@ Creighton (Kansas 22) and Drake Weekend

[1972Shocker]

Will this be moving weekend in the MVC race for the spots behind UNI?

Creighton in Omaha this coming Friday at 7:00 pm (TV on Kansas 22 with Mike Kennedy and Cori Myer-Broddle) is probably the biggest obstacle remaining for the Shocks although Evansville showed we are not good enough just to show up against anyone.

Creighton currently sits alone in 2nd place at 10-3 followed by Missouri State at 9-3 and the Shocks at 8-4.

Shocks swept Creighton a month ago in Koch Arena 17, 15, 22. However, Creighton has been tough on the Shocks in their home gym in recent years.

Drake is 5-8 in MVC play and seemingly plays much better at home than on the road. Drake did take a set from UNI in Des Moines and they did defeat Evansville on the road (which the Shocks could not do). Shocks swept Drake at home 19, 13, 15.

The Shocks have 6 matches remaining on their regular season schedule. @CU, @DU, SIU, EU, @ILS and @INS. All are winnable and all are must wins. We have no more mulligans in our bag.

:poster_shocks:

[WuDrWu]

It is impossible for me to believe that in 11 days I will watch Mary Elizabeth Hooper play her final game in Koch Arena on Senior night.

[1972Shocker]

Mary Elizabeth needs 27 more assists to become the WSU career assist leader and will no doubt be the career leader in assists per sets. She should pick that up against Creighton. I will have more to say about Hoop when Senior night gets here next week.

[The Mad Hatter]

Mary Elizabeth needs 27 more assists to become the WSU career assist leader and will no doubt be the career leader in assists per sets. She should pick that up against Creighton. I will have more to say about Hoop when Senior night gets here next week.

Very impressive in light of the move to 25 point sets during her career that limited her assist opportunities.

[JayJ79]

Very impressive in light of the move to 25 point sets during her career that limited her assist opportunities.

dumb question: prior to rally scoring, did players get assists/kills for plays that resulted in side outs, or just for points?

[The Mad Hatter]

dumb question: prior to rally scoring, did players get assists/kills for plays that resulted in side outs, or just for points?

Actually that is a good question. I'm not sure, but both the change to rally scoring and the change in set length complicate these kind of things.

[1972Shocker]

The NCAA went to rally scoring in 2001.

Coming into this year our top two career assist leaders were from the pre-2002 side-out scoring era:
1. 4,476 - Michele Hallagin (440 sets) - 1996-99
2. 4,313 - Kori Rosenkranz (425 sets) - 1992-95

Mary Elizabeth is currently at 4,450 assists in 421 sets. Hoop will probably end up her career somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,700 to 4,800 assists.

Edit: Ok. I believe that an assist was probably awarded both on scoring plays and side-out plays in the pre-2002 era. I looked at the Shocker stats and match results. For example, the 1998 team scored 1,554 points that year in 132 sets (11.8 per set). The season stats for 1998 show 1,648 assists and 1,927 kills . So obviously assists and kills were awarded on both serving and side-out situations.

Hard to compare eras. Michele Hallagin did actually share setting duties her senior year with Caitlin Fiandt (Shocks may have run a 6-2). In Michelle's 1st 3 years her teams had 14,609 total attacks and 5,166 kills on which Michelle recorded 3,844 assists. In Mary Elizabeth's 1st three years her teams made 12,610 attacks and 4,669 kills on which Mary Elizabeeth recorded 3,654 assists.

[JayJ79]

they went to rally scoring, and played to 30 (in sets 1-4) for a few years, before dropping it to 25. Mixing in changes to libero rules, and you have a complicated record book. And there were probably other rule (and or stat definition) changes over the course of NCAA volleyball that had an effect, but I don't know about them.

[1972Shocker]

They started using rally scoring and the 30 point sets in 2001 and used that through 2007. They went to the 25 point sets in 2008 which was Mary Elizabeth Hoopers Freshman year. But your right it makes for somewhat of an apples and oranges record book.

The Libero was introduced internationally in 1998 and adopted by the NCAA in 2002.
Other rule changes enacted in 2000 include allowing serves in which the ball touches the net, as long as it goes over the net into the opponents' court. Also, the service area was expanded to allow players to serve from anywhere behind the end line but still within the theoretical extension of the sidelines. Other changes were made to lighten up calls on faults for carries and double-touches, such as allowing multiple contacts by a single player ("double-hits") on a team's first contact provided that they are a part of a single play on the ball.

An evolutionary sport it would appear.

[1972Shocker]

Back to the very important matches this weekend, especially tonight's match at Creighton.

:poster_shocks:

[SpanglerFan316]

Is it on ShockerRadio.com?

[1972Shocker]

Shocks with a very up and down effort fall in 5 to the Bluejays. May have put themselves in a position where they will have to win the MVC Tournament to make it to the NCAA. I anticipate we will be the #4 seed which means we will get UNI in the semi-finals if we can win our 1st round match. I don't think we will be able to beat UNI especially on their home court.

Creighton deserved to win tonight. They were the better volleyball team when they had to be.

:dispirited:

[flyingMoose]

Creighton 1-3 Missouri State

21-25, 20-25, 25-21, 17-25

[1972Shocker]

Lady Shocks dispose of Drake in very business-like fashion with a 19,12, 13 sweep in Des Moines. Good to see that the Ladies bounced back from the tough loss last night at Creighton.

Big nights for Emily Adney and Camri Zwiesler.

Shocks now need to work on refining their game and work on keeping their focus each and every point of each and every set which they will need when the MVC Tournament rolls around.

Too bad the Shocks let the match against Creighton get away from them.

[1972Shocker]

Oustanding attack numbers for the Shocks tonight:

Emily Adney: 15-0-30 = .500
Camri Zwiesler: 13-1-25 = .480
Elizabeth Field: 9-1-18 = .444
Ashley Andrade: 7-1-13 = .462

Team: 53-8-112 = .402

Sam has been struggling lately. Not sure how much practice time she is getting with her nursing a sore rotator cuff. Audrey Biggs had a couple of late kills on 3 attacks. Perhaps we should try to give her more work over the remaining four matches. Let Sam rest her shoulder and give Audrey some court time in case we need her to step in for Sam in the post-season.