Penn State Defeats Louisville 3-1 to Win 2024 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship

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

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

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

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Cornhusker and longtime pro both indoor and on the beach.

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

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stat guy here on the podcast.

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An NCAA women's volleyball champion has been crowned and the final four was nothing if

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not incredibly exciting and historic.

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The matches in Louisville will be our focus today, but we've got to take a look at the

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All Americans obviously and a little bit more.

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It is going to be a jam packed episode, so let's get started.

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First things first, congratulations to Penn State, the 2024 NCAA women's volleyball champions.

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They defeated Louisville in four in a really exciting match.

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Now before we get into the games, we also ran two brackets for the championship.

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So shout out to Nittany Hopeful, who won the better bracket draft.

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They had Penn State pit final and finished with 97 points, so you were close.

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The second place person had 96 points, so that bracket came down to the wire.

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Squeaked it out.

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Gabriel Sundberg won our ESPN challenge with 1340 points, the next closest was 1160, so

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that one definitely was not close.

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Gabriel was the only person who picked Penn State to win and because of that ran away

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with the title.

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So congrats to both of our winners.

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We really appreciate everybody who participated.

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We had a lot of fun and I'm already hoping I do better next year.

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I'm upset.

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I did very poorly as well.

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I will give a begrudging congratulations to the winners because I like to win a lot.

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No, just kidding.

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Congrats thanks to everybody who joined us.

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Believe it or not, there has been other volleyball going on the last few weeks and the club volleyball

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world championships for both men and women have been happening.

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On the men's side, Sata Cruzero from Brazil won.

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They beat Trentino Itas, 3-1 in the final.

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So now those two teams are tied for the most club world championship titles ever.

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And fun fact, Adam actually coached against Sata Cruzero when we lived in Brazil.

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Adam worked for the team in Rio and Wallacy is still playing for them.

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You've got to be kidding.

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He has been there forever.

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He is 37 years old now and pretty sure he has been part of every single one of those

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five world championships.

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The man does not age, I'm telling you.

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He was unbelievable 14 years ago when we were there.

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That's insane.

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On the women's side, Imoko Valle Conigliano won.

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They beat Tianjin Bohai Bank 3-0 in the final.

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I mean, no shock there.

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I would say Conigliano is stacked.

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They have been for many years now.

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There you go.

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A little taste of the outside world and we will be diving more into the professional

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side of things in the new year.

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So just wanted to give a little update on that end.

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Just for people who might not be familiar, Conigliano is an Italian team, correct?

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It is.

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It was actually my first pro team ever.

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Oh, interesting.

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So it all runs back through you is what you're saying.

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I mean, basically.

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I'm just kidding.

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And Tianjin is a Chinese team, correct?

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Tianjin is a Chinese team.

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Tianjin, they were very good back when I played for Shanghai as well.

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So overall, very good volleyball to be had.

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On the men's side, if I didn't mention it, Trentino is an Italian team.

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Exciting nonetheless.

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And I actually got to play in a club world championships when I was playing indoor.

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My Brazilian team came second.

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Fun facts for you today.

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Now that we've given you the update around the world, let us get into what everybody

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wants to talk about.

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Final four time, baby.

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Thursday was a write off.

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What a great day.

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I think we watched volleyball from three o'clock till 10 o'clock.

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Again, being on the West Coast, it's perfect.

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I hope my boss isn't listening to this.

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But where do you want to start?

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I'm thinking Pitt Louisville, which is going order.

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Yes.

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All right.

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What were your overall thoughts of that match?

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My initial thoughts watching that match, Pitt came out unconscious.

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They were outstanding.

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And I looked at you and I was like, if this continues, this is going to be very quick

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work.

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Bloodbath.

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It did not continue.

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I would say Pitt was unconscious for a set and a half.

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Then they became human.

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They gave up a huge lead in the second.

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Had a massive lead at the end of set three.

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I think they were up like 23, 19, gave it away, could not close it.

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And the rest is history.

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I thought Olivia Babcock played very well.

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The wheels fell off starting with their setter, Rachel Fairbanks.

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I thought she made questionable choices when it mattered.

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And I think her execution, set location, whatever was not as good as it had to be.

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And I was very surprised.

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I would agree with you that things started with Fairbanks, but I'm going to go back a

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little bit further.

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I think her set selection was affected from the first set when Babcock was unconscious.

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Well, so was Stafford though.

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Fair enough.

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But Babcock scored nine points, had nine kills in that first set.

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She was unstoppable.

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And I think the problem for me watching it was she just thought or wanted to feed the

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hot player in Babcock and Stafford.

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And she didn't get her middles going.

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And that continued.

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Bree Kelly is an important part of that offense.

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And she only got 16 sets the whole game.

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And for me watching that, I don't know whether it was game plan, whether it was discussed,

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but she went to those two hitters, Stafford and Babcock too often.

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She didn't mix it up.

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And Louisville being a great blocking team started to get a rhythm, started to find the

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block and started to be able to slow them down after that first set.

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And she needed to establish the middle of the court more.

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I can't disagree with that.

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I mean, when I look at what happened from 2319 in the third until the end of the set,

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it was just like Babcock over and over and over and over again.

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Like you are right in that.

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And I think she should have gone to somebody else.

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I mean, Babcock scored her points, but made some errors, got blocked a few times.

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I think, but that comes back to the decision making for me.

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I think there were opportunities in that run and I know I'm fixating on one run, but there

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were opportunities in that run to run the middle and she didn't until it was too late.

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Even in the set two, they were up what like 16-12 and then Louisville came back as well.

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That was more hitting errors, wasn't it?

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Correct.

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So I don't know.

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You just, I understand how it feels to be ranked at the top all year and then to all

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of a sudden like come up against a team that is pushing you and in the biggest moment and

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not rising to the occasion, I would say three out of my four years at Nebraska that happened.

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So I get it.

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And it just like broke my heart to see it because to put that kind of body of work together

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that they did all year to have it end like that, it was, it was, I was sad watching it.

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I thought, you know, Tori Stafford played very well defensively, particularly when they

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had her playing in position one running Babcock on the pipe.

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I can't say that pit just like threw the match away because that's doing Louisville a disservice.

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I think Louisville ran their middle more often than we have seen and successfully.

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I think PK Kong was very good.

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I think Cressy scored very well.

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And we said coming into the final four, they're going to have to establish their middles.

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They're going to have to get them going.

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And it really helped kind of balance the load.

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I was very impressed with Maldonado Diaz.

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I think she had picked up her performance significantly, especially during the tournament.

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Louisville showed up.

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If pit is playing the way they did in that first set, there's nothing anybody can do.

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Quite frankly.

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It's unbelievable how on they were.

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But to Louisville's credit, they didn't roll over.

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Even when that momentum continued for pit in set two, they found a way to push back

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and they played well.

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To me, that was the most impressive thing.

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And I couldn't tell.

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I think it was a combination.

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I think maybe there were a little bit of nerves there for Louisville being at home with the

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crowd and not even bad nerves, just excited, not settling into the match.

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And then pit came out guns blazing.

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It would have been really easy for them to unravel or get frazzled in that situation.

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And again, started down big in the second set, found a way to push back.

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I was impressed specifically with Cressy and De Beer from a leadership standpoint.

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They each made plays.

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They settled things down.

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You could see them really leading the team through the little things.

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I thought Cressy did a great job of getting off the net and being available for attacks

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to kind of opening up the outside attacks for the other Louisville hitters.

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She to me was the reason that they won.

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And the other players played well.

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Don't get me wrong there.

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Outside hitters did well.

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PK was good.

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De Beers obviously clutch and did great things.

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Looper was good.

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But Cressy is kind of the linchpin there that opens everything up in my opinion when she's

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on and she's an amazing blocker.

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Like Louisville out blocked Pitt 12 to 4.

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And Louisville's blocking got better as the match went on.

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As they realized that Pitt was not using their middle and they were only setting two hitters,

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they made life difficult for Torrey and for Babcock.

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And I thought that was a huge difference in the match.

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And also the serving pressure.

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They had eight aces to Pitt's two.

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And specifically from the service line to me, it looked like Pitt was just trying to

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get the ball in and not lose or not be aggressive.

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And Louisville was going after their serves.

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And you could see that mindset shift throughout the match of Pitt not wanting to lose the

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momentum and the way they were playing and being a little more safe.

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And Louisville kept pushing and pushing and pushing.

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I think you saw the pushing from a service pressure standpoint, particularly in set four.

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They absolutely dismantled Pitt's serve receive.

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I mean, obviously you're gaining confidence coming back from down 23-19 and winning that

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set.

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So obviously you have gained confidence, but you could just see that that kind of like

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helped them add a little more from the service line and Pitt could not handle it.

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They just completely fell apart.

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People after that set three win just dismantled them, I thought, in set four.

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Well, it's interesting.

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The thing I noticed from Vasquez Gomez, who they served a whole bunch, was she stopped

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moving her feet.

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She got really squatty in her pass where she would just kind of drop and try and get her

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body in the right angle instead of moving her hip out of the way or attacking the pass.

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She was waiting for the ball to get on her.

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And that's where it kind of broke down from what I saw for her specifically.

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Well, and you just saw the communication decrease for Pitt and increase for Louisville.

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And I mean, it's typical, particularly from younger athletes.

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I understand that these are women there, but they are younger in the grand scheme of things.

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And you know, the momentum and the ebbs and flows of the match, you could see it affect

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the communication levels, the way the body language, et cetera.

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It came about, the pressure showed itself in different ways.

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I do want to give a shout out to Danny Busboom Kelly for completely vacating the system that

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they have run all season when their backs were against the wall and going into a 5-1.

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That is ballsy.

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The system that got you to the final four, the system that helped you be successful all

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season, the system that you thought was the best option for your team when the chips were

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down in the most important match of the season, she flipped the script and it paid off.

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This will come up again in the Nebraska Penn State game, but I have such an appreciation

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for a coach who is willing to make changes.

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You don't see it too often among the top, top teams, especially at that point in the

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season.

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But I have a lot of respect that she was willing to go for it and shout out to Cabello, a true

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freshman setter.

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I didn't see her crack.

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I think that's a great point.

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And it was something I was thinking about from pit side as I was watching them.

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You could see the demons sinking in, in the third and fourth set where they started to

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think about, man, are we going to lose another semifinal?

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Because it has happened, I believe this was the fourth time.

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They needed to adjust something.

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They needed to just say, hey, run the middle no matter what, or sub one player out, let

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somebody relax.

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The whole team almost looked shell shocked that it wasn't working.

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And the crazy thing is if you look at the numbers, if you take pits, three outside hitters,

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they hit 325 on the match.

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They played well enough to win.

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And that's compared to Louisville's outside hitters hitting 270.

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Which also wasn't bad.

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00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:03,400
No, it's not bad.

241
00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:09,040
They played well enough to win, but the thing for me was Louisville found the little pieces

242
00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:12,880
of the game where they could gain an advantage, whether it was on the serving, whether it

243
00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:18,080
was on the block, whether it was making plays down the stretch, making adjustments.

244
00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:19,560
That to me was a team win.

245
00:14:19,560 --> 00:14:22,520
Staff players included, they kept going.

246
00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:27,760
And it was surprising because I think pitch should have won that game.

247
00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:32,200
You got to tip your cap to a team that's willing to make adjustments and take risks to win.

248
00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:33,760
It was a very entertaining match.

249
00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:39,840
I felt my heart kind of sink when Anna DeBeer went down in set four.

250
00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:42,160
They showed her parents and her dad was crying.

251
00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:44,200
And I think I started crying seeing that.

252
00:14:44,200 --> 00:14:50,080
I cannot imagine being in that position as a senior.

253
00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:51,880
You're playing in your hometown.

254
00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:54,000
It's the end of your career.

255
00:14:54,000 --> 00:14:55,000
And that happens.

256
00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:57,360
My heart broke for her.

257
00:14:57,360 --> 00:14:59,580
You never, you never want to see that.

258
00:14:59,580 --> 00:15:03,200
She has worked so hard and obviously we don't know her.

259
00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:07,560
But all of the players have worked so hard, but it's like the, yeah.

260
00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:12,720
But you can see that she's the rock and the leader and everybody looks up to her.

261
00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:17,160
And to lose that player for the team, I think is, is really hard.

262
00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:22,600
But I was incredibly impressed with the freshmen that came in for her.

263
00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:23,600
Peyton Peterson.

264
00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:24,600
Yeah.

265
00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:25,600
Shout out for sure.

266
00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:28,760
She did her job and allowed them to keep going.

267
00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:33,760
And I honestly, I thought when that happened, that Pitt was going to be able to roll the

268
00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:37,440
momentum back and win the match from there.

269
00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:42,240
I said, I, I saw that happen and I saw her go off and go to the locker room.

270
00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:47,960
And I thought this was what Pitt needed to have a reset and come back and win.

271
00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:52,760
And to Louisville's credit, they hung in there and they kept going for their captain.

272
00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:54,020
It was impressive to see.

273
00:15:54,020 --> 00:15:59,880
I love to see teams dig deep like that when an injury like that happens, like you that

274
00:15:59,880 --> 00:16:02,160
team sports are so beautiful in that sense.

275
00:16:02,160 --> 00:16:06,600
And that like everybody just found something extra that they could give.

276
00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:09,340
And Peyton Peterson, she didn't have time to think about it.

277
00:16:09,340 --> 00:16:12,040
She didn't have time to think about how nervous she was, et cetera.

278
00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:16,120
She came in, she served a couple of aces, she got several digs, she got the match winning

279
00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:18,540
point, like excellent.

280
00:16:18,540 --> 00:16:23,040
As a freshman, if you have to play on a stage that day, having no notice is the best option.

281
00:16:23,040 --> 00:16:26,480
100% just like surprise.

282
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:29,260
The longer they have to think about it, the worse it becomes, I think.

283
00:16:29,260 --> 00:16:32,920
And we'll talk about this in the final, but I thought that was going to really hurt them

284
00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:35,000
because she had two days to think about it.

285
00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:36,000
Yeah.

286
00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:38,240
I think for me it was a well played match.

287
00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:40,800
I mean, Pittsburgh's hitters were great.

288
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:44,120
Olivia Babcock played well enough for her team to win.

289
00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:48,920
It was the little things around the ball, the blocking, the serving, the setting decisions

290
00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:51,880
in my mind that made the difference in that match.

291
00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:52,880
All right.

292
00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:58,160
Let's move on to the second semifinal, Penn State versus Nebraska.

293
00:16:58,160 --> 00:16:59,720
Hit me with your thoughts.

294
00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:03,960
I'm not sure where to start because I think I could talk about this match for an hour.

295
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:10,560
To be transparent, we had to go back and watch it again because the first time we were just

296
00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:18,640
so stunned and overwhelmed that we ended up watching it more as fans than as like critiquers.

297
00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:19,960
I don't even know if that's a word.

298
00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:22,220
I think analyst is what you're looking for.

299
00:17:22,220 --> 00:17:24,120
Or that simple stuff.

300
00:17:24,120 --> 00:17:25,920
So we did go back and watch it again.

301
00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:28,960
For me, this match came down to two things.

302
00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:36,840
One, we've talked all season about Nebraska not having a star on the outside who could

303
00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:38,000
carry the team.

304
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:42,200
And I thought that in this match, that was incredibly evident.

305
00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:47,360
You know, the outsides for Nebraska didn't play poorly, but they don't have somebody

306
00:17:47,360 --> 00:17:52,400
on that team who can drive them to win other than Andy Jackson.

307
00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:58,080
And that team won and lost with how effective she was and how much they could get her the

308
00:17:58,080 --> 00:17:59,080
ball.

309
00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:03,960
And at the end of the game, being sets three, four and five, they didn't get her the ball

310
00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:05,600
and they didn't win.

311
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:09,400
And the second thing I will say, and we'll dive into all of this and I've got some interesting

312
00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:11,240
stats for everybody out there.

313
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,660
I think they took their foot off the gas.

314
00:18:13,660 --> 00:18:17,860
I think in the fourth set, they thought they were going to win.

315
00:18:17,860 --> 00:18:20,360
You could see it on the coaching staff's face.

316
00:18:20,360 --> 00:18:22,400
You could see it on the players face.

317
00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:25,080
They were thinking about going to the national championship.

318
00:18:25,080 --> 00:18:27,640
All the credit in the world to Penn State.

319
00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:30,600
They never stopped coming no matter what.

320
00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:35,040
And overarching of everything, that was the most impressive.

321
00:18:35,040 --> 00:18:36,360
They never gave up.

322
00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:40,180
Andy Jackson was dominant in sets one and two.

323
00:18:40,180 --> 00:18:41,520
The best player in the gym.

324
00:18:41,520 --> 00:18:44,040
And the results spoke for themselves.

325
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:52,240
Nebraska actually unbalanced their offense, kind of, for the first time all season.

326
00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:53,800
And we're just feeding Jackson.

327
00:18:53,800 --> 00:18:55,720
And I was like, you know what?

328
00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:56,720
Finally.

329
00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:01,040
Finally, you have got a hot hand and you are feeding it.

330
00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:02,040
Thank you.

331
00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:04,000
This is what you need to do.

332
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:07,240
11 kills, no errors in the first two sets.

333
00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:11,280
She was unconscious and unstoppable.

334
00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:13,520
She was unstoppable.

335
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:20,240
And as we have said, as we have spoken about Nebraska throughout the past few months, it

336
00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:23,400
opened everything else up for the other hitters.

337
00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:25,920
So people were able to kind of get going.

338
00:19:25,920 --> 00:19:30,960
I thought in sets one and two, Penn State was tipping too much.

339
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:32,760
In particular, Jess Merzik.

340
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,400
I thought she was tipping too frequently to her.

341
00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:41,640
And I said at the end of set two, if she's going to go down, she better go down swinging.

342
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:45,040
Well, she was hitting under a hundred in the first two sets.

343
00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:46,040
Yes.

344
00:19:46,040 --> 00:19:48,120
She was a non-factor in the match.

345
00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:53,360
And to her credit, I don't think I saw her tip again in sets three, four, and five.

346
00:19:53,360 --> 00:19:56,280
And I think she finished the match, what, at 300?

347
00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:57,280
Correct.

348
00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:02,480
She went from 094, I believe it was, at the end of set two and finished the match hitting

349
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:03,600
300.

350
00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:08,320
That is how she got Penn State to this point.

351
00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:11,160
She put her team on her back all season.

352
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:14,680
And when she was tipping in sets one and two, I was really upset because I'm like, we've

353
00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:18,000
seen this story before at the end of big 10 play.

354
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:23,080
I had so much respect for her that she just completely was like, no, this is not how this

355
00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:24,080
is ending.

356
00:20:24,080 --> 00:20:25,240
And just took over.

357
00:20:25,240 --> 00:20:27,880
She was unbelievable.

358
00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:32,800
My advice to her, she starts her pro career is to have a two set warmup from here on out

359
00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:40,240
because that girl gets better as the match goes on and she finishes matches playing her

360
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:41,440
best volleyball.

361
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:46,520
And I'm kind of joking, but I'm kind of not because you saw it in both matches, in this

362
00:20:46,520 --> 00:20:48,180
one and in the final.

363
00:20:48,180 --> 00:20:53,800
She didn't start super well, but man, when the game was on the line, as she kept going,

364
00:20:53,800 --> 00:20:57,720
she was the best player by the end of the match.

365
00:20:57,720 --> 00:20:59,400
Her and Andy Jackson flip flopped.

366
00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:00,400
Yes.

367
00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:04,280
And it's not by any fault of Andy Jackson.

368
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:10,880
To Penn State's credit, I think they started serving a lot better and you saw Nebraska's

369
00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:17,040
passing fall apart a little and like fall apart in the sense of it wasn't nearly as

370
00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:19,240
good as it usually is.

371
00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:23,200
Falling apart passing wise for Nebraska is you should still be able to run the middle.

372
00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:25,600
I thought it was more decision than passing to be honest.

373
00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:26,600
Oh, you do?

374
00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:27,600
Yeah.

375
00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:30,240
I thought at the end of set four, the passing was terrible.

376
00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:34,780
I think the little, the littles for Nebraska killed them down the stretch.

377
00:21:34,780 --> 00:21:36,220
That might be a hot take.

378
00:21:36,220 --> 00:21:37,220
Come at me.

379
00:21:37,220 --> 00:21:38,840
I'm fine with that.

380
00:21:38,840 --> 00:21:44,000
But you saw Lexi Rodriguez set her hitters very poorly.

381
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,240
I usually think that Lexi is a pretty good out of system setter.

382
00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:52,220
She was trap setting her hitters when Bergen Riley was digging and then she tried to correct

383
00:21:52,220 --> 00:21:54,280
it and they were way too far off.

384
00:21:54,280 --> 00:22:02,000
So there's that, Choboy and Rodriguez got aced down the stretch in set four and I think

385
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,840
they were pulling the passes a little too far off.

386
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:14,120
Malk, who they rely on as their main serve scoring rotation looked like she saw a ghost.

387
00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:15,120
Understandable.

388
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:16,120
She's a freshman.

389
00:22:16,120 --> 00:22:19,040
You know, there were stretches in that four sets specifically.

390
00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:24,740
I remember we talked about this where fine, maybe they couldn't run Andy behind, but they

391
00:22:24,740 --> 00:22:27,160
had chances in the third set to run her more.

392
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:29,200
They could have run her more at the beginning of the four set.

393
00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:33,160
They didn't pass horribly in the fifth set and they only set Andy Jackson twice.

394
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:35,280
It was a combination in my opinion.

395
00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:39,240
There was some passing issues and they obviously weren't as in system, but you can force the

396
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:40,240
middle.

397
00:22:40,240 --> 00:22:44,840
Andy Jackson is physical enough that you can get her the ball and she can run behind and

398
00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:48,080
in front audible out and run a 30 run close.

399
00:22:48,080 --> 00:22:49,840
She is so dynamic.

400
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:52,960
She should have been able to score and they needed to get her the ball.

401
00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,520
But at the end of the day, I mean, I'm going to stand by what I'm saying.

402
00:22:56,520 --> 00:23:02,320
Like with the transition setting, Nebraska digs a lot of balls.

403
00:23:02,320 --> 00:23:06,480
A, I don't love how they defended Jess Merzik once she really got going.

404
00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:11,760
And B, when they did get digs, I thought the out of system setting was not good enough

405
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:13,000
to be able to score.

406
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:18,960
And then when it was the hitters weren't going up and being really aggressive for me, Penn

407
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,560
State won the outside hitter battle.

408
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:23,960
They won the out of system battle.

409
00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:28,000
They won the we're going down swinging battle.

410
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:29,920
Like they didn't give up.

411
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:35,960
They left it all on the court and I'm very curious what Nebraska's postgame chat in their

412
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:36,960
locker room was.

413
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:38,480
Well, you talk about that.

414
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:41,040
So here are some numbers for you in the third set.

415
00:23:41,040 --> 00:23:45,040
We're going to go all positions left side and right side for these stats.

416
00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:52,440
In the third set, Penn State's outside hitters generated 13 kills to Nebraska's eight.

417
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:57,800
In set four, it was 17 kills to seven.

418
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:02,760
And in set five, it was nine to seven, which is closer.

419
00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:07,780
But the interesting thing for me as well is if we look at set four, Penn State only tipped

420
00:24:07,780 --> 00:24:12,340
four balls as an outside core, Nebraska tipped eight.

421
00:24:12,340 --> 00:24:17,540
And so to me, you could see the mindset of the hitters go from scoring points to not

422
00:24:17,540 --> 00:24:18,980
making mistakes.

423
00:24:18,980 --> 00:24:23,800
Those stats, I did them myself, but they don't include bad sets where they had to put them

424
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:24,800
over.

425
00:24:24,800 --> 00:24:28,880
Those were decisions where you could have hit the ball and you chose to tip.

426
00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:34,640
And that to me, Penn State's ability to score points from the pins made a huge difference,

427
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,760
especially when Nebraska stopped running their middle.

428
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:42,680
Nebraska's up 24-22 in the fourth match point, two match points.

429
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:48,440
You get a perfect pass, Bergen-Riley, and you have Harper-Murray and Rebecca Alec in

430
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:49,440
the front row.

431
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:55,720
And you decide to set Rebecca Alec who tips the ball.

432
00:24:55,720 --> 00:25:00,000
You tipped the ball on match point on a perfect pass.

433
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,360
I mean, need I say anything else?

434
00:25:03,360 --> 00:25:05,040
First of all, what are you doing even setting her?

435
00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:06,040
Set Harper-Murray.

436
00:25:06,040 --> 00:25:07,040
Okay.

437
00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:10,560
And secondly, this is why Penn State won.

438
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:16,860
Because they hit the ball, because they took big rips, because they were being risky.

439
00:25:16,860 --> 00:25:19,880
They took those risks and it paid off.

440
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:24,760
You're telling me you think tipping a ball is going to win you a national championship,

441
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:25,940
is going to get you to the final?

442
00:25:25,940 --> 00:25:27,280
It's not, clearly.

443
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:29,200
My hands are sweating even talking about it.

444
00:25:29,200 --> 00:25:33,080
I mean, you can look at that play in isolation and I don't disagree with you, but at the

445
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:38,640
same time, you needed Beeson to factor in offensively as well.

446
00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:39,640
Beeson?

447
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:42,280
Oh boy.

448
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:43,520
What happened to her?

449
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:50,320
In fairness to Beeson, she did most things well except hit, which as a right side is

450
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:52,760
your primary responsibility.

451
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:55,320
I thought she served well.

452
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:56,880
I thought she blocked all right.

453
00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:58,120
She played defense.

454
00:25:58,120 --> 00:26:02,640
All of the skills around attacking, she was fine.

455
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:04,920
But they needed her to score more points.

456
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:10,320
She only had eight points and hit 2-0-7 on that match.

457
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:16,640
And I'm sorry, when you don't have a stud attacker and you rely on scoring points as

458
00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:19,620
a committee, you have to be able to pull your weight.

459
00:26:19,620 --> 00:26:21,320
And she didn't.

460
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:23,540
And she hasn't all tournament.

461
00:26:23,540 --> 00:26:27,020
This is one of the things we don't see anybody else from Nebraska play.

462
00:26:27,020 --> 00:26:32,040
So I don't know who's on their bench, but put somebody else in through the front row.

463
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:35,960
Find the kid with the heaviest arm and go just go out and swing for three rotations.

464
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:37,000
Do something.

465
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,280
I don't understand why she played the whole time.

466
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:44,600
That is something that I was referring to when I made the statement of like, you need

467
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:46,920
to make a change sometimes.

468
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:50,800
And we saw it from Nebraska last year in the national championship match.

469
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:53,720
I'm sorry, Harper Murray got served off the court.

470
00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:58,440
She should have been subbed out in that match last season.

471
00:26:58,440 --> 00:26:59,720
Didn't happen.

472
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:04,240
Mara Beeson disappeared during the NCAA tournament.

473
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:06,920
Did not produce at all.

474
00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:08,640
She should have been subbed out.

475
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:12,360
They should have tried something different, but they didn't.

476
00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:14,880
They just stick with what they do.

477
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:15,880
And that is that.

478
00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:21,840
Honestly, I was so shocked when landfare actually replaced Crowzee partway through the season.

479
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:24,240
I think it needed to happen.

480
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:29,120
But because of what we have seen from Nebraska, I was shocked that they actually made a change.

481
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:30,560
So here's an observation.

482
00:27:30,560 --> 00:27:34,380
We watched a decent number of Nebraska games.

483
00:27:34,380 --> 00:27:41,000
I think Nebraska is probably one of the most prepared teams for matches that they play,

484
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:44,720
but maybe one of the worst at deviating from their preparation.

485
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:46,880
Well, they haven't had to.

486
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:47,880
That's the thing.

487
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:49,160
I'm not saying you're wrong.

488
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:53,720
I am not saying you're wrong, but they have been able to get by on the game plans they

489
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:55,080
have.

490
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,760
If I was Nebraska, what would I have done?

491
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:03,720
I would have completely shut down the line on Jess Merzic and brought both defenders,

492
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:08,280
Rodriguez and the left side blocker off to dig the sharp angle.

493
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:10,300
Both of them load up the angle.

494
00:28:10,300 --> 00:28:15,160
We saw Louisville do it against them and they actually got quite a few digs or bring the

495
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:19,520
ball, bring the block way into the angle and dig down the line.

496
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:24,400
They just kept setting up on the ball, the same that's taking away the seam over and

497
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:26,280
over and over again.

498
00:28:26,280 --> 00:28:29,020
Because you need to make adjustments.

499
00:28:29,020 --> 00:28:31,580
You need to try something new.

500
00:28:31,580 --> 00:28:32,580
And they didn't.

501
00:28:32,580 --> 00:28:38,080
But going back to Penn State, Jura Vicious picked some great times to have outstanding

502
00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:39,080
matches.

503
00:28:39,080 --> 00:28:41,020
She's going for it.

504
00:28:41,020 --> 00:28:42,440
She knows her role.

505
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:46,000
Jess Merzic flipped the switch, went for it.

506
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:47,000
It paid off.

507
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,880
Cameron Hanna, fearless, made great plays.

508
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:58,360
You know, it was so good to see Penn State regroup and rally and just keep coming.

509
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:03,040
And you saw Nebraska start to think and they just kept pushing.

510
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:06,240
You know, I have a lot of respect for that.

511
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:10,720
It is tough to be down 2-0 and come back to win.

512
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:15,560
It is tough, especially on that stage.

513
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:17,640
And they believed.

514
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:21,960
I think the impressive thing for me was their game plan was to be aggressive.

515
00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:23,480
You could see it in everything they did.

516
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:27,360
Their serving, they made a ton of mistakes.

517
00:29:27,360 --> 00:29:31,500
I think they had 14 service errors, but they kept coming.

518
00:29:31,500 --> 00:29:35,360
But down the stretch, those errors became aces.

519
00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:37,400
And this to me was the difference in the game.

520
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:42,720
I don't know if I have all the numbers right off the top of my head, but I believe in the

521
00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:46,920
second set as a team, they made 11 errors.

522
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:48,240
And they lost.

523
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:52,680
But when they settled down and came out in the third, fourth, and fifth, they played

524
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,880
the same way, but they settled into their style.

525
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,320
They found where the block was going to be.

526
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:00,800
They found a rhythm and they reduced those errors.

527
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:05,740
And I think it was 11 in the second, maybe two in the third.

528
00:30:05,740 --> 00:30:07,240
They were flawless in the third.

529
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:09,160
They made more in the fourth set.

530
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:13,400
But then in the fifth set, again, I think they made one or two errors as a team.

531
00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:20,120
And they found a rhythm and made some adjustments and Nebraska didn't match them in that regard.

532
00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:22,200
Penn State played to win.

533
00:30:22,200 --> 00:30:28,280
I thought Nebraska played to win the first two sets and then got a little tentative and

534
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:30,300
were afraid to push over the line.

535
00:30:30,300 --> 00:30:32,000
And maybe that's set selection.

536
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:35,000
Maybe that's tight setting, serving.

537
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:39,200
I thought they, for me watching, to me, it looked like they thought they had it in the

538
00:30:39,200 --> 00:30:40,820
bag personally.

539
00:30:40,820 --> 00:30:42,040
Do I know that for a fact?

540
00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:43,040
No.

541
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:47,040
They were very relaxed in that interview between sets two and three.

542
00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:50,240
Well, to me, the first assistant.

543
00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:51,720
Oh, Reyes?

544
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:54,360
Reyes' body language changed.

545
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:56,760
In the second set, he was jumping up and down.

546
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:58,880
He was like screaming louder than the players.

547
00:30:58,880 --> 00:30:59,880
I'm sorry.

548
00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:00,880
Fist pumping.

549
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:02,000
Like, let's be professional here.

550
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:03,000
That was weird.

551
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:05,520
But my point was he was excited.

552
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:08,840
He was in the match emotionally invested.

553
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:09,840
And that's fine.

554
00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:14,680
Maybe that's your style, you know, you've played for some coaches who...

555
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:15,680
Rip their shirts off.

556
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:19,720
Yeah, I wasn't going to say that, but that's exactly what I was thinking of.

557
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:23,240
But the thing is, it's the same all the time.

558
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,980
And when your coach changes like that, and we talked about this with some other coaching

559
00:31:27,980 --> 00:31:29,280
staffs in previous episodes.

560
00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:31,600
Yeah, we have brought it up, so it's fair.

561
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:38,960
He all of the sudden was hunkered down on his feet underneath the side of the court,

562
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,200
and he looked nervous.

563
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,680
And I said it, and I'll say it again, these are young athletes.

564
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:49,080
They look to their coach, and I think Penn State is a great example of that.

565
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:54,420
I have an incredible amount of respect for her.

566
00:31:54,420 --> 00:32:00,760
She showed up for her team day in and day out when she didn't have to, and nobody could

567
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:02,240
have blamed her.

568
00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:03,240
And you know what?

569
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,040
When the chips were down, her athletes showed up for her.

570
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:10,440
She's just so calm on the sideline, she never changes.

571
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:13,360
Coach Cook doesn't change, he sits there, but...

572
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:15,960
I saw one fist bump.

573
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:22,940
So he's pretty consistent, but Reyes is the one that's moving the pieces around in match,

574
00:32:22,940 --> 00:32:24,000
you can tell.

575
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,180
But Katie Schumacher-Colley, she is just there.

576
00:32:28,180 --> 00:32:32,220
Her body language, it looks like her feedback doesn't change.

577
00:32:32,220 --> 00:32:37,620
From sets one and two, where it wasn't pretty, to three, four, five, there was definitely

578
00:32:37,620 --> 00:32:41,480
some more urgency, but it wasn't a drastic shift.

579
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:45,400
And that was an incredible match to watch.

580
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:49,720
Again, my heart broke for Nebraska because I have been there.

581
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:56,680
I get it, I understand it is the worst feeling in the world to be ranked that high all season

582
00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:59,160
and not finish the job.

583
00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:02,600
Kuda has off to Penn State, has off to Jess Merzuch.

584
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:06,120
Wow, that was something to behold.

585
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:14,200
Before we jump into the final match, the AVCA selection committee picked their All-Americans

586
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:16,240
this week as well.

587
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,440
Izzy Stark was named National Freshman of the Year.

588
00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:23,040
Olivia Babcock, National Player of the Year.

589
00:33:23,040 --> 00:33:27,320
Dan Fisher from Pitt, National Coach of the Year.

590
00:33:27,320 --> 00:33:32,440
And Brian Rosen from Creighton was named the Assistant Coach of the Year.

591
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:38,840
What are your thoughts on those individual big time winners?

592
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:42,760
I honestly don't have any problems with any of those.

593
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:49,520
I think Izzy Stark, we've been fans of hers since we started.

594
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:56,860
I don't think she can get enough credit for being a freshman and having the composure

595
00:33:56,860 --> 00:33:59,460
that she had in this tournament.

596
00:33:59,460 --> 00:34:03,920
There were a few times where the camera panned to her in the middle of some of those matches

597
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,720
and she was white as a ghost.

598
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:12,400
There were two times specifically I saw her just take a deep breath in a tense moment,

599
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:18,080
exhale and you could see her talking to herself, you got this, you're going to do it.

600
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:23,080
And I think the composure that she showed, and she wasn't amazing all the time, she had

601
00:34:23,080 --> 00:34:29,320
some setting issues in a few of those matches, but to bring it back and to lead that team

602
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:34,880
and have to touch the ball every single rally, outstanding, very well deserved.

603
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:38,640
I think she's going to be the Cammie Miner of the next four years.

604
00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:39,640
Agreed.

605
00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:41,040
I'm an Izzy Stark fan.

606
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:46,360
I would have been shocked if anybody else won freshman of the year and part of me still

607
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,840
thinks she should have been a first team All-American.

608
00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:54,400
Granted the two setters that were picked, Cammie Miner and Rachel Fairbanks.

609
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:56,880
Okay, I can get behind that.

610
00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:02,000
I can get behind those two being named first team over her, but if any other setter was

611
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,120
selected ahead of her, I would have called someone.

612
00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:06,120
I'm just kidding.

613
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:10,160
Olivia Babcock was outstanding all year.

614
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,800
I mean for me, there wasn't even a consideration.

615
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:17,520
I think it was nice that Lexi Rodriguez got a nod.

616
00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:19,640
I think she's had a great career.

617
00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:23,340
I actually think she's incredibly important to that Nebraska team.

618
00:35:23,340 --> 00:35:29,400
So maybe more so than the stats itself, which are impressive.

619
00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:33,520
Her importance to a very good team can't be argued.

620
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:38,640
And so I was fine with her being on the list, but Olivia Babcock does everything.

621
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:45,920
She hits, she serves, she blocks, she gets set a thousand times and she keeps coming.

622
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:46,920
She's impressive.

623
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:48,680
I would have lost it.

624
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:55,160
If anybody won player of the year other than her, honestly, you know, people know that

625
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:56,720
she's getting the ball.

626
00:35:56,720 --> 00:36:04,440
They know it's coming and they still can't stop her blocking wise, attacking, serving.

627
00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:08,560
She obviously has some up and downs with her serve, but for the most part, the numbers

628
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:15,700
that she puts up night in and night out and nobody can stop her.

629
00:36:15,700 --> 00:36:19,040
And she's hitting her hitting percentage is so impressive as well.

630
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:27,240
Like the thing for me is like, how do you not win conference player of the year and

631
00:36:27,240 --> 00:36:30,560
then win national player of the year?

632
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:32,800
That's that is the thing for me.

633
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,380
Franklin was named big 10 player of the year.

634
00:36:35,380 --> 00:36:40,220
You would think like it just something doesn't compute for me.

635
00:36:40,220 --> 00:36:46,480
I think there's a little bit of politicking going on in some of these selections and yeah,

636
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:49,320
I know you hate that, but that's it is what it is.

637
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:53,400
Well, the majority of your work throughout the season is done in conference play.

638
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:56,880
So if you're not going to be named conference player of the year, what makes you the best?

639
00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:00,360
If you're not the quote unquote best player in your conference, what makes you the best

640
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:02,280
player in the country?

641
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:04,460
That's my question.

642
00:37:04,460 --> 00:37:09,600
The other thing I was kind of confused about is Brooklyn delay from Kentucky was not on

643
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,160
the semi finalist list.

644
00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:16,000
And then she popped up on the finalist list.

645
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:22,520
And I was like, if you're not making enough of an impact for the committee to notice you

646
00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:28,160
to name you one of 14, how all of a sudden do you become that good in a few weeks to

647
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:29,840
jump to the finalist list?

648
00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:34,760
Well, I've never seen anyone make the final without being in the semi final ever.

649
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:37,680
So that one is a little head scratcher.

650
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:39,800
That was a head scratcher for me as well.

651
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,360
100% Olivia Babcock, best player in the country.

652
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:45,280
I will die on that mountain.

653
00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:47,040
Feel free to hit me up.

654
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:52,840
I think I think coach of the year is really hard to assess if you're not in the room day

655
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:53,840
in and day out.

656
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,360
I mean, all of these coaches work hard.

657
00:37:56,360 --> 00:37:58,280
All of them are preparing.

658
00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:03,280
All of them are anybody who was in the in the tournament for the round of 16, like all

659
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:05,460
of those coaches do an amazing job.

660
00:38:05,460 --> 00:38:07,560
This season pit was fantastic.

661
00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:08,920
Number one all year.

662
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:14,720
And I, I definitely don't have any issue with Dan Fisher winning this award from an outside

663
00:38:14,720 --> 00:38:15,720
perspective.

664
00:38:15,720 --> 00:38:20,840
It looks like his players love playing for him, which is not a prerequisite of being

665
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:23,480
a great coach, but it definitely helps.

666
00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:30,860
And I definitely think when it's not a professional league, these kids can leave, they can transfer.

667
00:38:30,860 --> 00:38:34,880
They can, they're managing so much in their lives in terms of school and sport.

668
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:39,520
I think enjoying your coach and wanting to play for them is a huge aspect of success

669
00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:41,520
at this level.

670
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:43,840
And yeah, I think it's well deserved.

671
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:48,040
I think, you know, the first team all American list, it made sense to me.

672
00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:52,880
Second, like, yeah, the list themselves, I can get behind.

673
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:59,280
We had two players who were four time all Americans, Lexi Rodriguez and Emma Grome,

674
00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:05,960
the setter from Kentucky were the only two graduating players who had been an all American

675
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:06,960
four times.

676
00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:08,760
So that was cool.

677
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:14,280
And Olivia Babcock is on her way to becoming a four time first team all Americans.

678
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:17,840
She was a first team or last year, obviously this year.

679
00:39:17,840 --> 00:39:19,440
So we'll see what happens there.

680
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:21,680
She'll be joining you on that list.

681
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:23,240
Oh baby.

682
00:39:23,240 --> 00:39:32,760
All right, the main event, the national championship final, Penn State versus Louisville, Penn

683
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:36,160
State won it in four.

684
00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:37,160
What are your thoughts?

685
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:41,320
Well, I think there were a couple interesting storylines coming into this match.

686
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:47,240
I think one was, this was going to be the first time a female coach has won the NCAA

687
00:39:47,240 --> 00:39:51,880
division one title, which I think is fantastic for the sport.

688
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:56,920
And both of those coaches are phenomenal, have built programs.

689
00:39:56,920 --> 00:40:01,160
You know, I just want to say great job and so much respect for what they've done.

690
00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:03,140
That was really cool to see.

691
00:40:03,140 --> 00:40:08,040
And I can't believe that a woman head coach has taken this long.

692
00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:09,040
It's crazy.

693
00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,440
I know Mary Wise has been in many finals.

694
00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:17,440
She's gotten close to the head coach for Florida, but I'm shocked that it has taken so long.

695
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:22,800
And you know, as a former teammate of Danny Busboom Kelly, like I'm, she's done great

696
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,320
things for that Louisville program.

697
00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:28,720
And with everything, as we mentioned before, that Katie Schumacher Colley has been through

698
00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:35,400
and then to see her overcome or fight through that and come out victorious in the end, it

699
00:40:35,400 --> 00:40:37,840
is like, you couldn't write it any better.

700
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:40,340
Honestly, you could not.

701
00:40:40,340 --> 00:40:41,640
So that is outstanding.

702
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:46,220
I think the other storyline for me coming in, which I thought was going to be a huge

703
00:40:46,220 --> 00:40:50,000
factor on the match was, was the beer going to play?

704
00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:54,260
You know, when we found out she wasn't going to play, they had to have known that Thursday

705
00:40:54,260 --> 00:40:59,900
after the match or Friday morning after her ankle obviously didn't get better.

706
00:40:59,900 --> 00:41:05,560
So my question immediately was, how was the little freshmen going to do?

707
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:08,760
You know, we discussed this in the semifinal match.

708
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:12,960
It's one thing to be thrown into the fire and to not have time to think and to go out

709
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:14,900
and she did great.

710
00:41:14,900 --> 00:41:20,420
That's another thing to spend two days thinking about our captain, our leader is out and I

711
00:41:20,420 --> 00:41:24,520
have to replace her and have a lot of time to freak yourself out.

712
00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:28,520
I will say to her credit, I think she had a great match.

713
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:31,520
They weren't going to be able to rely on her to score points.

714
00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:35,240
However, she did not break under the service pressure.

715
00:41:35,240 --> 00:41:37,780
She served incredibly well.

716
00:41:37,780 --> 00:41:40,480
She was not a liability on the block.

717
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:42,880
And I thought defensively she was very good.

718
00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:48,600
I don't think from Louisville's perspective, they could have asked for anything more out

719
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:49,600
of her.

720
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:50,600
I agree.

721
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:55,320
I think and when you have an athlete in that position, I mean, I'm no expert.

722
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:56,560
I don't know.

723
00:41:56,560 --> 00:42:00,720
But when you have an athlete in that position, I feel like all you can do as her coaching

724
00:42:00,720 --> 00:42:06,920
staff and as her teammates is just do everything you can to build her up and give her confidence.

725
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:13,040
Everybody including her knows that she is not going to be a one for one replacement

726
00:42:13,040 --> 00:42:14,040
for Anna DeBeer.

727
00:42:14,040 --> 00:42:16,040
A hundred percent.

728
00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:17,400
She's aware.

729
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:18,400
Everybody's aware.

730
00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:24,520
All you can do is make the kid feel as comfortable as possible, give her the information that

731
00:42:24,520 --> 00:42:30,400
she needs to be effective and just encourage.

732
00:42:30,400 --> 00:42:35,940
And I thought she definitely had trouble scoring, but everything else she did not break.

733
00:42:35,940 --> 00:42:37,840
Her passing was very good.

734
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:39,040
She dug a lot of balls.

735
00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:43,760
She got like several aces that what more can you ask from her?

736
00:42:43,760 --> 00:42:49,280
The thing that was disappointing, however, was that they barely ran the middle to make

737
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:50,280
up for it.

738
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:54,440
This, this in my opinion was the main thing that cost them the match.

739
00:42:54,440 --> 00:42:56,600
You're losing four kills a set.

740
00:42:56,600 --> 00:43:01,360
You know that Charity Looper and Maldonado Diaz are going to have to score.

741
00:43:01,360 --> 00:43:04,240
So like, let's help them out here.

742
00:43:04,240 --> 00:43:05,920
Let's get the middle going.

743
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:13,000
Let's use the middle as often as possible in particular, Cressy who scores very well.

744
00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:16,520
PK also has had a pretty good tournament.

745
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:21,120
Like I was, they set Cressy the first ball and I was like, okay, yes, they're going to

746
00:43:21,120 --> 00:43:22,120
do it.

747
00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:23,120
They did not do it.

748
00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:28,400
Well, I'm going to interrupt you and just give everybody some context for this.

749
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:34,480
All of the middles on Louisville only got 24 attempts all match and only had six kills

750
00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:35,480
as a group.

751
00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:41,720
24 like all together, all together, all middles, 24 attempts and six kills.

752
00:43:41,720 --> 00:43:49,000
Compare that to Penn State's middles that had 29 attempts and 14 kills and Penn State's

753
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:51,880
middles are not what they're known for.

754
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:57,960
No, I would say that Penn State runs their middle less than, than most.

755
00:43:57,960 --> 00:43:59,760
And I've said that about them all season.

756
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:01,440
They don't run the middle enough.

757
00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:02,440
They almost tripled.

758
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:07,440
They two and a half times the scoring production of the Louisville middle.

759
00:44:07,440 --> 00:44:10,680
And that to me was the difference.

760
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:12,240
Big picture in the match.

761
00:44:12,240 --> 00:44:18,080
Kara Cressy, as soon as the beer was out, needed to be an offensive force for them and

762
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:21,400
they needed to get her a ton of balls and PK as well.

763
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:24,480
But for me, more Cressy and it didn't happen.

764
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,240
And I, for the life of me cannot figure out why.

765
00:44:27,240 --> 00:44:31,560
Again, Louisville switched to a five one again in, in set two.

766
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:36,760
Which I thought was really smart because it allowed Cressy to hit the slide, which she's

767
00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:38,800
very good at, but they didn't use it.

768
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:40,240
Cabello is a freshman.

769
00:44:40,240 --> 00:44:46,680
I'm not making that excuse for her, but I want to be like, you, if she lost track of

770
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:52,560
it or was not being mindful of that, like as a staff, you need to like let her know,

771
00:44:52,560 --> 00:44:55,400
like let's pump the middle because they weren't passing that poorly.

772
00:44:55,400 --> 00:44:56,960
No, they weren't.

773
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:58,200
They didn't start great.

774
00:44:58,200 --> 00:45:05,920
I thought Elena Scott in the first set for me looked like she was trying to do too much

775
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:09,760
to fill in for the beer missing.

776
00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:11,360
She got on a couple hitters way.

777
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:13,080
She took a set she should have taken.

778
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:17,520
She looked a little tight, but I thought after that first set, when she settled in, she was

779
00:45:17,520 --> 00:45:19,720
very good for the rest of the match.

780
00:45:19,720 --> 00:45:20,720
I thought she was good.

781
00:45:20,720 --> 00:45:21,720
I thought Looper was good.

782
00:45:21,720 --> 00:45:23,940
I thought Maldonado Diaz was good.

783
00:45:23,940 --> 00:45:28,160
We talked about Peter said, like, I, I thought the players.

784
00:45:28,160 --> 00:45:29,160
Played well.

785
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:32,320
The only player to me who kind of looked out to lunch was PK.

786
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:33,320
Yeah.

787
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:34,840
She did not have a good match.

788
00:45:34,840 --> 00:45:40,680
There were taught like they took her out again, as we've been talking about PK was not performing.

789
00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:41,680
They took her out.

790
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:42,680
Okay.

791
00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:46,960
They put Sherman in, like those are the kind of adjustments that you need to make.

792
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:49,680
Like at this point, it's not about people's feelings.

793
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:52,200
It's about winning a national championship.

794
00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:53,360
Okay.

795
00:45:53,360 --> 00:45:56,240
It should never be about people's feelings, but maybe I'm a psycho.

796
00:45:56,240 --> 00:45:57,240
I don't know.

797
00:45:57,240 --> 00:46:03,240
There were times I think of set three, for example, Penn State rant or no set two, the

798
00:46:03,240 --> 00:46:08,080
one that went 3432 Penn State ran out of subs.

799
00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:13,160
Not only did they have Quinn Manger, their serving specialist come through the front

800
00:46:13,160 --> 00:46:14,640
row playing middle.

801
00:46:14,640 --> 00:46:19,240
They had Ava Ful Dudo, who is another DS playing through the front row.

802
00:46:19,240 --> 00:46:23,840
I think their front row height was cut in half when that happened.

803
00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:29,200
It was wild and at one point you had like Izzy Stark, a DS and Jess Merzik in the front

804
00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:32,960
row and PK is commit jumping on Izzy Stark.

805
00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:33,960
I'm sorry.

806
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:38,080
If that is your front row, you just move all of your hitters out to the left side and you

807
00:46:38,080 --> 00:46:42,160
put a triple on Merzik and you go Izzy, if you want to dump, dump, we'll dig it.

808
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:45,600
But Merzik was one on one in that situation.

809
00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:46,600
Are you kidding me?

810
00:46:46,600 --> 00:46:47,820
Not once, but twice.

811
00:46:47,820 --> 00:46:49,160
Are you kidding me?

812
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:50,840
Who's going to hit the ball?

813
00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:52,000
The DS?

814
00:46:52,000 --> 00:46:54,440
So obviously she was not very mindful.

815
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:58,460
She got subbed out because of it deserved in my opinion.

816
00:46:58,460 --> 00:47:04,160
So she is the only player to me from Louisville side that I was like, hello.

817
00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:09,580
But I mean, the Anna DeBeer hole was a big one to fill.

818
00:47:09,580 --> 00:47:17,200
And I thought from a high level that they didn't do a good job replacing her leadership

819
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:18,960
and energy on the floor.

820
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:22,160
They were flat for a lot of that game.

821
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:26,480
And there was a lot of looking to other players and not that they weren't playing well and

822
00:47:26,480 --> 00:47:29,400
not that people weren't taking responsibility.

823
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:34,440
But DeBeer was always the one who would get a kill and come down and fire up her team

824
00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:39,000
and maybe not vocally, but just by her attitude and her presence on the court.

825
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:45,720
And that's nobody's fault because you can't just replace that in one match, but it has

826
00:47:45,720 --> 00:47:46,980
an effect.

827
00:47:46,980 --> 00:47:51,280
And it took them too long to kind of figure out who was going to step up because Luper

828
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:56,740
did that towards the end of the match and you could see her finding her rhythm and bringing

829
00:47:56,740 --> 00:47:58,220
some of that energy.

830
00:47:58,220 --> 00:48:01,920
But there was a definite hole on the court with DeBeer on the sideline.

831
00:48:01,920 --> 00:48:08,580
I'll be honest when DeBeer went down, I said to Adam, I was like, if she is not able to

832
00:48:08,580 --> 00:48:13,360
play on Sunday, whoever wins the Penn State Nebraska match is going to win it all.

833
00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:14,360
You did say that.

834
00:48:14,360 --> 00:48:17,040
And that is like, that's nothing against Louisville.

835
00:48:17,040 --> 00:48:24,400
That is just like respect and acknowledgement of how important Anna DeBeer is to that Louisville

836
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:25,400
team.

837
00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:27,400
Well, we would have said the same thing for Penn State if Merzik went down.

838
00:48:27,400 --> 00:48:28,400
Oh, yes.

839
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:29,400
Totally.

840
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:30,400
It's the same comparison.

841
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:32,040
You know, I was impressed with Cabello.

842
00:48:32,040 --> 00:48:38,400
I want to know when is the last time two true freshman setters went head to head in a national

843
00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:39,400
championship match?

844
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:43,500
I don't think the broadcasters knew she was a true freshman because they said it every

845
00:48:43,500 --> 00:48:48,160
time Izzy Stark touched the ball and not once when Cabello did.

846
00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:53,040
It wasn't like Izzy Stark, the setter, it was like freshman setter Izzy Stark.

847
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:54,680
And I'm like, okay, we get it.

848
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:55,880
We know she's a freshman.

849
00:48:55,880 --> 00:48:56,880
She's great.

850
00:48:56,880 --> 00:48:59,740
But there's a freshman setter on the other team too.

851
00:48:59,740 --> 00:49:00,740
And she's doing awesome.

852
00:49:00,740 --> 00:49:01,740
She didn't blink.

853
00:49:01,740 --> 00:49:03,220
No, didn't flinch.

854
00:49:03,220 --> 00:49:05,480
She was very good.

855
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:10,040
When we were saying Izzy Stark looked like a ghost sometimes in this Final Four, I didn't

856
00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:11,440
see that from Cabello at all.

857
00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:13,960
I was very impressed with her composure.

858
00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:19,120
And you lose your safety blanket in De Beer of somebody you can just set and expect to

859
00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:20,120
score points.

860
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:22,120
That is not an easy position to be in.

861
00:49:22,120 --> 00:49:25,480
You know, maybe that's one of the reasons they didn't run the middle as much.

862
00:49:25,480 --> 00:49:27,320
Yeah, I thought she did a great job.

863
00:49:27,320 --> 00:49:32,600
I will say one person, and I'm guilty of this myself, who doesn't get enough credit, in

864
00:49:32,600 --> 00:49:34,760
my opinion, is Grimes.

865
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:41,300
She went up in the semifinals against a libero that made player of the year nomination in

866
00:49:41,300 --> 00:49:47,120
Lexi Rodriguez and arguably one of the best liberos in the country.

867
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:48,120
First team All-American.

868
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:49,120
Yeah, exactly.

869
00:49:49,120 --> 00:49:51,040
And Elena Scott.

870
00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:56,960
And in my opinion, outplayed both of them in both matches.

871
00:49:56,960 --> 00:50:00,960
It was phenomenal to watch.

872
00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:06,600
And she's interesting because she doesn't really make spectacular plays.

873
00:50:06,600 --> 00:50:09,080
There was one where she laid out and made a dig that was unreal.

874
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:11,920
But in general, you just don't notice her.

875
00:50:11,920 --> 00:50:13,340
You don't notice her.

876
00:50:13,340 --> 00:50:14,340
No offense.

877
00:50:14,340 --> 00:50:15,340
You don't want to notice your libero.

878
00:50:15,340 --> 00:50:17,560
Because then they're real bad.

879
00:50:17,560 --> 00:50:18,560
I understand.

880
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:19,560
I understand that.

881
00:50:19,560 --> 00:50:23,240
Elena Scott makes some outrageous digs.

882
00:50:23,240 --> 00:50:24,920
One handed diving for the ball.

883
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:26,080
She's all over the court.

884
00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:27,240
She's very noticeable.

885
00:50:27,240 --> 00:50:28,240
She's jump setting.

886
00:50:28,240 --> 00:50:31,280
But you notice Elena Scott on the court in a good way.

887
00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:38,200
Grimes, you don't notice if you don't pay attention, but she quietly amasses digs and

888
00:50:38,200 --> 00:50:41,640
passes well and covers the court.

889
00:50:41,640 --> 00:50:43,320
It was fantastic to watch.

890
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:47,000
And I'm going to give her a shout out because she probably doesn't get any credit.

891
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:49,440
And I think she did a fantastic job this week.

892
00:50:49,440 --> 00:50:50,440
I agree.

893
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:52,580
She set really well.

894
00:50:52,580 --> 00:50:56,000
And she served very well.

895
00:50:56,000 --> 00:51:02,280
In that run at the end of set four, she was the one who got those aces on Rodriguez and

896
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:04,000
Choboy.

897
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:05,480
Let's talk about Merzik.

898
00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:08,040
You want me to start or do you want to start?

899
00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:09,040
You can start.

900
00:51:09,040 --> 00:51:13,880
I mean, there's not a whole lot you can say because she just decided that Penn State was

901
00:51:13,880 --> 00:51:14,880
going to win.

902
00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:15,960
And that was that.

903
00:51:15,960 --> 00:51:18,360
And she got better as both matches went on.

904
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:21,760
I think the thing for me that was the most impressive.

905
00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:29,360
So we saw her in Nebraska score on that sharp cross court swing uncontested to win the match.

906
00:51:29,360 --> 00:51:30,760
Louisville was ready for that.

907
00:51:30,760 --> 00:51:37,320
Elena Scott lined her up and made incredible digs, especially in the first and second sets

908
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:39,640
and took her favorite shot away from her.

909
00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:45,280
The thing that impressed me the most about her was she said, OK, if that's going to happen,

910
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:49,040
I'm going to swing to six and I'm going to go off the hands and I'm going to find the

911
00:51:49,040 --> 00:51:50,480
seams.

912
00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:57,040
And she changed how she was attacking in that match based off the defense.

913
00:51:57,040 --> 00:52:01,840
I don't know whether the staff gave her that information, whether she made that choice

914
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:02,840
herself.

915
00:52:02,840 --> 00:52:04,480
But that won them the game.

916
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:09,160
She went after the block and she found a way to score when Elena Scott was eating her up

917
00:52:09,160 --> 00:52:10,480
in the first two sets.

918
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:15,960
Whether the coaches told her to do that or not, efficiency at which she was able to find

919
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:20,080
those fingers was unbelievable.

920
00:52:20,080 --> 00:52:23,680
And honestly, that won them set four against Nebraska.

921
00:52:23,680 --> 00:52:29,600
She found the fingertips and just sailed those swings out of bounds so many times at the

922
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:31,520
end of set four against Nebraska.

923
00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:32,960
And she did the same thing.

924
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:37,320
And we talked about this last week when they played Creighton, how Creighton didn't do

925
00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:40,520
anything to reset the defense.

926
00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:45,880
When your favorite shot is taken away, take those swings to reset the defense.

927
00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:51,480
And she did that and she found a way to score anyway and then went back to the sharp angle

928
00:52:51,480 --> 00:52:53,560
and was able to score that way, too.

929
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:55,120
Because Elena Scott, because they adjusted.

930
00:52:55,120 --> 00:53:00,680
I will say I noticed more adjustments in this match than I think I have all season in terms

931
00:53:00,680 --> 00:53:05,000
of how they were defending players, in terms of where they were serving, what the strategy

932
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:06,000
was.

933
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:12,480
To me, that was a high level, a high intelligence level of making adjustments and trying to

934
00:53:12,480 --> 00:53:14,800
out battle your opponent in that way.

935
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:20,640
I was a little worried when Penn State gave up the 24 19 lead in set two.

936
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:23,880
I was like, oh dear, we saw this happen to Pitt.

937
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:27,040
Like, what's going to happen to their credit?

938
00:53:27,040 --> 00:53:31,520
They ended up in the exact same position in set three and four.

939
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:36,240
It was 1913 in sets two, three and four.

940
00:53:36,240 --> 00:53:39,800
Yeah, they didn't make the same mistake twice.

941
00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:44,200
They took care of business in sets three and four, but I was a little nervous there for

942
00:53:44,200 --> 00:53:45,200
a while.

943
00:53:45,200 --> 00:53:50,440
I think the thing for me about Penn State was they never changed their approach in the

944
00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:51,440
match.

945
00:53:51,440 --> 00:53:56,920
It didn't always go their way, but it was always an aggressive, we're playing to win

946
00:53:56,920 --> 00:54:00,000
mentality and that's not always easy to do.

947
00:54:00,000 --> 00:54:01,880
And it paid off for them.

948
00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:07,080
Merzik was outstanding, but she wasn't the only person performing.

949
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:08,440
Jura Vicious did well.

950
00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:10,400
Cameron Hanna did really well.

951
00:54:10,400 --> 00:54:12,320
Taylor Trammell was scoring.

952
00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:17,160
Mendelsohn was more steady than we have seen her in the previous two matches.

953
00:54:17,160 --> 00:54:20,440
We already mentioned Grimes, like Izzy Stark.

954
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:24,600
She definitely had moments when the games were getting tight where she, you can see

955
00:54:24,600 --> 00:54:26,440
her get frustrated with herself.

956
00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:31,000
You could see her be a little unsure, but she always righted herself and was able to

957
00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:35,840
get back on track, which is tough when you're really young.

958
00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:40,200
But I think top to bottom, Penn State showed up.

959
00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:47,400
They were the better team and I just loved seeing them all rise to the occasion.

960
00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:49,960
Like Jess Merzik, she is what she is.

961
00:54:49,960 --> 00:54:53,560
She put the team on her back, but she wasn't alone.

962
00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:58,280
Yeah, you generally can't win off one player, but everybody pulled their weight and it was

963
00:54:58,280 --> 00:54:59,440
good to see.

964
00:54:59,440 --> 00:55:00,640
So one hypothetical for you.

965
00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:02,840
You don't have to spend a lot of time on it, but I'm curious.

966
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:05,160
What do you think the match would have been like if De Beer was playing?

967
00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:06,760
I think it would have been a lot closer.

968
00:55:06,760 --> 00:55:10,080
I mean, she does every skill for Louisville.

969
00:55:10,080 --> 00:55:14,120
I mean, I can't predict because everybody showed up for Penn State too.

970
00:55:14,120 --> 00:55:18,220
Like Anna De Beer is a good blocker, so there's that piece that's added.

971
00:55:18,220 --> 00:55:23,120
She scores points for Louisville at a higher clip than Peterson did.

972
00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:27,000
I think it would have been a much more tight match than it was.

973
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:29,240
I think Penn State still would have won though.

974
00:55:29,240 --> 00:55:30,240
Fair enough.

975
00:55:30,240 --> 00:55:34,920
I think for Louisville to win, they needed to dominate the middle.

976
00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:38,760
And I'm not sure if that changes if De Beer is there or not.

977
00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:42,360
But to me going into that match, that was the key for Louisville.

978
00:55:42,360 --> 00:55:46,880
Well, Penn State was winning the blocking stat heading into set four, I believe.

979
00:55:46,880 --> 00:55:51,680
I don't know what it ended up as, but Penn State was out blocking Louisville throughout

980
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:53,720
that match, which I found interesting.

981
00:55:53,720 --> 00:55:55,200
So that was definitely true.

982
00:55:55,200 --> 00:55:58,480
The match ended with Louisville having 12 and Penn State having 11.

983
00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:00,240
Oh, never mind.

984
00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:04,240
Well, Louisville got a bunch of blocks in the four set, but they were ahead.

985
00:56:04,240 --> 00:56:09,280
And that is a staple of Louisville's game, which was a little surprising to see them

986
00:56:09,280 --> 00:56:10,600
not do that as well.

987
00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:12,480
I cried at the end.

988
00:56:12,480 --> 00:56:13,480
I think you might have too.

989
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:16,480
I'm not going to lie.

990
00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:20,120
You know, that is the beauty of sport.

991
00:56:20,120 --> 00:56:24,080
Like I said at the beginning of the segment, it couldn't have been written any better,

992
00:56:24,080 --> 00:56:30,520
you know, to understand the sacrifice that Katie Schumacher Collie has made all season,

993
00:56:30,520 --> 00:56:35,680
the fact that she continued to show up and like be professional and be there for her

994
00:56:35,680 --> 00:56:38,360
team, but also that her team was there for her.

995
00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:40,720
You could make a movie about it, honestly.

996
00:56:40,720 --> 00:56:45,960
It was a great story and it was a good ending to the season.

997
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:50,400
And you're happy for everybody in that program and surrounded with that.

998
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:54,480
And at the same time, you know, a little disappointed for Louisville and Anna.

999
00:56:54,480 --> 00:57:00,960
Congrats to Penn State, our 2024 NCAA Women's Volleyball Champions, their first title since

1000
00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:02,280
2014.

1001
00:57:02,280 --> 00:57:07,120
And they're within striking distance of Stanford for total national championship victories.

1002
00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:08,440
They now have eight.

1003
00:57:08,440 --> 00:57:10,920
Stanford is first with nine.

1004
00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:12,840
So yeah.

1005
00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:14,080
They'll be interesting next year.

1006
00:57:14,080 --> 00:57:16,720
They're going to roll over quite a few players.

1007
00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:23,040
So it'll be interesting to see who ends up there, how they do, well, if they're competitive.

1008
00:57:23,040 --> 00:57:24,640
But it was a great college season.

1009
00:57:24,640 --> 00:57:25,640
I really enjoyed it.

1010
00:57:25,640 --> 00:57:30,880
It is holiday season and there is minimal volleyball being played this week aside from

1011
00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:33,460
the pro leagues overseas.

1012
00:57:33,460 --> 00:57:37,760
So next week is going to be a little more fun, a little more laid back.

1013
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:42,880
We're not going to do deep dives on matches, but we will be answering several listener

1014
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:43,880
questions.

1015
00:57:43,880 --> 00:57:47,140
We've answered several in the last couple of weeks, so we're going to address those.

1016
00:57:47,140 --> 00:57:51,000
But if you have something that you want us to talk about, be sure to get your questions

1017
00:57:51,000 --> 00:57:54,020
into us by email, by Instagram or on YouTube.

1018
00:57:54,020 --> 00:58:00,500
For those of you who watch the video version of the of the show, we are also going to be

1019
00:58:00,500 --> 00:58:03,360
exploring the transfer portal.

1020
00:58:03,360 --> 00:58:07,520
I have very strong opinions about the portal, but there is some crazy stuff happening.

1021
00:58:07,520 --> 00:58:15,280
So next week is going to be very fun as we get ready for the NCAA men's season, PVF,

1022
00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:18,440
and the launch of love in the new year.

1023
00:58:18,440 --> 00:58:20,880
That concludes this week's episode of Volley Talk.

1024
00:58:20,880 --> 00:58:25,200
There's always something shaking in the volleyball world and we hope you enjoyed this little

1025
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:26,200
fix.

1026
00:58:26,200 --> 00:58:30,020
Be sure to follow the show so you don't miss any updates and we would be so grateful if

1027
00:58:30,020 --> 00:58:32,320
you would leave us a five star review.

1028
00:58:32,320 --> 00:58:37,420
You can also find us on Instagram at Volley Talk underscore podcast.

1029
00:58:37,420 --> 00:58:41,640
As I said, if you have a topic you want us to discuss, be sure to let us know by reaching

1030
00:58:41,640 --> 00:58:46,440
out to us on Instagram or at info at sarahpavin.com.

1031
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:50,200
Thanks so much for joining us and we'll be back next week.

1032
00:58:50,200 --> 00:59:07,640
Happy Holidays everyone.