Shockers at Tulsa

[flyingMoose]

Now we come to the quirky part of the conference schedule. Since UConn left, Temple no longer has a travel partner. Rather, when a set of travel partners play Temple over a weekend, those travel partners play each other the preceding Wednesday.

So this "weekend" the Shocks play at Tulsa on Wednesday at 6 pm and at Temple on Sunday. Tulsa will play at Temple on Friday after playing the Shockers on Wednesday. These matches will also be the halfway point of the conference schedule.

Tulsa is now 5-3 in the AAC. They have wins over Houston, USF, SMU, Memphis, and ECU. Their losses are to Tulane, UCF, and Cincinnati.

The Shockers are also 5-3 in the conference. The Shockers are mostly playing well enough to win this match.

[1972Shocker]

Tulsa Match Notes

SCENE SETTERS

• WSU begins a stretch of four straight road matches on Wednesday vs. Tulsa, their designated travel partner in the American, on Sunday at Temple then at USF and UCF the following Friday and Sunday.
• WSU climbed from 59 to 55 in this week's RPI - second among AAC schools, behind UCF (28).
• The Shockers have won three consecutive matches against Tulsa, including a pair of road wins against the Golden Hurricane during the spring of 2021.
• WSU is 6-1 in five-set matches (only lost to UCF).
• Head coach Chris Lamb recorded his 450th career win earlier this month. Lamb is one of only 24 active Division I coaches who have reached that milestone while winning more than two-thirds of their matches (456-211, .683).
• 18 of the 20 players on WSU's roster are underclassmen by eligibility and only four rotation players (Brylee Kelly, Lily Liekweg, Kayce Litzau and Rohling) have been in the program for more than two seasons.

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SCOUTING TULSA:

• The Golden Hurricane enter the week 10-7 overall and 5-3 in The American.
• Tulsa already owns three conference road wins, including victories at Houston and SMU.
• The Golden Hurricane rank in the bottom third of the conference in most offensive categories, but are top-20 nationally in digs (17.85 per set).
• Kayley Cassaday leads the way offensively, ranking second in the AAC with 3.87 kills per set.
• Tulsa is coming off a four-set loss on Friday to Cincinnati before knocking off East Carolina in four sets, both at home.

[1972Shocker]

Hope the Shockers can keep their momentum going but perhaps in a somewhat less dramatic fashion than this past weekend.

[flyingMoose]

Since I typically say when I am not here for a match, I need to say - I am not here for this match. I think there is still one person who might care, but maybe not. :)

[1972Shocker]

Since I typically say when I am not here for a match, I need to say - I am not here for this match. I think there is still one person who might care, but maybe not. :)

You'll be with the Shocks in spirit no doubt.

[1972Shocker]

Set 1

Tulsa leads 15-13 at the first timeout. Shocks with a lackluster efforst so far. Poor passing, 4 service errors and ineffective offensive play from MorganW hurting the Shocks. Shockers just seem to be going through the motions..

Tulsa takes the set 25-20. Playing harder and seemingly wanting it more than the Shocks. Shocks need to shift gears pretty quick or this could be a short stay in Tulsa.

Set 2

Shocks lead 15-14 at the media timeout. Very inconsistent play so far. Hard to win with only to somewhat effective attackers, Brylee and Natalie. Getting nothing out of Morgan W, MorganS and Sophie. Sophia came in though and got a very nice kill for the 15th point.

Sophia came in and gave the Shock a nice list. Getting 3 kills and a couple of block assists. Shocks lead 19-17.

MorganS coming alive late in the set with a couple of nice kills and a couple of blocks. Shocks lead 21-18.

Shocks even it up winnint the set 25-22. Sophia gets a lot of the credit. Looks like Lambo is doing some different things with Sophia with 2 of her 4 kills coming in the middle. Shocks not hitting on all cylinders but geting Sophia going would could be a key.

Set 3

Shocks jump out to a 12-3 lead forcing a Tulsa time out. Shocks and Tulsa trade points the rest of the way as the Shocks win the set 25-16 to tke a 2-1 lead. Both teams playing pretty good defense.

Set 4

Shocks lake a 10-6 lead behind strong attacking by Sophia, 3 Tulsa attack erros and 2 Shocker blocks. Tulsa takes a time out.

Shocks extend the lead to 15-9 and Tulsa uses its final timeout of the set. Bylee, Sophia and the blocking game leading the way in this set.

Shocks cruise to a 25-15 set 4 win and close out a 3-1 win to extend their winning streak to 6 games.

Both teams had to work very hard for their points. A lot of long rallies. Tulsa covers the floor well but I thought the Shock may have frustrated Tulsa in the final 2 sets with their blocking. The Shocks outblocked Tulsa 9-4 but got their hands on a lot of balls at the net to keep points alive.

Great to see Sophia come alive. She hit 11-1-23 = .435 plus 4 block assists in 2.5 sets. She gets my Player of the Game vote.

Brylee was solid at 20-5-53 = .283

Natalie and Morgan had similar matches in the middle. Natalie was 8-3-21 = .238 and MorganS was 7-2-21 = .238. Okay but not great. However, MorganS was on on 6 blocks.

While Kayce had 5 kills and no attack errors she had 20 attacks, Perhaps a bit too many.

Sophie struggled in her home town hitting only 1-0-10 =.100 before Sophia came in to save the day. MorganW continued to struggle scoring wise as she only hit 2-1-15 = .067 but MorganW did lead the Shocks in digs with 22. Kailin did not play tonight.

The Shocks ended up outhitting Tulsa .256 - .160 on the strength of Sets 3 and 4. Both teams had 10 service errors but the Shocks had 4 aces to only 1 for Tulsa. Tulsa had 24 attack errors to only 12 for the Shocks. As mentioned above the Shocks had 9 blocks to 4 for Tulsa.

This was a good win over a pretty experienced team that has been pretty good in AAC play this year.

[The Mad Hatter]

Shockers run away with the 4th set 25-15 to win the match and Brylee finished with 20 kills. The Shocks had 5 players with 20 or more attack attempts and all of them hit .238 or better.

[1972Shocker]

Now the Shocks get to sit back and watch how the AAC Friday matches play out before heading to Philadelphia to play Temple on Sunday in the final match of first half of conference play.

[flyingMoose]

Now the Shocks get to sit back and watch how the AAC Friday matches play out before heading to Philadelphia to play Temple it the final match of first half of conference play.

And Tulsa has to fly out tomorrow to play Temple on Friday. I assume teams try to arrive the day before to avoid travel complications.

[1972Shocker]

And Tulsa has to fly out tomorrow to play Temple on Friday. I assume teams try to arrive the day before to avoid travel complications.

I expect Tulsa will win that one but the Shocks will have a couple more days to rest, prepare and regroup than Temple will. Hope the Shocks put the time to good use.

[flyingMoose]

I expect Tulsa will win that one but the Shocks will have a couple more days to rest, prepare and regroup than Temple will. Hope the Shocks put the time to good use.

Yes, Tulsa could go straight from the airport to the court and beat Temple. Apologies to all you Owls out there.

[1972Shocker]

go Shockers.com match report:

WSU Surges Past Tulsa for Sixth Straight Win

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/10/20/volleyball-wsu-surges-past-tulsa-for-sixth-straight-win.aspx

[WuDrWu]

Yes, Tulsa could go straight from the airport to the court and beat Temple. Apologies to all you Owls out there.

Lotta those types hanging around lately.

[The Mad Hatter]

Lots of scenarios for shifts in conference standings after this weekend with top schools playing each other. Cincinnati (6-2) plays both Houston (6-2) and Tulane (5-3) and UCF (7-1) plays SMU (5-3). If we win, as we should, we are guaranteed at least a tie for third and could be tied for second.

[WuDrWu]

Man I thought the girls were pretty darned good last night. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, and Tulsa was hanging around until they took one too many shots from our front line and while they fought hard (I agree both teams were really good defensively) we just had too much fire power.

Sofia easily played her best match of the fall. She was really good. Our front line got their hands on a ton of swings, often times giving them a great chance at scoring immediately even if it wasn't a block point.

Let's go beat Temple and USF and then at UCF on Halloween to see if we're ready to compete for the top prize. Probably not ready for that, but these young ladies are playing well right now.