Shockers v Tulane at Houston

[flyingMoose]

Because the Tulane campus will not open until Saturday, the road match against Tulane this weekend will be at Houston at 2 pm on Friday. Houston will host Tulsa, the Shocker travel partner, later that evening.

This will be the opening weekend of AAC play.

[1972Shocker]

SCOUTING TULANE:

• Tulane swept three home matches on opening weekend. The following day (Aug. 29), Hurricane Ida made landfall. Green Wave student-athletes were evacuated from New Orleans and have spent the past three weeks living out of a suitcase. The Green Wave are 3-5 since the start of their exodus.
• WSU and Tulane share one common opponent in Missouri State, which swept the Green Wave in Springfield on Sep. 11. WSU beat the Bears in three sets in its Aug. 27 season opener.
• Tulane is picked fourth in the AAC preseason poll.
• Redshirt senior outside hitter Lexie Douglas was a first team All-AAC choice last spring.
• Danyelle Williams (0.48) and Michelle Urquhart (0.487) rank Nos. 1 and 2 on the AAC leaderboard in aces-per-set.
• Kayla Dinkins is hitting a team-best .335 this year. Last spring she paced the team with 88 blocks.
• Barnes picked up his 100th win at Tulane head coach last weekend. He's 100-68 in parts of six seasons
• Tulane swept the Shockers last spring 3-1 and 3-2 in New Orleans

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/9/2...s-weekend.aspx

[1972Shocker]

RH: Morgan Stout Works to Catch Up after Setbacks

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/9/24/the-roundhouse-rh-morgan-stout-works-to-catch-up-after-setbacks.aspx

[WuDrWu]

The coaches talked about how they felt Tulane had upgraded at least 2 if not 3 positions, but still had struggled to win matches. I think 1972Shocker probably has nailed most of their issues so far, living out of a suitcase for a month. Tough for young people to adapt I think.

1-1 would be a good start to conference play.

[WuDrWu]

Three straight kills by Kailin and then an ace from Sophia give the Shocks a 10-6 early lead.

Back and forth mostly 2-3-2-3 leads for WSU before the Shocks put together a couple straight to force a Green Wave timeout at 17-13.

Shocks make it 18-13 before a service error and a kill make it 18-15.

Kailin with her 6th kill in 9 swings and it's 19-15.

A solo block by Kayce and a kill from Tulane and it's 20-16.


Teams trade errors and then Morgan Stout gets a kill and it's 22-17 and Tulane takes it's 2nd timeout.

Shocks close out an encouraging first set 25-18.

Shocks heated up late and hit .385 with a .538 kill %. LOFTY numbers to say the least. 3 blocks, 3 aces only 2 service errors. Statistically about as good as you could hope. Kailin 6-1-10 .500 Brylee 3-0-3 1.000

[WuDrWu]

After a back and forth first 21 points and the Shocks holding a 11-10 lead, Tulane rattles off 5 straight to take control of the 2nd set 15-11.

Timeout.

4 hitting errors, 4 more service errors, and the match is about to be tied. 22-17 Tulane.

Shocks have been helped from 6 total service errors by the Green Wave as well.

23-19.

Natalie with her 3rd kill and it's 23-20 Tulane.

A block and a kill end it. 25-20. 1 set each.

[WuDrWu]

Shocks will kick themselves if they drop this third set.

They raced out to a 9-2 lead before letting Tulane back in at 13-10.

Then up 20-14 with the set in hand they get sloppy and it's 22-21 now with Tulane on a 3 point run.

WSU takes their 2nd timeout.

No help and 2 more kills and it's 23-22 Tulane. This one is going to hurt. You CANNOT lead 20-14 at this level and lose a set, ever, period.

23 all.

Block Tulane, 24-23. Kill, game Tulane. BRUTAL.

Shocks hitting by set:

1 - .385

2 - .216

3 - .167

[1972Shocker]

Natalie really sucks so far today. Just trying not to jinx her.

[1972Shocker]

Tulane closes out a 3-1 win with a 25-21 win in Set 4.

Shocks were competitive but just could not get it done. I guess the next step for them is to develop the mental toughness to pull out these closely fought matches. The need to learn how to win.

Looking at the Box Score our middles, Natalie and Morgan, were pretty solid today hitting 24-4-41 = .488

On the pins Kailin was pretty good at 18-5-42 = .310 but Brylee, Sophia and Sophie struggled to score combining to hit 10-10-43 = .000

Kayce had a high number of attacks but only hit 1-1-10 = .000, Without seeing the match not sure why so many attempts for Kayce. Seems out of the ordinary. Could be she was getting overpasses right at the net that were forcing her to just try to keep it in play.

Kayce lead the Shocks with 17 digs. That is not really a stat you like to see.

Was hoping that Sophia's last set in the loss to Creighton was a sign that maybe she was ready to Rohl but I guess not. Not sure what the issue is. Is it a lack of chemistry/timing between Kayce and Sophia and Brylee? Need to get that fixed. Perhaps Tulane was just set up defensively to take away the pins.

Tulane outscored the Shocks 93-89 over the 4 sets. Tulane out-blocked the Shocks 12-7.

Of the two matches this weekend this was the better chance to get a win IMO.

Morgan Weber still MIA. Is she a Covid Casualty?

[flyingMoose]

I guess the next step for them is to develop the mental toughness to pull out these closely fought matches. The need to learn how to win.

Well, they are 3-0 in the 3-2 matches, but as has been pointed out, you can't let a 20-14 lead get away from you.

[1972Shocker]

Tulsa 3 - Houston 2 in Houston (13), 22, 23, (13) and 12
UCF 3 - ECU 0
Cincy 3 - USF 2
SMU 3 - Temple 1

[1972Shocker]

Well, they are 3-0 in the 3-2 matches, but as has been pointed out, you can't let a 20-14 lead get away from you.

Good point. I was pretty surprised that Tulsa pulled out the win over Houston. Would love to see the Shocks do the same but it be tougher as Houston will probably be much more focused on Sunday then they were against Tulsa.

[1972Shocker]

A look at how the Shokcer non-con opponents are doing:

Missouri State 9-4; Lost Loyola 1-3 on Friday
UT-Martin 4-10
Arkansas State 10-3
Kent State 6-7
Kansas 9-3; Opened Big 12 play with a 3-2 win at Texas Tech
Delaware 5-6
Wyoming 8-5
Creighton 13-1

Overall: 64-39 62.1% (winning percentage}

[flyingMoose]

South Dakota 4-6 after a win over SDSU on Friday

68-45 for 60.2%