2018 NIVC

[boyshocker]

[boyshocker]

Nice little home court advantage, hard to believe a DI program plays in a gym with such a low ceiling. Believe the Shocks have played there several times over the years.

[flyingMoose]

I'm a little surprised the Intramural Program let them have the facility for the NIVC.

[WuDrWu]

I think that picture is misleading. The ceiling is much lower than it appears here.

[1972Shocker]

They aren'y the only D-1 program that plays in a gym like that. Evansville is another one that I have been to. SIU's gym has a pretty low ceiling. i suspect it is much more prevalent than you might think.

[WuDrWu]

It reminded me a lot of various mid level club volleyball tournaments with digs into the ceiling time and time again. Earlier in the year there were a couple of huge digs by Gio that were destined for Kali's soft hands that hit up high and cost the Shocks against Cal Poly.

Very proud of the ladies for battling and winning tonight. That will be a tough environment tomorrow. The biggest difference from the 3-0 win by WSU in September and 3-1 win last week for UNT in Wichita is the talented sophomore from Sugarland Tx, Valerie Valerian. She was 9-4-33 .152 in September and 25-3-61 .361 in November. A completely different player. If we can't slow her down a little this will be a quick match.

Go Shocks!!!!!

[flyingMoose]

Other NIVC

USF 2-3 at Georgia Tech
(19) (14) 21 17 9


Arkansas State 2-3 at Tulane
(23) 25 (22) 8 13

Down 10-13 in the fifth set, the Green Wave ran off five points in a row to take the match. Tulane are widely regarded as the second best team in the NIVC behind Iowa State.

[1972Shocker]

And Tulane only has 1 senior among their top 9 players so they will be tough next year. The 2 setters in their 6-2 offense were a sophomore and a freshman.

[flyingMoose]

The NCAA volleyball scoreboard for the D-1 Tournament (surprisingly and mistakenly) has the Radford v Appalachian State match listed - an NIVC match. :)

[1972Shocker]

Very proud of the ladies for battling and winning tonight. That will be a tough environment tomorrow. The biggest difference from the 3-0 win by WSU in September and 3-1 win last week for UNT in Wichita is the talented sophomore from Sugarland Tx, Valerie Valerian. She was 9-4-33 .152 in September and 25-3-61 .361 in November. A completely different player. If we can't slow her down a little this will be a quick match.

Go Shocks!!!!!

Interestingly, Valerian was 18-7-56 = .196 against Tulsa yesterday. Also Tulsa's Emily Thorson only hit 11-5-48 = .125 in last night's match. So both teams did a good job controlling the other teams stud. I'm sure Lambo and staff took in the North Texas-Tulsa match. Whether the learned anything about slowing Valerian down or not is hard to say. Could be Tulsa is just better equipped to handle her personnel wise. North Texas freshman OH Rhett Robinson who hit 11-5-26 = .231 in last weeks win over the Shockers went 12-3-22 = .409 against Tulsa. Perhaps the beneficiary of Tulsa focusing on Valerian.

The stats in that North Texas - Tulsa match were very even. Hitting % .224 to .223, Service Aces 4-4, Service Errors 8-7, Blocks 9-11, Digs 69-70, Points Won 88-86. Tulsa had a big advantage in Set 1 with North Texas having the advantage to a lesser degree in the final 3 sets.

The hopeful sign for me was that both Tabitha and Megan had good performances in the same match. That hasn't happened much this year. Regan was okay last night but needs to reduce her hitting error rate. Against UCA Regan was at 40% kills which is good but she was at 30% errors which is not good. Still not getting much out of our middle attack and Abby struggled agaisnt UCA, perhaps bothered by her foot injury. Emma has a strong blocking game against UCA which was very helpful.

North Texas is a winnable match. Again it may boil down to how much the Ladies want it.

[flyingMoose]

The NCAA volleyball scoreboard for the D-1 Tournament (surprisingly and mistakenly) has the Radford v Appalachian State match listed - an NIVC match. :)

And tonight, Radford's NIVC match is on the scoreboard again. Clearly, an alumna is running that show.

[flyingMoose]

at North Texas

Set One

Kora, Abby, Grace, Tabitha, Regan, Kara, and Giorgia are the starters.

[WuDrWu]

No audio?

[1972Shocker]

No audio?

I only get a Chevy Equinox commercial followed by dead air. They also had technical issues at the start of last nights match.

Never mind, the game audio just came on. Better quality tonight than last night but now is cutting in and out.

I won't be able to follow very closely tonight so I will let you guys take care of business tonight.

[flyingMoose]

Running a 6-2 tonight.

8-8 and 10-11 becomes 10-14 and brings on a Shocker TO.

14-18 moves to 16-18 and a North Texas TO.

17-18 then 17-20 and the last Shocker TO.

North Texas increases the lead and takes the first set, 25-19.

.406 v .760. Ridiculous numbers.

Tabitha had 6 kills and Emma had 5.

[1972Shocker]

.406 is terrific for this Shocker team but if UNT is going to hit .700+ we have no chance.

[flyingMoose]

Set Two

An early 5-2 Shocker lead becomes 7-7.

Brooke is in the rotation for this set, and Abby is not.

Neither team gets ahead by more than two, and the Shockers lead 15-14 at the media TO.

Back and forth continues but when 18-18 moves to a 20-18 Shocker lead on a Kara ace, NT takes a TO.

Two Shocker service errors and a Mean Green block of Tabitha ties the score at 21 and the Shocks take a TO.

23 all and NT takes a TO.

23-24 but kills by Megan, Megan again, and Emma get the Shocker win.

Tied at a set each.


.250 v .244 for the set

Tabitha has nine kills, Megan eight, Emma six, and Regan four.

[flyingMoose]

Set Three

The Mean Green opens the set with three kills followed by attack errors by Grace and Brooke before Megan gets a kill to end the run.

At 2-7, the Shocks take a TO.

A Shocker block brings the score to 12-18 and NT takes a TO. Are we serious? [NOTE: The LiveStats and the play-by-play differ slightly on the events. Two Shocker blocks to make the score 13-18 before the TO?]

A NT run, Deny says the score is 13-22, and the Shocks take a TO.

14-25 and the Mean Green leads 2-1.


-.087 v .257

Megan has eleven kills, and Tabitha has ten. Regan had four hitting errors in the set.

[flyingMoose]

Set Four

10-12 is the first two-point lead of the set. Four kills by Megan and three by Tabitha.

13-15 and the Media TO.

Two kills by Valerian and an error by Abby brings the score to 15-19 and brings a Shocker TO.

Shocks are running a 5-1 with Kora this set.

Four kills by the Mean Green out of the TO make it a seven-point run before Regan gets a kill. 16-23.

18-24 moves to 20-24, and NT takes a TO.

The Mean Green closes out the set at 25-21 to win the match.


For the match, .200 v .390.

Tabitha is 16-6-33 for .303
Megan is 17-3-51 for .275
Emma and Regan has seven kills

[flyingMoose]

Post-match comments

With no middle attack, with NT only having to defend 15' of the net (versus 30' for the Shocks), it is tough. He thought Tabitha and Megan did quite well given the circumstances. He also thought the Mean Green setter did a very nice job distributing. [They had five players with double-digit kills.]

You could point to the same issues mentioned numerous times before: inexperience with very few numbers in an upper class, a new setter after Kali went down, injuries (he mentioned Alex having mono). No matter, they just have to get better.

He alluded to some weak recruiting years - they have been through that before, you just go out and get the best kids you can that want to come.

He is very excited about the incoming freshman class. There could be three or four starters there. ... And then the audio quit in the middle of the thought! You could tell there was not a period at the end of that comment.