Shocks Host Cincy and ECU

[1972Shocker]

For the first and only time this season the Shocks are at home on back-to-back weekends as they take on the resrugent Cincinnati Bearcats (8-12, 6-2) at 7:00 pm Friday and the ECU Pirates (14-6, 6-2) at 1:00 pm Sunday.

Cincy seems to have found itself in conference play after losing the preseason conference POY Jordan Thompson for the season to injury. ECU has been the surprise of the conference sitting in a tie for 3rd with Cincy and Temple at 6-2 behind the undefeated Shockers and 1-loss SMU. ECU was picked to finish 11th in the preseason coach's poll.

As it turns out this may be the most challenging travel pair the Shockers will face this season.

Scouting Cincinnati
The Bearcats are 8-12 overall and 6-2 in The American. Wins this season have come against Xavier, Milwaukee, USF, UCF, Tulsa, UConn, Houston and Tulane. Losses have come against No. 23 Utah, Arkansas State, No. 14 Kentucky, Texas State, Western Michigan, Seton Hall, Dayton, Illinois State, NC State, No. 21 Michigan, SMU and Temple. UC is led by Carly Nolan who is averaging 4.05 kills per set. Jade Tingelhoff averages 9.67 assists and Abby Williams averages 3.36 digs per set. As a team, the Bearcats are hitting .173, while holding opponents to a .208 clip. UC is led by head coach Molly Alvey.

Series History vs. the Bearcats
Cincinnati leads the overall series with Wichita State 1-0. The lone meeting was in 2016 in Wichita.

Scouting ECU
The Pirates are 14-6 overall and 6-2 in The American. Wins this season have come against William & Mary, Georgia State, Stetson, Bucknell, Hampton, The Citadel, NC Central, North Carolina A&T, USF, Tulsa, Temple, UConn, Tulane and Houston. Losses have come against Rutgers, Providence, Gardner-Webb, Winthrop, UCF and SMU. ECU is led by Lael Ceriani who is averaging 3.26 kills per set. Shelby Martin averages 9.21 assists and Brandee Markwith averages 5.26 digs per set. As a team, the Pirates are hitting .230, while holding opponents to a .182 clip. ECU is led by head coach Julie Torbett.

Series History vs. the Pirates
This will be the first meeting between the two teams.

I have attached the link to the Shocker match notes below.

[1972Shocker]

Paul Suellentrop takes a look at the Shockers chances of hosting the 1st two rounds of the NCAA Touranment. Shocks had a chance in 2008 when they went 29-1 (the Shocks went 29-0 in the regular season then lost in 5 sets at Missouri State in the Valley Tournament) and Lambo thought they had a really good shot in 2010 untill Sarah McGee's late season injury ended her season and career and the bid went to Oklahoma who the Shocks had defeated that season.

For the Shocks to have a shot at hosting I think they need to run the table through the American Conference and that still may not be enough. Shocks still have a long way to go to get to that point and it won't be easy. For one thing the Shocks play 7 of their final 10 matches on the road.

This is a big weekend as the Shockers can put more distance between themselves and two of the four opponents with winning conference records this weekend as the conference schedule hits the halfway point.

Only 3 more home matches after this weekend so let's get out and support the Shocks.

:poster_shocks:

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks stayed undefeated in AAC play with a sweep of Cincy tonight but it was all that easy with the Shocks winning 25-22, 30-28 and 25-19 as the Bearcats would just not go away easily. In set 2 for example the Shocks jumped out to a 7-2 lead only to have Cincy score 5 straight points out of time out to tie it. The Shocks worked the lead back to 4 at 18-14 but Cincy tied it back up at 22-22. The Shockers saved 4 set points before finally getting the advantage on a Cincy service error and then winning the set on a Lehman/Hiebert stuff block.layed The Shocks also ended the match on a stuff block this time by Lehman/Koon.

I didn't think the Shocks played their best tonight especially with their passing. Part of that may have been tough serving and aggressive play by Cincy. Part of may have been an unexpected early lineup change due to Emma Wright being unable to go after getting hit in the head by a ball during the Shockers pre-match serving warm ups. Same thing happened to Mikaela 3 years ago. Abby Pugh was inserted in Emma's placer and while she seemed to struggle at times she did manage a 6-1-7 = .714 attack line.and had 5 block assists.

Abbie Lehman led the way with 18 kills an 18-3-34 = .441 attack line and Mikaela was 13-4-32 = .281. The Shocks out-blocked the Bearcats 11-6. There were only 2 servise aces in the match both by Cincy's Emily Azzara.

While probably not a thing of beauty the Shocks did get the job done. SMU swept UConn to stay one game behind the Shocks and Sunday's opponent, ECU, swept Memphis to go to 7-2 AAC play.

[1972Shocker]

Coach Chris Lamb doesn’t want his team to become complacent. The Shockers (17-3) are ranked No. 21 and are in the mix for hosting in the NCAA tournament.

“You look at some mistakes we’re making and maybe it wasn’t an error, but it’s still a reason why they scored easier than they should,” Lamb said. “Then you ask were you as physical as you could have been? This game at the highest level is a bunch of powerful women taking big swings all night long. The teams that pull back on those swings and tip too many, that will end up costing you in the tight ones.”

[1972Shocker]

WichitaSt Volleyball @GoShockersVB Oct 20
Congratulations @emily13hiebert for moving into second place in career assists!

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/921550290377158656

[flyingMoose]

Missouri State and Northern Iowa held serve this weekend, but they certainly made things interesting.

Friday

Bradley 2-3 MISSOURI STATE
17 (20) (19) 14 17

Bradley, 1-8 in the Valley coming into the match, received serve leading 14-13 in the fifth, but could not close out the win. The Bears defeated Illinois State 3-1 on Saturday.


Saturday

Valparaiso 2-3 NORTHERN IOWA
21 (23) (22) 27 9

Valpo lead 22-20 and 25-24 in the fourth but also could not get the win. The Panthers defeated Loyola 3-0 on Friday.

[1972Shocker]

Abbie Lehman!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shocksrbest]

STILL undefeated in league play. Way to go ladies.

[1972Shocker]

STILL undefeated in league play. Way to go ladies.

Plus SMU lost today to Temple so at the halfway point of the conference season the Shocks are up by 2 games over SMU and by 3 over Cincy and ESU. They have there destiny in there own hands.

ECU was scrappy and battled hard, Shocks got the sweep 25-16, 27-25 and 25-19 behind another outstanding performance by Abbie Lehman plus solid work by Mikaela and Tabitha on the pins. Emily was her usual solid self with a 42 assist, 10 dig double-double to go along with Mikaela's 13 kill, 11 digs double-double. Mikaela also had all 3 of the Shocker service aces.

I wasn't thinking sweep when ECU was leading 22-18 in Set 2 but the Shocks managed to gather themselves and pull out the win with Abbie taking charge at the end of the set.

Shocks still have some things to try to improve. Not sure I remember there ever being such a wide chasm between the M1 and M2 positions but the drop off after Abbie is massive. Emma did not suit up today. Abby Pugh started but struggled and Brooke Smith finished and she looked better than Abby did.

What a wonderful young lady Gabi Mostrom is but she really needs to cut down on the overpasses.

The Shocks play 7 of their 10 remaining conference matches on the road so it will be a challenge to make it through the conference season unscathed.

[flyingMoose]

The Shocks play 7 of their 10 remaining conference matches on the road so it will be a challenge to make it through the conference season unscathed.

This is the first time (for some reason) that I realized the AAC does not play a complete double round-robin. Tulane and Houston do not return our visit.

Additionally, Temple/UConn do not return to Cincinnati/ECU and SMU/Tulsa do not return to UCF/USF.

With no conference tournament, this could be to some team's advantage. Not this year, but in some year perhaps, Temple not having to play at Cincinnati ...

[flyingMoose]

This is the first time (for some reason) that I realized the AAC does not play a complete round-robin. Tulane and Houston do not return our visit.

Additionally, Temple/UConn do not return to Cincinnati/ECU and SMU/Tulsa do not return to UCF/USF.

With no conference tournament, this could be to some team's advantage. Not this year, but in some year perhaps, Temple not having to play at Cincinnati ...

Also, the end-of-season projection guy has the Shockers with one conference loss. Again, this is a probability-based projection. Earlier in the season, he had the Shocks down for two losses in the AAC.

[flyingMoose]

Well, that edit didn't work. The "features" of the new board continue to get me.

[shocksrbest]

This is the first time (for some reason) that I realized the AAC does not play a complete round-robin. Tulane and Houston do not return our visit.

Additionally, Temple/UConn do not return to Cincinnati/ECU and SMU/Tulsa do not return to UCF/USF.

With no conference tournament, this could be to some team's advantage. Not this year, but in some year perhaps, Temple not having to play at Cincinnati ...

Good points.

[ShockTalk]

This is the first time (for some reason) that I realized the AAC does not play a complete round-robin. Tulane and Houston do not return our visit.

Additionally, Temple/UConn do not return to Cincinnati/ECU and SMU/Tulsa do not return to UCF/USF.

With no conference tournament, this could be to some team's advantage. Not this year, but in some year perhaps, Temple not having to play at Cincinnati ...

Wow. That is pretty unbalanced.

WSU has 9 at home, 11 away and plays the other top 4 squads twice.

Temple has 11 home games, 9 away and doesn't have to play Cincy and ECU on the road.

While Cincy and ECU do only have 9 home games, they of course do not play Temple twice.

SMU plays the other 4 top squads twice each, but does have 11 home games. I think that is all correct.

[flyingMoose]

Shocks still have some things to try to improve. Not sure I remember there ever being such a wide chasm between the M1 and M2 positions but the drop off after Abbie is massive. Emma did not suit up today. Abby Pugh started but struggled and Brooke Smith finished and she looked better than Abby did.

Lambo has talked in the past about the other middles (Emma, Abby and Brooke) having a difficult time getting a hand on the ball. Emma does that the best (a relative term) right now, but the pre-match service ball to her head may sideline her for a bit. Abby and Brooke had a really hard time with that this weekend. They got the ball to the floor some, but they were not blistering any varnish.