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Post by ethankasales on Jun 2, 2024 11:39:55 GMT -5
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Post by ethankasales on Jun 2, 2024 14:17:51 GMT -5
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Post by dc155 on Jun 2, 2024 14:52:16 GMT -5
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Post by ethankasales on Jun 4, 2024 0:00:45 GMT -5
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Post by ethankasales on Jun 4, 2024 1:40:15 GMT -5
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Post by ethankasales on Jun 5, 2024 12:57:38 GMT -5
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Post by jojonito on Jun 5, 2024 19:04:46 GMT -5
Well, the US Olympic WVB team roster was announced today.
Setters - Poulter, Carlini (What? No Micha?)
Opposites - Thompson, Annie Drews
Middles - Rettke, Washington, Ogbogu
OH's - Larson, Robinson-Cook, Kathryn Plummer, Avery Skinner
Libero - Justine Wong-Orantes
This year for the first time, a team can bring an alternate for the 13th player. Also, I believe that the alternate can be switched for someone on the regular roster and actually play without an injury happening. USAV (Karch) didn't announce the alternate, not sure why, maybe if injuries pop up, but gave a list of five players that
they will pick the alternate from. which ar3:
Micha Hancock at setter, libero Morgan Hentz, outside hitter Ali Frantti, outside hitter/opposite Khalia Lanier, and middle blocker Anna Stevenson Hall.
I was surprised that Micha didn't make it. I think that she is a better leader, better server
and better setter than Carlini. Carlini "may" be better defensively and is taller so is a better
blocker. Definitely disappointed for her.
I also disagree with Plummer being on the roster. She's an OH and can really hammer the ball, but she also receives serve, which she doesn't do very well. She also, IMO, can be a liability in the back court. She just isn't very agile. She's been pulled from at least 3 matches in the VNL tournament because of issues in serve receive. I don't get it.
Jordan Thompson hasn't been totally back to her from from the Tokyo Olympics, but she probably will get their. If not, Annie Drews is a fabulous opposite also, so it's nice to have her in the wings if Thompson is having a bad game.
USA is fielding a good team, but they have their work cut out for them. The top two teams, IMO, are Turkey and Poland, who both have 2 players who can just hammer the ball. Both Brazil and Italy are good teams also. So if USA doesn't play to their potential, they could very possibly not even medal.
We shall see.
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Post by jojonito on Jun 5, 2024 19:09:05 GMT -5
Duplicate post. Oh well  |
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Post by KittanningLion on Jun 5, 2024 19:18:57 GMT -5
Seems like some Penn State players got the short end of the stick in the Olympics roster selection. Glass in 2012, Faucett in 2016, and Hancock & Frantti in 2024.
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Post by psuphdstudent on Jun 5, 2024 21:29:16 GMT -5
I’ve watched every VNL game and honestly I thought it should’ve been Carlini and Hancock as setter. Poulter is great and was great in Tokyo but her movement was clearly affected by her injury and isn’t 100% yet. She played 6/8 matches at VNL and she is not in form - decision making, location is a little off, slap on being slow and you have a problem. Micha and Lauren had a match each and Karch used that to decide. Obviously I carry bias as a PSU fan but from the VNL eye test Micha was the best out the three at least at the current state of things. Even when we were struggling against Turkey and Poland, when Micha would come in in a double sub role, USA would usually go on runs or at least there would always be positive contribution. But alas, I’ll be rooting for Haleigh, but I’ll pay more attention to the men’s USA team I guess 😂 where there are THREE Penn State starters.
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Post by jojonito on Jun 6, 2024 3:23:59 GMT -5
I’ve watched every VNL game and honestly I thought it should’ve been Carlini and Hancock as setter. ... I think that Poulter, when in form, is probably the best USA setter. No, she isn't back in form yet. BUT, Karch probably thinks that given the 9-12 matches that she'll play in VNL and some friendly matches, that she will be by the time the Olympics roll around. I would wager that the fact that Poulter is not back in form is why Carlini was chosen. Carlini, physically, is a Poulter clone. So if Poulter doesn't make it back to form, Carlini is there to step in. Also, with Turkey and Poland having such hammers on their teams, blocking is even more important, which is a "weakness" with Micah. With other teams, not Turkey and Poland, Micah's blocking is fine, but with those two teams she could have problems; i.e. blocking Vargas, Karakurt and Systiak.
The fact that Poulter was getting 3 out of 4 starts the first two weeks pretty much guaranteed, (to my mind anyway ), that Karch was gonna pick Poulter as one of the setters. No, she hasn't been the best setter, but she is constantly improving. I do think that by the time the Olympics start, that she will be back in form. I REALLY hope I'm right.
I really hope Poulter gets back in form, cuz I don't have a lot of confidence in Carlini to take USA to the gold.
Much as I hate to say it, my prediction for Olympic gold is Turkey. I don't see any team that can stop both Vargas and Karakurt. I think that USA may be the only team that can give them a run for their money, but ONLY if Jordan Thompson/Annie Drews are back in form. We saw what happened in the fifth set against Turkey. After USA was up 10-7, USA couldn't buy a kill. USA didn't have a hammer that they could feed the ball to and be reasonably certain of getting a point. Turkey just kept feeding Vargas and rode her to the finish line. USA was out-scored 8-2 in the last 10 points of the fifth set.
Larson is a great all-around player but I don't think she's a hammer who can carry USA in tight matches. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so. My impression is that Larson is playing much better than she did in the 2021 Olympics. By the way, she took the last 8-9 months off from playing professionally and just trained. We're seeing the results of that now. She is playing fabulously.
The USA is so fortunate to have two opposites of the quality of Thompson and Drews. I read somewhere that Thompson could have played in the Silver/Gold matches in the 2021 Olympics, but Karch decided to not play her because Drews was playing so well.
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Post by psuphdstudent on Jun 6, 2024 5:34:14 GMT -5
I’ve watched every VNL game and honestly I thought it should’ve been Carlini and Hancock as setter. ... I think that Poulter, when in form, is probably the best USA setter. No, she isn't back in form yet. BUT, Karch probably thinks that given the 9-12 matches that she'll play in VNL and some friendly matches, that she will be by the time the Olympics roll around. I would wager that the fact that Poulter is not back in form is why Carlini was chosen. Carlini, physically, is a Poulter clone. So if Poulter doesn't make it back to form, Carlini is there to step in. Also, with Turkey and Poland having such hammers on their teams, blocking is even more important, which is a "weakness" with Micah. With other teams, not Turkey and Poland, Micah's blocking is fine, but with those two teams she could have problems; i.e. blocking Vargas, Karakurt and Systiak.
The fact that Poulter was getting 3 out of 4 starts the first two weeks pretty much guaranteed, (to my mind anyway ), that Karch was gonna pick Poulter as one of the setters. No, she hasn't been the best setter, but she is constantly improving. I do think that by the time the Olympics start, that she will be back in form. I REALLY hope I'm right.
I really hope Poulter gets back in form, cuz I don't have a lot of confidence in Carlini to take USA to the gold.
Much as I hate to say it, my prediction for Olympic gold is Turkey. I don't see any team that can stop both Vargas and Karakurt. I think that USA may be the only team that can give them a run for their money, but ONLY if Jordan Thompson/Annie Drews are back in form. We saw what happened in the fifth set against Turkey. After USA was up 10-7, USA couldn't buy a kill. USA didn't have a hammer that they could feed the ball to and be reasonably certain of getting a point. Turkey just kept feeding Vargas and rode her to the finish line. USA was out-scored 8-2 in the last 10 points of the fifth set.
Larson is a great all-around player but I don't think she's a hammer who can carry USA in tight matches. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so. My impression is that Larson is playing much better than she did in the 2021 Olympics. By the way, she took the last 8-9 months off from playing professionally and just trained. We're seeing the results of that now. She is playing fabulously.
The USA is so fortunate to have two opposites of the quality of Thompson and Drews. I read somewhere that Thompson could have played in the Silver/Gold matches in the 2021 Olympics, but Karch decided to not play her because Drews was playing so well.
I do think the roster is solid. The only contentious spots was truly setters (both spots) and who the back up outsides were cause Larson after mopping all the youngins in VNL and Robinson-Cook were always going. I agree with the fact that Poulter is USA’s #1 setter when healthy. What I fear is that even after a year and half her movement was that bad I don’t know if 2 months will change that into what they need it to be. Not to mention that her blocking is horrendous. She is 3 inches taller than Micha and looked like she was 2 inches shorter when blocking. I think Karch chose the roster on what the theoretical ceiling could be and hopes the team will get there and I hope they do. Because most of this team has already played except for Drews, Cook and Carlini has played one game and the USA is 4-4 with 2 potential threats to go. Honestly they would’ve had a better record if they had just let Poulter sit out a set or two cause girl was feeling her leg. Türkiye was her worst setting match of her six games and the dub subs were kinda showing her up in both weeks. I feel for Ali too. She worked to the bone to get in that gym and it took her a while to get an invite. She had better moments than Plummer at VNL but that wasn’t good enough to overcome Plummers stellar club season. Meanwhile, Skinner just showed both Ali and Plummer up this VNL so I’m not surprised she made the roster. P.S. Micha was #2 trending on Brazilian twitter because of the OG snub. |
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Post by jojonito on Jun 6, 2024 15:26:30 GMT -5
Considering how little Carlini and Micha both played in the VNL, I think that Karch had his mind made up before VNL. Poulter was always going to get 3/4 or more of the setting to get her back in shape, so there was no way that Karch could make a decision based on the little Micha and Carlini played in the VNL.
I think an announcer mentioned that Poulter has been practicing/rehabbing with Karch for a while. So he should have a good idea of whether Poulter will make it back or not. We'll see.
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Post by ethankasales on Jun 6, 2024 23:32:08 GMT -5
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Post by ethankasales on Jun 7, 2024 10:21:09 GMT -5
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