Shockers Set to Open Conference Play

[1972Shocker]

Taylor Horsfall is a terrific libero. Just outstanding.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks just need to stay within themsleves and play clean and compete, compete, compete.

[flyingMoose]

Fifth Set

1-4 and the Shocks take a TO.

LiveStats are back.

Kayce on to serve - an error. 2-5. Kora back in to set.

3-8 and the teams switch ends.

3-9 and a Shocker TO.

Four-point run by the Shockers. 7-9 and a Tulsa TO.

8-10, 8-12. Need a run.

Tulsa, 15-10. They take the match, 3-2.


For the match, .186 v .135.
Blocks, 11-8.

Megan 17-5-49 for .245
Emma 9-2-17 for .412
Damadj 9-4-20 for .250
Nicole 8-1-28 for .250
Sina 8-5-34 for .088


Post-match comments

Frustrated with errors early in sets. Good week of practice. Can take something out of progress, but ...

Progress in the defense and setting. Kayce is the future of the setting, but a lot of work for her to get the middles involved. Not what she had done in the past.

Don't pass well enough to get the middles involved.

Elite libero for Tulsa.

Toyed with the 5-1 this week. It may be coming soon.

[1972Shocker]

So much for playing clean. Shocks not handling the 5th set pressure well but they still have time but need to settle down.

I really dislike it when Lambo brings a freshman in ot a 5th set for the 1st time in the match to serve. Perhaps he sensed his team was in trouble and he needed to roll the dice. I dunno.

I don't see the Shocks recovering from this 3-9 start.

[WuDrWu]

Shocks making a comeback (a bit) with the Tulsa star Turkish Frosh in the back row.

[1972Shocker]

Thought the Shocks competed well tonight but they just have enough deficiencies and holes that make it difficult to come out on top. I think Lambo will be happy with the way the ladies competed.

[1972Shocker]

Where was Chinelo tonight? Did I miss an injury report on her in the pre-match? Or was it just a matter of Dmadj in and Chinelo out?

[flyingMoose]

Where was Chinelo tonight? Did I miss an injury report on her in the pre-match? Or was it just a matter of Dmadj in and Chinelo out?

The latter I think. Experience factor I believe was mentioned post-match. Game is a little fast yet.

[1972Shocker]

Memphis took Tulane to 5 sets before falling in New Orleans tonight. Houston beat SMU in 5 sets at home.

Doesn't look like there will very many, if any, sure wins for the Shocks in the AAC this year.

[1972Shocker]

I did catch Lambo's post-match comment that they have simplified the setting about as much as they can. I think he said they thought they had the right person in Kayce but yet she only appeared to serve at 2-4 in the 5th set and not surprisingly coming in cold and at a very key point in the match caught the net on her serve. Not exactly a great way to build a young player's confidence IMHO. As service errors seem to do that triggered a 6-1 run by Tulsa to make it 3-9 and pretty much end the match. I think Lambo said the musical chairs at setter may continue throughout the season.

Looks like Brooke has had her wishes for a redshirt taken away again for the 3rd consecutive year and I am not sure for what reason. Maybe Brooke has determined that she will get her degree next year and plans to move on with her life after that so she might as well play this year and then finish her eligibility next year. Probably not a bad plan for her if that is the case.

With hindsight I am wondering if it would have been better to redshirt Kayce and Sophlia this year. Ifs and buts I suppose.

I did not think I could possibly have a higher opinion of Emily Hiebert but I was wrong. After the last year and this year I think I will need to get a taller pedestal for Emily. Emily certainly benefited from being able to take a redshirt year as did Abby Lehman.

It is what it is and perhaps Lambo is still holding out hope that the Shocks will be able to sneak into the AAC Tournament and get hot at the end of the year. I suppose that's possible and maybe Lambo is seeing it and feeling it. At this point that is looking like a bit of a long shot to me.

Dmadj has been a pleasant surprise. She looked very good against Tulsa coming of her ankle injury that caused her to miss the previous 8 matches. Hope she can finish out the remainder of her senior year strong and healthy.

I did think the Shocks competed pretty hard against Tulsa and I hope that continues and that the players don't get too discouraged.

The Shockers kill % of 31.2% against Tulsa still remains too low. I think Lambo would like to see that around 38%. The 13% attack error rate isn't bad. The Shocks attack is just not lethal enough and they too often find themselves just sending easy balls over just to keep plays alive. OTOH, Tulsa did have Taylor Horsfall patrolling the court defensively. Brylee could only mange 3-20 for a 15% kill rate while Sina and Nicole for a kill % of 25.8%. Megan was better at a 34.7% kill rate. Emma, Dmadj and Brooke were pretty good with a combined kill rate 47.6%. The problem is that we just can't keep our middles busy enough. Our outsides had 138 attacks and our middles had 42.

The Shocks' serve receive and passing seems to come and go as does our setting. All of this perhaps ties together. Inconsistent passing leads to inconsistent settign which leads to less than stellar attacking. The best thing the Shockers do is their blocking which has been pretty good. Dmadj was really good on the block agains Tulsa.

Not sure our blocking game, while pretty good, is good enough to slow down Jordan Thompson on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how the Shocks can deal with that challenge.

[flyingMoose]

Is the Comment option gone and only Quote is available?

Lambo in his pre-match comments noted that Tulsa was pre-season #4 and he thought we were close to them, something the match demonstrated. Using Pablo however, Tulsa is #6 heading into Conference play and the Shocks are #8. USF is in between and those three teams are close enough that home court advantage is enough to make the difference is an expected win or loss.

Two "upsets" last night though - USF over Temple (3-0) and Houston over SMU (3-2), both at home. SMU had match points at 14-11 in the fifth, but Houston scored five straight points.

[1972Shocker]

Is the Comment option gone and only Quote is available?

For now @KungWu has disabled the comment option because some posters think it makes following a thread more difficult and sometimes you can't tell who a comment is directed at especially if you get a string of comments. So the decision was made to disable it and see how it goes and what the board participants think.

[flyingMoose]

For now @KungWu has disabled the comment option because some posters think it makes following a thread more difficult and sometimes you can't tell who a comment is directed at especially if you get a string of comments. So the decision was made to disable it and see how it goes and what the board participants think.

It does make it more difficult because you don't always see the Comment. I think. Maybe I am notified somehow - I don't remember. :(

[WuDrWu]

Is the Comment option gone and only Quote is available?

Lambo in his pre-match comments noted that Tulsa was pre-season #4 and he thought we were close to them, something the match demonstrated. Using Pablo however, Tulsa is #6 heading into Conference play and the Shocks are #8. USF is in between and those three teams are close enough that home court advantage is enough to make the difference is an expected win or loss.

Two "upsets" last night though - USF over Temple (3-0) and Houston over SMU (3-2), both at home. SMU had match points at 14-11 in the fifth, but Houston scored five straight points.

I wonder if anything odd happened in that Houston match. SMU dominated the first two sets, it was not competitive. Then I stopped paying attention (live stats went down or something odd happened) and wham bam Houston pulls out the 5 set win.

[1972Shocker]

Cincy wins set one 25-17. Contained Thompson pretty well. Mostly we best ourselves.

25-12 Cincy in set 2.

Shocks switch to a 5-1 in Set 3. Had it tied at 20-20 before losing 22-25. Match point was a service error no Sina that I thought clipped the end line.

Cincy clearly the better team.

The Shocks are just not very good. I expect we will be seeing more of the 5-1.