Shockers at Tulsa

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers begin their conference schedule with matches at Tulsa on Thursday at 2 pm and Friday at 1 pm.

Tulsa have no non-conference matches on their schedule, so this will open their season. They are a preseason pick for fifth in the AAC West. The Shockers are 5-0 in their non-conference matches.

[Shockm]

The game today is on ESPN+.

[WuDrWu]

Brylee should be out of quarantine, whether or not that means she can play is a different story all together. We certainly could use her, if for no other reason than to give Tulsa something else to defend.

UNT struggled out of the gate against the Shocks but turned things around on day 2. Wouldn't be a surprise to see anything different today and tomorrow. These are games we should win, unless Tulsa has some game changing new talent. We beat them twice last season, and frankly we weren't very good last season.

[flyingMoose]

The game today is on ESPN+.

All of the AAC matches (not the non-con) are on ESPN+? I think so, but I don't subscribe to it, so I have not really kept track.

[flyingMoose]

Match One

Set One

Starters for the Shocks are Brylee, Emma, Nicole, Sina, Mckayla, Sophia, and Megan.

The Shocks open with a kill by Brylee. Great to see you again!

Kayce and Brooke rotate in at 2-1.

Back and forth, back and forth. Back-to-back kills by Megan and the Shockers have the first three-point lead of the set at 15-12. Brylee is 4-0-7 for .572.

17-15. Both teams hitting below .150.

20-18. Still only the one three-point lead. Timeout Tulsa.

Another at 22-19 on a kill by Emma. Tulsa's second timeout.

Service ace by Mckayla, kill by Megan, and another service ace. 25-19 Shockers.

.178 v .139. Four kills by Brylee who is hitting .300.

[WuDrWu]

Brylee should be out of quarantine, whether or not that means she can play is a different story all together. We certainly could use her, if for no other reason than to give Tulsa something else to defend.

UNT struggled out of the gate against the Shocks but turned things around on day 2. Wouldn't be a surprise to see anything different today and tomorrow. These are games we should win, unless Tulsa has some game changing new talent. We beat them twice last season, and frankly we weren't very good last season.

Brylee gets the first point, so yeah, she's playing.

[WuDrWu]

Point Tulsa on the slide.

Sofia Rowling pounds one down in the middle.

Point Tulsa.

Tulsa looks much sharper than UNT last week.

Back and forth 1st set. Like almost every match so far, WSU looks to have more diverse fire power, and the other team passes and sets at a higher level.

Shocks take the first 2 point lead at 8-6 on a wicked kill out of system by Brylee.

Gotta watch the TU setter on tight sets as she can dump with the best.

10-8 Shocks. 10-9.

Mostly back and forth quick points so far. Tulsa more efficient at the net so far, in my opinion.

11-10 Shocks.

13-12 Shocks. Tulsa getting better swings. We are struggling to find the setter, which, obviously, is taking away from our swings.

Taflinger with a couple of kills and it's 15-12 at the break.

17-15 both teams around .140

Sofia with a nearly straight down bomb, 18-16.

Mental mistake on a hitting error. 18-17 :(

Tulsa has had too much success on tips, I hope we adjust to that.

19-18 Shocks

Nicole Anderson out of the back row with a delicious swing 20-18 and timeout Tulsa.

21-19 on a hitting error by Tulsa.

22-19 on a nice kill by Emma after the Shocks covered a Brylee block. Brylee has 4 kills, Sofia 3.

Timeout, their last, by Tulsa.

McKayla with the ace. 23-19

Kill Megan 24-19

Ace 25-19. Strong finish, Tulsa got a little sideways at the end.

[flyingMoose]

Set Two

The Good Doctor is clearly on ESPN+. I will defer to him, since he has visuals, not just numbers.

Well, maybe. 4-0 run by the Shocks and Tulsa takes a timeout at 8-3.

[WuDrWu]

Shocks getting some better looks this set, off to a quick start.

Kills by Emma, Brylee, and Nicole and it's 4-1 Shocks.

Having a hard time with Kayley and Callie when they're up front.

Brylee out of the back row, 6-3 Shocks.

Nicole with back to back kills 8-3 timeout Tulsa.

Nicole cuts one tight and it's 9-4

9-5

Tulsa fighting back. Really good D last couple of points and WSU not putting balls away when they could.

Shocks get a block and a couple of gifts to right the ship for now 12-7

Shocks still doing a poor job on tips. They are covering the tips better, but not passing well at all.

Kills by Megan and Brooke. 14-9

14-10

14-11 12 13 Shocks sloppy right now.

14-14 needed a TO about 3 points ago.

Brylee hammers one down the middle to stop the bleeding for now. 15-14 Shocks.

Brylee bringing the thunder with another bomb.

20-17 Shocks

20-18

21-18 on a Brooke kill.

22-18 Tulsa tips into the net.

Timeout Tulsa

Nicole just misses out of the back row and it's 23-19 Shocks.

Brooke in the middle 24-19 and Megan ends it 25-19


Brylee is SHARP in her debut 8-1-15 .467 for the redshirt SO from Monee, Illinois.

Other kills from Nicole 6, Megan 5, Sofia 4 and Emma & Brooke 3 each.

Shocks hitting .215 to Tulsa .169

[flyingMoose]

Hitting is now .215 v .169. Brylee is 8-1-15 for .467. Nicole has six kills and Megan has five.

[flyingMoose]

Set Three

Just a heading.

[WuDrWu]

Set 3 Tulsa jumps out 4-1 before the wheels kind of come off Tulsa. Several mistakes mostly end up with the Shocks up 7-4

Megan with a big swing and it's 8-5

Brylee with a huge STUFF block (ROOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFF) and it's 9-5. Timeout Tulsa. Brylee is a difference maker. And the girls are SO happy to have her back in the lineup.

2 more Tulsa mistakes and it's 11-5. Kayley gets her 10th kill for TU and it's 11-6

Megan with a kill, Callie responds. 12-8.

Brylee with yet another bomb. 13-8

Brylee service error long. 13-9

Ugh, rotation violation Shocks. grrr 13-10

Nicole gets a kill on a long long point and it's 15-10

Stuff block Sofia and Brooke 16-10

Tulsa takes it's last timeout. Shocks haven't been perfect, but they've been pretty darned good. We're much better with Brylee's arm in the game, without question.

Sina has had a really nice game with her passing.

Shocks in system a little more and they've become lethal. Nicole POUNDS one to the floor.

17-12

Sofia finds a hole 18-12

Kill Maggie by Tulsa 18-13


Brylee buries another cross court 20-15

Shocks get blocked on a bad swing 20-16

Another block 20-17 and Lambo takes his 1st timeout.

Brylee another kill out of the timeout 21-17

Service error 21-18

Violation TU 22-18

Tulsa on a spectacular dig off a Nicole slide gets a kill 22-19

Nicole gets a kill, TU a sloppy point

Sofia just misses wide and it's 23-20

Long long rally and Nicole buries one out of the back row and it's match point.

Shocks miss a golden chance on a free ball, don't get a decent swing and TU gets a kill 24-21

24-22

Unreal point, Brylee smashes one to the end the match, but it goes off a TU foot, straight into another TU foot (both TOTALLY unintentional) and then popped over, WSU was already celebrating and not ready for the ball to come over, bumps it up and Brooke hits a short set into the net.

24-23 Timeout.


Brylee puts one away at the end 25-23 and the Shocks sweep.

Brylee was superb. 11-1-22 .455

Nicole was very very good 13-4-30 .300 with a .433 kill %

Sina was outstanding 5 assists just 11 digs but tons of good passes.

[WuDrWu]

Watched a little of Houston at SMU. Cougars in a sweep. Cougars are tough and have few weaknesses. So OH Abbie Jackson for UH is a beast. 14-2-32 .375 to lead the visitors. UH outblocked SMU 14-2. SMU had 55 digs in the 3 sets, so they were trying, but just didn't have the fire power to upset UH.

I think we can get SMU....something would have to change a lot to beat UH, imho.

[flyingMoose]

Watched a little of Houston at SMU. Cougars in a sweep. Cougars are tough and have few weaknesses. So OH Abbie Jackson for UH is a beast. 14-2-32 .375 to lead the visitors. UH outblocked SMU 14-2. SMU had 55 digs in the 3 sets, so they were trying, but just didn't have the fire power to upset UH.

I think we can get SMU....something would have to change a lot to beat UH, imho.

Thursday AAC Summary

Houston 3-0 SMU
19, 16, 22

East Carolina 1-3 Cincinnati
21, (24), 25, 23

[1972Shocker]

One nice thing about ESPN+ is you can watch the replays at your convenience if you miss the live stream plus watching the replays lets you fast forward through the timeouts and between set breaks.

Brylee and NIcole were both very sharp today. Brylee clearly adds needed firepower to the Shocks offensive attack. With those two plus Megan, Sophia, Emma and Brooke and the Shocks can be pretty diverse with there offense.

I like what I am seeing from Sina at the libero. She has a really nice skill set and brings above average size and athletism to the position plus she is pretty good at setting the ball when the setters are out of system. Considering she has never played the postion before it will be interesting to see how she develops with match experience.

Thought it was a pretty well played match by both teams. If Tulsa makes the same improvement from their 1st match to their 2nd as North Texas did then the Shocks will definitely need to play well tomorrow to make it a sweep.