#1 Pitt Beats #3 Louisville for ACC Championship, #4 Penn State Forces #2 Nebraska to Share B1G Title

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Hi volleyball fans and welcome back to volley talk the podcast created for volleyball lovers who want to dig deep into what is going

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on in NCAA and international volleyball. I'm your host Sarah pavin

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I'm an Olympian beach volleyball world champion

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Former Nebraska corn husker and longtime pro both indoor and on the beach and I'm Adam Schultz former indoor player

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International volleyball coach and resident stat guy. It was a

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massive week in NCAA volleyball

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We had the power for conference champions crowns star senior athletes were

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Drafted and the final push to the final four in Louisville has begun

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there were

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So many exciting matches and I hope that you guys were able to catch at least a couple of them

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Because I know that we had a fantastic

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Thanksgiving break

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Hanging out friends watching a lot of volleyball talking about how we think the rest of the season will play out. It was awesome

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I'm pretty sure Wednesday wasn't a holiday, but I was hunkered down on the couch

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We had matches start at 9 o'clock then noon and all throughout the day

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I think I had my computer with me so I could respond to emails, but I'm pretty sure I just watched volleyball

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We're in California. So we got the full day and it was perfect timing

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That's one of the best things about being on the West Coast is starts or sports start first thing in the morning

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I unfortunately had a lot of things going on Wednesday, but every time that I passed by Adam he was

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Engaged in volleyball, so I had to catch up a little bit later, but I was very jealous

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But all that being said there is a lot to cover this week and we are very very excited

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So let's get started first things first

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Monday the PVF draft happened

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We watched it. We followed it

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There's a lot of cool

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Draft decisions that were made we are going to talk about the draft in depth next week

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We've got a full slate here everybody for this episode, but we wanted to let everybody know we did follow along

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We do know what happened, but we're gonna talk about the PVF draft

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next episode

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We also had the NCAA selection show

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Lots to talk about there. I know everybody is very excited about tournament time

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We're gonna talk about the selection show a little bit later in the show today looking at the matches that happened

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Florida had a rough week

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They lost both their matches to South Carolina and five and to Georgia and four

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We saw no Fitzpatrick and no Stuckey against South Carolina, which is interesting

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I don't know if they're injured and they're hoping they're going to be back for the tournament

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But Fitzpatrick didn't play either match Stuckey did play against Georgia, but not against South Carolina

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It wasn't a great day for the outside Martin hitters

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Isabel went 103 on 29 sets and Kennedy went 163 on 49 sets

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As a team they hit negative 087 in the fifth set losing 1513

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But get this South Carolina missed 30 serves in that match

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So there's like Florida should have been able to pull that one out and they just missed and didn't play very well at all

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And then against Georgia

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They started really well, so they had a good rebound

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But their hitting percentage got worse and worse as the match went on they started they hit 441 in the first set

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Wow, I know it was great and then in the second set 241 13

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In the second set 241 third set 129 and 094 in the fourth set losing 2513

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It was crazy to see how they just declined as the match went on

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And a rapid decline at that that's crazy

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Isabel Martin struggled against Georgia as well she hit 036 on 21 attempts

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You had Amaya Thomas had a good game against Georgia hitting 583 on 12 sets and Kennedy Martin did step it up

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She had 412 on 51 sets so she looks like she's ready to go for the tournament

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But Isabel Martin's gonna have to figure it out because they're gonna need her to score points. They

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Should not have lost those two matches going into the tournament

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Absolutely not

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Last week we didn't even talk about the matches that Florida had because naively I thought they were pretty straightforward

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But maybe you know Isabel Martin got that call from the pvf. She got drafted

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She was feeling good and just fell off a cliff

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I don't know, but they're gonna have to figure it out because losing those two matches going into the tournament is not where you want

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to be

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Absolutely not but Kennedy Martin has been solid all season

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So I'm glad that she had one match that is herself. She does carry a heavy load for Florida

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She can't be expected to be perfect every single match

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We've talked about this with other players in the past, but Kennedy Martin hitting a hundred or less than 200 is is

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Uncharacteristic to say the least we also had Kansas lose to BYU in four

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Now it was clear that Kansas prepared for Claire little because they kept her to 173 on 52 swings

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Which when you plan for somebody and you can hold them to that kudos you executed your game plan. Well

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Claire little does get set a lot for BYU

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She does score a lot of points, but I will say her hitting percentage is is not

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Great. So like hitting under 200 is not unheard of for Claire little I would say

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but in the past we've seen

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teams be able to do that to her and

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the supporting cast

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Not step up and they don't win but in this case BYU's other hitters all had great days their middles

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Kirstie strong went 545 on 22 sets Brielle camovore went

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478 on 23 swings

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Which is great for both of their middles and then Ellie Mortenson also hit 478 on 23 swings

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So they all got a decent share of balls and all played really well and that was the difference in this match in my mind

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It's funny. We look at Kansas again and

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Their middles didn't play super well on a banjo hit 111 on 28 sets Reese Patak only got set 12 times

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Yet again, Kansas doesn't win the middle battle. Kansas doesn't win the game

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I would even go so far as to say if on a banjo doesn't show up. Kansas doesn't win the game because we have seen

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Multiple scenarios here with Kansas and their middles. We've seen both of them play great

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We've seen both of them have very poor stats

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We've seen Patak have bad stats and on a banjo play great and then we've seen the reverse as is the case here

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I think it all depends on a banjo now

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Not even just the middles because when on a banjo has played really well

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Had great numbers and Patak hasn't the team has still been fine and still won but we see when it's reversed

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Not the case on a bunch of does get set more so that makes sense

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Caroline BN also did not play super well in that match going 156 on 32 sets

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So she's gonna need to play a little bit better as well

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We've seen in those losses she can't score and she's gonna have to figure out a way to be more productive

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But I'm guessing El Nadi was solid El Nadi was the same. I think she was close to 300

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I don't have the numbers in front of me, but she's always reliable and she cleans up the garbage

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As we talked about at the end of last episode the ACC

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ACC was gonna be wild this week and it delivered it did not disappoint

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Oh, baby, so Stanford, let's start with them

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They had a reverse sweep of Georgia Tech and then they beat Louisville 3-1

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So this was a huge week for them because they were hovering around the 3-4 mark with SMU before this week

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but defeating Louisville put them in second in the ACC and

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I think that this week in general was a huge momentum builder for them heading into the postseason and

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We're not gonna talk about them this week

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But we did talk about them last week Georgia Tech had two bad losses last week and we were concerned about them

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But I do want to give them a shout out. They played really well

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They didn't win but they played two really good teams and there was some real fight and they played well

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Even though they didn't win. I think those matches serve them well going into the tournament

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So I just wanted to acknowledge that because we were rough on them last week. Well, they had Stanford

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I'm pretty sure was it in set three or four. They had a swing for the man. Ami Miner went back to serve

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Stanford was down what like 24 22?

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I think so and they managed to win 26 24 like

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Georgia Tech had no business losing that match. Honestly, they were a different team compared to the week before they weren't

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Refusing to let the ball hit the ground. It was great to see that change

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It was really good to see them bounce back and I think they played well

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Even if they didn't win those good on them to have a really good response and took pit

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17 15 in the fifth. Yeah, no, they pushed two great teams

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I think other than winning it couldn't have gone better for them as great of a week as it was for Stanford

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pulling out that win in five

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Louisville had a rough week. They lost to both pit and Stanford and four

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So we watched both of Stanford's matches this week

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We watched both of Louisville's matches this week not a great way to go into the tournament

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I know they were really tough matchups for not trying to take anything away from that in that situation

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But you do not want to end conference play like that

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Well, I thought in the Louisville Stanford match the difference to me was for Louisville

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You had Anna De Beer and charity Looper get 40 and 46 sets each

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They were much higher than the rest of the team and it'd be or played well

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Going 350 on her swings charity Looper only hit 239 which isn't terrible

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It's not terrible. But then if you look at the flip side on Stanford

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They also had two players that received the majority of the sets you had Elia Rubin hit

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326 on 46 sets and Jordan Harvey go 302 on 43

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So to me that's the difference because all of those sets were incredibly close

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I mean Stanford and Louisville played on Saturday, which was after the pit Louisville game Louisville just seemed a little

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Deflated they didn't seem to have you know, the same energy the same fight the same swagger

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As they did in the pit match like completely understandable. They they did not pull off the ACC championship

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They knew you know, their fate was kind of sealed but I do have to say

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Building off of what you said

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Anna De Beer when she was in the back row Louisville was giving up runs of points and you notice that particularly in set three

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Stanford was up to oh

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it was near the end of the set there Louisville had a

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Decent lead. Yeah, like and then before you know it

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It's 24 all or something. It was like closer than it should have been at the end of that match and Anna De Beer was in

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The back row now

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Do you think that's all Anna De Beer being in the back row or do you think it has to do with who was setting at?

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Those times as well. We we can talk about that situation a little later

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But once Anna De Beer got to the front row at that point, she scored like four points by herself

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I think basically to win that set. Yeah, it was incredible

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She swung I think she got a solo block and two hills. Yeah, she she was really really good

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I'll also say I love cammy minor

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I love her the woman can deliver the ball and she is offensive at the perfect time

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She blocks. Well, she serves well

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She's like a leader. You can tell that everybody kind of turns to her

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She's like a calm presence on the court like for me. That is what you want out of a setter

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Well, the other thing I really appreciated about watching her play Louisville is a very good blocking team and

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Unless you were really paying attention

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She was able to move the ball along the net for her hitters incredibly

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Well for her middles you saw Sammy Francis hitting out at the pin hitting halfway in between hitting close behind

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Making life difficult for the blockers to line up and you saw the same thing on the outside pin running inside catching the blockers a little far

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Moving the ball all the way to the pin to open up the line swing

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She was able to make life for the very good Louisville blockers

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Tough and they had to pay attention and she caught them out of position a few times. They were out of position

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Frequently and I think if you don't if you weren't watching you might not have noticed but but it was very well thought out

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it was very well planned and

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Cammie Miner is good enough that there is no way she's missing that many sets a hunter

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It was completely deliberate and she the way that they were moving their hitters around. It was a thing to see

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I'm very curious if any of the teams that play Louisville in the tournament are gonna pick up on that and be able to use it

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Against them continuing on with the exciting matches that happened this week

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SMU swept Florida State and then you know followed that up with a loss to NC State

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To finish ACC play because you know, why not Purdue also beat Oregon in five in what was another

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Incredibly tight match and then we saw Kentucky beat my still-standing

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Darkhorse team in Missouri in four and they hung on to the title

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Kentucky is solo SEC champs. Yes, we've talked about this a little bit

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But Pitt was also tested this week and I think that's good for them

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They went for with Louisville who's obviously a great team and five with Georgia Tech

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We alluded to this Georgia Tech played teams tough this week

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So Pitt actually lost their first set since October 27 against Louisville and then went on to drop to to Georgia Tech

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So a little bit of adversity is never a bad thing heading into the tournament sharpens the focus

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makes you aware that you're not infallible and that you have to show up and play really well and

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So we'll see what happens to them understandable that after you beat Louisville

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You maybe let your foot off the gas a little bit against Georgia Tech, but

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They're ready to go. I mean the Pitt Louisville match was the one to decide things and as we mentioned earlier

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That win over Louisville earned Pitt the outright ACC championship

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We will be talking about that match more in depth a little later on and the other match that we're going to talk about

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Later on as well was Penn State versus Nebraska

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Penn State handed Nebraska their first big ten loss of the season winning 3-1 and

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Claiming a share of the big ten title in the process. So

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Penn State upset a lot of people this week namely

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Cornhusker fans

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I'm not gonna lie. I didn't see that upset coming and

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It was a game to watch not sure that this coming week is going to be as exciting as what we just witnessed

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But we were very lucky to have this much excitement over Thanksgiving break

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Our first feature match this week is Pitt versus Louisville

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The showdown that was to determine the ACC champion

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What were your you know key takeaways from watching that match?

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Well, Pitt obviously wanted to get Babcock going early and she was

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Lights out in the first set. She came to make a point

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Babcock had seven kills in the first set. Pitt as a team had five blocks and

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Sided out at roughly 80 percent in that set those numbers are absolutely

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Staggering they had a message to send. I loved Louisville's pushback in the second set Pitt

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Struggled to pass in that set Louisville's block was really disciplined forced some hitting errors gave themselves a chance to get back into the match

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It was it was a good pushback to see in that second set and then after that it was just a dogfight

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I really appreciated how many balls Rachel Fairbanks set to Babcock right off the bat

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You would as a right side?

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No, I'm not like that's the thing is I really do appreciate that because

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As a player I had a very similar role to Babcock and I can't tell you like if you are

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A traditional point scoring right side

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You need to establish a rhythm early and as fast as possible. So

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I really loved I want to say I'm making this up

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But it seemed like you know three out of the first four balls

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Of the match were set to Babcock and then she established her rhythm and was able to carry that on

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As a right side, it is really tough

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when

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Your

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Setters kind of distributing it to everybody and then when you need points, they start setting you. It's really tough

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So I really appreciated that and Olivia Babcock actually tied her career high

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In kills against Louisville with 23. So I thought

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Pits served really well. They did a good job of pushing Louisville back

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Louisville had a lot of passes around the 10 foot line in that first set

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I thought the setter for Louisville Cabello did a really good job of pushing Louisville back

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Cabello did a really good job of getting her feet to the ball getting square in that tough situation and giving both her middles

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Which probably shouldn't have been an option with passes like that and the left side hittable balls

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Louisville did not make her life easy and I thought her specifically did a really good job at that

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I was shocked at how bad Louisville's passing was in the first set agreed there

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I don't even think there were very few passes in front of the 10 foot line, but that was all predicated on

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Pitserving

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They were you didn't see the Louisville passers

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pass anything in their

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You know wheelhouse they were moving back on every single pass

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And as a server, that's what you want

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You don't want players to just be able to be static you want them to either have to come forward

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Or drive back and I thought that that was that was the difference for me in the first

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I agree. I thought that pit serving strategy overall was really good

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I did think that Louisville did a good job of adjusting in the second. It looked like their passers took a step back

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They pushed the ball tighter in the second set, which i'm sure was a focus from the coaching staff

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And they ratcheted up their serving pressure in the second set and it the first two sets to me kind of flipped

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Because pit struggled to pass in the second set and then Louisville's block was able to take over

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100 and you saw pit was advancing the ball better in the second than Louisville did in the first

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But the passes were really low and fast

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So you saw Fairbanks having to almost go to her knees to try to throw sets up and that

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completely

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destroyed Babcock's rhythm too because she was

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Making errors and Louisville's blockers were getting hurt like she got blocked a few times in that second set and again

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I as you were saying it was a flip-flop situation of the serve receive. So I think once the first two sets

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Kind of ironed themselves out from a serve and pass perspective. Then we saw kind of like the true

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Meat of the game. If you look at the hitting numbers for the match, it was really interesting

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The first set was very close percentage wise and that set was obviously 25-23 in pit

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In pit's favor, but after that the teams that won the sets hit over 400

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So you had pit hitting 424 and 417 in the third and four sets and louisville hit

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481 in the second set to win so the ability to pass and be efficient was crucial in this match

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It was interesting to see it was like pit tested to beer on serve receive early. She did not pass well

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She finally sort of got her footing under her and set two

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So then they switched up their strategy and started serving short

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Which also was effective for a while then louisville figured it out

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And then they finished off the game and kind of saw it through serving charity looper. We've seen nebraska implement

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Similar serving strategies and I think that this is really important going into the tournament is that

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That it's going to come down to adjustments and this is something I was thinking about as I watched matches

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This week was

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At the beginning of the season teams are focused on building their own skill

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But as we've gone and watched big matches in the last couple of weeks, you're starting to see

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Game plans come into place. You're starting to see more adjustments teams are refined

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I thought the wisconsin game against nebraska was a prime example of that

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And so these big hitters who get a ton of balls

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I think life is going to become increasingly difficult for them in the tournament because teams are now prepared

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They're focused on game plan and executing that and things are firing on all cylinders

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So it's going to be really interesting to see the response of some of these hitters

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Well, and it's also like nobody knows if they're going to play tomorrow

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So teams are putting all of their resources all of their brain power all of their time

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into you

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Because you are what is in front of them right now

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It's not like okay. Well, we have like for sure have two matches this week

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So let's like spend time on both. It's like no if we lose this match. We are not playing anymore. So

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Let's go all in I want to kind of talk about louisville in general here a couple things first

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First we said it last time we covered louisville elena scott setting

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Outstanding totally agree one of the best

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Setting liberos out there. I would say i'm a huge fan number two. This might be a controversial statement

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Let me know what you think about this louisville runs a 6-2

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Cabello is a much much better setter

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than glock

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for me

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Watching the game. I don't even notice when glock is on the court and when they're giving up runs of points, I'm

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Don't get me wrong. There could be a correlation with tabir being in the back row like call it what you will

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But I think as a setter you need to have a certain amount of presence

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And I feel that from cabello. I do not notice glock's presence on the court at all

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I've actually wondered

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Why they're running a 6-2

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versus a 5-1 because I think that some of the players who are struggling

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could benefit from finding some consistency from one setter and

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My thought is i'm wondering if this is purely strategic

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or if they're trying to get players playing time so that they don't lose them to the transfer portal or

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Keep their younger players so that they can transition the team. I'm

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I would be very curious to get a frank answer on is this the best

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Method for winning now or are you doing this looking ahead to the future?

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I mean reese robbins had a great week overall and she put up great numbers

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Against pit and she hit 533 on 15 swings

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Maldonado Diaz

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She's steady. She's solid. She did not play well in one of the matches at least this week against pit

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She hit 095 so she was not particularly efficient in this match. See so it's it's tricky

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I mean, I personally think that they would be better off running cabello

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In a 5-1, but what do I know? I just I

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And she's a freshman

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That's the crazy thing is like she is running a much better offense

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She seems confident. She's not even small like she can't put up a block

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They do keep her in they kept her into block for a couple rotations against pit

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She is capable. I mean, I think danny's a very good coach and she's obviously running a really good program

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I just haven't been able to figure out what the factors are that go into that decision

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And then the last thing I want to kind of key in on on louisville is the number of x plays they run

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They are running a 6-2. So they always have three hitters in the front row

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They run x plays with both the right and left sides

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frequently so they will have the

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middle run a slide and the right side come around and hit like a

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meter ball

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As we call it in canada and then on the left they'll run a 31 with the middle and have the left side come in

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I don't know. It's very 80s to me. I want to understand what they think the benefit is because

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For example when you're taking the middle on the slide the right side coming around sure the left side has to come over

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and focus on the slide

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But if you have a right side blocker who is competent at all

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You're still going to have a double block on the meter ball in the middle. Like it just it i'm confused

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I mean I can see a little bit of motion from the right side in the middle

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Being something you can use to kind of catch blockers off guard

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The one that really confuses me is when they bring the left side in to run a quick and they push the middle

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Into a b or a shoot set because now you're clumping all the blockers in one place and you don't even really have an outlet

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Your right side in your middle just don't have to move those blockers can just stand there and block both players at once

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I can see the right side, you know, maybe you catch some players off guard. Maybe they're not used to it

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That would be a very situational thing for me in terms of when you use it. They seem to use it a lot

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But i'd be curious what the actual efficiency is and if they're tracking it

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As to again, like you said, it's not necessarily a bad idea. It just doesn't pass the eye test for me

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Yeah watching watching it. I just unless you think like

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Cressy is that good at hitting a slide that would be my only

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Consideration but the crazy thing is they set the right side on the meter ball

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More often than they set the slide

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So if cressy's that good at the slide that you want to get her the ball set it to her

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Use the right side coming around as a decoy and set her but like

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You're setting a high ball in the middle more often than not

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The only thing that would make sense to me is if you're going to use a back row attack on top of that

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So you're creating motion in the front row and then running the back row over top, but I don't

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If memory serves, I don't remember seeing that very often if at all

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The only way the back row attack would be effective is if they move it because with a hitter coming around

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The approach angle and the timing of the set

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Would get in the way of a pipe. So you either need you need to move your position six

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pipe hitter

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In between the gaps so either run them, you know in zone five or run them on the c

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Ball in in between the slide in the middle, but like running a straight pipe would not be effective

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That is something about louisville that like really bothers me because like I've been running a straight

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Sometimes you're just hittingulfers and you're doing this if you're trying to 여

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Din cold, you know, I've been hit aít thinking why is that?

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I'm makingapplause at that point. Okay, so if you're taking a curve back in swing

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If you're just going for it bad you'll go slow

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If you're just trying to hold it

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sei

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Im not really fear

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I'm afraid i don't have fair prize

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But yeah, that's basically what I feel bad. I don't think you have tosm fall

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good for a critical error though. Whether from the service line, taking an ace, whatever.

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What does that face for? You and I have different opinions on De Beers. What? Okay, I kind of like it.

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I, the only thing I will say De Beers tends to miss serves after timeouts or freezes in play

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where there's a challenge or something happens. I will give you that, but we just talked about her

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scoring four points in a row to win a set. I'm a big De Beers fan. I think she's clutch. I think

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even though she's not raw raw on the court and she looks stone-faced all the time,

357
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she's a leader for that team. They all look to her. Whoa, whoa, whoa. First of all, I think you

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missed the part where I said she's a very good player on both sides of the ball. And let me

359
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tell you, I am the last person who will ever criticize a player for not smiling. When I played

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pro in Korea, you want to know what my nickname was? It wasn't Smiley. It was not Smiley. It was

361
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the ice princess. You know why? Because your girl had an angry face most of the time. I am,

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I will never criticize an athlete for being serious or intense or whatever. That is not my

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problem with her. She makes errors at bad. We saw it against Stanford. She got aced at the end of

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set three. Granted, she made up for it with those points at the end, but she got aced at a very bad

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point. And we see her miss a ton of serves at critical times. I will give you the serving one.

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I think she's more clutch than you give her credit for the one thing when she makes errors,

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normally their terminal, which sometimes can kill your team. But I think, I think she's incredibly

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important to that team. The one last thing I wanted to talk about in this match, and we,

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we alluded to it in terms of teams game planning for players. I think a really good example of this

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is if you look at Stafford for Pitt and you look at Charity Looper for Louisville. So in that match,

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Stafford started hitting the ball cross court predominantly and was very effective. Louisville

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adjusted their block defense, started giving her the line. And do you know what Stafford did? She

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detonated balls down the line. It was insane. Right. That to me is she has the ability to see

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what's going on, to see what they're giving her and to take it and be effective. Charity Looper,

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however, likes to hit the ball cross court and seems to have the mindset of cross cross or more

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cross. Yes, he just hits straight pretty much. And that is the difference between being able to

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figure out what a team is doing to you and make an adjustment and just doing what you're comfortable

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doing. And that's going to be a huge difference in the tournament, I think. But I like, not every

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player is capable of coming to those in game realizations themselves. So in cases like that

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where the player is not aware or maybe doesn't have that vision or volleyball IQ, like the coaches

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need to step in and be like, hey, this is how the defense is playing you now. Let's try this. But we

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saw it against Pitt and Stafford, Looper hit the same swing almost every time, if she wasn't tipping.

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I also, this is like not volleyball related, but I am obsessed with Babcock, Stafford and Jones's

384
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handshake. When the three of them are in the front row, please take note if and when you watch Pitt

385
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:35,160
play next. When those three are in that rotation when Pitt is serving and they're all in the front

386
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:41,480
row together, they have got the cutest handshake and they do it every single time and I love it.

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If we're not talking about volleyball, Louisville needs to burn the white and black uniforms or

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the mostly white uniforms. They're awful. I love the red. Go with the red. Go with the red, go with

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the black. I was also not a fan of the white ones. As a summary, you get a completely connected,

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on the same page, go to battle for each other feeling from Pitt. And I honestly think at this

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level that type of attitude goes so far. I mean, I said it before and I'll use it here as well.

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Pitt was just better. Well, yeah, I mean, you mentioned like looking at the stats across the

393
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board, every category of stats was pretty equal. But if you really look at it, if you are a stats

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person and you really want to focus on the stats, the difference to me is that Pitt is getting huge

395
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:41,720
hitting numbers from their outside hitters and Louisville is not. The best like hitting numbers

396
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:46,120
were coming from Louisville's middles, which is great. You want your middles to be hitting well,

397
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but when you're getting those numbers from your outsides who are getting 60% of your sets,

398
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that is what a good team needs. I thought that the match was really entertaining. It was

399
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fun to watch. I think that it puts Pitt in a really good place going into the tournament.

400
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They are firing on all cylinders. Louisville has had to battle. I'm curious to see what their

401
00:34:11,880 --> 00:34:18,520
response is going to be. But that was a great game, very entertaining. Our next feature match

402
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was the one to determine the Big Ten champion. And we are talking about none other than Nebraska

403
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:32,680
versus Penn State. Adam, what were your thoughts? I very much just like being wrong. Oh my gosh,

404
00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:42,200
me too. The conviction I had that Nebraska was going to take this in four or three. I just didn't

405
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:49,640
see them kind of, I don't want to say they fell apart, but not execute that late in the season.

406
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I thought with a match that was going to give them the title outright, that they would have come out

407
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with a little more, I don't know, I think emotion is the wrong word, but with a little more kind of

408
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fight and grind. And I didn't think that their outside hitters as a core played well enough to

409
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win. I've got a couple thoughts, just building off of what you just said. You always have a

410
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lot of thoughts when it comes to Nebraska. So I'll strap on here and have at it. No, I connected to

411
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what you're saying. Let's, I'm going to kind of speak to the outside hitter situation first.

412
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All season, Nebraska has, you know, been getting pretty consistent performance from Harper Murray.

413
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They've been getting pretty consistent performance from Merritt Beeson. And that other left side

414
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:49,880
position has kind of been the hole or the wild card. And so Taylor Landfair has come in and kind

415
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:58,040
of held it steady for the last several weeks. But for all intents and purposes, Nebraska has

416
00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:05,640
come to kind of depend on or rely on performance from one outside, from their middle, from their

417
00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:11,880
right side. This game, however, Beeson kind of disappeared and the second left side kind of

418
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disappeared. So having both of those kind of positions under produce at the same time was

419
00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:26,120
a killer to them. It was a really, there were a couple of storylines here that I thought were

420
00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:34,760
interesting. One is I thought Nebraska did a really good job at putting Merzik in trouble

421
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:39,560
from an offensive standpoint. And that, I mean, that was obviously going to be the game plan.

422
00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:45,320
In general, when you play Penn State, if you can control Merzik, you have a good chance at winning

423
00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:52,200
the game. However, they forgot that a grudge can really come back and bite you in the butt.

424
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:59,240
Penn State has two players that transferred from Nebraska that are not usually required to carry a

425
00:36:59,240 --> 00:37:08,200
heavy load in order for the team to have success. And let me tell you that Jura Vicious was on a

426
00:37:08,200 --> 00:37:15,160
mission in this match. And there's no better way to stick it to a team that wasn't going to give you

427
00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:26,680
a chance than to go out and be a stud. And I can't say it any other way. This girl hit 414 on 29

428
00:37:26,680 --> 00:37:33,320
swings. And quite frankly, was the reason they won. And at the same time, Maggie Mendelson

429
00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:40,600
also had probably the game of her season. And the two of them just refused to let Nebraska beat

430
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:47,160
them. I mean, I had my popcorn out. I thought it was great. Okay, yes. My second statement,

431
00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:55,960
you were saying like, you expected more fight, more attitude, more conviction from Nebraska's side.

432
00:37:55,960 --> 00:38:03,640
There was no shortage of conviction and attitude on Penn State side. And I loved it. Okay, let me

433
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:09,560
tell you, Rebecca Alec, she's got swagger. She's got attitude. That's normal. Andy Jackson, don't

434
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:14,920
kid yourself, the girl has got attitude as well. And I'm here for it. I love I love a stuff and

435
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:19,640
stare. I love this like a backwards walk, like look over your shoulder, do it all. I'm obsessed

436
00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:26,360
with it. Those two, they were themselves, they did the same thing. Nebraska operated like themselves.

437
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:34,360
Penn State did not like those stare downs. They did not like the backwards glances. They

438
00:38:34,360 --> 00:38:41,880
they took it personally. And you saw Jura vicious giving it to them. It was it was coming back

439
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:48,680
in Nebraska. I'm sorry, I'm a fighter. Okay, so if a team is like operating like that, oh baby,

440
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:54,040
you are lighting a fire under my butt and I'm getting in your face. Nebraska didn't really

441
00:38:54,040 --> 00:39:01,160
change the two who like usually bring the attitude continued. But like you didn't see anybody else

442
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:06,840
step up and be like, what did you say? Say it again. And that's kind of been the knock on

443
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:15,480
Nebraska for me, all season long, you don't you don't have an outside who really takes over matches.

444
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:22,360
They're just they pass so well that they're always in good positions to score. And there's not it's

445
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:29,720
not that they don't care. But I haven't seen them need to ratchet up against the team. And when they

446
00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:35,720
got some pushback, they didn't respond well, in my opinion, and your middles the two people who bring

447
00:39:35,720 --> 00:39:42,760
it, they're only playing half the match it what I would have loved to see somebody kind of like,

448
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:49,960
get not get into it. And I know like, maybe that is a huge, attractive quality that a lot of people

449
00:39:49,960 --> 00:39:57,560
see in Nebraska is their kind of business as usual mentality. But like you're fighting for a big 10

450
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:05,160
championship here, like, are you gonna let a team take that from you? Because for like, Nebraska,

451
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:10,520
it was in their hands. You know what I mean? And like when push came to shove, you didn't see

452
00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:17,160
that attitude of like, this is mine, this is ours. And that was kind of disappointing to me.

453
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:21,880
You can make up any storyline you want about Jura Vicious and Mendelsohn and their feelings

454
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:27,800
about Nebraska. There may or may not be something there. We don't know. But it sure looked like

455
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:35,640
there was man to see how bad those two girls were fighting. And that they had that chip on the show

456
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:41,800
on their shoulders, you have to respect it. So there are two things that worry me about Nebraska

457
00:40:41,800 --> 00:40:50,280
going into the tournament. The first one is this pushback and this attitude, because the stakes are

458
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:56,760
only going to get higher. And when I look at those outside hitters, I've seen it from Beeson more

459
00:40:56,760 --> 00:41:03,000
than any of the other two or three left sides, she will sometimes you can see want the ball and be

460
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:08,760
willing to put the team on her back and take some swings. But which of their outsides is going to do

461
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:14,120
that? When the pressure mounts, when they're playing for a spot in the Final Four, when they're

462
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:21,080
playing for the championship, they haven't had to do that because they're so good as a team. But when

463
00:41:21,080 --> 00:41:26,760
the chips are down, who's going to respond and who's going to carry the team? So I would have that

464
00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:32,360
question in the back of my mind after watching that game. I 100% agree with you, but it also makes

465
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:41,480
me are they allowed? You know, the team culture in recent years has been such that it's we are

466
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:51,160
balanced, we don't have one star. And so do they have the freedom to be like, get me the ball right

467
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:59,800
now, I am going to take over again, we don't know. But I think they have been trained to just

468
00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:08,120
to just understand that we are a balanced team, we are all, you know, doing our jobs, we all fulfill

469
00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:15,160
a role is one person going to be able to like kind of look at Riley and be like, get me the ball right

470
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:21,000
now. I'm telling you right now they will not cruise through the tournament without at least one of

471
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:27,480
their outside hitters having to take over a match, it's not going to happen. And I thought Penn State's

472
00:42:27,480 --> 00:42:35,560
strategy of serving Harper Murray was very effective, something we haven't seen a lot of

473
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:42,920
teams try and do. And there were some passing issues. And when there are passing issues,

474
00:42:42,920 --> 00:42:50,440
you can't run your two middles as effectively. And you need an outside to step up. Nebraska's

475
00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:57,400
superpower is their ability to control the ball and have four hitting options on every play. It's

476
00:42:57,400 --> 00:43:03,880
incredible to watch. But what happens if that breaks down? What are you going to do? There are

477
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:08,280
some interesting questions they're going to have to answer because I think that's going to happen

478
00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:15,400
at least in one match in the tournament. To be fair, we haven't we've watched many Nebraska

479
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:21,560
matches, but we haven't watched all of them fair by any means we have watched like the big ones.

480
00:43:21,560 --> 00:43:30,360
And in those matches, we have not seen teams kind of try to bury Harper Murray on serve reception,

481
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:35,800
we have seen teams the matches that we have watched and I understand we have not seen all

482
00:43:35,800 --> 00:43:43,160
of them. So take this for what it is. We have seen teams be overly concerned with the middles.

483
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:50,760
And we have seen that play out kind of by serving to position one. I also was especially after

484
00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:56,520
in my opinion, Penn State's miss in the serve serving strategy department against Wisconsin,

485
00:43:56,520 --> 00:44:04,360
it was really great to see them go after Harper Murray as relentlessly as they did. Because

486
00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:11,000
earlier in the season when we saw them play, she was not passing well. And do we need to mention

487
00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:20,120
the final from last year, where she got served off of the court by Texas, Harper Murray is a good

488
00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:28,040
player, she is not a great passer. And I think that that was evident against Penn State. We

489
00:44:28,040 --> 00:44:33,720
talked about Jura Vicious and Mendelson playing really well. Nebraska set out to neutralize Jess

490
00:44:33,720 --> 00:44:39,720
Merzik. Mission accomplished. Mission accomplished. She hit zero. What what they did was they

491
00:44:39,720 --> 00:44:47,640
what what they did not prepare for. And it makes sense. Jura Vicious has not been she's she has

492
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:53,160
played but she has not put up crazy numbers. Nobody could have predicted her to go off the

493
00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:59,480
way she did. And here is my opinion about how all that played out. Nebraska was very focused on

494
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:06,200
Merzik stopped her. Okay, when Jura Vicious was getting set, Nebraska as they should,

495
00:45:06,200 --> 00:45:11,080
were leaving the line open on attacks that were coming from the right side of the court,

496
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:16,760
whether it be a slide, whether it be Jura Vicious on the right side. Why? Because you've got one of

497
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:21,400
the best liberos in the country digging down the line, let her dig the ball. That totally makes

498
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:28,120
sense. I think a big reason for Jura Vicious having so much success and gaining confidence

499
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:34,520
as the match went on is in set one in particular, the majority of the attacks that were coming from

500
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:40,760
the right side of the court from Penn State were down the line. And Lexi Rodriguez was not picking

501
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:48,120
up the ball. If you're hitting down the line at arguably the best defender, the best libero in

502
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:54,360
the country, and she is not able to handle that, that increases your confidence. And it makes you

503
00:45:55,160 --> 00:46:02,600
more willing to take risks to take big swings that you maybe wouldn't if balls had come up.

504
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:08,760
And I turned to Adam, I remember early in the match saying, Rodriguez needs to pick up these

505
00:46:08,760 --> 00:46:14,280
swings or this is not going to go well for them. And she just did not deliver. She was digging the

506
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:22,360
cross court swings very well, but down the line, not enough. So I have a question for you. So you've

507
00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:29,000
neutralized their best player, according to your game plan, everything's going well. And all of a

508
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:35,080
sudden, you have somebody have the match of their life, which Jerovich is dead. You see that she's

509
00:46:35,080 --> 00:46:42,120
hitting exactly where you want her to. But your best libero in the NCAA and she is I think she's

510
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:48,040
very good. But she's not executing on that night. And we do we very rarely think about defensive

511
00:46:48,040 --> 00:46:53,480
players not executing. Do you just leave it like they did and say, you know what, she's going to

512
00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:59,080
come out of it, she's going to dig this ball? Or do you make an adjustment? Because I kept waiting

513
00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:06,520
for Nebraska to take the line away from Jerovich's and make her swing angle. And they never did.

514
00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:12,360
And I'm curious, because as I started to think about other matches, I've watched Nebraska play,

515
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:19,560
Rodriguez passes incredibly well. And she reads cross court attacks better than probably any other

516
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:26,920
libero in the NCAA. I haven't seen her need to dig that many balls down the line. She digs the tips

517
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:34,120
really well, but not the hard driven. And I'm wondering if that look and just having a fraction

518
00:47:34,120 --> 00:47:41,320
less time affected her ability to do that. And should should Nebraska have made an adjustment?

519
00:47:41,320 --> 00:47:48,440
Simple answer. Yes. The thing is, is I truly believe that a lot of coaches tell their right

520
00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:53,640
sides or players hitting on the right side of the court not to challenge Rodriguez, I truly believe

521
00:47:53,640 --> 00:48:00,440
that that is a conversation before games. So she hasn't had to be tested. But what you saw is

522
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:08,120
Penn State was like, I don't care. I'm hitting what is available. And it worked. And then tips

523
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:14,920
down the line started working because Rodriguez for the first time is sitting there, dug in because

524
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:19,480
she's being challenged. And then she wasn't able to react to the tips down the line as effectively.

525
00:48:20,200 --> 00:48:28,280
What Nebraska should have done is shut down the line completely because their middles were blocking

526
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:36,840
machines. That game. Andy Jackson and Rebecca Alec were blocking incredibly well. And so what

527
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:43,240
you want to do is because of that, they are going to you want to funnel the attacks to them, they're

528
00:48:43,240 --> 00:48:51,080
having a great night, let them shut her down in the angle, at least try it. But and we did talk

529
00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:55,640
about this to Jurevich's was unconscious. Absolutely. There may not have made a difference.

530
00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:59,400
It may not have made a difference. There were balls that like she probably should have been

531
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:05,400
blocked on that rattled around and were weird. Like, nothing was going wrong for her. Correct.

532
00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:12,440
And sometimes, you know, do I think she made like incredible swings for the whole match? No,

533
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:18,120
she was fearless and set one and was able to carry that momentum forward. But then she had a lot of

534
00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:25,160
rattlers and weird stuff go on like it happens. But I think if they had like shut it down early,

535
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:30,120
she would not have had the match she did. And if she doesn't play that way, Nebraska wins that game.

536
00:49:30,120 --> 00:49:36,120
She was the only Penn State attacker that like really did anything because Jess Merzik was,

537
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:42,040
quite frankly, a non factor, which, in another controversial opinion, really makes me wonder

538
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:47,240
about her potential as a pro. We saw her completely disappear against Wisconsin,

539
00:49:47,240 --> 00:49:51,720
we saw her completely get shut down by Nebraska. What do you think is going to happen at the

540
00:49:51,720 --> 00:49:57,480
professional level, where now you've got the best of the best who are able to execute game plans

541
00:49:57,480 --> 00:50:03,000
every night, who are all big, who are all skilled, just something to think about, kind of switching

542
00:50:03,000 --> 00:50:10,200
gears, continuing on to Penn State, I thought Jillian Grimes, the libero played very well.

543
00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:18,120
She was noticeable in that match for me. And that's not something I usually say about Penn State.

544
00:50:18,120 --> 00:50:26,040
I thought next to Jerevichas, she was their second most important player. And while I think she

545
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:33,880
started slow, Izzy Stark really got better as the match progressed. You saw she set some unhittable

546
00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:39,080
balls, in my opinion, in the first set, which is kind of uncharacteristic from her. You don't often

547
00:50:39,080 --> 00:50:45,720
see that. But she looked nervous to me. Oh, understandably, understandably. It's her first

548
00:50:45,720 --> 00:50:52,200
time, you know, playing Nebraska, you're playing to give your team a shot at the Big Ten Championship,

549
00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:57,800
like it's not a small moment. So she definitely took a bit of time to kind of ease into the match.

550
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:03,400
But she got better and better. And I thought she did some outstanding things. Kudos to her. I mean,

551
00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:13,240
she still set Jess Merzik a ton of times. Merzik got 52 sets. But she went to Jerevichas, who had

552
00:51:13,240 --> 00:51:21,320
the hot hand. And to me, that's a feel thing that is important to have as a setter, because I'm going

553
00:51:21,320 --> 00:51:26,120
to tell you right now, their game plan, their offensive game plan was not, we're going to set

554
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:31,880
Jerevichas a lot. That's that was not in the plan going in. And for her to be able to feel that out

555
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:36,680
and pay attention to it and put her in a spot to score, I thought showed really good composure as

556
00:51:36,680 --> 00:51:45,560
the match went on. And honestly, outperformed Bergen-Reilly in every category. More assists,

557
00:51:45,560 --> 00:51:51,960
more blocks, more day like, I mean, we've been an Izzy Stark fan on this podcast since we started,

558
00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:58,280
I think she's incredible. And I think she's going to lead the NCAA for the next four years

559
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:07,480
is the best setter. So Lanfar didn't have the best of nights. She hit 077 on 26 balls. And we saw

560
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:14,760
Lindsey Krause come in for her later on in the match. Only set four, I believe. You expected more,

561
00:52:15,160 --> 00:52:23,640
to be honest, I thought she was awful. Why did they set her so much? She got 17 sets in one set.

562
00:52:24,200 --> 00:52:32,840
And hit negative 118. Like you almost got as many sets as Lanfar did in three sets. My question is,

563
00:52:32,840 --> 00:52:38,120
okay, I understand subbing her out. They needed to make a sub either with Beeson or Lanfar,

564
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:43,640
because both of them were having a rough time. But you're coming in. And not only are you getting

565
00:52:43,640 --> 00:52:48,840
set almost every ball, you're hitting worse than the two that were already struggling. Like why did

566
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:53,240
they not put Lanfar back in? I mean, maybe you're giving her a chance. You're going to give her the

567
00:52:53,240 --> 00:53:00,520
set, see what happens, try and make sure she's got some feel going into the tournament. But this is

568
00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:06,840
what we talked about this earlier. This is what worries me about the Nebraska outside hitting

569
00:53:06,840 --> 00:53:14,680
core. You don't have somebody who when things break down, can hit those out of system balls as far as

570
00:53:14,680 --> 00:53:21,640
we've seen so far. And then you bring your next player in off the bench who performs that way.

571
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:26,920
I'm worried it's a get it done by committee or not get it done at all. I mean, yeah, sometimes you do

572
00:53:26,920 --> 00:53:33,640
need one player to step up. And that's not to say that those players aren't capable of it. But it'll

573
00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:37,800
it'll just be something to pay attention to in the tournament, I think. Well, Nebraska is going to

574
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:44,280
have to hope that their ball control is on point. Because this this game honestly was the first

575
00:53:45,240 --> 00:53:51,880
time that I've seen them this season where I was like, wow, their passing is is not okay. And wow,

576
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:57,320
they're not digging this ball like Nebraska's bread and butter aside from being well balanced

577
00:53:57,320 --> 00:54:05,880
is their service even defense. And during that match, I had questions about both aspects.

578
00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:13,240
So, and I mean, let's not overreact. They went 18 and one on the season, they've beaten a lot of

579
00:54:13,240 --> 00:54:20,040
good teams like this formula has definitely worked for them all season long. But it will be

580
00:54:20,040 --> 00:54:25,800
it will be interesting to see what other teams take from watching this match when they play

581
00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:33,000
against them. And if we see similar strategies implemented, and how Nebraska responds, Oh,

582
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:38,760
I still think that Pitt and Nebraska are are the two best teams in the country. Don't don't take

583
00:54:38,760 --> 00:54:46,360
these statements as like, the sky is falling. No, I think Nebraska and Pitt are the best teams.

584
00:54:46,360 --> 00:54:51,880
It just makes you take note because this was the first match of the season where it was like,

585
00:54:52,120 --> 00:54:58,040
something was on the line, you know, it was either we lose this and we have to share the title or we

586
00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:06,200
win it and we take it all it was the first this is it match of the season. And so it'll be

587
00:55:06,200 --> 00:55:13,400
interesting to see because now it's all important do or die matches. It'll be interesting to see

588
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:20,920
like, you know, a regional final perhaps or a final four match or the final like, it's something

589
00:55:20,920 --> 00:55:27,640
tangible on the line now. So I'm curious to see if the if this was just kind of a blip on the radar

590
00:55:27,640 --> 00:55:32,840
or if it's, you know, something is there. I think it'll be interesting to see how both of these

591
00:55:32,840 --> 00:55:38,360
teams perform in the tournament both are going in as number one seeds in their respective regionals.

592
00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:44,920
So you know, Nebraska having this loss maybe some renewed motivation, some taking a look at some new

593
00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:51,480
things, Penn State seeing that they can win without an outstanding performance from their star player

594
00:55:51,480 --> 00:55:58,040
like I think some positives can be taken from both sides. So I'm curious to see how this affects

595
00:55:58,200 --> 00:56:05,560
the team's mentality and how they perform going into the tournament. Selection Sunday just happened

596
00:56:05,560 --> 00:56:13,880
the bracket has just been released. Oh, wow, I don't even Okay, we're gonna it literally just got

597
00:56:13,880 --> 00:56:20,280
released. So we're gonna have to talk about this as we kind of take a look here. But just off the

598
00:56:20,280 --> 00:56:30,440
top volley talk has two brackets open for our podcast community. So I've included the links in

599
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:37,080
the show notes below this episode if you're listening to it on a podcast platform, or if

600
00:56:37,080 --> 00:56:44,680
you're watching on YouTube, it is in the description box below. One of them is through ESPN and it

601
00:56:44,680 --> 00:56:51,800
requires a my Disney account to log in. So if you have ESPN ESPN plus Hulu, etc. Use that login

602
00:56:51,800 --> 00:56:57,800
information. And there are unlimited number of members that can sign up for that one. And then

603
00:56:57,800 --> 00:57:02,600
on the second bracket, it doesn't require registration or anything, no email, no account.

604
00:57:03,080 --> 00:57:11,560
But it is limited to 50 members. So the first 50 people who sign up for that bracket, I'm sorry,

605
00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:19,160
that's the limit. So yes, be sure check out the links that I've included in the show notes below

606
00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:25,960
to sign up and join us because we are submitting our our own brackets to take everybody on.

607
00:57:25,960 --> 00:57:34,200
Okay, let's take a look here, everybody. This was interesting. And I think next week,

608
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:40,600
we'll dive in a little bit more and do some analysis on certain matchups, who's coming,

609
00:57:40,600 --> 00:57:45,800
what's come out of week one. But for now, we just kind of want to highlight some of the collision

610
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:51,560
courses that we're looking forward to off an initial look at the draw. This is going to be a

611
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:59,480
bumpy road. Okay, so in the top half of the bracket, which is the one seed is pit. I mean,

612
00:57:59,480 --> 00:58:06,280
no surprises there. And it looks like Penn State has moved up to the three seed overall with that

613
00:58:06,280 --> 00:58:13,000
went over Nebraska also makes sense. Nebraska is the two seed and Louisville is the four seed. So

614
00:58:13,880 --> 00:58:18,360
I mean, I don't think anything about that is particularly surprising. Creighton had a really

615
00:58:18,360 --> 00:58:22,520
good record, but their strength of schedule just wasn't good enough to push them into the top four.

616
00:58:22,520 --> 00:58:30,600
Totally. We've also got it looks like if the bracket holds, two ACC teams will play in the

617
00:58:30,600 --> 00:58:36,520
national semi final two big 10 teams will play in the national semi final. They've also got like

618
00:58:36,520 --> 00:58:42,520
the similar conferences potentially knocking each other out in the regionals. So if you go back to

619
00:58:42,520 --> 00:58:49,720
Episode one, back when we were baby podcasters, we the question we asked was who is going to get

620
00:58:49,720 --> 00:58:57,800
SMU looks like it's pit everybody. The only team to have defeated pit this season. That is the

621
00:58:57,800 --> 00:59:03,480
potential matchup to go to the final four, which I think is like kind of evil. And you can't tell me

622
00:59:03,960 --> 00:59:09,080
that somebody wasn't looking at that going, we'll just slot them there and we'll see what happens.

623
00:59:09,080 --> 00:59:15,080
Oh my gosh, that is so evil. Just for the record, pit's not going to lose that match.

624
00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:22,200
I don't think it is not losing that match. Are you kidding me? So, okay. Looking at these,

625
00:59:22,200 --> 00:59:30,200
this layout, some things that jump out to me. First weekend round two potential Missouri SMU

626
00:59:30,200 --> 00:59:37,000
matchup. I actually think that is going to be a really good match. I think SMU is going to be

627
00:59:37,000 --> 00:59:44,360
a really good match. I think SMU doesn't really have a stud and neither does Missouri. So there

628
00:59:44,360 --> 00:59:50,840
is the potential for that to be a which players step up, which team serves the best. I think that's

629
00:59:50,840 --> 00:59:57,640
a really interesting matchup. And that same kind of regional, we've got a potential first weekend

630
00:59:57,640 --> 01:00:04,120
of Kentucky versus Minnesota. I haven't watched Kentucky play, but Minnesota is one of those teams

631
01:00:04,120 --> 01:00:09,640
that if they decide they're going to be good and everything clicks, you don't want to see them.

632
01:00:09,640 --> 01:00:17,080
Kentucky's got to be at least somewhat unhappy about that. I think. Well, I think there's no

633
01:00:17,080 --> 01:00:23,800
escaping here. It used to be like first and second rounds were like kind of a yawn for like

634
01:00:23,800 --> 01:00:29,720
seated teams. That is not the case anymore. Okay. Are you kidding? Kentucky, Minnesota in the first

635
01:00:29,720 --> 01:00:37,880
round, second round. Well, sorry, I said first weekend. Yeah. And then potential Oregon TCU

636
01:00:37,880 --> 01:00:44,760
first weekend, Oklahoma pit. I'm thinking pit, you know, I don't want to jinx anybody. Any,

637
01:00:44,760 --> 01:00:50,200
any top seeds. I don't love underdog wins. I'm just going to put that out there. I like when the good

638
01:00:50,200 --> 01:00:55,720
teams, the teams who are supposed to win, win. That's just my thing. Shocker. I think pit will

639
01:00:55,720 --> 01:01:02,920
move through run one and two pretty straightforward, but they're in that top left part. Week one could

640
01:01:02,920 --> 01:01:10,520
be interesting. Then we go to pit the Penn state side. We've got a Florida state Creighton potential

641
01:01:11,560 --> 01:01:19,160
matchup there in week one. We've got a Texas USC matchup that could come to heads. And Texas for

642
01:01:19,160 --> 01:01:25,320
me is a huge wild card because you know that they have the potential and the firepower to be really

643
01:01:25,320 --> 01:01:32,360
good, even though they haven't really found a stride this season, in my opinion. So that'll be

644
01:01:32,360 --> 01:01:38,920
a team that I'm paying attention to and I'm watching. And like, it is not lost on me that they put

645
01:01:38,920 --> 01:01:48,600
Texas in Creighton's side of the bracket. It's kind of like Creighton is the wild card high seed

646
01:01:48,600 --> 01:01:56,200
here. Like their conference isn't as strong as some of the other ones. They've been ranked very

647
01:01:56,200 --> 01:02:01,000
high all season, but then Texas has won the last two national championships. So like, you know,

648
01:02:01,000 --> 01:02:06,760
let's just let them face off because we don't know what's going to happen. How good are you?

649
01:02:06,760 --> 01:02:11,400
That's the question for this. How good are you Creighton? That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

650
01:02:11,400 --> 01:02:18,280
Are you really there? Are you for real? And can you beat a team that has proven to be a winner,

651
01:02:18,280 --> 01:02:24,200
but isn't currently playing super well? I think Utah will move through the first weekend. They

652
01:02:24,200 --> 01:02:30,040
potentially will match up with Marquette in round two, but I think Utah will have that under wraps.

653
01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:35,320
And then Penn State potentially facing North Carolina. I think Penn State will be okay.

654
01:02:36,520 --> 01:02:43,880
As we move down to the Louisville side of the bracket, Louisville, I think, first and second

655
01:02:43,880 --> 01:02:50,760
around, probably the most straightforward of any. BYU Purdue matchup is an interesting one for me.

656
01:02:50,760 --> 01:02:57,560
BYU Purdue could be interesting. We've got similar structure depending on their left sides here,

657
01:02:57,560 --> 01:03:03,160
both teams similar, similar. I think, you know, I think Purdue will take that. I think their

658
01:03:03,160 --> 01:03:10,760
middles are better. But then looking up, we've got Kansas Florida as a potential, which given the

659
01:03:10,760 --> 01:03:17,480
size of Kansas's left sides, I think Kennedy Martin could do some serious damage there.

660
01:03:17,480 --> 01:03:23,320
Yeah. That's a matchup for Florida. I think if you can neutralize Kansas's middles, you're looking

661
01:03:23,320 --> 01:03:28,600
at going, okay, we have a shot here. I'm, I'm curious about that one. That one for me is tough

662
01:03:28,600 --> 01:03:35,240
to predict. And then I think, you know, Stanford will potentially see LMU. LMU has got Washington

663
01:03:35,240 --> 01:03:39,640
in the first round though. So don't sleep on that. But I think if everything holds, I think

664
01:03:39,640 --> 01:03:47,480
Stanford will be totally fine. This honestly, this quadrant seems like Pitt's quadrant seems

665
01:03:47,480 --> 01:03:54,200
substantially more difficult. Like Pitt's regional grouping seems so much more difficult

666
01:03:55,160 --> 01:04:02,360
than this one. I don't know. Well, I think, I think in Pitt's bracket, you have a couple teams

667
01:04:02,360 --> 01:04:09,080
that are kind of wild cardish. Like SMU has been good all year. They've beaten good teams, but you

668
01:04:09,080 --> 01:04:15,160
don't look at them and think they're a powerhouse. You have Minnesota in that one who is also really

669
01:04:15,160 --> 01:04:20,040
good athletically. They could have a match where everything clicks. And the other one, you know,

670
01:04:20,840 --> 01:04:23,800
Stanford's bracket, you know, which teams, you know, what you're going to expect. There's a

671
01:04:23,800 --> 01:04:30,280
little more consistency there, I think. And then we come to Nebraska's side, the, their regional

672
01:04:30,280 --> 01:04:38,200
looks like they could face off with Miami in round two. Who are the ranked team killers. Who are also

673
01:04:38,200 --> 01:04:45,800
wild cards. Yeah, like those girls, they're passing and ball control is like, really all over the

674
01:04:45,800 --> 01:04:51,160
place, but they can hit and out of system ball. But I do think like Nebraska's discipline will

675
01:04:51,160 --> 01:04:55,880
win out. Well, I think they're the strength of Nebraska serving is really going to put them out

676
01:04:55,880 --> 01:05:02,280
of system, I think, and they're a disciplined blocking team. So as much as Miami is a bit of

677
01:05:02,280 --> 01:05:08,200
a wild card, I think they actually play into Nebraska's strengths. The Dayton Baylor, that

678
01:05:08,200 --> 01:05:15,240
one's weird to me. Dayton, again, kind of similar to Creighton, but in a even weaker conference,

679
01:05:15,240 --> 01:05:20,280
in my opinion, I think Baylor could potentially cause some trouble there. I don't, I don't want

680
01:05:20,280 --> 01:05:26,200
to say for sure. But then we've got Arizona State and Texas A&M that could potentially match up in

681
01:05:26,200 --> 01:05:32,760
the second round. I think Arizona State's playing pretty well. Yeah. Wisconsin Georgia Tech, a

682
01:05:32,760 --> 01:05:38,040
potential second round. That's a tough second round matchup, but I think Wisconsin's size

683
01:05:38,760 --> 01:05:45,480
will cause Georgia Tech a lot of problems. I agree. But looking even forward to the regional,

684
01:05:45,480 --> 01:05:52,840
a potential Nebraska, Wisconsin. Shocker. Shocker. I honestly thought that Wisconsin would be put in

685
01:05:52,840 --> 01:05:58,040
with Penn State with Penn State. But then that would mean that they would have had to put Creighton

686
01:05:58,040 --> 01:06:03,400
with Nebraska. Well, I also like, do you want both Nebraska schools? I don't, I feel like they did

687
01:06:03,400 --> 01:06:09,000
that for public interest more than anything. I also think that Penn State winning move the needle

688
01:06:09,560 --> 01:06:16,040
with where they would go. Yeah. I don't want to be like a big baby here, but I think Pitt and

689
01:06:16,040 --> 01:06:21,400
Nebraska have the toughest, like regionals for sure. You have the two teams that have performed

690
01:06:21,400 --> 01:06:25,960
the best. Like let's make it as hard as hard as possible on you. Like, I don't know. I'm not

691
01:06:25,960 --> 01:06:32,520
loving this. I think Penn State and Louisville, well, Penn State more than anybody has the most

692
01:06:32,520 --> 01:06:40,200
direct route to the final four, depending on which Texas team shows up. I honestly don't mind them

693
01:06:40,200 --> 01:06:45,320
having a tougher route. I think it sharpens focus going into the tournament. You know, you can't

694
01:06:45,320 --> 01:06:52,360
take any games off. I don't think it's a bad thing to be honest. We literally just got access to this

695
01:06:52,360 --> 01:06:59,160
like right before we started this segment. So this is off the cuff. Yeah. No preparation. We have not

696
01:06:59,160 --> 01:07:07,560
prepared anything for this. Just on this first glance, any surprises, any head scratchers?

697
01:07:07,560 --> 01:07:14,760
I think it's, it's more competitive in the first rounds than I was thinking it was going to be.

698
01:07:15,960 --> 01:07:20,280
I haven't watched a bunch of these teams play, so I'm going to need to dig into this a little bit

699
01:07:20,280 --> 01:07:27,080
and take a look at it. But I think the, the Nebraska Wisconsin quarterfinal

700
01:07:28,120 --> 01:07:34,520
is going to be really interesting. I think that's potentially the toughest route in.

701
01:07:34,520 --> 01:07:41,400
Well, Louisville Stanford is tough. I think, I think Louisville Stanford and Nebraska Wisconsin

702
01:07:41,400 --> 01:07:47,000
are the two toughest, should everything hold true, the two toughest regional finals.

703
01:07:47,960 --> 01:07:54,680
I don't think SMU Pitt is going to be the game that, you know, there's going to be extra

704
01:07:54,680 --> 01:08:01,640
motivation there for Pitt to kind of put a stamp on that. And let's be honest, if Pitt is playing

705
01:08:01,640 --> 01:08:09,480
well, I don't think SMU matches their firepower. I agree with you. Yeah. Some of these potential

706
01:08:09,480 --> 01:08:17,960
second round matches, I am surprised at how difficult they are. And then other ones are just,

707
01:08:17,960 --> 01:08:22,440
they seem so much more straightforward. I can imagine it's very challenging to come up with

708
01:08:22,440 --> 01:08:29,720
this bracket, but like based on the layout, it is very clear that they were like, let's put all the

709
01:08:29,720 --> 01:08:37,000
same conference teams in the same regionals. So if everything holds true, then we'll have an ACC big

710
01:08:37,000 --> 01:08:42,120
10 final. Like that's what I'm taking from this. I've been hearing a lot of rumblings that the ACC

711
01:08:42,120 --> 01:08:49,160
is the new top conference. So we'll find out where that all lies after the tournament.

712
01:08:49,640 --> 01:08:56,200
Regardless, this is very exciting, very interesting. First and second round matches

713
01:08:56,200 --> 01:09:03,400
starting this week, we will dive into our bracket picks and kind of go more in depth into what our

714
01:09:03,400 --> 01:09:11,560
predictions are next episode, but be sure to sign up for one or both of the brackets that we have

715
01:09:11,560 --> 01:09:19,160
set up for the volley talk community. Be sure to get your picks in by Thursday because the submission

716
01:09:19,160 --> 01:09:26,840
deadline, it closes right before the matches start on Thursday. So head to the links in the show notes

717
01:09:26,840 --> 01:09:33,160
below, fill out your bracket so we can keep track. And that's also why we can't, we can't give away

718
01:09:33,160 --> 01:09:39,000
our secrets on this episode today because we are competing against you guys and against each other.

719
01:09:39,000 --> 01:09:44,040
So you will hear what our picks were next episode. This is going to be really exciting.

720
01:09:44,040 --> 01:09:49,000
That concludes this week's episode of volley talk. There's always something shaking in the volleyball

721
01:09:49,000 --> 01:09:54,280
world and we hope you enjoyed this little fix. Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss any

722
01:09:54,280 --> 01:09:59,880
updates and we'd be so grateful if you'd leave us a five star review. You can find us on Instagram

723
01:09:59,880 --> 01:10:06,200
at volley talk underscore podcast. If you have a topic that you want us to discuss, be sure to let

724
01:10:06,200 --> 01:10:12,840
us know by reaching out to us on Instagram or at info at Sarah pavin.com. Thanks so much for

725
01:10:12,840 --> 01:10:15,160
joining us and we'll be back next week.