Derailed
by btfu_crespo on Dec 9, 2011 10:00 PM EST
in Volleyball
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When the 2011 season started, there was a lot of promise for a successful season and a potential Final Four run. As the season progressed, Purdue received more attention from national media after beginning the season 14-0 with wins over tournament teams such as Ball State, Cincinnati, and Michigan. But Purdue took a hit before the Louisville match in Champaign when Carly Cramer was lost to a stress fracture and would ultimately redshirt for the season. Cramer was vital in Purdue’s backcourt at libero and had great ball handling skills. Purdue continued on, despite losing tough matches at Illinois and at Nebraska, Purdue refused to go down. Ball handling continued to be an issue from time to time, but with hitters like Turner and Fisher, they were almost able to make up for these mistakes.
Purdue finally cracked into the Top 10 with its 10 game winning streak during conference play, which included victories over Top 5 teams Illinois and Nebraska. After finishing the season tied 2nd in the Big Ten, Purdue earned a Top 5 seed in the tournament and was favored to advance to the Final Four and even win the National Title. The bracket looked favorable, but as Coach Shondell said at the viewing party, "every team says their match ups are favorable."
After beating Morehead State and Louisville in the 1st 2 rounds, Purdue moved on to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year. Unlike last year, Purdue was top dog while Florida State smelled an upset. It certainly looked like Purdue was on their way to a victory while up 21-13 in the 1st set, but then it all collapsed as the Seminoles attacked. Sure, we can blame one or two players for a few lost points, but when you finish the set on the losing end of a 12-4 run, the entire team is to blame. Purdue committed 10 total errors in the 1st set alone, 4 of them during FSU’s 12-4 run. Purdue had a tough time coming out in the 2nd set, but was able to put away FSU 25-21 and seemed to shake off the choke in the 1st set. But in reality, Florida State already had plenty of momentum, and Purdue’s ball handling errors caught up to them tonight.
The 3rd and 4th sets were back-and-forth throughout a majority of them, but in the end, FSU was able to capitalize on Purdue’s errors to pull off the upset. FSU outhit Purdue in the last 2 sets 0.424 to 0.216 (Purdue’s best hit % on the night), and 0.207 to 0.067 (the worst of a set all season). Ariel Turner possibly had the worst night of her career as FSU’s Top 15 blocking defense held her to 16 kills and a 0.105 hitting percentage. Meanwhile, Tiffany Fisher shined in her last game as a Boilermaker with 15 kills and a team high 0.375 hitting percentage. Out of Purdue’s 202 total attacks, Ariel Turner had 76 of them, and no one else was even close. Though Turner is amazing and certainly an All-American, depending on Turner was one reason why Purdue fell short this evening. Another was that we could just not stop the Seminole Attack. 5 Florida State players finished with 10 to 11 kills each, as #14 Ashley Neff contributed 11 kills and posted a 0.529 hitting percentage, leading all hitters.
Even though this season was great, only one word can describe tonight’s performance: disappointing. Outside of Tiffany Fisher, almost every other player had their worst performance of the year. It seemed like no one had the heart to win the game, and almost expected the win to be given to them and that they would just walk into the Final Four for the first time in school history. Since the Ohio State match back in November, Amanda Miller has been subbing in for Rebarchak to serve (mostly due to Cat’s service errors) and has played very well coming off the bench. But for some reason, Shondell decided after pull her and replace Miller with Hillary Fox. I said this in the Open Thread, when Fox stepped onto the court and committed a service error is when the 1st set choking began (but like I said earlier, the choke was a failure on the whole team). There were a few bad digs on behalf of Fox that did cost Purdue precious points that could have been controlled by other players, she did commit 3 service errors, but did have 3 service aces (both were most on the team). Also, Senior Emily Ehlers had her worse performance of the year for the last game of her college career. I honestly lost count how many times she got burned on those corner kills from FSU, and it is certainly is a shame to see her college career end this way. I can continue on how each player had their worst performance, but in the end, volleyball is a team sport and the team as a whole failed to show up in Minneapolis tonight.
I don’t know what it is about Minneapolis, but I hate it. I’ve never been there, but I think I will avoid that dreaded city from now on. Robbie tore his ACL there, basketball experienced that bad lose last year, and the volleyball team can’t seem to win there. Also, as a Packers fan and part owner, I hate how Favre decided to call that place home for two years, but I digress.
There is nothing Shondell’s squad can do now; we can only look forward to next season. We do lose Ehlers, T Fisher and Bashen to graduation, but Purdue brings back a talented group of players, including Carly Cramer once she recovers from her injury, and All-American Ariel Turner. Along with the returners, Purdue brings in a talented freshmen class next year that will certainly look to contribute as much as Kiki and Val did this year. If there is one thing I hope Shondell works on during the off season, let’s all hope it is ball control.
One final note, I just want to thank T-Mill and everyone else for giving me the chance this fall to bring volleyball to Hammer and Rails. Who would have ever thought that we could get an open thread with over 300 comments on a Friday night that dealt with volleyball? You guys have been an amazing audience, and I have appreciated all the feedback I had received since August. I have learned a lot, especially when it comes to writing (us science majors don’t have the best grammatical skills at times). Now that Purdue Volleyball is over for the season, I won’t be posting as much until August when the season begins again, with the exception of fan shots that deal with volleyball or other Purdue sports. Until then, I’ll see you in God’s Country cheering loud and proud for our Boilermakers.
Volleyball, Forever.
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Thanks for the recap
I was working tonight(damn you retail hours) but reading your post, it confirmed my biggest concern about the volleyball team this year. Instead of making Turner a key part of the attack, she was the offense. I’m not ripping Turner she’s a great player, otherwise she wouldn’t be an All-American, but when you come to relay on one player to much it makes it way too easy to defend.
To use a moderate accurate football analogy, it would be a like a QB focusing on a single WR to often, instead using all his weapons. With other hitters like Fisher, Rebarchak, etc. you have enough hitters to keep a defense honest. With one player taking almost 25% of the swings you just become to predictable. Hopefully next year the team can find a little more balance.
They should have a hell of a team next year returning almost all major contributors, our Boilers will be in great position to compete not only for a B1G title but a National title.
I thought this was the team that could win it all
and they would have if they played at the same level as when they swept Nebraska. My concern from the start of the season was that we would rather set Turner in the backrow than try out Nichol or Rebarchak and relying on Turner so much hurt us twice against Penn State and again tonight. FSU was the underdog like we were last year at this time against #1 Florida, and they took it.
Next year has a lot of positives though and we are returning a young team. Carly Cramer returns to the court which is a huge boost to the backrow, and with Amanda Miller showing her strength this year we should be good, but I’m concerned about that third spot since both Goose and Fox are not at that next level. Davis will have a full year as being a setter so hopefully she will be more comfortable setting closer to the net. Hopefully Nichol, Kiki and Griffin are able to consistently contribute more as an offensive threat, the blocking aspect was there all year long. Rebarchak will still be a threat when she has her good nights, and maybe we will see more of Drewery but she hasn’t looked as solid since her ACL tear. We have some strong recruits coming in, and I believe Fisher is staying as a student coach next year which is a huge benefit for our recruits. Next year is going to be tough in the B1G, but we are more than capable of playing at the same level as we did this year.
Thanks for your work Crespo
As H&R’s fledgling volleyball beat writer this season, you’ve made me a fan of the sport.
Coach Shondell is quitely building a consistent national power. These girls are talented and work their butts off. They are excellant teammates and have brought honor to the Old Gold and Black.
Because of you, those of us far removed from campus get to know them and their story.
If TMill fails to reward you with a week at H&R’s St Barts beach house over the winter break, let me know – I’d be happy to lobby on your behalf. You’ve earned it.
Well done. Boiler UP!
"There's no hope until Hope is gone!"
There's an H&R St. Bart's beach house?
Why wasn’t I informed!
A futile crusade to prevent mass ignorance
HammerAndRails, SBNation's Boilermaker Blog
by BoilerTMill on Dec 10, 2011 10:22 AM EST up reply actions
yeah, who was doing the informing on this?
Football recruiting guy for Hammer and Rails
Lead blogger for 5 other sites.
Follow the Twitter for all the details
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Riles23
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Big10RantPurdue
by HawkeyeBoiler on Dec 10, 2011 11:45 AM EST up reply actions
Ask the Missus
She sez her “Girls Weekends” there are off the hook.
Maybe you haven’t yet earned an invite (I hear wives expect quite a bit).
"There's no hope until Hope is gone!"
WRONG
Crespo,
I was in Minnesota for the game, and I find your account of the game beyond misleading and totally wrong. Net play (i.e. blocking and hitting) was not up to typical Boiler levels and that hurt us significantly. Passing has exceeded expectations all year long and they had 100 digs in this game (a Purdue NCAA record by the way).
On a different topic. I’m ashamed at your methods of delivering this news. You call out individual players for poor play when volleyball is the ultimate team game. Passers can’t do their job well if the block leaves them out to dry, etc. Under no circumstances can one player win or lose a volleyball game for their team. It’s just flat out not possible.
I for one will not be back next year to hear your accounts of the game if you don’t jump off this bash waggon. Inflamatory and degrading comments about specific players is not how a Boilermaker should treat his fellow Boiler. I’m not saying things should be all rainbows and butterflies, just don’t treat these ladies with any less respect because they didn’t play well.
Thank you for your feedback
I will listen to your suggestions and try my best to improve next season. Perhaps it was wrong of me to point out individual errors and boost one or two players successes. But I did say that in this game it was flat out a team failure, not one or two people. Yes I did forget about the dig record, and I will admit that was an error on my part. Perhaps I should have waited until the next day to do this write up, as I just wrote it right after the game was over and was still feeling quite bitter about the lose.
I have the utmost respect for our volleyball team, and IMO think they are the best all around team at Purdue, both on and off the court. I may have been a little too harsh in my opinions, but ultimately, that’s just how I think when it comes to all teams I cheer for (Purdue, Packers and Cubs). That is just a fault of mine that I am trying to fix as a writer.
Again, I want to thank you for your feedback. I value your opinions as you felt compelled enough to even create an account on SBNation just so you can post them. I hope you do not leave the site just because of what I said, as I want to hear everyone’s feedback. I am not perfect, I can be wrong, and I am willing to adjust what I do/say/write in order to become better.
Volleyball Correspondent for Hammer and Rails
BTFU or GTFO
Respect isn't spelled D-E-F-L-A-M-E
It’s not about your facts. It’s about your disrespect towards the girls on the team. If you knew being too harsh is a flaw of yours, then why even think about writing while bitter??? It just bothers me how casual you seem to be willing to blast people yet still claim respect for them.
Assigning fault never solves anything. I just think that you are very quick to jump off the bandwagon and crucify when things go wrong. It’s unfair to the players and readers when you assign negativity and blame to a single player. The readers who may not have been at or seen the game get the wrong idea, and the players are worthy of better from you. In today’s world there’s enough people out there willing to cut people down, this team deserved and earned (and I expected) more from you.
If this was such a problem to you
Then why are you just bringing it up now? Why didn’t you bring it up halfway through the season? I remember in my first post I even asked people if they had a problem with what I said to bring it up immediately. You on the other hand waited until the season was done, even waited 2 days after I posted my final article to even show your disdain towards my writing. I value what you are saying, but if you wanted me to change how I said things, you should have brought it up sooner.
I am not “blasting” our players, I think you have taken my opinions out of hand. Heck if you actually read my articles throughout the year, you would see I actually praise our players more than bringing up the errors. Countless times I mentioned how Val and Kiki have made huge impacts just as freshmen, how Rachel easily transitioned into Hart’s shoes to maybe even better than her, and Blair, despite having a rough start at libero (which I admit I did call her out for), made progress and began to have better ball control and digs as Cramer redshirted with her stress fracture. And of course, how could one forget Ariel Turner’s All-American season? I remember after senior night against Nebraska, I said how that was possibly one of the best, if not the best, recently for Purdue. I said multiple times that I could see this team reaching the Final Four. If I didn’t respect our volleyball team, then why would I be posting about them throughout the season?
Also, what is so wrong about pointing out an individual’s errors? Whenever Purdue lost, I never blamed a single player. I may have pointed to certain players who committed errors, but never said they were at fault. In fact, whenever Purdue did lose, including to Florida State, I said it was the team’s fault and failure, not an individual or a few of the team members. But if I see a player doing something wrong, I am not going to hesitate to point out their errors. Personally, I never see this as an insult, I do it out of respect.
Perhaps the way I mentioned some individuals errors in the FSU match were not phrased well, especially Ehlers, after what she has accomplished I shouldn’t have said it was her “worse night” as it probably was too harsh. Do I regret it? Yeah, and looking back I wished I rephrased some things. But do I regret pointing out the errors in general? No.
For example, I wasn’t insulted when you pointed out my errors, I may question your tone and timing, but overall I view it as a way so I can improve next season. Maybe the way I phrased my wording could be taken in the wrong direction, but I have always meant it as constructive criticism, not bashing. Therefore, even though I do not like the timing of your comment, I will phrase the way I say things on my post, and perhaps “cool off” a bit before I say something I may regret.
Maybe I’ve ended my articles on a negative note. Perhaps I will do a full season recap next week when I am done with finals. Listening to what you have said, I probably haven’t done the season and the volleyball team justice for all that has been accomplished.
Volleyball Correspondent for Hammer and Rails
BTFU or GTFO
Respect the Train
You said yourself why I waited 2 days… I created my account after your post. And to be honest I didn’t follow your posts very closely at all throughout the season. I appologize for my second comment and realize that i didn’t follow my own advice and think before posting. I’m sorry for being such a hypocrite, but I just care too much about this team.
I appreciate your willingness to improve and in no way am I advocating writing fluff every week. But you HAVE to find a better balance between pointing out poor performances and bashing specific players. There are enough critics out there without fellow Boilermakers adding to the pot.
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