Volleyball

[NormStewart]

Saw the Louisville game today on ESPN+. Dang we were hitting well. Lily Dykstra is a cannon, showing us how good she was in high school and cutting back on the errors she was making earlier this season. Kacie Rewarts looks more aggressive; we need that in the middle to complement Fallert and Hartman on the outside. Tjernagel was great, hitting from the right side and also sometimes in the middle. We served really well overall -- not so many aces but just tough-to-handle serves that led to weak hits by Louisville. Sydney Golden had a nice serving run.

Louisville has awesome hitters -- their 6-6 middle hitter we couldn't do anything with her. Their libero is a great defensive player. Luper isn't real tall but gets way up in the air and was hard to handle. But I swear we were digging well ourselves. Erin of course, and Reese Booth made an amazing dig leading to a save. Let's not forget what a luxury it is to have two hitters in Fallert and Hartman who are solid defenders and can play all the way around.

We played Louisville tough in the first game; we were ahead much of the second game and should have won. Unfortunately we missed three serves down the stretch and a Louisville ball hit the net and just crawled over; and then a bad miscommunication for the final point. We've just got to remember we're playing a freshman setter and a junior setter who's never started, so the players need to get used to each other. I think this team will be really tough soon.

[panthergirl123]

UNI escaped tonight beating Valpo in 5.

[vbfan19]

After struggling a bit at Valpo last night, UNI pretty much trounced UIC tonight. I made the mistake of going to the football "game" and thus didn't watch this match live, but catching it on demand on ESPN+, the Panthers were definitely firing on all cylinders.

Both UNI and Drake are off to 4-0 starts, with every other team having at least one conference loss

['70 Grad]

And Bobbi's Panthers are 6 - 0 in the conference and giving us something to feel happy about in the fall, as usual. Thanks!
Big match on Monday with the blue D+ dawgs.

['70 Grad]

Death. Taxes. Bobbi.
UNI 3 Drake 0.
Her teams make it fun to be a Panther in the fall year after year and again.
Road trip this weekend against #3 & #4. Drake, of course, plays them too. A shake-out weekend coming up.

[vbfan19]

Death. Taxes. Bobbi.
UNI 3 Drake 0.
Her teams make it fun to be a Panther in the fall year after year and again.
Road trip this weekend against #3 & #4. Drake, of course, plays them too. A shake-out weekend coming up.

Tonight's result surprised me. Not the fact that UNI won, but I thought it was going to be alot closer. The fact that Drake never even broke 20 in a set was not something that I would have guessed. And we even gifted them 10 points on service errors. (of course, it very well could have been the case that UNI's aggressive serving is what kept the Bulldogs from getting their offense in gear, and the occasional service error is going to be the byproduct of aggressive serving).

Illinois State played at Bradley tonight, and the Redbirds just recorded a 5th set win to take that match (winning their 6th match in a row after having dropped their opening MVC match. Thus they're now tied with Drake for second at 6-1).

[panthergirl123]

Also a little shocked with Monday's results. I expected this to go at least 4. Love that we stayed aggressive and not allow any comebacks. Nice to see students at match (although many probably only came for the scholarship drawing.)

[vbfan19]

27 consecutive regular season MVC wins
31 consecutive MVC wins counting the conference tournament
48-1 in MVC play (including tournaments) over the past 2.5 seasons.

[vbfan19]

Clinched a spot in the MVC tournament tonight.
not that there was really any doubt, but now it is a mathematical certainty.
even if they were to lose their remaining 7 matches, the worst they could possibly finish would be 7th place (and the top 8 make the tourney)
of course at this point, anything other than a top 2 finish would be a major disappointment

[pnthr53]

Panthers win! Keep rolling ladies!

[BCPanther]

Matches aren't even competitive right now. Just total ass kickings.

[vbfan19]

Matches aren't even competitive right now. Just total ass kickings.

The MVC as a whole is kind of down for volleyball this year.
In terms of RPI, we're doing okay (currently #50), and UIC (76) and Drake (81) are alright.
But the other 9 teams are all in the bottom half, with our 2 most recent opponents being sub 300 (out of 346)

RPI (figstats) ranking of MVC teams, matches thru 10/26/24
50 UNI
76 UIC
81 Drake
184 Murray St
197 ILS
205 Valpo
210 Bradley
246 Belmont
259 Missouri St
269 SIU
302 INS
314 Evansville

['70 Grad]

The wisdom of a very competitive non-con schedule to get ready for the rest of the season & tournament is on display. Good, thoughtful program. Some compensation for what is happening in the dome. Left a competitive and somewhat entertaining FB game early to be sure I got to see some of the VB team in person for the first time this year (live 2 hours away). Those pink lines really do pop in the arena. Big swingers, nice digs by people in good position. Great chemistry - especially with who graduated last year. Thanks, Bobbie!!!

[PurpleCatFan]

One thing I can always count on Saturday. Is an excellent coached and well played game from the Panther volleyball team. Well done Cats and let’s keep it going

[PurpleCatFan]

Just watching the Iowa girls high school volleyball tournament. The Panthers are getting a couple great player from 2A Eddieville/Blaksburg/Fremont in the Shafer twins OH Molly and S Kate both 6 foot tall. Molly just set a state tournament record 41 kills for all 5 classes in a single match They advance on to the championship match tomorrow