Shockers at Tulsa

[1972Shocker]

Thought the announcers for SMU when we played them were horrible. But I thought the Tulsa guy was pretty darn good with his call of he match.

[WuDrWu]

Thought the announcers for SMU when we played them were horrible. But I thought the Tulsa guy was pretty darn good with his call of he match.

You though right, they were horrible.

[1972Shocker]

Interestingly Sophia's only attack error of the match against Tulsa was a ball she never got a hand on. At 8-8 in the second set she fell on her approach on what I think was her first attack of the match. Initially, it looked like she may have slipped but the replay showed that she caught her right toe on the floor and essentially tripped herself. Not a great start especially for a player who has been struggling and whose confidence has seemingly been shaken. Fortunately, she was not injured on that play and went on to an 11-0-22 hitting performance the rest of the way. A WuDrWu stated it was probably her best performance of this season. Hopefully, this will continue.

It would be nice to get Kailin back in the lineup but how long will it take her to get back to her pre-injurty form. I think, Kailin when healthy is a better offensive option than Morgan Weber.

I would like to see some improvement from the Shocks in taking advantage of free balls more effectively than we do. It just seems to me we often don't get as good of a swing on free balls as we should. Also, and maybe it is not the problem that I perceive, I would like to see the Shocks reduce the number of overpasses thay make.

The point is I think the Shockers can still play better and get better. But I expect with the youth of this team we'll still have our ups and downs as we finish of the final third of the season.

[WuDrWu]

I remember that point vividly....I saw what happened and I thought to myself, man, this poor girl can't even walk without tripping herself now. How much worse can it get?

Almost as if it knocked all the bad mojo out of her soul. She was really good after that.

No doubt Kailin isn't close to full speed. At their best, I would agree Kailin is better at scoring but Morgan seems awfully good in the back row. Not sure how that helps us...if at all.

It's funny to me what you said about free balls....I comment aloud to myself far too often, and one thing I rarely pass up is "free ball" and I too have noticed we don't score nearly enough on free balls. You just cannot be elite, or even very good, if you can't take a free ball and set up a crushing swing for someone. And we just don't do that well enough. Maybe they are thinking too hard IDK but we're almost better in scramble mode.

We've added some back row attacks with Brylee, and while they haven't been highly successful, I think it's one of things that just the threat of it makes everyone else a little better, if that makes sense.

I'm still at that point that I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring. I've said it before, HEALTHY, I like our firepower up front (we're down Big Mac and Kailin from being healthy). Kayce has played markedly better of late, and that's a HUGE variable. Is she on a heater, or is she figuring it out? Maybe a little of both, but a regression back to a month ago will mean we'll be lucky to beat all but the worst conference foes. Our littles too have been much improved and that seems to be cyclical as well. Lily and Lara to me have been especially strong IMHO.

[1972Shocker]

Friday AAC Match Results

Tulane 3 - @ ECU 2 -- 21, 23, (25), (17), 6

Houston 3 @ Cincinnati 1 -- 20, (17), 20, 18

Tulsa 3 @ Temple 0 -- 19, 23, 23 (Temple was competitive)

@Memphis 3 - South Florida 2 -- 22, 23, (16), (21), 14 (Memphis was down 8-13 in the 5th set - USF still winless in AAC play)

UCF 3 - @SMU 0 -- 22, 23, 17