An Early Look At Next Season & Quite a Few New Faces

[1972Shocker]

RH: Podcast with Volleyball Assistant Coach Sean Carter

Listen to Podcast

(About 31 minutes)

Practice starts with 2-a-days on Thursday.

[flyingMoose]

Article from the Friday Eagle

[1972Shocker]

A lot of questions to be answered and a lot of teaching and learning. The main thing I am looking for this season is steady improvement throughout the season. If the Shocks finish at above 0.500 it will be a good sign that they are on their way back.

[1972Shocker]

Volleyball season tickets were mailed out this morning.

[1972Shocker]

So many new faces this year.

Click on Tweet to Enlarge, then click on each frame.

Outside Hitters: 5-11 Fr. Sina Uluave, 5-11 Jr. Lexi Hogan, 6-0 R-So. Megan Taflinger, 6-3 Fr. Sophia Rohling, 6-1 R-Fr. Brylee Kelly, 6-0 Fr. Nicole Anderson and 5-11 Fr. OH Skylar Goering

Setters: 5-10 Fr. Kayce Litzau, 6-2 R-So. Kora Kauling and 5-9 Jr. McKayla Wuensch

Middle Blockers: 6-3 Jr. Emma Wright, 6-0 Sr. Dimadj Johnson, 6-0 R-Fr. Chinelo Ogogor and 6-3 Jr. Brooke Smith

Defensive Specialists: 5-5 Fr. Shea Lauria, 5-8 Fr. Arianna Arjomand, 5-6 Jr. Giorgia Civita, 5-8 Sr., Kara Bown and 5-5 Fr. Kily Liekweg

Returning Letter Winners

[1972Shocker]

[ShockTalk]

Great time at the Meet and Greet tonight. The format gave us a chance to talk to all the players (and coaching staff) as they came around to sit at each of our small tables. All seemed to be very excited to be here and genuinely like their teammates and coaches. Players come from Hawaii to California to Florida. From Wisconsin to San Antonio, Texas (and of course Italy) with a good smattering of Kansas girls.

[Wuzee]

Let's do all we can to make sure setter McKayla Wuensch marries incoming Shocker pitcher Trevor Munsch and hyphenates.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Picked 7th in American Preseason Poll

2019 American Volleyball Preseason Poll

Team	First Place Votes	Points
1. UCF	8	118
2. Cincinnati	4	114
3. Tulane		99
4. Tulsa		81
5. SMU		77
6. USF		66
7. Wichita State		65
8. Temple		44
9. ECU		39
10. Houston		34
11. UConn		32
12. Memphis		23

I think this actually shows some decent respect for the Shockers considering the big turnover of the roster, the relative inexperience of the Shocks and the big hit of losing Gio to injury for the year.

Not a surpirse in the least bit is Cincy's Jordan Thompson being picked as the AAC preseason player of the year.

With Gio on the shelf there are no Shockers among the preseason All-conference picks. Again, not a surprise.

[WuDrWu]

That's a really good poll if you ask me. UCF and Cincy are above everyone else, and Cincy is given more respect than I've heard (and they should be) as they have maybe the best player in the country. Tulane got a ton better and has everyone back I think. 4-8 is a toss up. I think this WSU team could finish 4. Cracking the top 3 would be something else.

[1972Shocker]

Not sure I am quite as optimistic as that but if we are going to ourperform expectations we really need for Chinelo to get healthy and able to contribute.

[1972Shocker]

The first 7 spots on the AAC preseason poll mirror the final standings from last year.

Temple drops down from 8th last year to 10th in the poll.

ECU holds pat at 9th.

Houston moves up from 11the last year to 10th in the poll.

UConn drops from 8th last year to 10 in the poll.

And Memphis continues to hold the anchor position.

[WuDrWu]

Calling it now, this team is not finishing 7th. I should have payed closer attention to 1972Shocker and his scheduling post. The unbalanced schedule will work in our favor. Barring unforeseen changes (injuries for example) these young ladies will finish no worse than 5. And they just might be top 3.

[1972Shocker]

Here is how the two divisions ( I am calling them the East Division and the West Division for now) stack up based where they are picked in the AAC preseason coaches' poll. Number in parenthesis is the overall conference ranking. East Dvision teams in bold play at Koch Arena during the regular season.

East Division:
Central Florida (1)
Cincinnati (2)
South Florida (6)
Temple (8)
East Carolina (9)
UConn (11)

West Division:
Tulane (3)
Tulsa (4)
SMU (5)
Wichita State (7)
Houston (10)
Memphis (12)

Top 3 from each division will qualify for the inaugural AAC Post-Season Tournament in Orlando.

.

[flyingMoose]

Exhibition Matches

Wed 21Aug

3-2 Cincinnati v Butler
3-0 SMU v North Texas


Fri 23 Aug

1-4 Houston at Rice


Sat 24 Aug

1-4 UCF at Florida
3-2 Tulane at Stephen F Austin
NR Tulsa v Central Oklahoma
NR USF v Florida Gulf Coast
4-1 UConn v Rhode Island


Temple, ECU, and Memphis - none scheduled.

Two matches with No Report

[1972Shocker]

Raise Hell Shocks!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BuJ7-mEA2tc/

[WuDrWu]

Lambo also made a couple of comments regarding how hard this team hit it in the summer. Since the coaches are hands off, it's totally up to the girls to get in the gym and get work done. He kept saying "not to diminish or make any previous teams mad, but....." It's pretty clear the reset done last season has brought about substantial change. Now we'll see what the immediate results are. I suspect the mid term and long term results are going to be pretty darned special.

[1972Shocker]

Looks like Regan Stiawalt has transferred to McNeese State.

https://mcneesesports.com/news/2019/7/30/womens-volleyball-vb-fitzgerald-makes-late-addition-to-2019-roster.aspx?path=wvball

https://mcneesesports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=5954

No idea what was behind that decision but I wish her well. I would expect her to be a key component for McNeese.