Shocks Host Tulane and Memphis

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks (5-6) open the AAC season and with their home opener against Tulane (12-3) at 7:00 pm Friday and then host Memphis (7-5) at 1:00 pm on Sunday. Memphis plays at Tulsa on Friday. Tulane has the potential to be a pretty tough match. A good season opening crowd would be nice.

WichitaSt Volleyball @GoShockersVB
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9:31 AM - 18 Sep 2018

[1972Shocker]

Shocker Tuland and Memphis Match Notes.

[291185]

Do you know guys how can be watched today match on streaming? yurview website does not seem to direct to a page where the video live will be played looks only an advertisment page. any help is appreciated

[1972Shocker]

The absolute best way to watch then is to show up in person at Koch Arena.

But if you can't do that you can try this: https://www.yurview.com/tulane-vs-wi...eyball-9-21-18

[1972Shocker]

RH: Shockers Count on Lessons from Tough Schedule

https://goshockers.com/news/2018/9/2...-schedule.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Shocks come from down 1-5 in the 5th set to pull out a really fugly win over Tulane. Exactly how they managed to do that is a bit of a mystery. Lambo did switch to a 5-1 in the 5th set.

Highlights were a really good crowd and perhaps the best ever student section and turnout for Shocker Volleyball. Kudos Shocker fans and kudos to the students.

[1972Shocker]

Other AAC scores from Friday:

Cincy with an easy 9-15-21 sweep at ECU

UCF wins in 5 sets at USF: 22-25, 25-20, 18-25, 25-23, 15-10

Tulsa sweeps Memphis at home 12, 21 and 21.

Temple picks up a 5 set road win at Houston: 25-20, 19-25, 19-25, 28-26, 15-13

SMU picks up a home win in 4 sets over UConn: 29-27, 22-25, 25-17, 25-15

Attendance at the Shockers-Tulane match = 4,270 :congratulatory: -- Attendance at the other 5 AAC matches combined = 2,339 :sour:

[1972Shocker]

I watched a replay of the Shockers-Tulane game tonight and a comment Lambo made in his pre-game talk to the Match Club boosters came to mind. He said he doesn't have a time machine that he can use to magically provide experience to this team. He also said the if each player played just a little bit better the team would be a lot better. However, he said that is a two-edged sword and that if each player plays just a little bit worse the team would be a lot worse.

Tulane is also a pretty young volleyball team, although not without talent, and I think these comments probably apply to them as well. Perhaps that partially explains the big swings from set to set over the first 4 sets and within the 5th set.

I was pretty impressed with Tulane's talent and I think they will be tough out in the AAC this year (and in the future). It might be to the Shockers benefit that they only play Tulane once this year and that they got them early.

The Lady Shocks obviously have a lot of work to do to get to where they need to be and want to be. However, they did show some resilience and toughness in the Tulane match especially coming back from the really poor start in the 5th set.

[1972Shocker]

Lambo reported in his pre-match breakdown to the Match Club that Emma Wright broke her thumb in the 4th set of the Tulane match and is out for the season.

He will switch to a 5-1 and go with Grace Burken in place Emma.

He said it's a dream come true for Kali and Tabitha. Let's see what they can do

He had a few other interesting comments as well about Kennedy & juco recruiting.

[Shockm]

Lambo reported in his pre-match breakdown to the Match Club that Emma Wright broke her thumb in the 4th set of the Tulane match and is out for the season.

He will switch to a 5-1 and go with Grace Burken in place Emma.

He said it's a dream come true for Kali and Tabitha. Let's see what they can do

He had a few other interesting comments as well about Kennedy & juco recruiting.

What does Mike Kennedy have to do with Juco recruiting?

[flyingMoose]

What does Mike Kennedy have to do with Juco recruiting?

Uh, comments about Mike Kennedy and about juco recruiting?

[1972Shocker]

Yes.

[flyingMoose]

Other AAC scores from Sunday:

Temple 0-3 SMU
21 24 22

UConn 3-1 Houston
16 18 (23) 18

Tulane 0-3 Tulsa
20 22 24

The Shockers, SMU and Tulsa are all at 2-0, while UCF and Cincinnati are both at 1-0.

[Shockm]

Uh, comments about Mike Kennedy and about juco recruiting?

so what interesting quotes were there about MK and juco recruiting? I like MK but he isn’t an interesting character when I’ve listened to him. Is he having an extra-marital affair or something? However, juco recruiting would be interesting.

[WuDrWu]

Wth?

[WuDrWu]

Going to be a tough grind without Emma Wright. I do think we'll get better, but in a 5-1 we're going to be completely unable to score when Kali is in the front row. I already feel bad for Tabitha, and her work load just got heavier.

[1972Shocker]

Uh, comments about Mike Kennedy and about juco recruiting?

Lambo was a bit late showing up at the Match Club pre-match. Said he and Mike Kennedy where a little late getting his pre-match intereview recorded. Lambo usually tries to show up at the Champions Club at about 45 minutes before match time. He was closer to 30 minites on Sunday.

1st question was about whether he switched to the 5-1 for the final set against Tulane (which he did). This led to kind of long and meandering response. I can summarize and paraphrase some ot the comments made but I confident I won't get them in the exact order made.

Yes, Lambo confirmed that he did switch to the 5-1. He said that the play of the "back half" of the 6-2 has not be very good, in fact, it has tended to result in the scoreboard moving backwards for the Shocks. He talked about how some players have the phsyical tools and skil level to succeed but not everyone can handle the moment when they are put on the firing line. He essentially said that the moment appears to have been bigger than the setters on the back half of trhe 6-2 areeady to handle. The just aren't yet equipeed to handle the speed of the game.

He said one thing that most fans may not realize is that he had anticipated that this year's team would be Regan Peare's team. That went out the door when Regan dislocated her knee in 2017 which ended her career. Unlike basketball and football he said you can't really go to the Juco ranks to fill in those holes. He Juco volleyball just too far below the level of volleyball the Shocks play. He said there may be an occasional juco player that is good enough but those are few and far between and it is just not a viable source of talent at this point. Lambo's recruiting efforts are typically largely focused on high school sophomore classes in identifying players to pursue. You have to get on them young in volleyball.

Lambo then announced that Emma Wright had broken her thumb in the 4th set of the Tulane match is would be out for the year. You could tell Lambo clearly was feeling that this was a very major blow to this year's team. I have the feeling that Lambo was ready to scrap the 6-2 in any case but I think the injury ot Emma cinched it. He said he wished he could have the spring and fall back because the 6-2 was very good in the Spring and that they had spent all thier time working on that which continuued into the fall. He did mention that in the Spring opponents are really worrying to much about what you are doing and they don't scout and scheme to deal with your strengths and weaknesses and so the 6-2 may not have been as good as he thought it was.

I think Lambo is thankful that he was able to get Kali Eaken into the fold this year but admitted that she a little on the small side to help much in the blocking game. However, the blocking game hasn't been that great in the 6-2. They have kind of been going back and forth between trying to get blocks and trying to funnel balls to Giorgia. The theory of funneling balls to Giorgia is based on the thinking that you score more points by digging an attack and going on offense than you do from stuff blocks. I don't think at this point he is really sure which is the way he wants to go with blocking schemes.

He said going with a 5-1 is a dream come true for Kali and Tabitha and he thinks they will both be energized by this switch. Grace Burken will be given the chance to fill in for Emma. As far as how Grace and Abby are doing he said to watch for how they do hitting off of one foot. If the ball is finding the floor then its working. If not then we have problem in the middle.

He said he was still leaning towards redshirting Brooke Smith. That is what she wants. She wanted to redshirt last year but was forced to play due to an injury, ironically, to Emma. He said he would have to be convinced that Brooke would be able to add more that just a martinal improvement over Abby and Grace to pull her redshirt.

Lambo also said that it might be time to lower expectations for this team and he is okay with that.

At some point during his ramblings he made a comment (and I don't really recall the context) that MIke Kennedy never gets personal on the air regarding players. However, he said when he and MIke are one-on-one that MIke is not bashful at all about expressing his opinion about individual players. Who he likes and who has no business being on the court. For some reason Lambo seemed amused by that.