2023 PSU WVB Thread
- Thread starter Tom McAndrew
- Start date
PSU loses the 4th set, 25-18, and the match, 3-1.
PSU battled, but Wisconsin's size gave them trouble all match.
PSU battled, but Wisconsin's size gave them trouble all match.
PSU's Men's Hockey team was in Madison as they play Wisky tomorrow. So they were in the house to cheer on PSU WVB.
Wisconsin is at the elite level PSU used to be. I am happy to see PSU improve over the course of the season. I do believe we will get back to that elite level in the near future. Great season!!
Please allow a complaint about the NCAA. The men's basketball tournament Regional round is held at arena/stadiums that are not the 'home' of either opponent. The thinking in Indianapolis must be -- a Neutral setting, TV interest (payment), SRO for fans following their team.
Stanford and then Penn State clearly showed everyone how women's volleyball as a sport, has National interest and high level players. This sport has grown tremendously in popularity in a short period of time, and the NCAA must/needs to recognize how the 'home field' advantage distracts from a level playing field, for either team.
There are many very good teams and players across the country, not only in the Big Ten, and the best should be treated the same as men's tournaments, or regional qualifications in other sports.
Stanford and then Penn State clearly showed everyone how women's volleyball as a sport, has National interest and high level players. This sport has grown tremendously in popularity in a short period of time, and the NCAA must/needs to recognize how the 'home field' advantage distracts from a level playing field, for either team.
There are many very good teams and players across the country, not only in the Big Ten, and the best should be treated the same as men's tournaments, or regional qualifications in other sports.
I hope that I am wrong about what I am about to write ...
There appears to be a significant shift in volleyball power in the NCAA. This shift is reflected in the weekly rankings and where the D1 tournament stands at the Elite 8 stage.
For several years, B1G and PAC12 were the power conferences while Big12, SEC, and ACC had 1 or 2 teams named Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisville considered to be equal in talent/pedigree to the Stanfords, Oregons, Penn States, Nebraskas, and Wisconsins of the women's volleyball world.
Last night, after watching Wiscy thump the Lady Lions (sorry, but thump is being kind IMO), I watched the aforementioned Kentucky lose to Arkansas, Texas survive a 5 setter with Tennessee, while Oregon spanked our conference sister Purdue in a 3 set sweep.
Yes, we can proudly state that conference mates Nebraska and Wisconsin are truly elite in 2023. ACC can brag on Louisville and Pitt (going to be an epic match Saturday). SEC sure looks like they are coming on nationally and don't sleep on teams like Creighton, Dayton and their associates not from P5 conferences.
Volleyball has become highly competitive. Coach Katie has her hands full managing a roster using minimal high school recruits and relying on portal transfers. I am not "long term optimistic".
There appears to be a significant shift in volleyball power in the NCAA. This shift is reflected in the weekly rankings and where the D1 tournament stands at the Elite 8 stage.
For several years, B1G and PAC12 were the power conferences while Big12, SEC, and ACC had 1 or 2 teams named Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisville considered to be equal in talent/pedigree to the Stanfords, Oregons, Penn States, Nebraskas, and Wisconsins of the women's volleyball world.
Last night, after watching Wiscy thump the Lady Lions (sorry, but thump is being kind IMO), I watched the aforementioned Kentucky lose to Arkansas, Texas survive a 5 setter with Tennessee, while Oregon spanked our conference sister Purdue in a 3 set sweep.
Yes, we can proudly state that conference mates Nebraska and Wisconsin are truly elite in 2023. ACC can brag on Louisville and Pitt (going to be an epic match Saturday). SEC sure looks like they are coming on nationally and don't sleep on teams like Creighton, Dayton and their associates not from P5 conferences.
Volleyball has become highly competitive. Coach Katie has her hands full managing a roster using minimal high school recruits and relying on portal transfers. I am not "long term optimistic".
Uh, you should look up the TV ratings for women's volleyball. Be sure to take a magnifying glass.
Um No - you’re wrong again.
Nov 2:
What we do know about the record-smashing TV numbers posted Sunday for NCAA women’s volleyball is that 1.659 million watched the landmark telecast on over-the-air Fox.
That .44 rating blistered the “prime demo” numbers put up on Sunday by the NASCAR Cup playoff race from the venerable Martinsville short track on NBC (.21 with a total-average viewership of 2.196 million), Formula One’s Mexican Grand Prix on ABC (.25/1.080 million), an English Premier League soccer match on USA Network (.10/345,000), an NHL game between the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers on TBS (.10/271,000), a soccer friendly between the U.S. women’s national team and Colombia on TNT (.06/235,000) and an NBA game between the San Antonio Spurs (with 7-foot-4 rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama) and Los Angeles Clippers on NBA-TV (.09/207,000).
The margins between women’s volleyball and the NASCAR and Formula One events were particularly telling, in that both auto races aired in the afternoon on “Big Four” broadcast networks, rather than cable, thus presenting better apples-to-apples comparisons. Noteworthy, too, was the overall viewership for volleyball was 75% of that of NASCAR, which has a loyal audience that skews into the 50+ “geezer” demo. The surge in interest in F1 (wildly popular worldwide) in America has been considered a huge success story, particularly with the treasured younger set, yet women’s volleyball vastly outperformed it in the demo and in total eyeballs.
As for comparing ratings from a broadcast platform that can be accessed by America’s 123 million TV households to cable stations with smaller reaches, yes, that is apples-to-oranges. But volleyball’s performance on Fox did illustrate where the sport might stand on the television pecking order. Consider, too, that the Big 12 match between Oklahoma and Iowa State on Sunday afternoon, airing on the flagship ESPN channel, checked in with 206,000 viewers and a .07 18-49 rating, in the ballpark with the international women’s soccer game and the NBA game.
A last apples-to-oranges comparison: Women’s volleyball on Sunday had 20.4% of the viewers of the World Series game (8.126 million) aired Monday night on Fox. Nothing else might illustrate how dramatically viewing tastes have changed in the 21st Century. I fall solidly in the “geezer demo,” and never in my lifetime did I believe I would see a time when volleyball would even be five percent as popular as the World Series, the annual showcase of America’s Pastime. But there it is.
That’s earth-shattering news for fans of the fast-rising sport.
A viewership in seven figures vividly demonstrated to TV executives that volleyball can attract the casual viewers that fuel growth and intuitively should be a catalyst for more matches to air on broadcast platforms.
As for what we don’t know about the telecast, hang on, it’s important, and we’ll get to that later.
But first, the Nielsen ratings also told us that women’s volleyball absolutely blew away EVERYTHING televised in sports that day not called the National Football League in the “prime” 18-49 demographic. The 18-49 demo is highly coveted by advertisers because their marketing surveys tell them younger viewers are more easily influenced by ads and it is the largest age group at roughly 130 million.
Performance in the key demo is considered even more critical than overall viewership to television decision-makers, in that it heavily influences the CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) that is a significant component of the formula that determines how much TV channels charge for a 30-second ad spot.
On Sunday, the volleyball telecast on Fox posted a rating of .44 in the 18-49 demo. In the shifting landscape of linear television, that rating is stupendous, even if it means that fewer than one-half-of-one-percent of the potential viewership pool in 18-49 tuned in, as determined by Nielsen’s scientific sampling of U.S. TV households.
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I'm not sure what you are talking about here. Kentucky and Louisville were never considered to be equal in talent or pedigree to Stanford, Penn State or Nebraska until very recently. Wisconsin was more or less a nobody until about ten years ago. Oregon has never been among the elite. Florida always received attention because they almost always won the SEC, but rarely did very well in the NCAA tournament. Of those you mentioned, only Texas might be considered a blue blood of the sport.
My point, not well stated, was that in a given season, these other conferences had 1 or 2 teams in consideration for champion status while B1G and PAC seemed to always have their blue bloods plus another 1 or 2 teams.
Yes, I agree Texas and Florida were always in the hunt and I also agree that Florida seemed to never get there (weaker conference maybe?).
This past season was troubling to me as B1G teams not named Nebraska or Wisconsin were not ranked highly like they were in the recent past. I attribute this "slippage" to better competition in the other conferences than in the past.
Still with all this said, final 4 has 2 B1G, 1 ACC and 1 Big12 (SEC bound).
Well, we my find out next year, as there is a new pro women's volleyball league starting in the US. However, they do want $25 and up for tickets, and I think I'll likely pass. Columbus has a former PSU star as their headliner. Megan Courtney.
But what sort of TV contract do they get? Heard they are close (have heard that for a while now), but when does the cigar get lit. Streaming deal may be coming, but they need exposure on linear TV to grow.Well, we my find out next year, as there is a new pro women's volleyball league starting in the US. However, they do want $25 and up for tickets, and I think I'll likely pass. Columbus has a former PSU star as their headliner. Megan Courtney.
I bring you joyous news. Now we just have to hit the portal for another MB, an RS who can serve and dig and a backup setter.
Any info on why she’s in the portal? Looks like most of the core is returning.
I addresssed that a bit earlier in the thread. She lost the L spot to Grimes early in the season and will likely be behind incoming L/DS Falduto in the Fall.
Looks like Haleigh Washington and Micah Hancock will be playing in the new pro volleyball league in the USA. There may be some other Penn Staters as well. There will be 6 teams, none in Pennsylvania as far as I could tell, and the games are scheduled to begin in November 2024. It may be better than watching the election results!
Check out the latest polls for NCAA & high school volleyball
See what college and high school teams are ranked in the latest AVCA Coaches Polls all season long.
www.avca.org
This is excellent news.
Caroline Jurevicius is the daughter of PSU great Joe Jurevicius. PSU was on her short list coming out of HS, but she verballed to Nebraska, and redshirted there the past season.
She entered the portal @ a week ago, but no news (that I've seen) has broken out as to which team(s) she was considering.
She's a Right Outside, which PSU has a need for. And because she redshirted this past season, she has 4 years of eligibility left.
It's almost poetic justice. While at PSU, Joe Jurevicius was a frequent attender of PSU WVB matches, as he dated Terry Z for some time. In fact, when he would have an off game, there would be speculation on the board that their relationship was having issues, and that was causing him to lose focus during games.
Welcome Caroline -- a great addition to PSU WVB!
Caroline Jurevicius is the daughter of PSU great Joe Jurevicius. PSU was on her short list coming out of HS, but she verballed to Nebraska, and redshirted there the past season.
She entered the portal @ a week ago, but no news (that I've seen) has broken out as to which team(s) she was considering.
She's a Right Outside, which PSU has a need for. And because she redshirted this past season, she has 4 years of eligibility left.
It's almost poetic justice. While at PSU, Joe Jurevicius was a frequent attender of PSU WVB matches, as he dated Terry Z for some time. In fact, when he would have an off game, there would be speculation on the board that their relationship was having issues, and that was causing him to lose focus during games.
Welcome Caroline -- a great addition to PSU WVB!
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