Shockers at SMU

[flyingMoose]

The Shocks complete the road weekend with a match against the Mustangs at noon Sunday. On Friday, the Shockers beat Memphis 3-1 while SMU was swept by Tulsa.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks 3 - SMU 2

Nice win for the Shocks. Looking forward to watching the replay.

Brylee and Natalie leading the way again.

[flyingMoose]

Other Sunday Matches

Tulane 1-3 UCF
13, 22, (16), 18

Houston 3-1 USF
(28), 23, 10, 12

Temple 1-3 Cincinnati
18, 22, (21), 18

Tulsa 3-1 Memphis
(18), 24, 16, 20

[WuDrWu]

Brylee was really strong. Want to watch again what went wrong in the 4th. We were cruising and all of a sudden couldn’t do anything right. Good week!

[SubGod22]

I watched some for the first time this year and was pretty impressed with 11 and I think it was 3. Some really good swings out of both.

[1972Shocker]

Brylee was really strong.

Just watch the replay. Your statement may actuallly understate how good Brylee was in this match. I thought Brylee was very Emily Stockman like in this match and that is about as good as is gets. That has not been said much, if any, since Emily graduated. Brylee was scoring from everywhere. Right side, left side, back row, out of system. And it wasn't against an overwhelmed opponent. SMU is quite good and they certainly are a very physical team. In fact, they clearly had a physical advantage in this match.

The Shocks outhit the bigger, stronger, more experienced SMU team .301 to .216 and outblocked them 15-11. The Shocks had 70 kills to 57 for SMU.

Brylee, very possibly and maybe even very likely the AAC Player of the Week this week, hit 29-7-61 = .361 and added 3 block assists. For this weeks two matches Brylee hit 45-12-100 = .333

Natalie, who played well enough this weekend to normally win Player of the Week honors, hit 17-3-30 = .467 and added 8 block assists. For the weekend Natalie hit 33-5-58 = .483

Morgan Stout had a pretty decent match hitting 7-1-19 = .316 plus 5 block assists while adding her usual boatload of energy. Sophie who got off to a pretty good start faded a bit in the latter half of the match but still contributed 9 kills while hitting .214. Considering Morgan and Sophie are just babies in terms of experience at the D-I level their play has been more than acceptable.

Sophia did not play a lot but she came in late in the 4th set when the Shocks weren't doing so well and contributed 2 solid blocks and the she went 2-0-2 in the 5th set with 2 very solid, aggressive attacks. That was good to see.

I thought Bryn Stansberry probably played her best match as a Shocker with solid digging and passing.

I really liked the way the Shocks bounced back from the 4th set loss to dominate SMU in the 5th set although not sure that Shocks can play much better than they did for most of the 3rd set.

In the sets the Shockers won they hit 46-9-94 =0.394 as a team for a hitting percentage of 48.9% and an error rate of 9.6%. Not sure the Shockers are capable of player any better than that. For the match the Shockers had a hitting percentage of 42.2% and an error rate of 12.1% which will win you a lot of matches.

[1972Shocker]

Speaking of Emily Stockman-like performance by Brylee:

The 29 kills for Kelly are the second most in program history, one shy of Emily Stockman's 30 on November 27, 2009 against Missouri State. Brylee's 30.5 points are also the second most in the modern WSU record book, just a half-point back of Stockman's 31.0 recorded on the same day against Missouri State.

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/10/...-road-win.aspx

Now the next challenge facing Brylee is will she be able to consistently play at a high level as Emily did.

[1972Shocker]

I was wrong (no big surprise there). Brylee did not bet the AAC Offensive Player of the Week honors but she was on the honor roll. Natalie was not honored. Probably not going to get two players from the same school on the honor roll.

https://theamerican.org/news/2021/10/11/womens-volleyball-cincinnatis-madden-houstons-georgiades-top-american-volleyball-week-seven-award-winners.aspx

[WuDrWu]

I watched some for the first time this year and was pretty impressed with 11 and I think it was 3. Some really good swings out of both.

3 is redshirt covid sophomore Brylee Kelly and no doubt you saw her best match as a Shocker. #11 is Natalie Foster, tall, lanky covid freshman. Her timing with the setter has improved a LOT of late and she's getting better looks and putting the ball down much more consistently. It certainly hasn't been as good as Sunday much this season, but it shows the potential.

[1972Shocker]

Lambo said he is a prisoner of numbers but the numbers are showing progress.

Natalie was dominate at times against SMU and did things in that match that Abbie Lehman couldn;t do as a freshman. But her ceiling may not be as high as Abbie's but with 3.5 years to go Lambo fills pretty set at the M-2. Natalie has learned to work hard at Wichita State.

Lambo says setters are often overlooked so he wasn't going to complain that Brylee didn't get the AAC Player of the Week, But Emily had, as Sean Carter said, an out of body experience. For sure Brylee raised her game to another level. They thought she had it in her but just had not seen it yet to the extent she showed on Sunday. Hopefully Brylee learns from it and can keep it going although you can't expect performances like that every match.

If their has ever been a Shockert to root for it's Morgan Stout. A small town Kansas girls that didn't come from elite club volleyball who has excellent athleticism and gives it everything she has. Morgan missed her junior year in HS to an ACL, lost her senior year to Covid and then lost her 1st year in college to a foot injury. Morgan is all in every single play.

Kayce's assist % (I think that is % of sets that end in kills) is 2nd in the AAC. A great sign for such a young team. Would like Kayce to be more effective with her dumping. Would like to get her on the scoreboard a little git more. This is Kayce's frist year in a 5-1 at WSU where she is on the front row in half the rotations where she is allowed to dump so there is growth to be had there. Her defense is improving which may reflect her more competitive attitude lately. Best Shocker setter to compare Kayce's potential with would be Mary Elizabeth Hooper, who was at the SMU gme with her youg daughter.

Have cut their scrimmaging in practice down to almost nothing since they are so thin at some positions and just can't afford to lose another middle.

Talked about Sophia coming in late an contributing a couple of blocks and a couple of kills. Sophia had a little bit of ab injury at the beginning of the year. Sophia migh have been shouldering a lot with being a pre-season All-Conference pick and a maybe putting too much pressure on herself. Sophia has handled her situation very well. Hopefully, they can get her back on track. Although Sophie has been doign quite well filling in for Sophia.

Kailin is cleared to play but the burst isn;t their yet. She still is not able to get off the ground like she was before the injury. So may be a while yet before she is ready.

At this point they have established they have the ability to keep pace with most AAC teams offensively and are ahead of where Emily Heibert/Abbie Lehman team was in their redshirt fresman year offensively and are playing a tougher schedule. As the Shocks improve defensively and in the serve and pass game so will go this team.

Cincy is smaller than in the past but very experienced and good at volleyball. They play good defense. They are a team that can frustrate you. They get good swings more often than their opponents. They are also one of the AAC's best serving teams.

ECU has been better than expected. Have pretty good firepower on both pins in all 6 rotations in their 6-2 offense. Their experienced and physical.

[flyingMoose]

Wed 13 Oct

UCF 3-0 USF
13, 15, 23

[WuDrWu]

Kailin is cleared to play but the bust isn;t their yet.

I'm going to need some clarification here please.

[1972Shocker]

I'm going to need some clarification here please.

My bad. Burst. Does change the meaning a little. LOL

Apparently, she still is a ways away from regaining her explosiveness in gettng off the floor.