Shockers at Memphis

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers hit the road again for the third weekend of conference play. Their record in conference is 1-3.

Memphis is the opponent for a 6 pm start time on Friday. The Tigers are 1-3 in the AAC with away losses to SMU, Cincinnati, and ECU. Their home win is over Temple.

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It now is apparent that I will not be around for either of these matches this weekend. Oh, well.

[The Mad Hatter]

Shockers win the first 25-19 and the second 25-22. Foster leads the way with 10 kills (hitting over .500), then Kelly with 8 and Childs with 6.

For those complaining about the lack of a separate volleyball facility, we are at least doing better than Memphis who might as well be playing in the Heskett Center.

[ShockTalk]

WSU beats Memphis: 25-19 / 25-22 / 19-25 / 25-18

[flyingMoose]

Other Friday Matches

Houston 3-2 UCF !!
(18), 23, 20, (22), 12

Tulsa 3-0 SMU - another surprising result
25, 19, 20

Tulane 3-2 USF
19, (21), 19, (14), 12

Temple 0-3 ECU
21, 19, 16

[1972Shocker]

For those complaining about the lack of a separate volleyball facility, we are at least doing better than Memphis who might as well be playing in the Heskett Center.

Yeah, that was interesting. They could use a few more sets of line on the floor.

[1972Shocker]

Natalie (16-2-28 = .500) and Brylee (16-5-39 = .282) had very solid matches for the Shockers. Also, I thought Natalie and Brylee were probably the two best Shockers on the service line in this game. Natalie, who has a very crisp, downward serve, came into the the match with a team higth 24 service errors with 10 aces. Natalie had 11 servers in this match with 1 ace and no errors and the Shocks won the point on 6 of her 11 serves. Hopefully, Natalie can keep that up. Brylee came into the match with 5 aces and 15 errors. Bryleee had 19 serves in this match with 1 ace and 2 errors and the Shocks won the point on 11 of her 19 serves. Overall, both teams served very accurately as both only had 5 service errors in the match. Memphis did have 5 aces to only 2 for the Shocks. Both Shocker aces in thier first 9 points of the match. Hopefully, both Natalie and Brylee can keep that strong serving going. I am also impressed with how good of a passer Natalie is at 6-4 when she does get the opportunity to make a pass which isn't often.

Morgan Weber hit 10-3-31 = .226, which I think we would take anytime from the 5-11 6-rotation player, and she added 11 digs for a double-doule. Morgan is a very good passer and she has a knack for saving points or keeping points goine when things are in disarray.

Sophie wasn't nearly as good as she was against USF although that would be a lot to ask. Sophie hit 7-3-21 = .190 in 3 sets. Sophia replaced Sophie in the 4th set and hit 1-1-5 =.000. Thought she took some good swings. Just couldn't find the floor.

Kayce and Morgan Stout didn;t seem to be in sync today. Morgan hit 4-4-21 = .000 but she did have 4 block assists.

The Shocks outhit Memphis .230 to 134

[1972Shocker]

Tulsa 3-0 SMU - another surprising result
25, 19, 20

I'm going to suggest maybe this was not that surprsing of a result. In AAC play, Tulsa, like Wichita State, has played 3 of the leagues top 4 teams (Houston, Tulane and UCF) in their first 5 matches and they are the only team to knock of Houston so far.

SMU did play one of the better non-con schedules in the AAC but their only notable non-con win was a 5 set victory over TCU, who is picked to finish 8th in the 9 team Big 12 behind Oklahoma who they just lost to at home in 5 sets. In AAC play, they have only played 1 of the top 4 teams (Cincy who has only played UCF out of the top 4 and were swept by UCF).

We may need to get through the 1st half of league play before we have a better idea of the relative strength of the AAC teams.

To me this does suggest the Shocks have a reasonable opportunity for a win at SMU if they play well. At this point I think the SMU match is a toss up. We'll find out Sunday.

By the way, I have to say what does surprise me is that Oklahoma State does not have a volleyball program.

[flyingMoose]

I'm going to suggest maybe this was not that surprsing of a result.

The original comment was based on current RPI (SMU-57, Tulsa-96) and Pablo which gave Tulsa about an 84% chance of winning. Winning at all and then winning in a sweep remains surprising to me. But Tulsa had a 15% chance of winning and, using Pablo and finding enough of the same point differences in other matches, 15% of the time the underdog will win.