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Shocks On the Road at Tulsa and SMU

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  • Shocks On the Road at Tulsa and SMU

    The Lady Shocks (24-3, 16-0) continue the late season guantlet presented by their AAC schedule as the head to Tulsa (14-14, 8-8) for a 7:00 pm Friday match and then to Dallas to face 2nd place SMU (19-8, 13-3) on Sunday at 1:00 pm. Last week's trip to ECU and Cincy and this weeks road swing to Tulsa and SMU are probably the two toughest travel pairs in the AAC and the Shocks get them on the road on consecutive weekends.

    The Shocks lead SMU by 3 games with 4 to play. Their magic number to clinch the AAC Championship and the NCAA Auto-Bid is 2. Any combination of Shockerr wins and SMU lossess totaling 2 will do it. So the Shocks have the opportunity to clinch this weekend.

    The Shocks faced Tulsa in Koch Arena about a month ago. After eeking out a very tough 26-24 win in Set 1 the Shocks cruised to the sweep with 25-11 and 25-12 wins in Sets 2 and 3.

    Scouting Tulsa
    The Golden Hurricane is 14-14 overall and 8-8 in The American. Wins this season have come against UTEP, UMKC, SIUE, Wright State, Texas Southern, Oral Roberts, Houston twice, UCF, Memphis, UConn twice, ECU, and Tulane. Losses have come against North Texas, Montana, Colgate, Stephen F. Austin, Wyoming, Central Arkansas, Tulane, Cincinnati twice, ECU, USF, No. 22 Wichita State, and Temple twice. Tulsa is led by Emily Thorson who is averaging 4.02 kills per set, while Lindsey Ledyard averages 5.57 assists and Taylor Horsfall averages 6.05 digs per set. As a team, the Golden Hurricane is hitting .184, while holding opponents to a .183 clip. Tulsa is led by head coach Ryan Wills.

    Two days before playing Tulsa at home the Shocks faced off with the 2nd place Mustangs in Koch Arena with somewhat similar results. The Shocks lost a tight 1st Set 23-25 and pulled away late in a competitive Set 2 to tie the match with a 25-18 win. After the intermission the Shocks got it going and cruised to a pair of 25-12 wins in Sets 3 and 4.

    Scouting SMU
    The Mustangs are 19-8 overall and 13-3 in the The American. Wins this season have come against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Ole Miss, Arkansas State, UTSA, Texas State, UMass Lowell, Tulane twice, Houston twice, ECU twice, Cincinnati twice, USF and UCF. Losses have come against Mississippi State, Rice, Virginia Tech, TCU, Arkansas, No. 22 Wichita State and Temple twice. SMU is led by Lauren Mills who is averaging 3.44 kills and 3.38 digs per set. Kendall Patterson is averaging 10.29 assists and Montana Watts is averaging 4.93 digs per set. As a team, the Mustangs are hitting .211, while holding opponents to a .184 clip. SMU is led by head coach Lisa Seifert.

    Obviously, the Shocks will be favored in these matches but both Tulsa and SMU have the potential to make things difficult for the Shocks. Hope the Shocks come out focused and determined to put this Championship in the deep freeze this weekend.

    Of much less importance but a very significant milestone and achievement is that according to my calculations Emily Hiebert needs 66 more assists to pass Mary Elizabeth Hooper as the career total assist leader at Wichita State. Mary Elizabeth finished her career (2008-2011) with 4,820 career assists. Emily is currently at 4,755 career assists. If the Shocks only play 6 sets this weekend the new records may or may not be set. 7 or more sets and mostly likely Emily would break the record. Mary Elizabeth averaged 10.54 assists per set in her career. Emily is currently averaging 10.61 assists per set over her career to date.

    :poster_shocks:






  • #2
    Bases on the visits to Koch, SMU has by far the most impressive libero in the AAC.

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    • #3
      I would also point out that when SMU visited Koch Arena a month ago they were without 6-2 RSr Opposite Hitter Katie Hegarty due to injury. Katie was First-Team All-AAC last year.

      Katie has been in the lineup over SMU's last 6 matches averaging 2.8 KPS with a .275 hitting percentage. Saw her on the sidelines at Koch Arena. She looks like a big, strong player. She will definitely give SMU a different look against the Shockers this time around. She is probably just now rounding back into form.
      Last edited by 1972Shocker; November 16, 2017, 03:11 PM.

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      • #4
        Sully reports on the Shockers' inaugural AAC season and the pursuit of the 3rd undefeated conference season in School history matching 2005 and 2008 (with 2008 capping off an undefeated regular season).

        Hopefully, this won't prove to be a jinx or we might have to ship Sully back to the Eagle.

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        • #5
          My TV guide claims (falsely) that I get to watch the match on Cox 2122.



          :ranting2:
          Its a good landing if you can walk away, its a great landing if the plane can be reused the next day.

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          • #6
            WSU takes set 1 25-19.
            Its a good landing if you can walk away, its a great landing if the plane can be reused the next day.

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            • #7
              WSU crushes TU 25-12 in set 2.
              Its a good landing if you can walk away, its a great landing if the plane can be reused the next day.

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              • #8
                For some the glass is half full and for others half empty. My glass is out of ice.
                - said no one ever...

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                • #9
                  Alex is 3-1-13 in the first two sets, and Chase gets the start in the third set.

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                  • #10
                    Tulsa takes a timeout down 16-9 in set 3.
                    Its a good landing if you can walk away, its a great landing if the plane can be reused the next day.

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                    • #11
                      Shocks finish off the sweep and take set 3 25-15.
                      Its a good landing if you can walk away, its a great landing if the plane can be reused the next day.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by flyingMoose View Post
                        ... Chase gets the start in the third set.
                        And goes 1-0-6 - not much difference.

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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by flyingMoose View Post
                          Alex is 3-1-13 in the first two sets, and Chase gets the start in the third set.
                          Alex has struggled some in the past couple of weeks. This is the 1st year she has played this much in college and I wonder if she might be wearing down a bit both physically and mentally.

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                          • #14
                            A fairly typical AAC outing the Shocks. They seem to kind of probe their way through the 1st set. Lambo and staff dissects the oppositions offensive and defensive strategy. Some adjustments and tweaks are made and then Sayonara.

                            Shocks cut their magic number to 1 with 3 matches to play. Sunday's match is the big one. I expect it to be our toughest AAC match of the season and SMU no doubt wants a win over the Shockers badly and they probably have the talent to pull it off.

                            Abbie and Tabitha with big nights on the attack combining for 28-6-48 = .458. Mikaela, Emma and Emily were merely very good on the attack.

                            Emily with a big night distributing the rock with 42 assists. She now needs 24 assists to pass Mary Elizabeth Hooper for the #1 spot in carreer assists. If she doesn't do that at SMU then Shocker fans will probably be very disappointed in the outcome of that match.

                            The neat thing is that Shane Dennis mentioned in the pre-game report that Mary Elizabeth lives in the DFW area and very probably will be in attendance on Sunday. How neat would that be.

                            Giorgia lead the Shocks as usual with 18 digs but Gabi chipped in 15 digs which is very good for her although I noticed opponents tend to target their serving at Gabi when she is in the game and the number of digs doesn't tell us anything about the quality of passes off those digs. But with the scores being what they were it must not have been too bad.
                            Last edited by 1972Shocker; November 17, 2017, 09:04 PM.

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                            • #15
                              As noted elsewhere, Creighton lost on the road to Villanova on Friday. The Pablo-based win expectation for Creighton was slightly better than that for the Shockers over SMU on Sunday.

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