Match Thread - PSU @ Pitt: Weds. Sep 18, 2024 7:00 p.m. ET
Sept 18, 2024 15:32:28 GMT -5
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Post by lynnllp on Sept 18, 2024 15:32:28 GMT -5
If we compare the matches that matter (ranked matches), PSU is a better offensive team outhitting Pitt 0.316 to 0.276. Pitt is a much better serving team (and if you watched the first spring match, you know this) serving 2.67 aces/set to PSU's 1.16 aces/set. Blocking is pretty much a scratch with PSU barely out blocking Pitt 2.58 blocks/set to Pitt's 2.33. In terms of floor defense, PSU out dug Pitt 13.75 digs/set to 12.5 digs/set.
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Appreciate your write-up psuphdstudent !
I wonder about the serving difference. 1) The ranked teams that PSU has played is a lot higher than Pitt, i.e. the serve receive for those team is, I think, better 2) It's my impression that PSU serving has gotten better as the season goes on - in particular, Falduto has been serving REALLY well. She goes on serving runs regularly. She has 11 aces so far, but we know that the aces stat is not a good indicator of how well a person/team is serving. When Ava serves, she frequently puts the other team oos even when she doesn't have many aces. (Anyone know how well she served against Pitt in the spring?) I think that PSU has at least 5 servers who can go on runs. So I think that the PSU serving may be underrated. I also don't know how good the server receive is for Pitt. I guess I'll find out tomorrow!
On a different subject, the Massey rating only give PSU a 1 in 3 chance of winning. That seems low to me. I don't know if that's my prejudice for PSU or if Massey is still taking last year into account and isn't fully using 2024 data yet. Since PSU has played better (higher ranked) team this year than Pitt, I wonder why/how that is figured.
Someone can say all they want that Pitt looks so good this year; that's nice, but who have they played? PSU is the only highly ranked team Pitt will play in their pre-conf matches. And I doubt that Pitt was expecting PSU to be this good when the PSU vs PItt match was scheduled last year. So while the other top teams are playing each other, (Texas, Stanford, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Louisville, PSU), Pitt is not. Interesting.
Something else that is annoying; Pitt's RPI is the highest of all the NCAA teams so far, in spite of the fact that they have played very few highly ranked teams. Just goes to show that Pitt is gaming the system (RPI) really well, i.e. they are playing teams that maximize Pitt's RPI, not teams that are necessarily very good. Another reason that I dislike the RPI system. Oh well.
PSU's RPI will seldom be as high because Katie, along with RR, feels that playing lower ranked teams is good for those teams and is good for raising volleyball awareness/popularity.
Edit: Will be interesting to see the Pitt vs Stanford match during the regular season. I know Pitt vs Louisville is always a barn burner, but with Louisville's small OH's Louisville's offense has to be really on to beat the top ranked teams.
And just my luck, Pitt will destroy PSU and I'll have to eat my words. Don't think that will happen, but it could. Hopefully Izzy/PSU will not be fazed by the Pitt crowd.