Shockers at Louisville Cardinal Classic

[WuDrWu]

I am at a total loss to figure out what's going on with this team.


If you would have told me that AA was going to hit .400+ with the number of kills she's had so far, I'd have told you we were 4-1 or 5-0.

Just not sure what's going on. We don't seem to be very tough right now, mentally especially, which is very surprising.

[shock10]

WSU 25 MU 21 set 1

MU 25 WSU 22 set 2

WSU 25 Old Miss. 17 set 3

WSU 25 Old Miss. 19 set 4

Winner Winner chicken dinner :yahoo: :yahoo: :clap: :clap: :clap: :posterwu:

[shock10]

Shocks lead 22-16 in set 3

[shock10]

Shocks lead 20-14 set 4

[1972Shocker]

I am at a total loss to figure out what's going on with this team.


If you would have told me that AA was going to hit .400+ with the number of kills she's had so far, I'd have told you we were 4-1 or 5-0.

Just not sure what's going on. We don't seem to be very tough right now, mentally especially, which is very surprising.

The mental tougness of this team has been something I've wondered about also. Still very much a work in progress at this point.

We definitely seem to be getting decent play from the middles which many thought was the biggest question mark heading into the season.

The serve and passing game was an area we thought we would be pretty solid in but that seems to be the place we have really struggled.

Sometimes that other team just jumps higher and hits harder as Lambo has been known to say and there is just not a lot you can do about it.

Being 3-3 at this point is a little disappointing but not totally surprising considering the schedule. I would have liked to seen us be a little more competitive with Arizona and Louisville, perhaps even splitting those matches, unfortunately that did not come to pass (no pun intended).

Looks like the win over San Francisco may prove to be a much better win than we thought in the preseason and today's win over Ole Miss may prove to be a decent win if they do indeed finish at least 2nd in the SEC West.

If we can somehow pickup a win over CSU next Friday and then pull the upset over OU in our home opener the Shocks can still claim a very successful preseason effort. Certainly won't be easy and the Ladies need to step up their game a notch to make that happen.

[Snapshot9]

Let's face it, they just don't seem to be that good.

[The Mad Hatter]

Let's face it, they just don't seem to be that good.

All three of our losses are to team either in the top 25 or receiving votes, so it is a bit premature to judge this team.

We clearly are not where we want to be, but the teams we have lost to are good teams and we can still get better.

Remember last year we beat OU early in the season only to lose to them in the NCAA tournament. Just because we have lost these early matches against NCAA caliber teams doesn't mean that we can't improve and beat those caliber teams later.

[SpanglerFan316]

We lost to OU in part because we lost MVC DPOY Sarah McGee to an ACL tear at the end of the season.

[The Mad Hatter]

We lost to OU in part because we lost MVC DPOY Sarah McGee to an ACL tear at the end of the season.

Part, but not all. OU also played better in the second meeting.

But the OU matches aside, there are plenty of time in sports where teams start a season playing great only to crash and burn, and teams that start sluggish but figure things out and are much better by the end of the season.

In spite of our erratic play thus far, we have shown flashes of great potential. If they remain nothing but potential, it will be a long season, but it is far, far too early in the season to be resigned to this team not gelling.

Personally, I don't quite know what to make of this team. I'll save my judgement for a larger sample size and some opportunity to see them in person.

[1972Shocker]

Thought this was interesting. I was reading the write-up of the Shocker-Ole Miss match on the Ole Miss web site.

Ole Miss has its home opener this weekend as part of its Magnolia Invitational. They host Arkansas-Little Rock, Northwestern, and Central Arkansas.

What caught my attention though was the following:

All matches are played at the Gillom Sports Center on campus and admission is free to all fans.

OT: Also the Saturday match with UCA preceeds the Rebs football game with Southern Illinois. Perhaps that should be free also. It will be interesting to see how the skinny dogs do against an SEC opponent on the road.

[JayJ79]

even with free admission, I don't think the Shockers have to worry about large hostile crowds. Heck, the listed capacity for the place is only 1,000.

WSU and (to a slightly lesser extent) UNI are blessed with a great volleyball fanbase that just isn't present on the same level at many other schools, especially in the south.

And after I typed all that, I just realized that you already played that match this past weekend. I'm guessing the attendance wasn't all that high even with free admission.

[1972Shocker]

even with free admission, I don't think the Shockers have to worry about large hostile crowds. Heck, the listed capacity for the place is only 1,000.

WSU and (to a slightly lesser extent) UNI are blessed with a great volleyball fanbase that just isn't present on the same level at many other schools, especially in the south.

And after I typed all that, I just realized that you already played that match this past weekend. I'm guessing the attendance wasn't all that high even with free admission.

Actually we played Ole Miss in Louisville as part of the Cardinal Classic. It was the only match on Sunday and started at noon EDT. The gym sounded empty and pretty much was as attendance was reported at 117.

The reported attendance for the feature match the Shocks played against Louisville was 894.

[JayJ79]

my bad. my apologies for the terrible case of posting w/o doing quality research. haha.

[1972Shocker]

No problemo. Good luck with the Panthers upcoming matches against Kansas, St. Louis, Minnesota and Iowa State. That is a challenging stretch for sure.