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Morgan Stout set new personal bests with 13 kills and 11 blocks, including two solos. The 11 rejections tie for the second-most in a five-set match in the rally scoring era of Shocker volleyball.
As a team, Wichita State had 18 blocks, three more than their previous high in a match this season.
The Shocks were just terrific in the first two sets although as the match progressed they digressed except for their blocking.. In the first set, WSU had a sideout percentage of 85%, their highest in any single set this season. However, in the 5th set they only won 7 points on Tulsa's 15 serves for a sideout percentage of 46.7% and 3 of those were Tulsa service errors. The Shocks only had 7 kills in the 5th set but the blocking was huge as they had 5 blocks for points.
As I mentioned in my match blogs the Shockers had one of their more balanced attacks of the season. Brylee had 14 kills but also had the most chances an only hit .173, Sophia had 13 kills on 28 chances and hit a very good .321, MorganS had 13 kills on 27 chances hitting .259, MorganW had 12 kills on 35 chances hitting .257 and Natalie was the most efficient with 9 kills and only 1 error on 23 chances to hit a team leading .348.
I thought Kayce had 2 big plays back-to-back in the 5th set. She terminated an overpass to put the Shocks up 11-9 and then won a joust at the net against bigger Tulsa players making it 12-9.
The final two points in the 5th set were kills by Natalie and Sophia that weren't no doubters but were just good enough to finish the job.
Hopefully, we will see more of what the Shocks brought in Sets 1 and 2 vs Tulsa and see that or something more like that more consistently.
Got to give Tulsa some credit. They could easily have folded their tents after the first two sets.
The Shocks are now 10-5 a half game in front of Cincinnati (who plays at Tulane and at Houston this weekend) and SMU (who plays at South Florida and at UCF this weekend). They are 1.5 games up on Tulane (who hosts Cincinnati and ECU this weekend).
If the Shocks can get by Temple on Friday they have a great shot at sitting in 3rd by themselves at the end of this weekend.
The Shocks remaining Schedule is:
vs Temple (5-20, 1-13)
at Cincinnati (14-8, 9-5)
at ECU (9-14, 5-9)
vs SMU (13-11, 9-5)
vs Memphis (12-14, 5-9)
These are all winnable matches but they also are all losable matches. In the first half of the season the Shocks defeated all 5 of these teams but had to go 5 sets to beat SMU, ECU and Cincinnati in 3 consecutive matches and they beat Temple and Memphis on the road in 4 sets.
As a team, Wichita State had 18 blocks, three more than their previous high in a match this season.
The Shocks were just terrific in the first two sets although as the match progressed they digressed except for their blocking.. In the first set, WSU had a sideout percentage of 85%, their highest in any single set this season. However, in the 5th set they only won 7 points on Tulsa's 15 serves for a sideout percentage of 46.7% and 3 of those were Tulsa service errors. The Shocks only had 7 kills in the 5th set but the blocking was huge as they had 5 blocks for points.
As I mentioned in my match blogs the Shockers had one of their more balanced attacks of the season. Brylee had 14 kills but also had the most chances an only hit .173, Sophia had 13 kills on 28 chances and hit a very good .321, MorganS had 13 kills on 27 chances hitting .259, MorganW had 12 kills on 35 chances hitting .257 and Natalie was the most efficient with 9 kills and only 1 error on 23 chances to hit a team leading .348.
I thought Kayce had 2 big plays back-to-back in the 5th set. She terminated an overpass to put the Shocks up 11-9 and then won a joust at the net against bigger Tulsa players making it 12-9.
The final two points in the 5th set were kills by Natalie and Sophia that weren't no doubters but were just good enough to finish the job.
Hopefully, we will see more of what the Shocks brought in Sets 1 and 2 vs Tulsa and see that or something more like that more consistently.
Got to give Tulsa some credit. They could easily have folded their tents after the first two sets.
The Shocks are now 10-5 a half game in front of Cincinnati (who plays at Tulane and at Houston this weekend) and SMU (who plays at South Florida and at UCF this weekend). They are 1.5 games up on Tulane (who hosts Cincinnati and ECU this weekend).
If the Shocks can get by Temple on Friday they have a great shot at sitting in 3rd by themselves at the end of this weekend.
The Shocks remaining Schedule is:
vs Temple (5-20, 1-13)
at Cincinnati (14-8, 9-5)
at ECU (9-14, 5-9)
vs SMU (13-11, 9-5)
vs Memphis (12-14, 5-9)
These are all winnable matches but they also are all losable matches. In the first half of the season the Shocks defeated all 5 of these teams but had to go 5 sets to beat SMU, ECU and Cincinnati in 3 consecutive matches and they beat Temple and Memphis on the road in 4 sets.
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