6 pts/set.
- We gave back 9 pts/set against Boston College....so it was great to get that back to 6 pts/set. That's how to win a match.
- Kudos to Buzlutepe....37 assists and 7 digs.....very well done.
- Stafford hit .560....2 attack errors....16 points....good Lord.....otherworldly as some of you have remarked.
- For the match Pitt hit .372....Syracuse .023....typical of a Pitt sweep.
In case you didn't notice.....Pitt football entered the coaches poll this afternoon at #24......more to celebrate along with a #1 women's volleyball team and #1 men's soccer team.
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As referenced in multiple prior posts, good to see Fisher rest Fairbanks and Kelley for the entire match & to get some (potentially) important PT for back-ups.
Other:
-Anyone watching Pitt knows that Stafford and Babcock really get up in the air. 'Anyone notice Gariboldi? She really has "hops." I couldn't help but notice that she had 2 blocks in limited minutes, but also got her hands on several other Syracuse kills - unfortunately at 6'1", she's at a real disadvantage. A few of these partials turned it Syracuse points as her block went out of bounds or the Pitt D was out of sync given the change in ball trajectory.
-While Stafford, Babcock, Fairbanks, VVG, Kelley, and Jones have all been rested recently, I do not recall Fisher taking out Klicka once all season, except when she's been substituted out by Meyer to serve. I guess this means that the team doesn't have a "legit" backup for her at libero......though Meyer and Griffin are listed on the roster as L/DS.
Other:
-Anyone watching Pitt knows that Stafford and Babcock really get up in the air. 'Anyone notice Gariboldi? She really has "hops." I couldn't help but notice that she had 2 blocks in limited minutes, but also got her hands on several other Syracuse kills - unfortunately at 6'1", she's at a real disadvantage. A few of these partials turned it Syracuse points as her block went out of bounds or the Pitt D was out of sync given the change in ball trajectory.
-While Stafford, Babcock, Fairbanks, VVG, Kelley, and Jones have all been rested recently, I do not recall Fisher taking out Klicka once all season, except when she's been substituted out by Meyer to serve. I guess this means that the team doesn't have a "legit" backup for her at libero......though Meyer and Griffin are listed on the roster as L/DS.
I love Garbaldi’s bounce and energy and swing but man is she short - I think 6’1 is generous. That really impacts her block because she has to time her jumps so perfectly to be at peak height.
I think there was one set I can remember where Meyer played libero the whole set but overall you’re right. I think there’s a major drop off. I also think there’s less concern for an injury for a libero since they aren’t jumping at the net like everyone else
I think I saw her listed at 5-11 in the roster. I think that is accurate. I have trouble seeing her as a long term midde.
17th ranked SMU (Pitt's next opponent) had all they could handle from BC. The match went to 5 sets....SMU winning the 5th...15 - 10. A lot of errors from both teams. Remember....SMU is the team that handed Nebraska their only loss. Looking forward to seeing the match up with Pitt on Wednesday.
It was funny listening to the game announcers talking about them like they were much improved, to the point that they agreed that while they were picked to finish last in the ACC this year their realistic goal should be to finish in the middle of the pack in the conference. Based mostly on the fact that they were 12-0 in the non-conference.
Meanwhile, here in the real world, they built that non-conference record by playing only one power conference team, Iowa State (who is 8-6 on the season), and beating them in five sets. Their other non-con wins are against schools like NJIT, Columbia and LeMoyne. And so far this year in the ACC they are 0-4 with three sweeps and one 3-1 loss against Duke. And today Pitt felt perfectly comfortable using their backups extensively and yet still beat them pretty easily.
Maybe they should worry about winning an ACC match before they start thinking about making it up to the middle of the conference standings.
Or maybe winning a set or 2. Winning a match seems to be above their skill level.
Yeah, I thought the broadcasters spent a strangely large amount of time trying to talk up Syracuse and pretending those sets were more competitive than they really were. Broadcasters kind of do that, I know, but at times it was as if they were covering an imaginary match.
To be fair, those were probably two Syracuse media/journalism students doing their best to make their school sound competitive. Overall they were better than some other ACCNX announcers we’ve heard imo
Yeah - they were almost assuredly Syracuse broadcast journalism students . I thought they were pretty good actually- had some good insight .
To add context to this discussion, Syracuse was one of the absolute worst teams in the country last season after losing their best players from the previous season to the transfer portal.
Head Coach Bakeer Ganesharatnam has had to rebuild his roster through the transfer portal as he tries to resurrect the Syracuse program back to respectability.
In order to ignite fan interest, he scheduled a weak non-conference schedule this season, where the team finished 12-0. These student announcers, I'm sure, have been asked to present the program in the most positive way possible in order to help create interest, by fans and potential recruits.
Honestly, probably a smart way to go about it. Not like their "best" were all that good so not a huge loss. They lack the explosive offense which you need in the ACC. Ava Palm isn't bad.
I had a hard time watching this match with the homer announcers. The one made a comment "Syracuse has done
something no other team has done." He was inferring that they hung with Pitt. The match was never competive
and Rachel and Bre never saw the court.
something no other team has done." He was inferring that they hung with Pitt. The match was never competive
and Rachel and Bre never saw the court.
I was actually impressed with the camera work. 3 different angles, pretty nice switching between them...
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