Shocker Volleyball Spring Schedule

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks have announced their Spring scrimmage schedule which includes 2 home dates at Koch Arena.

Admission is free to all spring home matches.

2019 Spring Schedule
Date	Opponent/Tournament	Location	Time
Saturday, March 30	Oklahoma	Wichita, Kan.	1 p.m.
Saturday, April 6	UMKC tournament	Kansas City, Mo.	10 a.m.
Saturday, April 13	Arkansas and Kansas	Wichita, Kan.	10 a.m.

[1972Shocker]

Saturday will be a nice little diversion before next Tuesday's NIT semi-final game against tonight's Lipscomb at NC State game.

[flyingMoose]

Shockers played Oklahoma for a pre-determined five sets on Saturday.

Scores were 16-25, 26-28 (Shocks were receiving serve at 24-21), 18-25. At this point, the Sooners went to Unit 2. The Shockers seemed to play Units 1a and 1b throughout the day.

The last two sets were 25-17 and 9-15.

The Shockers ran a 6-2 with Kora Kauling and the transfer from Nevada, McKayla Wuensch. Kora seems to have made progress, but McKayla was a little off, expected since she is learning a new system and has not worked with the hitters that much. There were several nice connections with the middles, something missing last year.

Faces we have seen before were Giorgia Civita, Kara Bown, Regan Stiawalt, Megan Taflinger, Brooke Smith, and Emma Wright. Chinelo Ogogor and Sophia Rohling were new faces, both red-shirting last year.

I am not nearly knowledgeable enough to see if progress has been made, but I would guess not that much. (But who knows what coaches are trying to achieve in the spring.) Lambo has mentioned that some of the incoming freshmen will push the returners for playing time, and I believe it.

[1972Shocker]

Thanks for the report. I had planned on going but my grandson had a basketball game that took precedent.

[1972Shocker]

Sully takes a look at how spring Volleyball training and scrimmaging went.

RH: Spring Volleyball A Time To Learn

https://goshockers.com/news/2019/4/2...-to-learn.aspx

"It sure seemed like there was a really high level of enthusiasm and commitment to unity, right from the start," he said. "I liked Giorgia's command. I thought we were disinterested and competitively immature last year, relative to where we had been. Giorgia, as much as anything else, what she brings to the table is an overwhelming desire to win and to improve. She shouldn't feel lonely in that. People should jump on her back."

Other notes from the spring:

Middle blocker Emma Wright, a junior-to-be, is growing into a more physical force, Lamb said.

"Emma appears to be in the best shape of her life," Lamb said. "She's quicker off the floor. She's expanding her offense. Because she's laterally faster and faster off the floor, that should help her blocking."

Regan Stiawalt, a junior-to-be outside hitter, impressed coaches with her improving variety of attacks. Lamb calls it a "yellow light" approach, which means she needs to find ways to score when her primary attack routes are defended.

"For Regan, it's just being more accurate," Lamb said. "Regan has to fight with errors, being blocked a lot. She's had a good spring there."

Setter McKayla Wuensch, a transfer from Nevada, joined the team this semester as a junior-to-be. Wichita State ran the 6-2 much of the spring, with returner Kora Kauling joining Wuensch to run the offense.

"(Wuensch) is definitely the right athlete," Lamb said. "Right from our first scrimmage at (Kansas State), you could see that once we tune her in to how we want to run the offense, her athleticism will be a positive. She will play great defense and she will find herself getting under a lot of balls as a setter."

Right-side Sophia Rohling, a freshman from Neodesha High School, also joined the Shockers this spring with the goal of getting a jump-start on contributing in 2019. After adjusting to the demands in the weight room, Rohling showed skills that can help the Shockers.

"It didn't take long for her talents to show up," Lamb said. "She is also a good learner. It doesn't take long for Sophia to latch on to some concepts and movement patterns and turn words into movement."

Middle blocker Chinelo Ogogor redshirted as a freshman last season.

"One of the most important things we do is find out how to get Chinelo on the scoreboard," Lamb said. "We feel like there will be places throughout the season where we will find physical advantage. We've got to be quick to get those things in action."