Shocks at SMU (Friday at 7:00) and at Houston (Sunday at 1:00)

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks (9-9, 4-3) head to Texas this weekend for matches against SMU (6-11, 3-4) and Houston (13-9, 0-7).

The Shocks NCAA chances most likely could not survive a loss to either of these teams this weekend.

Lambo said on his radio show Monday that he was honestlyshocked with the results he sees each week with SMU. He said SMU has all the talent to be right where the Shockers are at. He considered them to be clones of the Shocks. But so far SMU is not having the season that he thought they would be having but they have the talent to be dangerous.

SMU did give #10 Creigton a very competitive match at home losing (25), (24) and (21). The Shocks lost to Creighton in 4 sets in Omaha 23, (17), (16), (23).

SMU's conference wins are over UConn (3-1), Temple (3-0) and Houston (3-0) all at home. Conference losses are to Cincy (0-3), ECU (1-3), Tulane (2-3) and Memphis (2-3) all on the road.

Overall SMU is 5-3 at home and 1-8 in road and neutal site games. So they would appear to be much better at home than on the road. I don't expect that this one will be easy.

Houston has confirmed that its non-conference schedule was weak by going 13-2 in the non-con and are 0-7 so far in AAC play. However, Lambo did say he thought they were improving.

Shocks need both of these. Hopefully, Tabitha can continue her strong play from this past weekend. Not sure whether Megan Taflinger will be available this weekend or not.

Shocker Match Preview, Notes and Match Links

:poster_shocks:

[flyingMoose]

The RPI of interest going into the weekend are

13 - UCF
29 - Cincinnati (They had a nice mid-week win over Dayton)
30 - Shockers
44 - Tulsa

Those numbers assume no update by Figstats past the mid-morning one.

I agree that the Shocks cannot afford a loss this weekend. Given the rest of their schedule, none of the matches will be helpful to their RPI even with a win - Cincinnati and Tulsa being the only possible exceptions.


Chances of a win using Pablo values are

at SMU - 61%

at Houston - 75%

[1972Shocker]

No surprise but it's official...Kali's college career is over. :grumpy:

[1972Shocker]

Megan T most likely will not play this weekend. They want to give her another week at least.

[1972Shocker]

Lambo thinks SMU is the 2nd most talent in the AAC. Not sure what has held them back.

[1972Shocker]

Shock call a time out down 9-14. Not playing well.

Shocks never got anything going in Set 1as they fall 16-25

SMU outhit the Shock .316 to .086.

Tabitha hit 3-3-11 = .000, Alex hit 1-2-16 = -.062 and Chase was 1-0-10 = .100. Combined the OH's were 5-5-37 = .000

Hard to believe we could play worse.

Only Abby Pugh was decent at 4-1-6 = .500; Brooke was 1-0-8 = .125

Obviously a big turn around is needed,

[1972Shocker]

Set 2

Regan Stiawalt in for Alex Koon.

Shocks up 8-3 early. SMU calls timeout.

A couple of kills by Regan out of the timeout put the Shocks up 10-4 but a 5-1 run (including 3 Shocker attack errors) by SMU makes it 11-9.

4 service errors by the Shocks so far this set.

Shocks re-establish a 6 point lead at 20-14. SMU uses its 2nd timeout.

SMU scores 4 straight on 3 kills and an Abby Pugh attack error to make it 20-18 and the Set is up for grabs.

After the timeout SMU scores again to make it 20-19 before an SMU service error breaks the runs. But at this point the momentum is definitely on SMU's side of the net. The Shocks simply can not terminate.

After the SMU ties it at 21-all the Shocks score 4 of the next 5 to win the set 25-22. Kills by Tabitha, Abby and Brooke plus a set ending stuff block by Tabitha got it done for the Shocks.

Still doesn't sound like the Shocks are clicking on all cylinders. Only have a 27% kill rate.

Lucky to be tied at 1-1. Hopefully, Lambo kind find something here.

[1972Shocker]

Set 3

Shocks jump out to a 13-5 lead in Set 3 then must have decided it was time to relax a bit and SMU pulls to within 13-8 and Lambo takes a timeout.

Shocks with their best set of the match results in a 25-16 win and a 2-1 lead.

Tabitha came alive a bit in this set.

Shocks need to end this in 4. A 5th set could be a little dicey.

[1972Shocker]

Set 4

Gio injured her shoulder on the 1st point of the 4th set. After a few minutes Gio is back in. Perhaps a stinger.io

At 4-4 Gio is replaced by Kara at Libero. Not good.

SMU up by 13-9 midway.

Now 17-10. Shocks not competitive since Gio went out. A 5th set without Gio is not what the Shocks had in mind.

Right now SMU is paying with confidence and the Shockers are not.

Shocks collapse after losing Gio early in the set. SMU wins 25-14 to force a 5th set.

I suppose anything is possible but it sounds like the Shocks may be done mentally.

[1972Shocker]

Set 5

SMU leads 8-4 at the switch.

After the switch the Shocks get 2 kills on rockets by Abby and 2 kills by Alex who has had a tough go of it in this match to pull even at 8-8 and force an SMU timeout.

SMU back up 11-9 after Alex's attack finds the net. Shocker timeout. Shocks have to have the next point I would think.

After the time out Alex tries a deep tip but sends it out of bounds. SMU up 3 with 3 to go.

Shocks pull back to 11-12 and then Kara Bown hits her serve long. Ouch!

Kills by Grace and Alex pull the Shocks even at 13-13. Shocks have a chance if they quit shooting themselves in the foot.

SMU serving for the match at 14-13 but Grace and Brooke get a stuff block to stave off the loss.

SMU serving for the match at 16-15 after a WSU timeout.

SMU wins 17-15.

Probably time to play with a view towards next year.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks served for the match at 15-14 but Kora's set to Brooke was too low and she got blocked.

Lambo said Giorgia is his most important player and losing her was big. Lambo didn't say much about her injury. Probably doesn't know much at this point.

Houston was swept by Tulsa tonight 23, 22, 18 but were pretty competitive. If Gio can't go Sunday than who knows what could happen.

Alex had 2 big kills back-to-back in the 5th set but still only manged to hit 5-6-36 = -.028.

Abby Pugh had on of her better matches at 13-3-24 = .417. Tabitha, after a slow start ended up at 15-7-44 = .182. Brooke Smith was below par for her at 6-1-21 = .238.

The Shocks had another tough serving match with 1 ace and 10 service errors. That's been very up and down this season. In fact, this team has generally been inconsistent this year and that has been exacerbated by the plethora of injuries to key players.

3 of the Shocks 4 AAC losses have been in 5 sets. In all 3 of those 5-set losses the Shocks were up 2-1.

[WuDrWu]

On our way to really nice 4 set road win when Gio went down. Man I'm telling you, you just knew things were going to get bad at that instance.

In many ways there's a lot to be excited about and have pride in with this unit. Everything lost from last year and an obvious rebuilding season, then all the injuries, and still competitive and honestly just a couple of points from another really strong and probable tournament season (gone now...even running the table probably isn't enough...MAYBE if we run the table and beat Cincy on the road there's a chance but I wouldn't bet on it at 20-10 and no better than 3rd in conference, maybe 4th) but that's just talk anyway if Gio is out at all and Megan can't come back immediately.

[flyingMoose]

After the Friday matches, the RPI of interest are

12 - UCF
27- Cincinnati
36 - Shockers
40 - Tulsa

The Shocks finally have a win against a Top 50 team - James Madison is now at 48.

[1972Shocker]

Set 1 at Houston

Both Giorgia and Megan Taflinger both in the starting lineup.

Shocks jump out to an 8-1 lead helped greatly by poor play from Houston. After atime out Houston charged back to time the set at 12-12.

This Shocker team has a really bad habit of seemingly letting up when they get good leads.

Shocks fall behind at 19-20 but comeback behind 3 kills by Megan and 2 kils by Tabitha to pull out a 25-23 win.

Set 2

Houston leading most of the way early Shocks tied it at 10-10. Then a 3 point run by the Shocks at 13-13 gave them a 16-13 lead.

Shocks expand their lead to 5 at 21-16 and then the bad habit reared its head again as Houston tied the match at 23-all. SMH.

Shocks fall behind 24-25. Save set point on a Brooke Smith kill to tie it at 25.

Shocks go up 26-25 on a Megan Taflinger kill following a great point saving dig by Abby Pugh and then win the set 27-25 on a Houston attack error.

Shocks have 35 kills to 24 kills for Houston and are outhitting Houston .250 to .156. Yet they have barely won both sets. Houston has 4 blocks to 3 for the Shocks, they have 4 aces to 2 for the Shocks and the Shocks have 7 service errors to only 2 for Houston.

Set 3

Shocks fall behind 1-6 to oipen the set. After a Shocker timeout Houston extends the lead to 8-1. :beaten:

Houston extends their lead to 9 at 16-7. Houston gaining confidence.

Houston cruises to a 25-19 win and that was with the Shocks scoring 5 of the last 6 points Fittingly a Shocker service error gave Houston match point. Houston outhits the Shocks .286 to .056 in the set. Shocks with 11 kills and 9 errors on 36 attemtps. 30.6% kill rate and at 25% error rate.

Set 4

Houston jumps out to a 4-1 lead but Shocks rally to tie it at 4. Houston scores 3 straight to go up 7-4. Shocks answer to tie it at 7.

Shocks jump ahead at 11-8 only to see Houston score 3 straight to tie it at 11-all. Timeout Shockers.,

Kills by Tabitha and Megan give the Shocks a 2-point advantage at 19-17. Houston takes a timeout. Shocks have not be good at maintaining leads in this match.

Shocks with several chances to extend the lead to 3 but can't terminate making it 19-18.

A questionable call on a touch (Mike Kennedy sure it was a missed call) but no replay gives Houston the lead at 21-20 and the Shockers take a timeout. Houston extends that to 22-20 coming out of the timout.

Houston forces a 5th set with a 25-22 win.

Set 5

No real reason to be optimistic. Shocks have not fared well in AAC 5-setters (0-3) plus they simply are being outplayed by Houston at this point.

In addition, Alex Civita has come out and Kara Bown in at the Libero. Alex Koon making her 1st appearance of the match.

Shocks lead at the switch 8-5. Shocker leads have been anything but safe in this match.

Giorgia returns to serve as a DS. Shocks score to make it 9-5 and Houston takes a timeout.

And most of that lead is gone. Shocks call timeout leading 10-9. Basically the Shockers are a team without a go to player. Even if they did not sure they could get them a quality opportunity.

After the time out Houston ties it at 10-all.

Houston up 12-11 and Lambo use his last timeout. Houston goes up 13-11 after the timeout.

Houston wins 15-13 to take the match.

Congrats to Houston. They simply wanted this more than the Shocks. Houstion wins their 1st conference match of the year.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks do clear some things up with this loss to Houston. 1. They will not being playing in the NCAA Tournament this year and 2. They are an extremely average volleyball team,

Lambo says they have some locker room stuff going on that needs to be cleared up.

The missed call on the touch in the 3rd set was huge. Lambo bascally says this teams lacks leadership.

That was a concern coming into the year with Emily, Abbie and Mikaela no longer around. Unfortunately, no one has been able fill that void. But leadership aside this team is just not that talented and ultimately the level of talent will determine how successful you can be. All the injuries the Shocks have had to deal with certainly made things more challenging as well.

At this point I am hoping the Shocks can finish 0.500 in the league and overall., That requres a 5-4 finish plus a win over North Texas. 6 of those matches are at home.