Shocks At USF (Friday @ 6:00) and UCF (Sunday @ Noon)

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks won the 1st set at UCF 25-20 and the trail 13-15 in the 2nd set.

Neither team attacking at high level. Shocks hitting .200 to .125 for UCF so far.

The 2nd set goes to UCF 25-22. Shokcs struggling on the pins. Megan is 6-4-23 = .087; Alex is 6-5-23 = .043; 1-0.3 = .333

The middles are a combined 15-3-35 = .343 lead by Brooke Smith with 6 kills and no errros on 10 attacks.

Giorgia has 18 digs in 2 sets.

If the Shocks don't pick it up on the outside I don't see them winning this match. May need to Tabitha more involved and see what she can do.

[flyingMoose]

In Set Two, a 19-18 lead for the Shocks becomes a 22-25 loss. Match is even at a set apiece.

.200 v .182

Alex, Megan and Brooke all have six kills. Grace at 5-2-13 for .231 leads the outsides. No other outside with any number of swings is hitting north of .100.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks fell behind 1-4 early, got it back to 8-8, but now trail 8-12 and Lambo calls a timeout. Megan is really struggling this match.

UCF extended the lead to 14-9 before the Shocks started chipping away. The Shocks pulled to within 1 five times before finally getting tied at 21-21 at which point UCF called a time out.

Shocks take their only lead of the set at 22-21 before handing the set to UCF with attack errors (Grace and Tabitha) and two digging errors by Meghan Grimes.

UCF 25-23, 2-1.

[flyingMoose]

Set Four

A four-point UCF is whittled down to one, another four-point lead becomes two before a 10-15 deficit leads to a second Shocker TO.

UCF takes the set 25-18 and the match, 3-1.

[flyingMoose]

Post-match Comments

Lambo not listening to Mike's questions as he is looking at stats and watching Gio read the team the riot act. The older ones not providing the leadership the younger ones are looking for is still an issue.

Set Two was the match.

The opponents for the rest of the year will be all over Megan. He thought her .209 was a quite good given the situation she is in.

The Shocks need more than two people hitting above their numbers in a given match. It doesn't need to be everybody, but it needs to be more than two.

Abby, Grace and other young ones are having to make adjustments on the fly to the adjustments being made across the net, and they don't have the experience to do that easily.

The defense remains an issue. Other teams have higher numbers against us than their conference average.

(To provide some positives) In addition to Megan, Brooke was another positive. He also thought the game plan was executed fairly well.

[flyingMoose]

Other Sunday Matches

Cincinnati 3-1 UConn
21 (23) 18 17

Tulsa 3-1 USF
18 22 (21) 16

ECU 3-1 Temple
(20) 18 14 22


UCF and Cincinnati remain undefeated in conference play. ECU and Tulsa have one loss, while the Shockers and SMU have two losses.

[1972Shocker]

So is their still any hope for an NCAA berth for the Shocks. I guess there is always hope. At this point the Shocks have played the 4 teams that they will only see once this season -- Tulane, Memphis, USF and UCF. So the have 13 conference games remaining. The have home-and-home matches with ECU, Cincy, SMU, Houston, UConn, Temple and home match with Tulsa to closed out the conference schedule.

If they can pickup one win out of the 3 matches with Cincy and Tulsa and sweep everyone else they would finish 14-4. Would that be enough to get them into the NCAA Tournament? Not sure. Might be enough to get then on the bubble. What are the chances of that happening. At this point it doesn't seem very likely but perhaps not totally impossible.

I suppose I'll be a hope springs eternal guy until the Shocks lose a 5th AAC match or they lose to ECU, SMU, Houston, UConn or Temple. If that happens then the focus becomes NIVT or bust. I assume the Shocks would go to the NIVT if they qualify.