I haven’t seen much of Penn St. lately, but I got to watch them live at the Big10/Pac10 Challenge games at the Pav in early Sept (their line-up may have evolved since then) when they beat Oregon and Stanford.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the stature of their Outside Hitters. Williams, #23, is listed at 6-0, Starck, #10 & Weatherington, #17 are listed at 6-2 – but none of the three looked that tall. But they are powerful hitters, especially Williams!
Their Jordanian setter, Elisaia listed at 5-10, also doesn’t look that tall – yet she loves to attack. But she can’t block! I thought her hands weren’t good – she was whistled a couple times but could have been whistled more. Their D.S, Grimes, #3, was amazing.
READERS WRITE
R. A. writes: “Big10 primed OSU to win, bringing all three main compeitors (NE, MN, WI) to Columbus as victims to close the season. They already beat NE 3-1. There’s no justification to stack MN and WI on the road the last four matches (not even giving us both powderpuff Rutgers as cover). NEB is Big10’s 2nd choice, with WI and MN in Lincoln to close the season.
I agree INDIANA was “brilliant” to power-serve us, the only chance they had to survive. Nearly won 1st set, woulda been big problem for us had they continued. Unlike Wenaas’s, their power serves were very effective, though we adjusted by the second set (e.g.,: CC coached Landfair to move up when #12 came to the service line).”
JOHN: I guess it’s possible that the BIG 10 has a pro-OSU / anti MINN bias, but the more obvious explanation is that BTN wanted the top 4 teams in back-to-back double-headers to close out their coverage. (ESPN having exclusive rights to the NCAAs.) And it’s an opportunity for the Big10 to showcase their best teams going into the tournament seeding.
And speaking of CC, Reader D.U., noting the loss of the Libero we had recruited to replace McGraw, asked me if, during all the matches I watched at Xcel last week, if I had noticed any top-notch Liberos
JOHN: Short answer, No. Doesn’t mean there weren’t some good ones; when I’m watching a team for the first time, it’s the hitters that catch my attention. And keep in mind that a top D-1 Libero candidate might not be playing Libero for a single-A or double-A high school team. But yes, on-court leadership is one more way we are going to miss McGraw next year – we’d better find a good one..