09-05-2014, 11:41 PM
Wow...this is a tough crowd. ;DÂ
We just beat the #1 team in the country in five games. Last time we played them, they beat us in five games... and went on to win the national championship the following weekend. They're very good. We're very good...and tonight we were just enough better when it counted. From the observations so far, though, if I hadn't been there to see it myself, I'd be pretty sure we lost again... ???
Nevertheless... I can't really dispute most of those observations. It seemed to me like we were playing tight much of the time; often we seemed to be hitting just to keep the ball in play, rather than to terminate and win the point. The timing on the Inky slide seemed to be way off for some reason, the cause of which did not seem to be due to Penn State. That being said, we did have a situation -- in Game 2, I believe -- when we really needed a point late, it was pretty clear to everyone in Maples that the set was going to go to Inky in the middle, it did go to Inky in the middle, and she put it down. With authority. Against the #1 team. That bodes well for the rest of the season. Bugg's setting against Nebraska last week was much better than tonight, and they've made that slide work well enough over the past two seasons, so I'm confident they'll get it going again.
Tonight showed that, when we play our best, we can beat these guys, and when we don't, they can handle us pretty easily. That's about the best lesson you can get from one of these early season top-5 match ups -- we don't have to be scared of them when we [almost certainly] meet them again in a little under 3 months, but we also know that we can easily lose if we don't bring our best. And, if you can learn that lesson while also getting a win that will make you the #1 team in the country [assuming we take care of business against Illinois -- who got taken out in 3 by UCLA], that's a decent night's work.
We just beat the #1 team in the country in five games. Last time we played them, they beat us in five games... and went on to win the national championship the following weekend. They're very good. We're very good...and tonight we were just enough better when it counted. From the observations so far, though, if I hadn't been there to see it myself, I'd be pretty sure we lost again... ???
Nevertheless... I can't really dispute most of those observations. It seemed to me like we were playing tight much of the time; often we seemed to be hitting just to keep the ball in play, rather than to terminate and win the point. The timing on the Inky slide seemed to be way off for some reason, the cause of which did not seem to be due to Penn State. That being said, we did have a situation -- in Game 2, I believe -- when we really needed a point late, it was pretty clear to everyone in Maples that the set was going to go to Inky in the middle, it did go to Inky in the middle, and she put it down. With authority. Against the #1 team. That bodes well for the rest of the season. Bugg's setting against Nebraska last week was much better than tonight, and they've made that slide work well enough over the past two seasons, so I'm confident they'll get it going again.
Tonight showed that, when we play our best, we can beat these guys, and when we don't, they can handle us pretty easily. That's about the best lesson you can get from one of these early season top-5 match ups -- we don't have to be scared of them when we [almost certainly] meet them again in a little under 3 months, but we also know that we can easily lose if we don't bring our best. And, if you can learn that lesson while also getting a win that will make you the #1 team in the country [assuming we take care of business against Illinois -- who got taken out in 3 by UCLA], that's a decent night's work.