Shockers at ECU

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers continue the weekend with a match against East Carolina on Sunday at 11 am CT. The Pirates were down two sets to Tulsa before losing in five sets on Friday. The Shocks are in a three-way tie with Cincinnati and SMU for third in the AAC with an 11-6 mark. The Shockers were 3-2 winners over ECU about a month ago in Wichita.

Pablo has the Shocks as a 69% favorite.

[I will be away for all of this one.]

[1972Shocker]

With all due respect to Pablo I think 69% may be a little too high considering the Shocks are at ECU and have not exactly played great in recent matches. But they don't have to be a lot better than ECU. 2 points better in 3 sets will work.

[flyingMoose]

With all due respect to Pablo I think 69% may be a little too high considering the Shocks are at ECU and have not exactly played great in recent matches. But they don't have to be a lot better than ECU. 2 points better in 3 sets will work.

There is some home court factored into Pablo, but I am with you. I was a bit surprised at the number.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks get it done but as I suspected it was not easy.

29-31, 25-23, 35-33 and 25-21

Was unable to watch the match and have not looked at the stats yet.

But a good win for the Shocks

SMU Wednesday and Memohis Friday to finish up.

[1972Shocker]

Tulsa up on Cincinnati 2-1 and leading 16-9 in the 4th.

With Tulsa leating 20-13 Cincinnati went on a 10-0 run to take a 23-20 lead and won the 4th set 25-22.

Cincinnati regains the momentum.

[flyingMoose]

Other Sunday Matches

Houston 1-3 SMU
25, 17, (17), 23
I think the Coogs at-large chances just went to Nil.

Tulsa 2-3 Cincinnati
15, (24), (19), 22, 10

Tulane 3-0 Memphis
22, 18, 21

Temple 3-1 USF
(22), 23, 26, 23

[flyingMoose]

The Shocks get it done but as I suspected it was not easy.

29-31, 25-23, 35-33 and 25-21

Was unable to watch the match and have not looked at the stats yet.

But a good win for the Shocks

SMU Wednesday and Memphis Friday to finish up.

Set One

ECU jumps out to a nice early lead, 8-13. Shockers chip away and tie it at 23. They lead at 28-27 and 29-28, but the Pirates get three-in-a-row to take the set, 29-31.


Set Two

The first three-point lead is 17-14, Shockers. Tied at 20, then moves to 24-20 before the Shocks close out the set at 25-22.


Set Three

Another sideout set. Then Shockers TOs at 13-17 and 14-20. From 18-22, the Shocks take the lead at 23-22. Serving with the lead and a chance to win: Shocks: 7 times, Pirates: 4 times. Two kills by Brylee end the set at 35-33!!


Set Four

This set starts really ugly - 9-18. Six in a row, then eight in a row for the Shocks making it 23-19. Close out the match, 25-21 and 3-1.


I may have to subscribe to ESPN+ to see the replay of this one.


.163 v .159.

Brylee at 29-7-64 for .344. Sophie, playing in only two sets, is the only other Shocker above .200 with 3-0-11.

[flyingMoose]

Sunday Morning bracket-

Houston is part of the First Six Out. With the loss to SMU, we will see if they even remain on that list.

[1972Shocker]

Set One

ECU jumps out to a nice early lead, 8-13. Shockers chip away and tie it at 23. They lead at 28-27 and 29-28, but the Pirates get three-in-a-row to take the set, 29-31.


Set Two

The first three-point lead is 17-14, Shockers. Tied at 20, then moves to 24-20 before the Shocks close out the set at 25-22.


Set Three

Another sideout set. Then Shockers TOs at 13-17 and 14-20. From 18-22, the Shocks take the lead at 23-22. Serving with the lead and a chance to win: Shocks: 7 times, Pirates: 4 times. Two kills by Brylee end the set at 35-33!!


Set Four

This set starts really ugly - 9-18. Six in a row, then eight in a row for the Shocks making it 23-19. Close out the match, 25-21 and 3-1.


I may have to subscribe to ESPN+ to see the replay of this one.


163 v .159.

Brylee at 29-7-64 for .344. Sophie, playing in only two sets, is the only other Shocker above .200 with 3-0-11.

Between looking at the stats and reading your quick review it sounds like it was a pretty ugly match. Brylee had a very good march statisticially. No one else really did,

I will try to watch the replay at some point if I can.

Morgan Stout seems to be regressing. I don't know if she is wearing down or is hurt or if the opposing teams' scouting report on her is taking a toll. Last two matches (9 sets) she hit 6-7-27.
Could be the team in general is wearing down and the grind is finally getting to them.

I just don't get Lambo's love affair with Morgan Weber. I personally think Kailin Newsome is a better athlete and a better volleyball player but Lambo dosn't seem interested in giving her a shot at taking that spot back. If this continues for the final two matches I think there is a very good chance that Kailin will re-enter the transfer portal. If Morgan is the better player than Lambo needs to go transfer portal shopping.

[1972Shocker]

Sounds like the Shocks had a pretty horrible time getting from Cincinnati to Greenville. they left Cincinnati on Saturday morning. Their connecting fig was delayed in Atlanta because of the scare caused by a gunshot being accidentally discharged. Some of the players and coaches had to hide in a closet. One of the coaches and part of the travel party sat in the tarmac for 4 hours. They did not arrive in Greenville until after 11:00 pm Saturday night.

The Shocks uniforms did not arrive in Greenville unitl about anhour before today's match time.

As a result they did not get to hold a practice on Saturday.

So maybe not so surprising the Shocks were not on the top of their game today. Athough ECU has been playing better lately and were no pushoverl

[pogo]

That is why most military people travel in their uniforms so they can report in in uniform and not their skivvies.

[flyingMoose]

I just don't get Lambo's love affair with Morgan Weber. I personally think Kailin Newsome is a better athlete and a better volleyball player but Lambo dosn't seem interested in giving her a shot at taking that spot back.

I get the impression that Lambo thinks Morgan is the better defensive player and as long she doesn't hurt him badly on offense (not too many errors), he will take the defense. This notion is primarily from last week's Show.

EDIT: 7-8-35 for -.029 doesn't fill the bill I suspect.

[flyingMoose]

Monday Morning bracket (which includes all of Sunday's results)

First Four Out: Houston, Cincinnati, and two others

Houston is VERY interesting - right now they are 1-0 vs. T25 teams and 4-1 vs. T50 teams. But they have some horrible losses and they could beat UCF and knock them out of the T25. That might be enough to get them in, not sure. They did really poor OOC scheduling that will likely end up costing them a bid.

Cincinnati probably has no chance, but, including them as they are in RPI distance with some potential T50 wins.


This is from a talented bracketologist, but the one with less experience. The other dude will probably post something later. Or maybe they alternate weeks posting their bracket. I haven't paid that much attention to what they do.

I will note that their brackets are guesses about what the Committee will do based on previous Committees, not what the Committee should do - mostly.

[1972Shocker]

So I watched the replay (more or less) of the ECU match. I say more or less because there were a couple of technical glitches in the 3rd and 4th sets. However, there was definitley were some unusual stuff going on the 3rd and 4th sets.

With the Shocks trailing 15-20 in Set 3 Hailey Plugge replaced Kayce Litzau at the setter postion. Hailey had previously seen action in only 2 sets this season. With Hailey serviing the Shockers scored 3 in a row on an ECU attack error, a service ace and a Morgan Weber solo block to make it 18-20.

After a ECU kill and and ECU block of Morgan Weber it was 18-22. That's when the first technical glitch hit. By the time that was cleared up the Shocks had scored 5 in a row to take a 23-18 lead. Looking at the play by play shows that was on a kill by Natalie Foster assisted by Hailey, a MorganW service ace, a Sophie Childs kill assisted by Natalie, a Brylee Kelly kill assisted by Hailey and a Sophie Childs kill assisted by Lily Liekweg.

From that point on it was back and forth until the Shocks got back-to-back kills from Brylee both assisted by Hailey to win the set 35-33.

Another techincal glitch tookover and by the time it was resolved and the match video returned the Shocks were trailing 5-13 in the 4th set. It does appear that Hailey started at the setter position in the 4th set. The set was tied at 5-5 when ECU went on 6-0 run to make it 5-11 with 2 of those points being attack errors by MorganW. At that point Kailin Newsome subbed in for MorganW. However, 3 ECU kills and a service ace extended the run to 10-0 and the lead to 15-5.

The Shocks finally broke the ECU run with a kill by Kailin. With the Shocks trailing 8-16 Kayce and Sophia Rohling subbed in and would finish out the set. With the Shocks trailing 9-18 the Shocks came to life and the wheels fell of for ECU as the Shocks flipped the script and finished the set off with a 16-3 run.

That run started with a kill by Sophia and then with Kailin serving the Shocks scored the next 5 points which included a service ace, 3 Shocker blocks with Morgan Stout and Sophia combining on all 3 blocks and a Brylee Kelly kill closed the gap to 15-18,

After a Bri Wood kill for ECU made it 15-19 the Shocks ran off 8 in a row to take control of the match at 23-19. This run inlcuded 3 kills by Sophia. Lily was on the service line during this stretch and served and passed well.

ECU made it interesting with back-to-back points, one an attack error by Sophia, to make it 23-21. But the Shocks put it away on a Sophia kill and a ECU attack error.

Not sure what to make of all of this but glad the Shocks are home to close out the season without having to be concerned about the nuttiness of dealing with air travel over the Thanksgiving weekend. Shocks will need to get back on their game by Wednesday to have a chance against SMU.

Most likely the SMU match will determine whether the Shocks finish in a tie for 3rd or if they fall to 5th although there certainly are other possibilities. But I expect Cincinnati will win at home over ECU and on the road at Temple. Tulane is at home but I expect they will lose to UCF and beat South Florida. I guess I am kind of taking for granted that SMU will beat Tulsa and the Shocks will beat Memphis on Friday and obviously that is far from a guaranteed outcome.

It is a bit concerning that the Shocks have been kind of out of sync lately.

[flyingMoose]

It is a bit concerning that the Shocks have been kind of out of sync lately.

In several recent Shows, Lambo has noted that health issues have limited the scrimmages during practice. Perhaps the out-of-sync is a result, especially the connection with middles.