Shocks Host ECU (Friday at 7:00) and Cincy (Sunday @ 1:00)

[1972Shocker]

Weekend Matches Loom Large for Shockers at Home

https://goshockers.com/news/2018/10/...s-at-home.aspx

The Shocks are 16 matches into the season with 14 to play. The Shocks have had 2 matches at home so far. Not sure how much of a factor, if at all, that has been but hopefully the Shockers will benefit from a little home cooking over the remainder of the season with 8 of the remaaining 14 matches at home.

ECU (12-4, 4-1) may be somewhat of a paper tiger along the lines of USF as teams that have built guady numbers in the non-con. ECU's 8 non-con wins have come over Spring Hill College, Alcorn State, South Carolina Upstate, Tennessee Tech, North Carolina Central twice, Eastern Washington and Gardner Webb. The 3 non-con losses are are to Southern Miss (9-10), Hampton (6-9), Charlotte (11-10). ECU had 3 matches cancelled due to Hurrican Florence (those were to be with Morgan State, Lehigh and William & Mary. ECU does have 4 wins in the AAC with wins over Houston, SMU, UConn and Temple all in 4 sets. The lone loss in the AAC was a sweep at the hands of Cincy by scores of 9, 15 and 21.

At this point ECU and the Shocks have no common opponents to compare. Even though ECU may be a bit of a paper tiger the Shocks have not shown they are good enough to take anyone for granted.

Cincy (14-4, 5-0) is the real deal as long at 6-4 R-Jr. All-American and likely AAC POY Jordan Thompson is healthy and attacking the pins for the Bearcats. Cincy hasn't had the toughest part of the AAC in their 5 conference wins as they have sweeps over ECU, SMU, Houston and Temple and a 4 set win over UConn. Cincy does have a few nice wins in the non-con inclduing Colorado State, TCU, and Florida State,

The above headline from goShockers.com is probably accurate and will continue to be accurate as long as the Shocks can sitll see the light at the end of the tunnel which I think is still there but it's getting dimmer.

OTOH, the Shocks could reinvigorate there season with two wins this weekend.

Let's git 'er dun Ladies.

:poster_shocks:

[flyingMoose]

Using Pablo, the percentages for the Shockers winning their matches this weekend are:

82% v ECU

42% v Cincinnati

[1972Shocker]

Cincinnati is led by redshirt junior outside hitter Jordan Thompson, who currently leads the nation in kills (431), kills per set (6.07), points (475) and points per set (6.69) .Thompson also has a team-high 25 service aces and she is top 5 in the AAC in aces per set. Considering that the Shocks are at the bottom of the AAC in blocking it might be diffiuclt for them to keep Jordan at her averages let alone slow her down. Hard to believe we will be able to dig enough of the shots to have a huge impact. We'll see if Lambo has anything up his sleeve but he evens admits that some players are simply too superior to do much about and I think he considers Jordan to be in that category. If that's the case perhaps he concentrates on trying to keep everyone else below their averages something that Shocks have not been great at this year.

[flyingMoose]

ECU 0-3 Shockers
16 12 21

Shockers sweep the Pirates to begin the weekend, hitting .292 v .078.

Shocks were led by Tabitha 8-3-21 for .238, Grace 6-0-16 for .375, and Brooke 6-0-9 for .667.

Seven blocks v two and service error/aces were 7/7 for the Shockers and 0/4 for ECU.

The Pirates just plain played badly the first two sets. They showed a bit more spunk in the third set (though they trailed 20-13), plus the Shocks were bit sloppy in the third set.

There were three, maybe four, instances of scrambling and diving by the Shockers to keep the ball alive. Very impressive.

On the third or fourth point of the match, Kali collided with ?? chasing a possible set and went down with an apparent knee injury. (Or maybe she tweaked her knee trying to avoid a collision.) She was on crutches with an elastic wrap both above and below the knee at the end of the match. Kora came on and set in a 5-1 for the rest of the way. Also Megan played only the first set. This appeared to be a Coach's Decision rather than an injury of some sort, but perhaps she came onto the court with a slight tweak and just wasn't moving well enough. Being at the game, I had no chance to hear the post-match comments for any possible updates on Kali or Megan or an evaluation of the team performance and of Kora.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks cruise to a relatively easy sweep of ECU 16, 12 and 21 despite losing Kali Eaken to a knee injury early in the 1st set and with Megan Taflinger only playing the 1st set. Kali's situation really didn't look very good as she injured her right knee. She already wears a brace on her left knee but I guess they won't know for sure until the M.D.s examine her. Not sure if Megan had an injury or if something else was at play with her only playing the 1st set.

Not sure how much of the outcome had to do with the Shockers playing well vs with ECU playing poorly. ECU's play certainly supports my supposition that they might be a paper tiger. OTOH the Shocks had several of their youngsters play their best matches of the season. Forced to got to a 5-1 after Kali's injury Fr. Kora Kauling responded with her best performance of the year. While she still is a work-in-progress she was pretty steady tonight overall. She also contributed 8 digs, 2 service aces and no errors and several good service runs and 3 block assists to go with 27 assists. Fellow Fr. Grace Burken also had a season best performance hitting 6-0-16 = .375 with 3 block assists and 1 block solo and she also served well and ended up with 2 aces and only 1 service error. So. Chase Jackson started the match after having a strong week of practice. She got of to a slow start at 0-1-7 = (.143) but cashed in on 4 of her 5 attacks after that to finish at 4-1-12 = .250. So. Regan Stiawalt filled in very nicely for Megan Taflinger with one of her more efficient lines of the season hitting 4-0-10 = .400 in Sets 2 and 3. Brooke Smith continues her very good play since having her redshirt pulled as she was 6-0-9 = .667. Very Abbie Lehman like numbers but need to get her more attempts.

Jr. Alex Koon was not a big factor hitting 3-3-12 = .000 but Tabitha was pretty solid at 8-3-21 = .238 while contributing 13 digs tying Giorgia for team high in that department.

It was only the Shocks 3rd sweep in 17 matches with North Texas and Memphis being the other 2.

Not sure this match tells us much about how the Shocks might fare against Cincy. Cincy swept ECU by similar scores. One thing I really like about the Shocks match tonight was their effort. They had a number of points where they just kept battling and most of those whent there way.

The Shocks kill % of 36.5% (35/96) was so-so but there kill error rate of 7.3% (compared to 20.7% for ECU) was outstanding. Their serving was very good tonight was solid as well with a very good 7 aced to 7 errors ratio. Also they won the blocking stat at 7-2, something that has not happened much, if at all, this year.

Good luck Sunday Ladies! A great opportunity to recharge this season is at hand but I don't expect Cincy will be nearly as charitable as ECU was tonight.

:poster_shocks:

[1972Shocker]

Being at the game, I had no chance to hear the post-match comments for any possible updates on Kali or Megan or an evaluation of the team performance and of Kora.

I listened to it as best I could on my phone but the volume was real good. I think Lambo was generally happy pretty happy with Kora's play after a she put a few missed assignments behind her. He did say that with Kora they are trying to keep things pretty simple. He was pleased with the way Grace and Regan palyed as well.

He wasn't to impressed with the 36.4% kill rate but was very happy with the 7.3% attack error rate. He was pleased that the Shocks held ECU's top 3 attackers to well below their averages. Just the opposite has been happening too often this season.

The M.D.'s will have to examine Kali before they know for sure what her condition is. He and Mike commented on Megan Taflinger but I couldn't quite make out what was said. I think they may have indicated he may have had a minor injury but not sure at all about that.

[flyingMoose]

Other Friday Scores

Temple 1-3 UCF
24 24 (21) 17

Cincinnati 3-1 Tulsa
11 17 (17) 16

UConn 3-2 USF
20 (20) (23) 22 11

SMU 2-3 Tulane
(29) 24 22 (18) 11

Houston 1-3 Memphis
18 (16) 17 22


UCF and Cincinnati remain undefeated. The Shockers, ECU, and Tulsa all have two losses.

[1972Shocker]

BTW, it was Farmer Appreciation Night!

https://twitter.com/GoShockers/status/1050908062264020992/photo/1

[1972Shocker]

Lambo's post ECU match interview is now available on GoShockers.com match report.

Grace Burken post-ECU match interview:

[flyingMoose]

Some items not already suggested:

Kali's injury was non-contact. Something (perhaps) similar in the spring that had her out a couple of weeks. Megan dealing with some physical issues. Alex nursing a shoulder problem.

Mentioned the contributions of Regan and Chase.

"Going to have to play good with some unusual suspects out there"

[1972Shocker]

RH: Efficient Victory Sets Up Sunday Showdown

https://goshockers.com/news/2018/10/...-showdown.aspx

[1972Shocker]

In my post-ECU match commnets I stated that I really liked the Shocks effort. They had a number of points where they just kept battling and most of those when there way. There is a good example of this on the math highlights from goShockers below. At about the 1:15 mark Tabitha saves a ball with an overhead two-handed pass. It wasn't a great pass but it was a high difficulty save. Kora made it work with a diving one-handed bump set to Regan who confidently slammed home a kill to end that point. Not sure all what transpired before that finish on that point but that is about as excited as I have seen Tabitha this year. Loved seeing that.

[1972Shocker]

Set 1

Shocks 25 - Bearcats 23

Tabitha with her best set of the season

[WuDrWu]

Not sure we can play any better....which doesn't bode well for the rest of the match. Cincy had 20 kills and 2 blocks in 23 points. That's ridiculous.

Best set WSU has played all season IMHO. Proud of the way Kora is playing. Tabitha has her A game on too.

25-23 Shocks on to the 2nd set.

Huge no reversal on an out call against Jordan Thompson at 22-23. Made it 22-24. Could have been 23 all. Replay inconclusive. I thought it was in. I'll take the call.

[1972Shocker]

Your 1st sentence is exactly what I told my wife.

[1972Shocker]

Too many Shocker errors on set 2. Bearcats take it 25-20 to tie it at 1-1.