#1 Pitt vs #4 Louisville Did Not Disappoint, Setting Woes for #7 Texas in Loss to Texas A&M

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Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to Volley Talk, the podcast created for volleyball lovers

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who want to dig deep into what is going on in NCAA and international volleyball.

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I'm your host Sarah Pavin, I'm an Olympian, beach volleyball world champion,

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former Nebraska Cornhusker, and longtime pro both indoor and on the beach.

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And I'm Adam Schultz, former indoor player, international volleyball coach,

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and the parent stats guru.

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Facts. There is never a dull moment in volleyball and we had another big week last week. We had

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some international news, the NCAA top 16 was announced, and more exciting matches,

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including a top 4 battle. Let's get started.

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It's

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last Sunday, the NCAA announced their mid season top 16 for the first time ever in the sport of

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volleyball, kind of giving fans a look into what the tournament layout could look like.

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It's obviously not set in stone, but it was interesting. Our top 4 seeds from that

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announcement were Nebraska, Pitt, Penn State, and Louisville.

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I think I agree with those selections, maybe not in that order, but we'll get into that later on

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the show. Interestingly, if you listened to our first episode, one of the major questions from

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that was who will draw SMU because SMU has upset both Nebraska and Pitt this year.

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Turns out they took the 7 seed, which if this hypothetical situation were to take place,

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they would be playing Pitt to go to the final four.

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I like that matchup. I want to see if Pitt goes undefeated for the rest of the season and sees

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them in the quarterfinals. It'll be interesting to see what the mentality is and how they come out

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in that match specifically.

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Another interesting kind of ranking situation, Texas was at 8, Wisconsin was at 7,

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Wisconsin was at 9, so those two would play each other, and the winner of that, of course,

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if everything were to hold true, would play Nebraska to go to the final four.

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Obviously, these are always interesting. It's in the best interest of the NCAA to have as many

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conferences represented in the final four as possible, so do I think some massaging happened

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here to make it as equitable for the conferences as possible? Absolutely.

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What do you think about those TV ratings?

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So, I don't know, I'm curious to hear your guys' thoughts. Obviously, the way this is laid out,

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I don't agree with it 100%, but this is a typical layout for the tournament. I'd be curious to see

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if this holds true once selection Sunday happens at the end of November, but gives fans something

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to look forward to at the very least.

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In international news, it was announced that Karch Cry would be the head coach of the USA Men's Team,

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moving on from his successful career coaching the women's team.

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We don't really have many more details other than that. My biggest curiosity is,

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was this facilitated by USAV, or was this something that he wanted personally?

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Yeah, it really makes you wonder, has it always been his goal to lead the team that he played

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for when he was an athlete? Is he like, you know what, I took care of business with the women's

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team, lots of medals, including a gold at the 2020 Olympics. Yeah, I find it to be a very

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interesting move. I'm curious who's going to take over the women's program. As of yet, nobody has

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been announced for that job. So it'll be interesting to see if he is able to turn around the men's

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program, not that they need turning around, like they won bronze in Paris. So they're very good.

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But I'm curious to see if he'll be able to kind of lead them to a gold medal that they haven't seen

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since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

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The other thing from a program standpoint is there are many more women's coaches in the US,

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given the state of the college game versus men's coaches. And I wonder if they thought he would

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make the biggest difference or impact on the men's side now that Sprah has moved on to CEO of USAV.

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Regardless, not the news that I was expecting to receive last week. So all the best to Karch in

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this new role. And I'm really excited to see what he does.

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In Big 12 action, we saw Baylor beat TCU 3-2. And I'm trying to think about how I would classify

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that match in an interesting match.

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It was interesting. Melanie Perra was solid as ever for TCU. She is definitely the foundation

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of that team. And it's really fun to see her play.

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I agree. She hit 350 on that match, which was well above her season average.

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She sees the court really well. She makes it look effortless. I'm impressed by her defensive play,

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just the way she's able to read the game. I thought she was a standout for sure. And then

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Elise McGee for Baylor had a career high 30 kills to go along with six aces.

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Hitting 328 in that match, she was very efficient and had 61 attempts. They really leaned on her

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ability in that match.

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It was, it was a game of runs. We've been saying that I feel like every week. The crazy thing for

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me was at the very end of the match, TCU was up 8-6 in the fifth and the match ended 15-8 for Baylor.

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They did not score again. Nine points in a row. It was wild.

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Well, and they had a six point run in the fourth set to come back into the match and give themselves

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a chance. There was just a lack of consistency for TCU. Well, one of the other noticeable stats from

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that match was the serving difference. You had Baylor with 11 service aces and only nine errors

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and TCU had eight aces, but 12 service errors. So there was a little bit of a disparity there.

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Fair. It was, it was an entertaining match to watch. TCU has a huge history with Baylor,

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the head coach, having been the assistant at Baylor for so many years. His wife played for Baylor.

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He had a niece on the team. So it was just like a really interesting family dynamic and like going,

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seeing him go back to like the place where he had been for so long. Like there's always a lot of

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feelings attached to that, but I thought it was a fun match. Homecoming weekend at Baylor. So people

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were rowdy. It was fun. There was a good atmosphere in that building. I was glad we chose to watch that

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match this week. We also had Kansas crush Utah 3-0, which I was not expecting. Me neither. Last week

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you asked me if Kansas would go undefeated in big 12 play. And I was like, no. And I thought Utah

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would be one of the teams that could take them down. Man, was I wrong. Wow. That was, that was so

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one-sided. It was shocking. Utah just never got anything going. They had a few players who played

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well, but combined their left sides hit 056 and 057 on 50 attempts. You're not going to win matches

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when your outside hitters are hitting with those kinds of numbers. It honestly just looked like

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they could not find a rhythm. And I will point out the two hitters who had those numbers. It was

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West and Gabadlo, a right side, outside combo. It happened when they were in the front with their

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setter. Utah runs a 6-2 and every time Grace Hammond came in for her setting time, Kansas went on a

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6-0 run, almost without fail. I think they had a 6-point run, a 7-point run, and a 6-point run

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in each set respectively. In that exact rotation when Hammond came into position one. And West and

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Gabadlo were her hitters at that time. Coincidence? There's definitely a correlation there.

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Well, both of those hitters are generally much better than that historically on the season

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attacking. And so for both of them to have an off night at the same time, I never want to blame a

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setter, but I thought they struggled in that match. I thought they did struggle with setting and

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serving. Well, two aces to 13 errors versus Kansas' four aces to six errors. Yeah, again,

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we were expecting big things. It did not happen. To Kansas' credit, they looked like a much

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much different team than last week against K-State. Their ball control was much improved.

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They looked much better. So that was cool to see. Well, London Davis hit 430 on the match.

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But I think the thing that impressed me the most about watching Kansas this week was how evenly

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their offense was distributed. Their middles were engaged. They ran a spread. They made life hard

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for Utah. And I thought the setter for Kansas did a great job. I thought the biggest discrepancy in

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that match was the setting. In the Big Ten, Michigan State reverse swept USC in LA for their

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first conference win of the season. That is a big deal. So congrats to Michigan State for that win.

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Wisconsin also beat Purdue three straight. Did not expect that. And that match didn't look close.

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No. We also had UNC beat Florida State three two. And we have got our two feature matches of the

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week. Number seven, Texas lost in five to Texas A&M at home. And Pitt versus Louisville was the match

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that everybody was expecting. Our first feature match of the week is Texas versus Texas A&M.

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Coming into this match, Texas has not dropped a conference match in Gregory Gymnasium

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in 10 years. They won 80 matches at home in conference play in a row. That streak is wild.

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And to think it would come to an end against Texas A&M is a little shocking and potentially

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disappointing for Texas. They were, Texas went three and three in the preseason for the first

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like six matches. They were running a 5-1 at that time. And since those six matches, they switched

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to a 6-2. They had been 9-0 since. So I mean, makes sense that they were continuing with that.

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But for me, the setting was their biggest issue. Not just from their setters, from everybody.

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Well, definitely two separate issues. One, they didn't pass super well. So they did have some

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other players setting balls, which almost never went well. And neither setter really found a rhythm.

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And we don't need to talk about this at length, but this seems to be an issue across the board

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with teams who are playing a 6-2 this season. At least when they're not successful. So I thought

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the setting for Texas really affected their outside hitters. Devin Ka Hawaii hit negative 0-30 on 33

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sets and Jenna Wennis hit negative 0-36 on 28 sets. And I will be the first one to criticize a

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hitter if I don't think they're doing well or they're making errors. But watching that, the ball just

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seemed in a different location. They struggled to get into rhythm. I mean, obviously there's always

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more you can do as a hitter, but I thought it was a tough outing for them. I can get behind what you

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just said for Jenna Wennis. I don't agree with you though for Ka Hawaii. I think I saw her hit one

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ball angle. She hits line and straight. She went off in set one. She was hammering balls down the

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line in set one. And then to A&M's credit, they made the adjustment. They moved their block to

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the line. And after that, she was either getting touched on the block or getting roofed or hitting

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out because she just insisted that she was hitting that angle and only that angle. And I haven't

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seen Texas play enough this year to know if that is just indicative of her hitting style or if,

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like you were saying, the set was maybe forcing her to go there. But from my observation, she was

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hitting what she hits and she didn't make an adjustment. I do agree that Jenna Wennis was

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hung out to dry a lot. She was put in trouble. So those numbers and what you said, I agree with.

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But watching that match, I was like, A&M adjusted how they were going to defend Ka Hawaii. And she

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was just like, no, this is what I'm going to do. What did you think of Madison Skinner's play?

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I thought it took her a little while to get in rhythm. She was a little slow in the first set,

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but then she went off. I think her and Reagan Rutherford kind of like put the team on their

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back offensively. You could actually see there's one rotation where both of those two are in the

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back row together. And Texas would give up runs of points when Skinner and Rutherford

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were in the back row. But when they were in the front row, they were almost unstoppable when they

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were given a ball that they could hit. A ball that was in front of them that they could accelerate

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to. They were outstanding. Unfortunately, when in transition or when the ball wasn't passed well,

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they were having trouble as a team being able to put them in a good position to score.

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Well, I was amazed at the end of the match when I saw the stats that Madison hit 415 because she

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started, I think in the second set, the beginning, she was at zero. And credit to her on a tough

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night for her team to find a way to score points and give them a chance. Something else that I found

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really interesting was there would be certain rotations when Texas was serving that they

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wouldn't have a setter on the court. They would allow their right side Kahahaua to serve because

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she does have a nice spin serve when it's in rhythm. And she definitely started out the match

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feeling really good with it, but they would keep a setter off the court to allow her to just

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serve. But like nobody on the team was really picking up the slack from a setting perspective.

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So things just kind of went sideways. And I found that to be really interesting because like things

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just did not seem to flow in those situations. And I'm like for a team that is struggling to

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put their hitters in a good position consistently this match, you'd think you'd want to set her on

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the court at all times. Well, I understand the strategy of leaving a big block up front and

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putting an aggressive server there. But when you're out of system setting, even from your libero is

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as bad as it was for Texas, you're basically saying if we don't get a block, we're not going

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to score a point. At that point, you might as well put a setter back there. You might not get quite

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as good a serve, but at least if you get a dig, you're going to have a chance to transition.

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There were some adjustments that I thought needed to be made on Texas's side based on the feel of

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the match that didn't happen. Such as? Well, same thing. You could have put the setter in

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in that rotation. You could have gone to a 5-1 at certain points just to allow a setter to find a

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rhythm. Even if it was for one rotation where you let the setter stay on nine rotations instead of

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three and off and three to find a little bit of rhythm, you don't have to go to the 6-2 every rotation.

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For me, the difference makers in that match were the out of system attacking. Texas could not

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put their hitters in a position to be successful in those situations and how each team used their

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middle. Well, that if we're going to transition to A&M, there's a few things that they did

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really well. I thought they started slow on the middle, but in the fourth and fifth set specifically,

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they pushed the middle even at the end of sets. And given the blocking stats for this match,

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we had three solo blocks and 14 block assists for Texas A&M and six solo blocks and 18 block assists

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for Texas. Blocking was a huge factor in the match and the fact that Texas A&M pushed their middle

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a little late in the game opened up the hitters and I think that was the key to them being successful.

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I was very surprised, particularly when set five went down to the wire. I was shocked at some of

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the balls that Wach decided to run the middle on. 100% props to her ballsy choice. They scored,

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they were effective, but you don't typically see that and I was so impressed and so excited

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that she's like, no, we're doing this. And it was awesome. Texas on the other hand really struggled

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to find a rhythm with their middles as well. I found the Texas sets to the middle to be

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consistently low. You saw the middles like swinging from their shoulder height pretty

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much for most of the game. So they were not an offensive threat at all. So that difference was

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massive. One of the other things I saw from A&M was they did a really good job of understanding

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where they were as a team in specific situations. And what I mean by that is when they were in

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rhythm, their setter was pushing the tempo and the hitters were coming in and they were getting

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good connection. When Texas A&M was out of system, I thought the hitters did a really good job

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of waiting on the sets, seeing where it went, and then being aggressive coming in and giving Texas

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trouble in those out of system balls. Agreed. And I've seen it a lot in NCAA volleyball in that

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offenses are fast and it's great to be able to just like run your approach with the timing you're

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comfortable with. But I often see a lot of hitters coming in too early out of system. And that is,

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I agree with you, something I noticed with A&M too. There was a mutual understanding of what

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situation the team was in or what situation the pass or dig put the setter in. And the timing from

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the hitters slowed down when it wasn't possible to push fast tempo. They had a really good

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relationship there. I was also impressed with Logan Lydnicki. They went to her a ton early.

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And I thought it was just going to be the Lydnicki show. Like, let's just, we're going to

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ride you till the end pretty much. Luckily, they did start to like spread things a little more as

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we, as we touched on with the middle, but she was going for it. I love a lefty, Obvi.

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Yeah, I'm actually really curious to know, was it the coaching staff that identified this? What is

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the, was it the setter that had a feel for the match and said, I need to get these players going?

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Just that decision was interesting because I agree, Lydnicki brought them to the point in the

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third set where they had a chance to win, but they had a beat on her and she started to not score as

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efficiently. And that switch in offensive mindset allowed her to then score points in the fifth set

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again. I mean, she's definitely a high risk, high reward hitter. She is effective. She is going for

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it. You don't often see her taking off speed shots or trying to fix balls with a tip. She's like, no,

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I'm going for this. I'm going to take a big swing and my team will score or we won't. But I really

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liked that attitude from her. She is a true opposite in the sense that like she knows that

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her role is as a point scorer and her team needs her to have that aggressive mindset. So she does

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make a lot of errors, but the payoff was big for her team. I think for Texas and them to take a

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step forward this season, they need to keep what they managed to do against Texas, but their left

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sides are going to have to play a little bit better. Both Emily Helmuth and Taylor Humphries

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struggled to score points. Yeah. The middles, as we said, stepped up. Let Nikki stepped up a little

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more production from those left sides. And I think A&M can win some more tight matches. And I think

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the teams that are learning to run the middle or are practicing running the middle in those situations,

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I think that's going to pay down or pay off down the stretch. Well, and we'll talk about it later,

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but pit case in point. Can we just talk about this one play that happened in the first set?

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It was 25-25. Real tight. Texas runs out of subs. Okay. Texas runs out of subs. It happens sometimes,

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you know, you have to make do. But what we ended up with was Akana on the left side,

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a setter on the right side, and Madison Skinner was playing middle. We picked that up right away

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when Texas went back to serve. My first thought in that situation would be like run the right side

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or run the middle on a slide. You've got a DS in the front row. What did they do? They ran the outside

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and Madison Skinner in the middle gets a stuff block. How, how are you not noticing that or being

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mindful enough to take advantage of that? Not to say that Akana like maybe wouldn't have gotten a

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block, but like let's play percentages here. As a coaching staff, that is on them, in my opinion.

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Somebody needs to be picking that up and communicating to the setter. Players, you may

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or may not be thinking about that or paying attention, but the coaching staff should have

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brought that to their attention right away. It was crazy. You and I were looking at each other

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like, wait, what? What? They set the left side. I mean, great job, Madison Skinner, middle blocker

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getting that block. She is incredibly agile and athletic. That she is, but you and I were just

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scratching our heads after that one. Yes, they're going to want that. If they had lost this match,

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they would have wanted that one back. Oh dang. Texas has now lost every five set match they've

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played this season. Time to be efficient for the rest of the season. Yeah, wins in three and four

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only, baby. We're not going five again. Well, they need to learn to run the middle in long matches.

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You can't just set the pins against good teams. Again, kudos to Skinner and Rutherford. I thought

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they swung well. They made the most of the balls that they were getting, but I really hope Texas

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works on those middle sets and setting those middles a bit higher this week because they could

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be big assets. The match of the week this week and one that I think everybody who follows NCAA

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volleyball is looking forward to was number one Pitt versus number four Louisville. You and I were

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a little hesitant on whether or not to cover this match or not because we were covering Pitt just a

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couple of weeks ago, but we were like, no, give the people what they want. We've got to talk about

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this. I mean, you get covered when you're number one. That's just the way it goes. And a one-four

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matchup, you can't pass that up. And the game definitely did not disappoint. It delivered.

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And I will just say we saw a completely different Pitt team than we saw against SMU.

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The first thing I noticed watching that match was Pitt came out with a, we're about to bully you for

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this match and you better show up or we're going to roll you. And I loved that. They definitely

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projected a lot of confidence. They had swagger and I'm here for it. That is the attitude that

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you need as the number one team in the country and you're playing at home. It's like, we're going to

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make a statement here. You're going to have to bring your A game because we're not messing around.

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And they did not mess around. Let me tell you. Well, I thought the name of the game for me was,

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I thought Pitt was consistent all the way through the match. They kind of played the same,

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didn't give up a ton of runs and Louisville's performance was a little bit up and down. They

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either played better or they were forced into a little bit of a box against those matches. And

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they were the ones that had runs. Pitt was just Pitt and played the same way for five sets.

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The way that Pitt was playing, they were just wearing Louisville down. They got production

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from their left sides, from their right side, from their middles. Every weapon was working.

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And it's like demoralizing when a team is just coming at you like that relentlessly. To Louisville's

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credit, I thought they brought some serious service pressure. I thought they, for all intents and

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purposes, those serves should have been causing issues, but Pitt's serve receive was just better.

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It was outstanding. There's only so much you can do from the service line if the other team's

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passers are feeling it. And if Pitt is in system, I'm sorry, they're the best team in the country.

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They have the most balanced weapons. And I thought Fairbanks did a fantastic job

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of distributing the ball. We were a little critical of Rachel Fairbanks against SMU.

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And rightly so. During crunch time and when things weren't going so well, she completely vacated

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setting the middle. But I thought the way that she ran the offense was outstanding and the

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middles produced. I think the middles were the difference in that match, both offensively and

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defensively. We're talking about 26 block assists for Pittsburgh and 24 for Louisville. There were

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some stuff and stares in that match and I was all about it. In reading some comments about this match,

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I was reading about a lot of trash talk. So I was like, okay, we did watch the match after the fact.

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So I was like, let me check this out. Because I love some trash talk. You guys, it was not that bad.

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Not at all. Not that bad. I loved it. You know what, if you backpedal a little slower or like

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turn your head while you're screaming just a little slow, love that. Like I said, in episode one,

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make them feel it. We're talking about a one-four matchup. These are two great teams who have

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national championship aspirations. As a fan, you want to see the players care. You want to see them

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celebrate a big block. I'm not saying everything goes and there's a certain line you can't cross

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in terms of what you say across the net. But if you're going to go up and rip a kill against a

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two-man block or shut somebody down, I have absolutely no problem with letting them know.

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The classic move for me. The one that got a player in the most trouble, I would say, was Rila Jones

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and Cressy josted at the net. And Jones won the jost and like threw Cressy to the ground. And as

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Cressy's sitting on the ground, Jones is standing above her and is just running her mouth. The ref

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had had enough at that point, so kind of called her out, gave her a yellow card. But you know what,

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if I have to play you in the final four, if I have to play you in a national championship match,

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I want you to remember. Absolutely. I want you to remember the last time we played each other

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and how I stared you down when you were sitting on the floor after I just crushed you in a jost.

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Absolutely. And let's be honest, a yellow card means nothing. I will say, however, I was disappointed

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with Louisville's coaching staff. Leave it to the players. You got to stay out of it. Your job is to

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be calm and collected, especially as an assistant coach. That's not your place. Yeah, the Louisville

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coaching staff was getting pretty upset at the stuff and stares, the delayed turns. I agree with

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you. Well, the other thing is De Beer wasn't as overt about it, but she shot some glances across

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the net and has her own style of stare down. It may not be quite as aggressive, but don't kid

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yourself. Oh, it was happening both ways. Absolutely. For sure. Absolutely. Now, the one thing I will say

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is I thought Dani's use of the challenges was emotional instead of strategic. And I thought that

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cost them to not have a challenge later on in the match. I think she used them both up and was

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incorrect in the first two sets. And there were a few plays which I thought were challenge worthy,

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where they just didn't have an option. I will give Dani credit. She listened to her team. She trusted

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her athletes when the athletes were demanding a challenge or said that there was a touch or

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whatever. She trusted them. So I can't fault her for that. I think that that's a good shows great

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rapport between a coach and her athletes. But there were definitely moments in set three and set four

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where there were challengeable balls that she just couldn't do anything about because she had been

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wrong really early. So I agree that was a miss on Louisville's part. I was very impressed, however,

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with Charity Looper and Alaina Scott in particular for Louisville. I would agree. I thought Looper was

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incredible. I hadn't really seen her play up until this point. She is physical. She's dynamic. She's

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got a quick arm. She sees the block, hits deep. She's very, very good. She was fun to watch.

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She and her defensive ability. She picked up some balls. It was textbook. I thought Alaina Scott,

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the libero, her setting was a thing to behold. I think she was the reason this game was that

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close. If I had to pick an MVP for Louisville, I would pick her. She did the little things really

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well. And between her and Looper playing defense, she extended rallies. She put hitters in a place

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where they could hit the ball really well. She made some incredible covers. I thought she was

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outstanding. She got her face taken off by Bree Kelly at one point. She didn't even touch it.

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Didn't even blink. I have some respect for that. And you know what? She got bodied by a couple

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swings by Pitt. Man, she was just stepping in. She's like, bring it. And you need a libero that's

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going to have that attitude because, man, she could have been on the floor on some of those.

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But she just took it and gave her team a chance. And I love a libero who can set. I think at the

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highest levels, you need a libero who can deliver sets, especially out of the system. And her sets

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were outstanding, like I said. The other thing that she probably won't get credit for is I thought

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she was a calming influence on the floor in terms of running the serve receive, in terms of just

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being stable and steady. And she's an emotional leader on that team from what I could see watching

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that match. I did think that they needed to run their middles a little more. Agreed. Especially

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because Pitt was just like coming at them. It was very easy to load up on the outsides for Louisville

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because De Beer and Looper were scoring and were the most efficient scorers. I thought that Kara

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Cressy did a good job when she got set, but I don't think she got enough balls. Yes, completely

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agree. It's not like the middles weren't doing well. I just don't think they used them enough.

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And I think they just need a little more production from the right side. Well, you could tell in the

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third set, Reese Robbins scored very well and they were able to win. In the sets that they lost,

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she was a little less efficient. They need to find a little more consistency from either her or that

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position to really be a threat on both pins, especially if you're not going to run the middle.

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On Pitt's side, Babcock had a great game. She is so dynamic. She hits the ball so high. I thought,

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compared to how we saw her against SMU, so much better. She was struggling to find her rhythm with

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her serve. So we did see Pitt employ the 6-2 to take her out of the serving rotation. There were

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some times during the match where they were in that rotation four where Babcock should have been

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serving and they ran the 6-2, but then they got stuck and they weren't able to get out of the

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rotation and were giving up like a small run of points now and then. I'm curious why the coach

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decided to stick with the 6-2 instead of allowing Babcock and Fairbanks to come back in because

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Babcock is a weapon out of the back row. And Fairbanks was delivering the offense.

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I completely agree with you. Take her out to serve if you need to and she was struggling,

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but I would have gone back to them more quickly than they did in my opinion. The other thing I

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will say, credit to Babcock, it's not always easy to keep your hitting rhythm going if you're

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struggling from the service line like that. And I thought she did a good job of separating those

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skills and being the offensive player that Pitt needed her to be. Because the other noticeable

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thing was Torrie Stafford didn't have her best night. She only went 196 and she's season-high

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hitter of 373 or average hitter of 373. And you honestly didn't notice. I think that's one of

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Pitt's strengths. They have a ton of weapons and if somebody's not having a great night,

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and let's be honest, 196 is not a terrible night, but it's lower than average and you have a team

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that can step up in support in that regard where the load doesn't have to be on you.

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That's what I think makes Pitt so good. The other thing is you just saw how united Pitt was as a

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team. They were in it together and for each other and you could just see the eye contact they were

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making with each other on after every single play. That type of team unity that you saw from that

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match is something special and it's something that they're going to need if they want to win

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a national championship. I'm just going to say it. If we see the Pitt team that played Louisville

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show up in the NCAA tournament, Pitt is going to be the national champion. When they're working

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like that and firing on all cylinders, I don't think anybody can touch them. There is one other

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thing I want to bring up about this match. One player in specific, Kat Flood does such a good job

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for this team. There was a stretch at the beginning where she came in, she served so well,

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she made two digs, she set a great at a system ball, she gives them a rotation where they can

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score points and put pressure on the other team's serve receive and she does it consistently. That

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is a hard role to fill and kudos to her. I agree. She makes at least one positive action every time

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she steps on the court. If Pitt can keep rolling and playing this way, they're going to be a tough

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team to beat for anybody. That match was a lot of fun to watch. I love top 10 matchups but this one

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it definitely delivered on everybody's expectations. Love to see a little fire,

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love to see some sass and hopefully we'll be able to see more matches like this coming up.

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Here's the time of the podcast where I get to put Sarah on the spot. I like to play games so I've

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made up a new one and it's called fill in the blanks. I am going to make a statement. I'm going

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to leave one word blank and we'll both play this one but you will start. Okay question one,

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as Texas's coach I am blank about the loss to Texas A&M. Reflective? Question mark. I want a

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little explanation. So one word and then an explanation. The reason I chose reflective is

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because if you look at the stat sheet, the numbers are pretty close. So I think Jared Elliot's going

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to have to look a little bit deeper into what went wrong here. Obviously when you're in the moment,

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you're feeling emotion. So I think it's not an accident that Texas has won 80 in a row at home

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during conference play. So there's something that the stat sheet doesn't show and so I think on

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further reflection, you know, he might land on the setting issue and the fact that the ball was not

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being bettered consistently. Mine's going to be along the same vein but my word would be frustrated.

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Probably a better word. You were not good at a system setting and that wasn't on the setters,

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that was on the team. I don't think either of your setters played particularly well,

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didn't give your hitters much of a chance and so given that the game was so close

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and in a skill that happens in every rally, you're not good at any of it, I would be frustrated

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because I have to imagine they're practicing out of system setting on a fairly regular basis.

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Blank team was left out of the top 16 rankings and deserves to be there. I'm going to have to

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go with Arizona State on this one. Arizona State has been in the top 16, top 20 pretty much all

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season and I understand the necessity to include big 12 teams in the top 16 ranking but I'm confused

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as to why TCU and Utah were included and not Arizona State, especially because Arizona State

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has been ranked higher than them all season. You know, I'm sure there's an explanation for that

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but if I was Arizona State, I would for sure be asking questions. I'm going to go with Kentucky.

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They've been ranked all season. They've only lost to teams that are ranked ahead of them,

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minus one bad loss to Auburn and they've beaten SMU. So if I'm Kentucky, I'm holding on to this

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snub and I'm coming out at the tournament with something to prove. A little competitive fire

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through the net is blank for women's volleyball. Love this question. I may have teed you up on that

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one. My word is necessary and I understand that I was definitely the player who was probably

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looking through the net more than I should have been. So I'm biased. So take this with a grain of

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salt because I definitely think it's a necessary part of the game because we're seeing women's

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volleyball continue to grow and it's definitely having a moment. I think if the sport wants to

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kind of continue on this trajectory, we need to be able to focus or get to know individual players

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and we need players to be able to show their personality, their intensity, their competitiveness,

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their ferocity in a non-judgmental way because right now so much of the attention in women's

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volleyball is on individual teams, programs, institutions. We need to have that like

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professional feel where like the fans love players and I think a good way to do that

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is to introduce them to your personality and be allowed to show that. I'm going to pick exciting.

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When I watch a player dominate in a sport, whether that's a block or a kill, I want to see that

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emotion. I want to see them look across the net and care and I 100% agree that it's good for the

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game and it's only the refs who don't like it. You can't tell me a fan didn't watch that game

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and loved every minute of it. Well I'm sorry but when you're getting blocked and somebody's yelling

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in your face you don't really love it either but like do it back. Here we go with the last one and

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it's probably the hardest one. Blank is the most important player to their team and I'm going to

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add a caveat to that. We're going to stay within the top four based on the rankings that just came

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out. I'm going to go with Izzy Stark. Good choice. But hear me out. Hear me out, okay. I originally

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was going to go with Jess Merzik because without her production, Penn State in my opinion goes from

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a top team to like a middle of the pack team. She's just putting up crazy numbers for Penn State

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and is carrying a massive load. But then that got me thinking, Penn State is not the most prolific

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serve receive team in the NCAA. So last week we talked about how Izzy Stark is always bettering

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the ball and it's like with Penn State's passing ability would Jess Merzik be put in the kind of

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position she consistently is if somebody else was setting the ball? And I have to conclude probably

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not. All that to say Izzy Stark is my pick. I have one that people are probably gonna maybe

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not disagree with but catch them off guard. I'm gonna go with Elena Scott from Louisville.

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Now this might also have a recency bias to it but I think that she does such a great job

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of making the players around her better. She does it on serve receive where she's passing a ton of

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court and she allows the left sides for Louisville to take less responsibility in that regard. She

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digs a ton of balls, she extends rallies when the hitters get blocked and I think most importantly

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she's a great out of system setter. So Louisville has a good big block, they get transition

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opportunities and she's putting those players in a place to score. I think as a whole she makes her

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team much better. Now I understand we left both Nebraska and Pitt one and two off that list

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and I think part of that is Pitt is super well rounded. They have a ton of weapons and you saw

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it with Torrie Stafford not having an amazing game but them still being able to hold it together. So

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I think there's not one piece who's the most important on that team and Nebraska's super

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skilled, really good serve receive, they serve tough. If I was going to pick a player for them

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it would be the middle. Andy Jackson. Yeah I think she makes their players around her much better but

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she's only on for three rotations so that's my reasoning with Elena Scott. I like it. I like

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this game too. Let's keep this on the docket. We'll keep a rotation going. I got a few more

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that we can try and then we'll pick which ones we like. Okay perfect. All right moving on. We got

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one more segment left before we wrap it up and look at what's coming up next week. Time for the

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hot takes. And I'm gonna go first and you can finish with this but my hot take is that the

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national player of the year watch list has hit maybe four digits. I feel like every time I watch

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a match we've added another five players to the watch list and I mean it's fine people play well.

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I get it but let's be honest there's maybe 10 people who could win this award and I just think

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I think it's ludicrous when I watch matches and it's always this player is the best in the

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conference. This player is on the national watch list. Come on. No they're not. You're

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allowed to have good games and play well and not be the best at something or everything.

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I 100% agree with this hot take. I chuckle almost every match we watch and now it's just a running

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joke when we're watching games. How many players in this match are on the national player of the

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year watch list? Let's not kid ourselves. If you're not making a regional final you're probably

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not winning national player of the year unless you are putting up Stacey Gordon circa 2004 numbers.

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Okay. Did I age myself? Yes but I know some of you remember that. 7.5 something kills per

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set. You can't deny that. So yes agree with your hot take. Mine? I'm curious what people think

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about this one. My hot take is the new double touch rule in the NCAA is terrible. You guys I

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am seeing at least once a match a one-handed tip set from not a setter and not from a pass that is

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going over the net. I saw somebody tip set a ball from the 10-foot line. Like it's just it's just

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getting crazy. It's it's getting absolutely wild. And the crazy part to me is our sport is called

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volley ball. The act of volleying the ball is what the sport is named after and this is the skill

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that is being butchered the most. My confusion with this is I thought they got rid of the double rule

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not the lift rule. But they both seem to have disappeared. I agree with that too.

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No I don't see lifts being called. I understand the rule you can't call a double on the first ball

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over the net. Like that was historically the rule before this rule change. But like you can still

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lift the ball and those aren't being called either. So this game I think this rule change is making

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the game very sloppy. I think I say it at least once an episode. Let's keep track. I am a volleyball

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purist. I literally say that every week. The beauty of the game, the set or as it was originally

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called the volley is the title skill. It should be the most beautiful the most pure part. And right

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now we are just seeing the ball corkscrewing through the air at all time. Like it's frustrating.

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There should be an ugly threshold for a second contact in my opinion. Yeah can we have a

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subjective threshold? I hate subjective stuff. But like I will make an exception for this skill.

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This week is a little bit slower than last week. But we've still got some good matches coming up.

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On Friday Nebraska is traveling to Wisconsin. So that will be a fun one as always. And on Sunday

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the ACC has a couple of interesting matches. We've got Florida State, Stanford and Georgia Tech has

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North Carolina. Arizona State is heading to Utah this week to take on BYU on Thursday. And they've

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got the University of Utah on Saturday. So lots of exciting stuff happening and I'm very curious to

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see how these matches play out. That concludes this week's episode of Volley Talk. There's always

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something shaking in the volleyball world and we hope that you enjoyed this little fix. Be sure to

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follow the show so you don't miss any updates and we'd be so grateful if you'd leave us a five star

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review. You can also find us on Instagram at VolleyTalk underscore podcast. If you have a

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topic that you want us to discuss be sure to let us know by reaching out to us on Instagram or at

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00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:29,920
info at sarahpavin.com. Thanks so much for joining us and we'll be back next week.