Rainbow Wahine Invitational

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks open their season in 5 days, 5 hours. 48 minutes and counting vs Arizona in the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational, the 1st of three tough tournaments on the road. Game time is 10 pm CT this coming Friday night.

Based on preseason votes Arizona would be a slight favorite in this match with Lambo taking on one of his mentors, Dave Rubio, for the first time. Arizona is picked to finish 7th in the PAC-12.

Arizona will be lead by 6'2" Sr MB Cursty Jackson and 6'1" Sr OH Courtney Karst. They are a relatively young team with 3 seniors, 1 RS junior, 3 sophs and 8 true freshman on their roster. The freshman class was ranked as the #11 recruiting class nationally. Arizona did lose their top 2 scorers and their setter from last year's 20-11 team so they do have some holes to fill.

The Shocks may have a slight experience advantage, but not much. the Shocks have 3 seniors, 2 juniors, 4 sophs, 3 RS freshman and 4 true freshman on their roster.

The key for the Shocks may well be how our relatively young group of middle blockers, Field, Andrade and Eakin, perform.

I see this match as pretty much a pick 'em that could go either way. With the schedule the Shocks are facing this would be an important win to pick up. I suppose it will come down to which team will be best prepared and most ready to go right out of the chute.

[1972Shocker]

2nd up for the Shocks will be the #10 ranked Hawaii Rainbow Wahine and they appear to be loaded. Game time is Saturday at 11:55 pm so an afternoon nap might be warranted.

Hawaii will warm up for he Shocks with a match against San Francisco on Friday.

Hawaii returns their top 5 scorers from last year's 29-3 team lead by 5'10" Sr OH Kanani Danielson, the reigning 2-time WAC POY and a 2-time AVCA 1st team All-American (she was a 3rd team AA as a freshman). From all accounts Kanani is an outstanding athlete and a skilled all-around 6-rotation VB player. Also returning are #2 scorer, 6'3" Jr MB Brittany Hewitt, #3 scorer 5'10" Sr OH Chanteal Satele, #4 scorer 6'2" So MB Emily Hartong and #5 scorer 6'3" So OH Michelle Waber.

Hawaii will be replacing their setter and their libero from last year's team.

Hawaii has 3 setters on the roster, 1 sophomore and 2 freshman with the sophomore, Mita Uiato playing relatively sparingly last year in spot duty. She had 99 assists on the year vs 1,141 for the starting setter. Not sure who the starter will be from this group.

Perhaps the Shock's best chance in this match will be that Hawaii's young setters are not quite totally in sync with their attackers at this point and perhaps still a little unsure of themselves running the offense. although they are no doubt quality players.

While the Shocks are used to large crowds Hawaii fans take this to the next level consistently leading the nation in attendance by a significant margin. I would expect a crowd of 6,000+ for this match.

Dave Shoji is in his 37th year as Coach of the Rainbow Wahine. Why would you want to go anywhere else.

Hopefully, we will be saying the same about Lambo in another 25 years.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks will finish up their Hawaii trip with a match against the University of San Francisco which, at least on paper, should be the weakest of the 3 opponents the Shocks will face in Hawaii. Game time is Sunday at 7 pm CT.

San Francisco went 5-22 last year and is pretty young team with no seniors on their roster.

They do return their top 4 scorers from last year plus their setter and their libero. However, none of their players had eye-popping stats and perhaps it is telling that their setter was second on the team in kills and the #2 scorer on the team.

Top returning players are 5'10" So OH Malina Terrell, 5'11" So S Joan Caloiaro, 6'0" Jr OH Alycia Cox, 6'2" Jr MB Hadley Simmons and 5'7" So LIB Whitney Swain.

This is a match the Shockers should win. Still you would expect San Francisco to be improved vs last year simply by having added a year of experience to most of their key players.

Wouldn't it be great if this match was for the Rainbow Wahine Invitational championship for the Lady Shocks. I know, I know -- Dream, dream dream....although it is not totally out of the realm of possibility.

OTOH we could easily come home at 1-2 after this trip.

[RoyalShock]

http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/2011/08/22/wichita-state-headed-to-hawaii/

[1972Shocker]

Glad to see that the team is leaving early enough to get to enjoy some fun in the sun and to get a few days to adapt to the time zone change.

Nice to have our own personal tour guide on the roster too.

[SpanglerFan316]

http://volleytalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=39240

Friday, August 26

1. (N) Arizona v. Wichita State
2. (N) Cincinnati v. Iowa State
3. Florida State v. Kentucky
4. (N) Minnesota v. Southern Cal
5. New Mexico State v. Nebraska
6. Penn State v. Oregon
7. Purdue v. Baylor
8. Texas v. Pepperdine
9. Tennessee v. Ohio

Saturday, August 27

10. (N) Cal Poly v. San Diego
11. (N) Cal State Fullerton v. UCLA
12. (N) Cincinnati v. Northern Iowa
13. (N) Colorado State v. Middle Tennessee State
14. Duke v. Wisconsin
15. Florida v. North Carolina
16. Florida State v. Tulsa
17. Hawaii v. Wichita State
18. (N) Illinois v. Saint Mary's (CA)
19. (N) Kentucky v. Tulsa
20. Long Beach State v. Washington
21. LSU v. Miami (FL)
22. (N) Minnesota v. Oregon
23. Oklahoma v. Missouri State
24. Penn State v. Southern Cal [Tiebreaker: total points scored =___]

Sunday, August 28

25. Hawaii v. Arizona

[1972Shocker]

Rainbow Wahine Invitational TV:

OCSports – Channels 12 (SD) and 1012 (HD) will be broadcasting ALL matches of the tournament with Jim Leahey calling the play-by-play and Chris McLachlin doing color commentary.
Streaming Video: Available at www.OCSports.tv for a fee.

http://hawaiiathletics.com/news/2011/8/3/WVB_0803110218.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Taking on Wichita State - UH and WSU also have a very brief history. The
two teams played each other just twice, with the Rainbow Wahine winning
both matches. They last played in 2007 at the Waikiki Beach Marriott Volleyball Challenge with UH winning a tense five-set thriller. Jamie Houston posted 27 kills and freshman Elizabeth Ka‘aihue added 30 digs as UH rallied from a 2-0 deficit.

[1972Shocker]

http://volleytalk.proboards.com/inde...y&thread=39240

Friday, August 26
1. (N) Arizona v. Wichita State

Saturday, August 27
17. Hawaii v. Wichita State

Voting so far (through reply #116):

Arizona - 92 vs Wichita State 18 (Shocks picking up a little love here)

Hawaii - 109 vs Wichita State 1 (Way to support Doc!)

Obviously the posters on Volleytalk do not think much of our chances this weekend.

Same can be said for Oklahoma (108) vs Missouri State (2) on Saturday in Norman. Let's Go Bears might was well do it Sooner than later!

[1stThings1st]

Most of vollleytalk chatter is about the power conferences and don't even acknowlege conferences like the Valley. I see us coming home 2-1 and getting more votes but not top 25 material. If we play to our potential we come home 3-0 and ranked. Doesn't matter what we think - games are won on the floor and in our ladies heads.

[1972Shocker]

9 Hours, 50 Minutes and counting.

I'm starting to feel it.

:goshocks:

[RoyalShock]

If your heart can handle it, here are our ladies on the north shore, plus a few other pics from their trip so far.

http://lockerz.com/s/132588124

[1972Shocker]

:shock:

[sistyugler]

That was a perfect emoticon!!

Anyone ready for some VOLLEYBALL??!!!

Let's go SHOX! :wsu_posters: :goshocks: :wsu_posters: :goshocks:

[1972Shocker]

Shocks must have opening match jitters. Not looking good at all.

Down 8-2.