Things I Think I Think 12/10/2023

[phijo]

1. First off, congratulations to our Lady Panthers! That was a fabulous comeback. Reverse sweeps are sort of becoming our thing this year
2. I think I lost 2 years off my life yesterday. The girls need to take into consideration the age of some of their fans. I much prefer matches like WSU where I can relax and marvel.
3. Give credit to Louisville. They are never easy. They seem to play Pitt hard all of the time, and this game it was with different players. Kong was unstoppable. This was not Luper's and DeBeer's best games. I would like to think the Lady Panthers had something to do with that.
4, The coach for Louisville Dani Busboom Kelly summed the game up pretty sussinctly This game was decided by the quality of the serve receive. The first 2 games Louisville was a little bit better and Pitt was kind of tentative with its serve. The last 3, Pitt was more aggressive, forcing Louisville to play out of system a lot more.
5. Congratulations to Olivia Babcock on being name player of the region. I am not sure that award couldn't have gone to Rachel Fairbanks or Torrey Stafford though.
6. I have not previously understood the importance put on service aces. But it is not really the aces that matter. If the serve is aggressive, the aces and errors will usually come close to balancing out but aggressive serves that are not aces often lead to out of system offense which is easier to defend.
7 Busboom Kelly describes the serve receive as very mental and Louisville was just out of sorts the last 3 games.
8 I gotta tell you, at the beginning of the year, I was pretty skeptical the Panthers would get this far. I thought we would see a lot more Dalton, and wondered who would be the other constributors. Babcock and Stafford are just so much better than I ever imagined. Still it is tough to have freshmen come in and be major cogs in the offense. I think a lot of the credit goes to Fairbanks. She makes setting look easy (which it isn't!), It also goes to coach. He manages to always find a way to weave a really competitive team out of the players that he has.
9. I don't know how far Pitt will get in the final 4. But I do know Pitt will be even better next year!

 

[Chaos]

1. First off, congratulations to our Lady Panthers! That was a fabulous comeback. Reverse sweeps are sort of becoming our thing this year
2. I think I lost 2 years off my life yesterday. The girls need to take into consideration the age of some of their fans. I much prefer matches like WSU where I can relax and marvel.
3. Give credit to Louisville. They are never easy. They seem to play Pitt hard all of the time, and this game it was with different players. Kong was unstoppable. This was not Luper's and DeBeer's best games. I would like to think the Lady Panthers had something to do with that.
4, The coach for Louisville Dani Busboom Kelly summed the game up pretty sussinctly This game was decided by the quality of the serve receive. The first 2 games Louisville was a little bit better and Pitt was kind of tentative with its serve. The last 3, Pitt was more aggressive, forcing Louisville to play out of system a lot more.
5. Congratulations to Olivia Babcock on being name player of the region. I am not sure that award couldn't have gone to Rachel Fairbanks or Torrey Stafford though.
6. I have not previously understood the importance put on service aces. But it is not really the aces that matter. If the serve is aggressive, the aces and errors will usually come close to balancing out but aggressive serves that are not aces often lead to out of system offense which is easier to defend.
7 Busboom Kelly describes the serve receive as very mental and Louisville was just out of sorts the last 3 games.
8 I gotta tell you, at the beginning of the year, I was pretty skeptical the Panthers would get this far. I thought we would see a lot more Dalton, and wondered who would be the other constributors. Babcock and Stafford are just so much better than I ever imagined. Still it is tough to have freshmen come in and be major cogs in the offense. I think a lot of the credit goes to Fairbanks. She makes setting look easy (which it isn't!), It also goes to coach. He manages to always find a way to weave a really competitive team out of the players that he has.
9. I don't know how far Pitt will get in the final 4. But I do know Pitt will be even better next year!

I really, really wish Bre Kelley hadn't been injured-who knows how good Pitt could have been with her in the lineup.
Fairbanks definitely makes the hitters better, especially when she gets good passes. Her sets are quick, clean and deceptive, allowing the hitters to face single blocks more often. She is so athletic too-her body control on some of those sets is just unbelievable. I'd like to see us get off to a better start Thursday because Nebraska is much better than Louisville. I'd like to see Nebraska on their heels as their freshmen haven't faced much adversity throughout the season. H2P

 

[phijo]

I really, really wish Bre Kelley hadn't been injured-who knows how good Pitt could have been with her in the lineup.
Fairbanks definitely makes the hitters better, especially when she gets good passes. Her sets are quick, clean and deceptive, allowing the hitters to face single blocks more often. She is so athletic too-her body control on some of those sets is just unbelievable. I'd like to see us get off to a better start Thursday because Nebraska is much better than Louisville. I'd like to see Nebraska on their heels as their freshmen haven't faced much adversity throughout the season. H2P

Yeah, I kind of view Bre as a combination of Emma and Chia. This team struggles some when they start slowly. They are very dangerous when the serve receive and defense are running smoothly. Olivia seems to play so much better when she is having fun. She is not someone who always plays well when she feels pressure. There is a significant mental part to this game. Rachel is the most mentally strong player on the team. So is Chia. I think Torrey is like this as well.

 

[Fk_Pitt]

1. First off, congratulations to our Lady Panthers! That was a fabulous comeback. Reverse sweeps are sort of becoming our thing this year
2. I think I lost 2 years off my life yesterday. The girls need to take into consideration the age of some of their fans. I much prefer matches like WSU where I can relax and marvel.
3. Give credit to Louisville. They are never easy. They seem to play Pitt hard all of the time, and this game it was with different players. Kong was unstoppable. This was not Luper's and DeBeer's best games. I would like to think the Lady Panthers had something to do with that.
4, The coach for Louisville Dani Busboom Kelly summed the game up pretty sussinctly This game was decided by the quality of the serve receive. The first 2 games Louisville was a little bit better and Pitt was kind of tentative with its serve. The last 3, Pitt was more aggressive, forcing Louisville to play out of system a lot more.
5. Congratulations to Olivia Babcock on being name player of the region. I am not sure that award couldn't have gone to Rachel Fairbanks or Torrey Stafford though.
6. I have not previously understood the importance put on service aces. But it is not really the aces that matter. If the serve is aggressive, the aces and errors will usually come close to balancing out but aggressive serves that are not aces often lead to out of system offense which is easier to defend.
7 Busboom Kelly describes the serve receive as very mental and Louisville was just out of sorts the last 3 games.
8 I gotta tell you, at the beginning of the year, I was pretty skeptical the Panthers would get this far. I thought we would see a lot more Dalton, and wondered who would be the other constributors. Babcock and Stafford are just so much better than I ever imagined. Still it is tough to have freshmen come in and be major cogs in the offense. I think a lot of the credit goes to Fairbanks. She makes setting look easy (which it isn't!), It also goes to coach. He manages to always find a way to weave a really competitive team out of the players that he has.
9. I don't know how far Pitt will get in the final 4. But I do know Pitt will be even better next year!

Your point about the out of system offense is the point I was trying to make last week. It just seemed to me, until yesterday, that we weren’t capable enough in our service game to score an abundance of “east” points that can be traced back to the serve itself without there being an ace. There has to be a stat that measures that? I suspect yesterdays match reflected very highly on it.

I reflect back to our final four 5 set loss when we couldn’t get a side out vs Louisville (?) because of our difficulty getting to our offense off their serve in that final set. And I wasn’t used to seeing Pitt do that to a quality opponent until yesterday.

 

[vantheman1976]

I really, really wish Bre Kelley hadn't been injured-who knows how good Pitt could have been with her in the lineup.
Fairbanks definitely makes the hitters better, especially when she gets good passes. Her sets are quick, clean and deceptive, allowing the hitters to face single blocks more often. She is so athletic too-her body control on some of those sets is just unbelievable. I'd like to see us get off to a better start Thursday because Nebraska is much better than Louisville. I'd like to see Nebraska on their heels as their freshmen haven't faced much adversity throughout the season. H2P

Yes....highly unlikely that any team could reverse sweep Nebraska....can't start slow against them.

 

[Austin26]

Bre Kelly has handled her injury and the accompanying disappointment with total class. Her involvement and support of her teammates, and her genuine excitement at their success speaks volumes of what a terrific teammate she is. I was really excited she transferred here because I knew she was a great player. But like seemingly all the players Coach Fisher gets to come here, she has clearly demonstrated that her excellence isn’t limited to on the court.

 

[mike412]

I think one additional thing Fisher needs to be given more credit for is recruiting six rotation players. Babcock, Stafford, Fairbanks and VVG all are six rotation players. To have three hitters who also can play defense in the back row and serve gives us a lot of flexibility. The fact that Babcock and Stafford both can hit successfully from the back row really adds to our attack. As I have said before, the last attacker Pitt had who could do that consistently was Kayla Lund.

When Fairbanks is in the back row with Babcock and we have Stafford, either of the MBs and VVG in the front row, how do you set up your blocks on defense? Who do you try to double? The same quandary exists with Stafford in the back row and Babcock in the front row.

I would love to at least briefly see a rotation next year with VVG, Kelley and Bayless in the front row and Babcock, Stafford and Fairbanks in the back. If I’m defending against that, I would be sure to wear a mouthguard because replacing teeth is expensive.

 

[chrisran24]

When Fairbanks is in the back row with Babcock and we have Stafford, either of the MBs and VVG in the front row, how do you set up your blocks on defense? Who do you try to double? The same quandary exists with Stafford in the back row and Babcock in the front row.

I would love to at least briefly see a rotation next year with VVG, Kelley and Bayless in the front row and Babcock, Stafford and Fairbanks in the back. If I’m defending against that, I would be sure to wear a mouthguard because replacing teeth is expensive.

Fairbanks and Babcock are never in the back row together as Babcock plays opposite Fairbanks. The best back row hitting rotation next year would be ideally Stafford/Babcock/Klika in the back with Bayless/Kelley/Fairbanks in the front. That could be a fun rotation

 

[phijo]

Fairbanks and Babcock are never in the back row together as Babcock plays opposite Fairbanks. The best back row hitting rotation next year would be ideally Stafford/Babcock/Klika in the back with Bayless/Kelley/Fairbanks in the front. That could be a fun rotation

No VVG in the rotation?

 

[chrisran24]

No VVG in the rotation?

In my opinion, VVG should come in as a serve specialist/defensive specialist/be available as a third OH next year. If you compare Pitt to Nebraska or Wisconsin, the biggest gap is the second OH position. If Bayless can develop into a legit OH this team will be really tough to beat

 

[Chaos]

In my opinion, VVG should come in as a serve specialist/defensive specialist/be available as a third OH next year. If you compare Pitt to Nebraska or Wisconsin, the biggest gap is the second OH position. If Bayless can develop into a legit OH this team will be really tough to beat

I was thinking she could sub in for Bayless in the back row

 

[chrisran24]

I was thinking she could sub in for Bayless in the back row

That could make sense, depends on how Bayless is passing/hitting out of the back

 

[veryrustyred]

RE: VVG coming in next year as a serve specialist/DS/and as a third OH
I may be mistaken, but I think this how Fisher changed N. Marcovic's role her senior year.
Again, not sure of the circumstances, it's been a few years, but I know her playing time was significantly reduced.

 

[Chaos]

That could make sense, depends on how Bayless is passing/hitting out of the back

Right. I don't really know how well Bayless plays, but VVG is the weak link of the 5 hitters that play this year. I'd like to hope that Bayless will surpass VVG with a year in the program, but I'm really just guessing based on her being a highly rated recruit.

 

[MartyInLawrenceville]

I’d love to know if Flood is returning. I’m guessing a lot of that hinges on this weekend. If she comes back, it will be interesting to see how she is used, and what that does to VVG’s role.

 

[vantheman1976]

RE: VVG coming in next year as a serve specialist/DS/and as a third OH
I may be mistaken, but I think this how Fisher changed N. Marcovic's role her senior year.
Again, not sure of the circumstances, it's been a few years, but I know her playing time was significantly reduced.

That would have been 2019. My memory is a bit hazy on that but wasn't Markovic also fighting an injury during her senior year?