Reading Setters and Snapping Streaks

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Tiffany Oshinski and I'm Cappo, and this is serving pancakes with League one Volleyball. You know, your love season is finally here. Each episode will be going over the matches from the week to keep you up to date on everything League one Volleyball. Then stick around after the analysis for interviews with some amazing people in and around the sport. For today's episode, we're just going to break down week eight and look ahead to week nine. So how you doing today, Kat?

00:00:29
Speaker 2: Doing good? Long travel day?

00:00:30
Speaker 3: You know, we were Madison this past weekend and got back around nine amt backandalla, so.

00:00:35
Speaker 2: Travel light day was kind of long, but feeling good, feeling really good.

00:00:38
Speaker 1: All right, well you ready get into it.

00:00:40
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: Let's do it all right, Let's start with Love Houston's homecoming that was spoiled thanks to a sweep by Love salt Lake twenty five seventeen twenty five one twenty five twenty one. Houston had been on the road for six weeks, so I'm pretty sure this is probably not how they wanted to come out on the court. Now they were without their opposites, Jordan Thompson, who has been absolutely on fire lately and Grace Frowling as well as middle Raphael fully Now, missing key players like that can throw a game play off. But you know, everyone's practicing together, they're in the same gym, they have the same coach. So what was Houston unable to do Thursday night that they have been able to do previously.

00:01:21
Speaker 3: I think, like like all games, salt Lake and other teams are just starting to mesh well right now. You know, we're coming towards end of the season and towards that big major tournament. So I think Houston without JT she's a strong part that's missing, but they have so many different competitors on their team they can absolutely withstand that storm.

00:01:35
Speaker 2: But Salt Lake just came out on fire that night.

00:01:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and one of the things that they did really well was block, and they out blocked Houston twelve to four, middle Tory Dixon leading the team with five. So talk to me for a second about some technical stuff. How are you reading the setters and hitters to make sure that you're in proper position to block and get those blocks?

00:01:56
Speaker 3: Well, that depends on like who you're reading, like Lauren Carly and he's hard to read michah Hancofs was also kind of card to read reading just kind of happens amongst the floor where the ball is. Talk about zones, you know, as an opposite hitter, if the middle is anywhere between you know, a push one and the three or the gap we like to call it, that's kind of my zone and enough to take care of either her or the outside hitter in front of me. But once that middle's out of my zone, my only focuses my player in front of me, and that's that. I think it kind of goes on both pins, depending on what's happening. But even right right now, as you can tell last like last night, Mattison was running a few inside rip balls on us, so you can quickly lose track of that pin hitter when that middle will still ality up your zone.

00:02:32
Speaker 2: So keeping your head on the swivel for sure, all.

00:02:34
Speaker 1: Right, talk to me about outside Ronnie Jones Perry. She earned Player of the Match honors thanks for her twelve kills, eight digs, one block and an ace. We've heard her name throughout the season, So what did she do in this match to help salt Lake with the suite?

00:02:45
Speaker 2: Hey?

00:02:46
Speaker 3: Being Ronnie all these games coming up. We've been on freaking fire, you know. So being consistent and being that go to player for her team has been a strong advantage for Salt Lake and then just combining with her like Ronnie has been a force we reckon.

00:02:57
Speaker 1: With for sure, and she's got amazing arms.

00:03:00
Speaker 2: Yeah shot, what about.

00:03:04
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:03:04
Speaker 2: Like that?

00:03:09
Speaker 1: Let's move on to Omaha Madison. It was six weeks since Houston played at home and Friday marked six weeks since Loved Madison last one to match, but that all changed after they beat Omaha in four sets eighteen twenty five, twenty five, twenty two, twenty five, sixteen, twenty five, twenty one, and the win was led by a two time Olympic medalist opposite Annie Drew Schumacher. She had twenty three kills, three aces, two blocks, six digs, easily her best match all season so far. Where has this South Pap been?

00:03:39
Speaker 3: You know?

00:03:40
Speaker 2: Man?

00:03:41
Speaker 3: No, Annie was saying she's having some shoulder issues, but whatever she's doing, it's working, Like she came out swinging two nights ago, so you know. Also, I think Madison's finding a great balance within the team. Jennifer Genetski, She's doing a great job for them. Just being consistent as well as.

00:03:54
Speaker 2: Well as another setter, Lauren Carlyne.

00:03:57
Speaker 3: You have Lauren carly you can pretty much do anything, but haven't any as additioned to that is definitely a game changer.

00:04:02
Speaker 1: Now, this match saw some ridiculous rallies. You know, I actually was looking. I was like, I wish love had stats for the length of rallies because I would love to see where the best ones and the longest ones are. But you know, I mean, this is what makes volleyball so much fun.

00:04:17
Speaker 2: Right.

00:04:18
Speaker 1: I know what it's like to play in long rallies, but the level of play that I'm doing is much lower than the professional level that you ladies are playing. So talk to me about what it's like during and after those rallies.

00:04:29
Speaker 3: You know, a rally can go for a short period of time hardcore volleyball, or a long period of time even more hard volleyball.

00:04:34
Speaker 2: It's just a marathon you really can't prepare for.

00:04:36
Speaker 3: You don't know how long it's going to be for you just know those few births of moments of space and time it as hard as you can and just hope to win that point.

00:04:43
Speaker 2: So being in those rallies are very very tough for sure, very tough.

00:04:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then there was that one rally in this match with Lexi Rodriguez getting four digs in the whole thing and Omaha ending up getting the point. It was just absolutely insane. Lexi is so fun to watch.

00:04:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, everywhere I saw her middle back, scoop and ball, She's like again, talk about reading, reading the block, getting seen behind the block, and being a very very good addition to them as well last night the other night.

00:05:08
Speaker 1: Man all right, I also want to give a shout out to Cedar Lauren Carlini, who turned thirty that same day that they got there. Let's go. She had fifty assists, two blocks, twelve digs. So you know, do you think that the birthday kind of helped fire them up a little bit?

00:05:42
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Your special day is just for you. You know, you wake up with a different kind of swagger on your chest. Even for myself. You know what I wake on my birthday, I just feel great. So if it's a game day, I'm know I'm trying to get you one. If it's an early birthday present I can give myself, I'm gonna go out there and do that.

00:05:54
Speaker 2: So that birthday day was definitely helping her out for sure.

00:05:57
Speaker 1: All Right, moving to Saturday's doubleheader, We'll start with love Atlanta's five set reverse sweep over Omaha twenty one, twenty five, twenty five, twenty seven, twenty five, nineteen, twenty five, twenty three, fifteen twelve. Great turnaround for Atlanta to come back and show why they're at the top of the standings right now. What did they do to turn it around after that second set?

00:06:18
Speaker 3: I think just using their bench. You know, Jessica Rivere came in and did some good things for them. Gia came into some good things for them. Atlanta's going to be Atlanta like always. I think they really good job as far as like flustering Omaha. You know, there were some broken plays between Jordan and the bro kind of just being going into a little bit miscommunication plays. I feel like even in Ata system, they felt like they were in system. They were getting a lot of googballs, touches off the block and keep an offense going.

00:06:41
Speaker 2: So it was a really fun game to watch and to see them come back and win.

00:06:44
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about Gia Day for a second. She came in off the bench after those first two sets, really helped Atlanta. She actually led the team with fifteen kills after she got in. What does Gia bring to the court.

00:06:55
Speaker 2: I am a Gada fan like Jia is. I'm a Korean beat both getting Korea. She's a Kareem vet.

00:07:01
Speaker 3: And it's a certain type of grit you have to have to be able to come off the bench and do what you're supposed to do, create longevity and points and be able to out there and make a difference. So being in Korea, you get a lot of practice of doing that, and I'm so happy to see her bring that part of her game into love actually love it.

00:07:17
Speaker 1: Magda Helloava made a name for herself in this match. Nine blocks for the middle from Checchia, more than double actually what she's accumulated all season so far. She also had a season high twelve kills while hitting for seventy four. Talk to me about Magda and what she did in this match.

00:07:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Mac does not getting the get the love she should be getting.

00:07:37
Speaker 3: You know, you hear a lot about the office of the middle blockers some around the league, and Mac doesn't have the name you hear most often. But she's definitely a player to be on the lookout for. She's been playing a lot of good games coming up. She's got a lot of good stretching amongst the games that have been in her pocket so far. And yeah, coming up with twelve blocks and being a big part of the defense's that's huge.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: So shout out to her for sure.

00:07:56
Speaker 1: And the last match of the weekend Love Madison must have been riding high after their win on Friday because they swept your team, Love Austin every week every week twenty five, twenty two, twenty five, twenty one, twenty five, seventeen. So what was Madison doing right in that match?

00:08:16
Speaker 3: Everything, you know, being on the receiving end of that. But whoop in let's just look at the look at what's in front of us. You have Andie Drews is going off, you have Stevie who's going off in the middle, you have Jennifer going off, is going on the outside, And like you.

00:08:31
Speaker 2: Know, as a blocker, and I was a defensive team, you.

00:08:33
Speaker 3: Want to be able to slow down someone, and being able to slow down Andy Drews is very very difficult, almost near impossible, you know. So you have to take your losses where they are and have to you know, focus more on people. You can kind of slow down, and I don't think we did a good job trying to touch a lot of balls and slow down, you know, other positions. So with that off balance, you get a lot of success attacking watched from the other team, and that's definitely got us in the long run for sure.

00:08:57
Speaker 1: What are you guys looking to do to improve into next week?

00:09:00
Speaker 3: You know, it's it's honestly almost as like we're starting over. You know, we have kind of a new staff coming in right now, and this is the first week of practice. We've got a little bit of beneficial things going on, and training wise and skill wise.

00:09:10
Speaker 2: It's almost like we're back at the drawing right now.

00:09:12
Speaker 3: While everyone is kind of meshing well together and finding their rhythm, it's like we're back at kind of square one. So just trying to get back in the gym and finding us and trying to find the character of our team and trying to produce something in this next few in the next few weeks coming up.

00:09:26
Speaker 1: Speaking of staff, new staff, I saw on the sideline Penn State legend Nicole Fawcett. Was she helping you guys out on the team?

00:09:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's she is such a gym to have in our gym right now. Nicole has such a great eye for the game at this level. She's played at the highest level ever, as well as on the national's team in the Olympian She has just such an experience and just being able to go out and coach and learn the things she's doing coaching and now she kind of explained the game to us from her perspective.

00:09:55
Speaker 2: It's amazing.

00:09:56
Speaker 3: That's one thing I've been telling Madison Skinner and the girls who are not really much aware of her our team, like, do your research, Like what she says is law, Like, Maddie, you should be asking a cool about everything.

00:10:07
Speaker 2: You know, you've a question, don't be afraid to ask.

00:10:09
Speaker 3: It's just having her jam and just having like her be able to coach us every day and just helping us out with the little things has been very special.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: So we're very, very very grateful to have her.

00:10:17
Speaker 1: That's so cool to have someone like her helping me out.

00:10:20
Speaker 2: I kind of banger every day.

00:10:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, going back to Madison, you know, this team had a slightly different lineup out there on Saturday night. We're used to seeing Sarah Franklin on the outside. But Saturday, Jennifer Yanniska got the nod. She finished with five kills, three blocks, two aces and eight digs. So how did she help change the dynamic of that team?

00:10:40
Speaker 2: I think just.

00:10:41
Speaker 3: Playing against us also able to see just her consistency, Like she is leveled throughout the entire match.

00:10:47
Speaker 2: Basically what you see, what you get.

00:10:48
Speaker 3: And she's going to terminate when she can, and she's going to give you a good pass. You're going to keep you in system much she can, and she's a hard target to not keep the ball off of.

00:10:56
Speaker 2: That makes sense. So she preferred well this weekend, I think, and and like props to her.

00:11:00
Speaker 1: Honestly, we mentioned Lauren Carlini a bunch of times already, but the newly thirty year old was named player of the match. She had forty assists, nine digs and an ace and a dig kill off of her head.

00:11:15
Speaker 3: We were yelling, not at her, but like as she's like going for the ball, We're like, honestly, if it's like that close the perimeter, you just play it because you know you don't want to risk just that small chance. We're just like, go, go go, And I think she thought that it was out and it was right here inside the.

00:11:30
Speaker 1: Line, so it was really close.

00:11:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, but it was also cool play. It was a really cool play. I didn't even see what happened until it was happening in real time, so.

00:11:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I saw a replay. I think it was the Love cameras, And after Maddie hit the ball in her head, Lauren just immediately was like, it's.

00:11:45
Speaker 3: Up and up.

00:11:47
Speaker 2: Look around.

00:11:47
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:11:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like a little cat. Yeah yeah yeah.

00:11:51
Speaker 1: Have you ever had a ball hit you in the head or in the face.

00:11:54
Speaker 2: I've been hitting the face. But it wasn't a point. It was up.

00:11:57
Speaker 3: It was playable, you know, it was it counts the defensive to but no point.

00:12:01
Speaker 2: So that was definitely very well done to her.

00:12:05
Speaker 1: All Right, well, we're done with the recaps, but we want to look ahead to week nine as well, So let's take a look at the games that are going to be happening in which one you are most excited to watch. So Thursday night we got Omaha hosting Salt Lake, Omaha coming off a five match losing streak. Friday Night kicks off the weekend with Love in Atlanta with Atlanta playing Houston. Then Saturday's doubleheader begins with the hottest team in the league, I would say Madison versus Houston, and then we finished with your team love Austin facing Atlanta. So which match are you excited about?

00:12:37
Speaker 3: See before, I was thinking I was really excited about the Atlanta versus Houston rematch.

00:12:41
Speaker 2: You know, us off of the Kansas City matches.

00:12:43
Speaker 3: Step was so fun to watch, so I'm sure that Atlanta has an edge going into that match, So that's gonna be a great matchup. Obviously, the battles are the best outsize right now in the league, I think for myself speaking. But then also I'm ready. I'm excited to see how Houston handles Madison. You know, Madison's in a roll right now, and they have Anna and Annie in there, and they found that connectivity right now as a team. So that's also be a really great match to watch. What do you think?

00:13:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm kind of feeling it with the Madison Houston match as well. I think it's going to be really fun to watch, especially with Madison being so fired up right now. I'm kind of like, let's go.

00:13:14
Speaker 2: It's any man's game right now. This is the great thing.

00:13:16
Speaker 3: I don't think about this League like, it can be any team tonight and who show it's going to show up and it's it can be any weekend and in given weeks on end, you know, so this can be an up war for Madison right now.

00:13:28
Speaker 1: So yeah, well that's it for this episode of Serving Pancakes. Thanks as always for your wisdom and insights, Cat, best of luck this week, but also happy birthday. Wednesday, March fifth is Kat's birthday, so make sure you give a shout out online and if you see her next week in.

00:13:52
Speaker 2: Guys, thanks shouts off pistys.

00:13:55
Speaker 1: Let's go Yeah. Serving Pancakes is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by League one Volleyball. I'm your host Tiffany Oshinsky. My co host is Kat Bell. Anya Alvarez is our senior producer. Our executive producers are Carrie Stett, Tamara Daiki, and Lindsay Hoffman. Our marketing lead is Juwara Parker. Sound editing and mixing by Daniel Gonzalez. Our theme music is Pancakes by Eric W. Mass Junior. Next week, we'll recap Week nine and talk to Love Madison's Temmy Thomas I Lara, thanks for listening.