Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Shockers at Cincy (Friday @ 6:00 pm) and ECU (Sunday @ Noon)

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Shockers at Cincy (Friday @ 6:00 pm) and ECU (Sunday @ Noon)

    Lambo thinking out of the box again as he puts together his master plan to use against Cincy and their star, Jordan Thompson:

    Is that Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, in the back row? Hmmmm, just might work.



  • #2
    Cincy (19-6, 9-2) has proven to be beatable recently. The Shocks nearly got them in Wichita losing in 5 sets in match where they were without Megan Taflinger. 3 days later Dayton also extend Cincy to 5 sets. 2 weekends ago a good UCF team who is probably best equipped in the AAC to deal with Cincy handed them their 1st AAC loss om 5 sets by scores of 23-25, 27-25, 25-15, 25-27 and 15-6. After dropping the 1st set to Memphis sincing took the next 3 sets before losing at Tulane in 4 sets.

    The question is can Lambo figure out how ot deal with Cincy All-American Jordan Thompson who eviscerated the Shockers in Wichita.

    Not sure if Megan Taflinger who apparently injured either her pinky or ring finger on her right hand in warmups prior ot the Temple match will be avaialble or, if available, will able to be active. Against Temple she was mostly a decoy only taking 11 swings after getting 33 swings against UConn.

    After getting off to a good 4-1 start in AAC play ECU (12-10, 4-7) to improve to 12-4 on the season ECU has lost 6 straight starting with a straight set loss to the Shockers. Quite frankly ECU was not very impressive in their match at Koch Arena. However, chances are the Shocks will be putting most of their prep time with an eye toward Cincy plus this Shicker team has shown they can lose to just about anyone in the AAC on a given night.

    The Shocks petty much have to win out to keep their diminsihing chances of making the NCAA Tournament.

    Shocker Weekend Notes and Links

    Comment


    • #3
      Per Pablo, the winning chances against Cincinnati are 28% and against ECU are 76%.

      Comment


      • #4
        Shockers 0-3 Cincinnati
        23 12 17

        The Shocks led the first set 23-19, but the Bearcats went on a 6-0 run to close out the first set - and effectively the match.

        .173 v .483 (over .600 from late in the first set)


        Post-match comments

        Disappointed in defensive effort. Both Kora and Jordan need lots of reps with their hitters. With injuries to Megan and Brooke causing them to have light loads during the week, the offense has a hard time being in sync. Questioned the effort (commitment?) of a couple of players. He didn't name them, but he named about five whose commitment he did not question.
        Last edited by flyingMoose; November 2, 2018, 07:39 PM.

        Comment


        • 1972Shocker
          1972Shocker commented
          Editing a comment
          Do you recall the 5 he mentioned?

        • flyingMoose
          flyingMoose commented
          Editing a comment
          Hmm, okay. He said it out loud, so I can repeat it.

          Megan, Tabitha, Abby, Gio, Grace.

          I should repeat that I do not recall whether the term was "effort" or "commitment." I see a lot of difference in those two.

          He also mentioned that he had to decide in the next two minutes what to say in the locker room. Noting another match on Sunday, he was unsure if any comments should be tonight or next Tuesday.

      • #5
        Other Thursday/Friday matches

        UCF 3-0 UConn

        USF 3-1 Temple

        Tulsa 3-1 ECU

        Tulane 3-0 Houston

        Memphis 2-3 SMU
        Mustangs win after being down two sets.


        UCF is undefeated, Cincinnati has two losses and Tulsa has three.
        Last edited by flyingMoose; November 2, 2018, 09:24 PM. Reason: Update again

        Comment


        • #6
          Just got home and was unable to follow the match but the stats pretty much say it all. Shocks totally overmatched by Jordan Thompson who hit 24-3-36 = .611. Sheesh.

          Should officially end any Shocker hopes for NCAA play this year.

          Comment


          • #7
            Saturday Matches

            UCF 3-1 Temple

            USF 1-3 UConn

            Comment


            • #8
              After the Shocks who are now 11-12 overall and 6-6 in the conference lost back-to-back matches to SMU and Houston dropped them to 9-11 overall and 3-5 in the conference I posted the following:

              The Shockers are now 11-12 overall and 6-6 in AAC play. The have 6 AAC matches and one non-league match against North Texas remaining. The have played all 7 of these teams this year previously going 4-3 with wins over home wins over ECU, UConn and Temple and a road win over North Texas all of which were Shocker sweeps. The Shocks lost on the road to Tulsa, SMU and Houston all of which were 5-set losses. The 5th set scores were 17-19 at Tulsa, 15-17 at SMU and 13-15 at Houston.

              It would seem like we should the Shocks would have a pretty good chance at reaching my modest goal but it is hard to say exactly what frame of mind this team and Lambo are in at this time. Furthermore, due to the plethora of injuries the Shocks have had we aren't really the same team now that we were the 1st time through against these teams.

              I don't know that it is all that important to reach the goal of finishing at least .500 this year but I'm thinking a good finish to the season would be helpful in getting some minds right heading into the off-season and heading into the work next Spring. And this team has a lot of things to work on.

              The pressure should be off at this point. Let's get this going today Ladies with a good performance and a win over ECU.

              ECU fell to Tulsa on Friday in 4 sets but game them a pretty tough match losing by scores of 17-25, 25-22, 17-25 and 23-25. I expect ECU will present a much tougher challenge at home than they did when they visited Koch Arena.

              Comment


              • #9
                No pre-game show. Technical problems.

                Set 1

                Shocks win 25-17

                Shocks were kind of up and down. ECU made a lot of errors. 10 attack errors on 37 attempts for ECU.

                Still no Mike Kennedy.

                ECU has video, but only with PA announcing.

                Set 2

                Shocks lose 18-25 and looked bad doing it. Pretty hard to lose a set when your opponent hits .065 and you out block them 5-2. But the Shocks managed to do that hitting 8-8-43 = .0000000000000000000000000000000000000. Very low kill % and very high error %. Passing was bad at best.

                Still no Mike Kennedy.

                Set 3

                Shocks eek out a 25-23 win after leading 21-16.

                Shocks still not playing very well and still no Mike Kennedy.
                My

                Shocks close out the match with a 25-23 win to thankfully keep this from going to a 5th set.

                Mike Kennedy was a no show I guess due to technical issues.

                Shocks hit 47-21-155 = .168 which is not great but it was a little better than ECU who hit 53-31-151 = .146

                Shocks had the advantage with 7 aces vs 2 aces for ECU while both teams had 5 service errors. ECU out dug the Shockers 74-58 as the Shocks kill % was only 30.3%. However, the Shocks did out block ECU 11-9, perhaps one area where the Shocks have improved on later in the season.

                Not sure this performance would have beat too many of the upper half AAC teams but it was good enough against ECU.

                Will be interesting to hear what Lambo has to say about things on his radio show tomorrow.

                My summary of the match: They who error the most will be toast.

                Last edited by 1972Shocker; November 4, 2018, 02:14 PM.

                Comment


                • #10
                  Other Sunday Matches

                  Tulsa 1-3 Cincinnati

                  Tulane 3-0 SMU

                  Memphis 1-3 Houston

                  Last edited by flyingMoose; November 4, 2018, 03:40 PM.

                  Comment


                  • #11
                    Originally posted by flyingMoose View Post
                    [U]
                    UCF and Cincinnati are going to the Tournament - nobody else from the AAC is. I think.
                    I would agree with that. If that proves to be an accurate assessment that means the 3rd place team will get the auto bid to the NIVC.

                    The Shocks at 7-6 are two games behind both Tulane and Tulsa with 5 matches to play. To have any chance at this the Shocks probably have to win out which in and of itself is a tall order the way they are playing plus they will need some help along the way.

                    Tulane plays Temple and UConn at home, Cincy and ECU on the road and then finish at home with travel partners Memphis.. Not sure I really see 2 losses there.

                    Tulsa being the Shocks' travel partner plays the same schedule the Shockers do. Houston and SMU at home, Temple and UConn on the road and against each other in Koch Arena to close out the AAC regular season.

                    They would be in good shape to get the bid if they could get into a 3rd place tie but their chances of that happening look to be quite slim to me.

                    Comment


                    • #12
                      One thing of some note this weekend is the Shocks started both matches in a 6-2 offense with Kora and Jordan sharing setting duties and playing only on the back row and then switched to the 5-1 with Kora exclusively handling the setting duties through all 6 rotations.

                      Against Cincinnati the Shocks played the 6-2 in sets 1 and 2. The Shockers hitting % was .111 in both of those 2 sets on a combined 21 kills and 13 errors on 72 attacks. In Set 3 they switched to the 5-1 and hit 13-3-32 = .312

                      Against ECU the Shocks played the 6-2 in sets 1 and 2 again and then switched to the 5-1 in sets 3 and 4. In 6-2 in sets 1 and 2 the Shocks hit 18-10-76 = .105 and in the 5-1 in sets 3 and 4 the Shocks hit 29-11-79 = .228

                      I think that theoretically Lambo likes the 6-2 they way he has talked about it but he is a big time numbers guy and if he follows the numbers those would seem to support going with the 5-1. I suppose a lot of that may depend on what approach he is thinking he may want to go with next year.

                      One of the problems with the 6-2 is that both Kora and Jordan are much better playing from the front row which the 5-1 allows in half of the rotations.

                      Perhaps he will talk about this on his radio show.

                      Comment


                      • #13
                        Grace Burken did have one of her best matches as a Shocker agaisnt ECU. Grace and Tabitha were also about the only Shockers to show up against Cincy. She was 5-1-10 = .400 in 2 sets against the Bearcats.

                        https://twitter.com/GoShockersVB/sta...73678385188864

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X