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Post by skrapheap on May 29, 2014 8:11:23 GMT -6
It's about three months to the beginning of the season. The schedule has been out for a couple of weeks: www.uwmpanthers.com/sports/w-volley/spec-rel/051614aaa.html (see grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wiml/sports/w-volley/auto_pdf/2013-14/misc_non_event/2014_VB_Schedule.pdf to see just the schedule). Coach Johnson and staff continue to challenge themselves with strong non-league opponents. i sometimes wish they would challenge themselves a little less, so as to improve their non-league record and perhaps get a better seeding in the NCAA tournament, but i can't really argue with their success. The Panthers graduated just one player, but she was the leader of the team: Rachel Neuberger. Of the five seniors on the 2014 squad, two played major roles last season: Taylor Golabowski and Julie Kolinske. Golabowski was a key player on a back row that played excellent defense. Kolinske lead the team in kills and helped anchor the front row. Of the remaining three seniors, two have played expanded roles in previous years: Amber Simonton was a key blocker during the 2012 season that was such a disappointment, and Hannah Blanchard stepped in at setter when Kayla Price was lost for the 2012 season. Blanchard saw significant playing time in some matches as strictly a front-row player last year. The junior class is strong for 2014. Kayla Price received a medical redshirt for 2012, so she is a junior instead of a senior for 2014. She is a great player, consistently ranking high among the HL's setters. She makes the hitters around her better. Maggie Dunbar and Nicole Latzig gradually increased their playing time over the course of the 2013 season, and should be key contributors in 2014. Maisey Mulvey was another key defensive player, playing in all 29 matches last season. Sammi Herron played well when called on. The sophomore class should benefit from their experience last year. Myanna Ruiz started 2013 on fire, and looked to me like a strong candidate to be newcomer of the year until she sprained an ankle. She is versatile, able to dig in the back row and hit and block in the front row. Kaisa Mattson played significant minutes toward the end of the season. Maddie Schmitz was a key player in the back row, playing in 21 of 29 matches. The Panthers offered their one open scholarship to Jessica Kalous from Greenfield High School. She should fit in well with the other front row players. The squad will also have a walk-on, Mikelyn Olsen, a defensive specialist who led her East Troy High School team to a perfect record and a state title in her senior season. The Panthers open the non-league season with a home tournament, which is rare for them, before spending the next three weekends of the non-league season on the road. The league season starts with three home matches. The league schedule is balanced: this year the Panthers will not play more then three consecutive league matches either on the road or at home.
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Post by kirby on Jul 31, 2014 12:04:40 GMT -6
Top Moments in 2013-2014 m.uwmpanthers.com/m/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/072914aab.html"... the athletic communications staff sat down to pick out the top moments of the year and we will be bringing those..." Top 11 moments for the past 12 months? 2013 Volleyball finished 1st in Horizon League AND won the Conference Tournament after being 8th in 2012. Not on the list. Intentional or an oversight?
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Post by skrapheap on Jul 31, 2014 20:51:02 GMT -6
It's a McCaffrey year, so there were a lot of good stories to choose from. I'm not surprised stories like the Tennis team winning the league made the list, since they don't have the same history of success that the volleyball or women's soccer teams have had. I doubt the omission was intended as a slight to the volleyball program.
It was notable that the Panthers went from not making the league tournament in 2012 to winning the regular season and league tournament in 2013, certainly. But what the team did was to prove that 2012 was a fluke.
The Panthers were considered contenders, if not favorites, to win the league in 2012. Injuries to key players showed that the 2012 roster was not as strong top to bottom as some of the previous rosters had been. The 2012 team was also a young one, which played a part in the troubles after the injuries occurred. Coach Johnson didn't have a lot of experienced players to fill in when starters were injured. I have to believe that a healthy team would have been in the mix for the league title. But the quality of play in the league has definitely improved over the last several years, so when the injury bug bit the Panthers, the other teams in the league moved past them.
The 2013 Panther squad was also a young one, so it was natural for the Panthers to be picked to finish in the bottom half of the league. But it is significant that they were not picked to finish last. It guickly became apparent that the 2013 Panthers were going to be much better than the 2012 squad. The team, though still young, was lead by the veteran players, who stepped up their play. A couple of younger players contributed early, which helped a lot. It meant that the other younger players got to get used to D1 play over the course of the season.
Toward the end of the season, when those younger players started making significant contributions, that made it much easier for the coaching staff. The coaches now had the luxury of playing whoever was hot. It didn't matter if a player was not playing well in a match; the coaches could be confident that anyone who subbed in would play well.
It also helped that the league has continued to improve. Valparaiso had another strong year. Cleveland State (another very young team) started slow, and then came on strong. Oakland rebounded from a slow start in league play to finish in the top half. Green Bay and Youngstown State also played well. These teams were, obligingly, knocking each other off. Valpo never passed the Panthers in the standings because the Crusaders lost to quality league opponents. The Panthers were 12-2 in league play; Valpo finished second at 10-4.
So, as the season played out, it became clear that 2012 was a single bad season, not an indication that the Panthers were no longer a perennial Horizon League power, although some in the league might have hoped that that would happen. I expect the 2014 Panthers will be picked to finish high in the league. I expect they will finish high in the league. The freshmen who suffered through that 2012 season are now juniors, and the key contributors who were freshmen last year are now sophomores. The 2014 Panthers are still fairly young, but they are experienced, and successful.
If the league continues to improve, winning titles will prove to be more of a challenge, but that is as it should be. If an HL team has won in the NCAA tournament, it has been a long time since it has happened. The Panthers next NCAA tournament victory will be their first as a D1 program. Playing in a competitive league can only help.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 27, 2014 17:36:32 GMT -6
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Post by PantherU on Aug 28, 2014 10:18:05 GMT -6
Are there only six teams with women's volleyball? You'd think that would be an obvious choice for women's sports.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 28, 2014 10:46:25 GMT -6
Are there only six teams with women's volleyball? You'd think that would be an obvious choice for women's sports. There are eight teams, but the Panthers could get a maximum of seven first place votes in the poll, because Coach Johnson can't vote for her team. The Panthers actually got six of those seven possible votes. 0ne vote (out of eight total) went to Valpo, and the other to Oakland. I wonder whether Coach Johnson voted for Valpo or Oakland? Here's the results of the poll: 2014 Preseason Poll Rank School (1st) Points 1. Milwaukee (6) 47 2. Valparaiso (1) 39 3. Oakland (1) 37 4. Cleveland State 29 5. Green Bay 26 6. UIC 20 7. Youngstown State 19 8. Wright State 7 2013's final results: 1 Milwaukee 2 Valparaiso 3 Green Bay 4 Oakland 5 Youngstown State 6 Cleveland State 7 UIC 8 Wright State
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 29, 2014 7:53:05 GMT -6
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 29, 2014 12:47:10 GMT -6
Watching the first match on HLN (yay!).
First set: Panthers built a 12-5 lead. Robert Morris University closed the lead to 14-10 to prompt a Panther time-out. A good rally extends the Panther lead to 18-12. The Panthers are mixing hard kills and roll shots nicely, and blocking well. The back row is digging well. The Panthers are also serving pretty well: not a lot of aces, but lots of serves are hard to return well. First set point at 24-16. Myanna Ruiz wins the set with a roll shot from the back row, nicely placed in between the front and back rows. Panthers hit .419, holding Robert Morris to .107. Ruiz led the way with five kills, hitting .556 for the set.
Second set: Starts with an overpass return of Ruiz's serve, leading to a kill from Julie Kolinske. RMU came back to tie the set at two each, then the Panthers reeled off three straight points. RMU continues to have trouble returning Panther serves. Several easy kills because RMU couldn't keep the ball in their side of the net. When the lead reached 13-6, RMU took a timeout. After three RMU points off the time out, Ruiz broke the string with a hard cross-court kill. The lead then grew to 18-9 to prompt another RMU timeout. First Panther set point at 24-13. An RMU error gives the Panthers set two.
Two sets in: Panthers lead by Kolinske with 10 kills, Hannah Blanchard with seven, and Ruiz with 6. The Panthers have outhit RMU .417 to .091, and lead in blocks 10 to 2.
Third set: The Panthers scored the first two points of the set. RMU played much better in the set. Coach Johnson called a time out when RMU closed to 10-7. The second Panther timeout came when RMU closed to 18-15. They pulled to within one at 19-18 and then 20-19, then tied the match at 20. RMU took their first timeout after the Panthers then took a 22-20 lead. A Kolinske kill down the line gave the Panthers match point. RMU took their second timeout. A long rally ended in an RMU point. After another RMU point, the Panthers win the match on a service error. Kokinske and Blanchard finish in double digits in kills with 16 and 10, respectively, followed by Ruiz and Kaisa Mattson with seven and six.
Not a bad start to the season and the tournament. Match two is against North Dakota State tonight.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 29, 2014 17:45:11 GMT -6
The match before the Panthers' evening match is between Miami (OH), who swept North Dakota State in the tournament opener, and Robert Morris, fresh off being swept by the Panthers.
Miami takes the first set easily, 25-11. In the second set, things get interesting. Robert Morris starts fast, and then Miami catches up and forges a 4 point lead. RMU then responds by pushing back into the lead. Miami plays close and ties the match twice and then takes a brief lead, but RMU responds with a surge of their own to force another tie, and then retake the lead, to win their first set of the season, 25-22. The teams are tied in sets heading into the break.
Miami retakes control of the match in set three, running out to a big lead and finishing the set at 25-12. Set four starts as a reply of set two, except that the swings are not as radical; the score stays closer. Miami took an 18-16 lead to prompt an RMU timeout. Gametracker appears to have frozen at that point of the match.
Scouting North Dakota State, the Panthers' second opponent of the day, they seem to be a fairly young squad. They were lead in their loss to Miami by a junior, but the two seniors i was able to identify did not seem to contribute a lot. There were a lot of freshmen and sophomores playing in their first match.
Valparaiso is playing in a tournament in North Carolina, against three teams that had losing records last year. The Crusaders won their first match, beating Wofford 3-1. Oakland swept Louisana Tech in a tournament at Western Michigan. Wright State was swept by Indiana State. Cleveland State and UIC play single matches tonight and play two matches each tomorrow to start their seasons.
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Post by PantherU on Aug 29, 2014 18:47:08 GMT -6
Our own Leanne Felsing (now Leanne Williamson) is in Green Bay's tournament as a member of South Dakota's staff.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 29, 2014 19:11:24 GMT -6
The first set of the match against North Dakota State went back and forth, a lot of traded points. The serve was not working well for the Panthers. The Bison's first two points were Panther service errors.
Part of this might be attributed to a different starting lineup, with the starters from the early match starting largely on the bench. The set was tied 1, 2, 5, 9, 11, and 12. The Bison took a 14-12 lead, which led Coach Johnson to call her first timeout. Out the timeout, the Panthers scored two points to tie the score, and then a Bison hitting error gave the Panthers the lead back. A Myanna Ruiz kill pushed the lead to 16-14, leading to a Bison timeout. The Panthers continued their good play out of the time out, pushing the lead to four. The Bison then reduced the lead to two, to which the Panthers reaponded with three more points to lead 21-16 and force another timeout. Out of the second time out, the Panthers pushed the lead further, setting their first set point on a Nicole Latzig kill, followed immediately by a Myanna Ruiz kill to finish set one, 25-17. Ruiz led with seven kills in the set. Latzig and Kaisa Mattson had four kills apiece in the set.
(HLN coverage was in and out. I don't know whether there were technical difficulties associated with broadcasting the match and a Men's soccer match at the same time, or perhaps an HLN policy about the number of events which can be broadcast.)
The second set started similarly to the first. Milwaukee jumped out to a 2-0 lead in set two before the Bison got on the board. The scores was tied at three on consecutive Bison scores, and then again at four. Consecutive kills by Hannah Blanchard gave the Panthers a 6-4 lead, only to see the Bison block a kill attempt by Ruiz to close to one, and then tie the set again at six. The Panthers then scored consecutive points to reestablish a two point lead. The Panther lead continued to move back and forth between one and two points, until the Bison took a lead of their own at 12-10. The Panthers then called a timeout. Out of timeout, the Panthers tied the set at twelve, but the Bison then scored consecutive points to retake the lead. The Panthers then tied the set at fourteen and then retook the lead on a Mattson kill and a Maddie Schmitz ace, prompting a Bison timeout. The Panthers then continued to alternate points with the Bison until taking a 20-16 lead, at that point their largest lead of the set. The Bison called their second timeout at that point. Out of the timeout, the Panthers took firm control of the match, pushing the lead to seven points at 23-16. Freshmen Mykie Olsen then served up consecutive aces to wrap up set two. Ruiz had no kills in set two; the slack in scoring was made up by Latzig, who had seven kills at the end of two sets, by Mattson, who had six kills at that point, and by Hannah Blanchard and Sammi Herron, who had four kills each going in to the break. Olsen had three aces and no errors after two sets.
After the break, the back and forth pattern to start a set continued. Again, service errors prevented the Panthers from building momentum. The Panthers pushed the lead to three on a great play. Taylor Golabowski dug up a hard kill attempt, which turned into a Ruiz kill from the back row. The lead grew to four, prompting a Bison timeout. Julie Kolinske then began to assert herself, stringing kills down the line to push the lead to 15-8. The Bison narrowed the lead to five, but the Panthers pushed the lead back to six at 17-11 on Latzig's 10th kill of the match. The Bison called another timeout. The Panthers then called timeout after the Bison closed the lead to four, and then to two at 18-16. Latzig broke the string with a kill. Coach Johnson took a second timeout when the Bison tied the score at 20. Out of the timeout, the Bison scored consecutive points, before the Panthers tied the score at 22. Blanchard gave the Panthers a short-lived lead. Kolinske then gave the Panthers their first match point, which the Bison fought off and took their first set point. A service error tied the set at 25. A hitting error created another match point opportunity, but a Mattson serving error tied the set again. The Panthers finally strung together two points to take the third set, and the match 28-26.
The Panthers scoring was once again well-balanced. Ruiz and Latzig had eleven kills each, followed by Kolinske with 10, Mattson and Herron at six each, and Blanchard with five.
Maggie Dunbar did not play in either match, nor did freshman Jessica Kalous.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 30, 2014 12:02:51 GMT -6
The first match of the second day of the Pepsi Panther Invitational pitted Robert Morris University against North Dakota State, both teams having lost both their matches on Friday. One team would finish winless: both teams were resolved to go down fighting. The Bison won the first set, 25-19; the Colonials took the second set 25-22. Perhaps due to the early start time, there were a lot of points scored on errors. In set three, ND State was able to go on more and longer runs, pushing the lead out to 16-9, then 18-10, en route to an easy win, 25-15. RMU took control of the fourth set, although ND State tied the score a number of times. A late run pushed the Colonials' lead to 19-14, leading to a Bison timeout. RMU closed out set four 25-16, to force a fifth set. ND State took immediate control of the deciding set, winning 15-10 to take the match.
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Post by skrapheap on Aug 30, 2014 15:01:35 GMT -6
The last match of the tournament featured two unbeaten teams in Milwaukee and Miami of Ohio. Both teams had had an easy path through their first two matches, but this match was to be much more challenging.
The Panthers took the first set, 25-21, but gave up a number of points in the middle of the court. Myanna Ruiz and Hannah Blanchard led the Panthers with five and four kills, respectively.
Miami took the next two sets, by identical 25-20 scores. Julie Kolinske was the lone bright spot, getting 16 kills through three sets. The Panther block was almost non-existent. Service was not as bad as in the previous two matches, but was still a weakness, and against better competition than Robert Morris or North Dakota State, it was costly.
The Panthers finally got off to a good start in set four, getting the first three points. The Redhawks surged back to take a 5-4 lead. The teams then traded points to a 9-8 Panther lead. The Panther block finally started to assert itself in the set. A Maddie Schmitz ace got the Panther lead to 15-13, prompting a Redhawk timeout. Consecutive kills by Ruiz extended the Panther lead to 19-16. Miami took a timeout when the Panthers pushed the lead to 21-16. Three straight Redhawk points prompted a Panther timeout. The second Panther timeout came with the Panthers up 23-21. Maggie Dunbar, who made her first appearance in the match, took the Panthers to set point with a kill, and the Panthers won 25-21 on a hitting error, to force a fifth set.
The Panthers scored the first two points of the fifth set, and took a 4-1 lead early, prompting a Redhawk timeout. The Panthers managed to maintain a three point lead to 6-3, then Miami narrowed the lead to 6-5, and Milwaukee called a timeout. When the teams switched sides, the Panthers led 8-6 courtesy of a Dunbar block. Out of the timeout, a Mykie Olsen ace stretched the lead to 10-6. A Redhawk hitting error, followed by a Taylor Golabowski ace gave the Panthers a 13-9 lead, leading the Redhawks to take their second timeout of the set. Milwaukee took their second timeout when Miami narrowed the lead to 13-11. Out of the timeout, Kolinske's 25th and 26th kills finished the set and gave the Panthers the match win.
Kolinske hit .511 for the match; her 26 kills were a career high. Kayla Price had a double double of 52 assists and 14 digs. Taylor Golabowski ended the afternoon with a team-high 22 digs to go with a career-high 10 assists, and Ruiz added a double-double of 13 kills and 22 digs. The Panthers hit .272 for the match.
This was a good win for the Panthers: they faced some adversity, and found a way to win. Also, given their trouble the past few years in winning fifth sets, it's good to see them take the first five-set victory of the season. The quality of the competition will increase markedly over the next few weeks. The tournament next week features some teams who finished last year with very good records, and the following two weekends, the Panthers will face four of the five 2013 NCAA tournament qualifiers on this season's schedule, including two Big Ten teams. In that three week stretch, the Panthers will also play Western Kentucky twice.
The Panthers will open league play in the last weekend of September, hosting UIC, and then Valparaiso on the weekend.
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on Sept 1, 2014 9:30:57 GMT -6
Great start to the season for the Panthers, going 3-0.
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Post by skrapheap on Sept 2, 2014 11:03:00 GMT -6
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