Volleyball: Omaha Challenge

[1972Shocker]

Way to bounce back Shocks and way to get Natalie involved.

Not quite sure how to figure this. Perhaps the Shocks weren't adequately focused and locked in against Omaha.

[flyingMoose]

And no Show this Monday (I think). Rats!!

Maybe they will touch on this weekend a bit in the next show.

[flyingMoose]

Omaha 3-2 Northern Colorado
(22), 19, (21), 26, 17

Down 7-12 in the fifth but the Mavs came back for the win. Buss had 24 kills, a career high.

[1972Shocker]

Omaha 3-2 Northern Colorado
(22), 19, (21), 26, 17

Down 7-12 in the fifth but the Mavs came back for the win. Buss had 24 kills, a career high.

I think Omaha is stronger this year than I gave them credit for. I watched the replay of that match tonight. I have to give Omaha credit. They were better than the Shocks in just about every phase of the game. I don't know if Omaha was doing something offensively that the Shock were not expecting but the Shocks' block seemed late to the party most of the match. A lot of credit for that goes to Omaha. The were clearly the better team in this match.

[JayPak]

Omaha is an experienced team that will challenge South Dakota and Denver for the Summit title. They are good enough to upset Creighton next weekend if the Jays aren’t at their best.

[1972Shocker]

Lara Uyar played the first 2 sets against Omaha and Katie Galligan plays sets 3 and 4. Personally, I prefer Katie Galligan. She is the heir apparent for the Libero position so let's get her as much experience as possible. I thought Omaha was much better than the Shocks on the back row than the Shocks including at the Libero position. I think Lily Liekweg, while perhaps having improved some over last year, is just okay at the Libero position. Seems like opposing teams consistently outshine the Shocks at the Libero position.

Brylee Kelly is a bit if a liability when she is on the back row and you bet other teams will target her with their serves fi she is left exposed.

I am still not sold on Morgan Weber, especially her rotations on the front line. She had a very good opening match against Wyoming hitting 11-3-26 = .308 giving me hope she had figure some things out. However, in the succeeding 4 matches she has hit 14-17-80 = -.038. Over those same 4 matches Natalie Foster is hitting 39-10-77 = .377 including 21-2-26 = .528 over the last 2 matches. Hopefully, the trend will be more Natalie on the attack and less MorganW.

These are just my relatively fan-level observations so take them FWIW.

[1972Shocker]

Wichita State sophomore middle blocker Natalie Foster was named the American Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Monday.

Foster was a key figure in Wichita State's impressive blocking numbers over the weekend in Omaha. The Shockers split a pair of matches against Omaha and Northern Colorado, falling in four sets to the host Mavericks before sweeping the Bears the following day. Over the course of those two matches, Foster piled up 11 total blocks, six against Omaha and five against Northern Colorado. All told, Wichita State managed 23 team blocks in just seven sets of play, better than three blocks per set. Despite playing out of the middle, Foster also added seven combined digs to her ledger.

Foster put together her best offensive showing of the season on Friday against Northern Colorado. The sophomore hit .583 on 24 swings, racking up 15 kills while committing just one attack error. Combined with her six kills on 12 attacks Thursday night, Foster finished the tournament with a cumulative .528 hitting percentage.

https://goshockers.com/news/2022/9/5/volleyball-foster-controls-net-to-earn-defensive-player-of-the-week.aspx