Shocker VB vs Tulsa

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (8-8, 3-2 American)

Wednesday, Oct. 12 (7:00 p.m. CT) vs. Tulsa (9-8, 2-3 American)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN HURRICANE:

• The Golden Hurricane enter play on Wednesday with an overall record of 9-8, including 2-3 in American Athletic Conference play. Tulsa most recently dropped a pair of home matches over the weekend to SMU (3-2) and Memphis (3-1).
• Tulsa consistently ranks among the nation's leaders in both digs and team attacks per set, this year currently holding down the top spot nationally in both categories (19.72 digs per set, 40.72 attacks per set). Libero Marta Pecalli leads the conference with 5.45 digs per set, and outside hitter Kayley Cassaday leads the nation with 14.11 attacks per set.
• Cassaday averages twice as many kills per set as the next closest Golden Hurricane (4.60 to Lauren Eitler's 2.30).
• Tulsa played in Wichita just a few days ago, falling to UCF in a neutral court match on September 30 that was moved to Kansas after the landfall of Hurricane Ian disrupted the scheduled match in Orlando.
• Head coach Ryan Wills is in his ninth season at the helm of the Golden Hurricane, bringing a record of 133-116 into play on Wednesday. A Tulsa alum, Wills spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Alabama before returning to lead the Golden Hurricane.

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The two teams are seemingly pretty well matched. However, Tulsa was more competitive against SMU than were the Shocks and with Sophia Rohling sidelined for the Shocks then I'm thinking Tulsa would be favored to win this one. But the Shocks at least should have chance of pulling out a win.

[1972Shocker]

After losing the first 2 sets to Tulsa 20-25 and 22-25 getting off to slow starts in both sets the Shocks looked to be a little bit out-gunned and pretty much dead in the water. However, the Shock came to life after the 5:00 intermission and a visit to the locker room to storm to a 5 set win taking the final 3 sets by scores of 25-15, 25-18 and 15-12.

I will have to look at the stat later my gut impression as I left Koch Arena was that this was the Natalie Foster Show tonight. I thought Morgan Weber also had a solid match although not all that actively involved in the offense but she took advantage of the opportunities she had. I also thought the Shockers serve and passing game was better tonight especially in the final 3 sets.

I will have to check the stats later to see if they support these observations. Turned out to be an entertaining match to watch.

[WuDrWu]

Tough way to spend a Wednesday night when you're old like I am, but totally worth it.

Shocks drop the first 2 sets and frankly, weren't that competitive, then awoke with a fury in the 3rd, stayed hot in the 4th and won a squeaker in the 5th.

(20) (22) 15 18 12.

Great fight tonight!

[ShockTalk]

The 5th set was entertaining in more ways than just the play on the court.

[flyingMoose]

The 5th set was entertaining in more ways than just the play on the court.

Did both coaches get a yellow card at the end? The Tulsa coach whined a lot after things started slipping away.

MorganW had some nice swings in the fourth set and later.

I thought Tulsa played about the same the entire match, but the Shockers finally came to life in the third set. They pieced together enough additional offense to complement Natalie and Brylee.

[1972Shocker]

The 5th set was entertaining in more ways than just the play on the court.

That it was. Not a huge crowd but they were pretty engaged and expressed their opinion a few times late in the 5th set. Lambo wasn't too happy at the end of the match but the win no doubt made the yellow card he received a minor distraction.

[1972Shocker]

I see one stat right off the bat that explains a lot and pretty much flips the script on what the Shockers have been doing lately. The Shocks had 4 aces to only 5 service errors. On the other hand Tulsa had only 2 service aces to 16 service errors.

Natalie hit 21-5-38 = .421. I think she was 12-1-20 = .550 over the final 3 sets. Her blocking was good and her serving was good.

MorganW hit 6-0-13 = .462. Perhaps less is more for MorganW.

Kayce was 5-1-12 = .333 to go along with 55 assists.

Brylee was 18-8-59 = .169. Her serving was very clean as she had no service errors and 2 of the Shockers' 4 service aces.

Big Mac was a decent 6-2-16 = .250 and was better at the net.

Hopefully, the Shockers figured some things out tonight especially over the final 3 sets.

[ShockTalk]

I thought Annalie and Morgan W had a very nice and important back-to-back run of serves. I think Annalie served at least 6 or 7 in a row, then Morgan had 3 I believe.

[Critter's Pa]

Some random thoughts on the game-
The first set was ugly, a lot uglier than the score would suggest. Tulsa had 100% side-out until the score was, I think, 21-13. It took a while for the Shockers to get a point on serve.
We had only five service errors the whole match, three of those were in the first set. The other two were in the fifth set.

The Stat Broadcast says there was a lead change in the second set, but it didn't seem like we had a lead until the third set. It must have been early in the set. Shockers had eight attack errors to Tulsa's two attack errors through the first two sets.

In the third set, Tulsa had five service errors to go along with five attack errors. Shockers only had four attack errors. Tulsa had three service errors and five attack errors in set four, Shockers only had one attack error.

Shockers had an ace in every set but the fourth. Tulsa had their only ace in the fifth set.

The serving was ok, not really aggressive, but there were several serves that got them out of system. Shockers passing was better than the SMU game. Lilly had 33 digs. Morgan W had 15. Annalie had 12. Kayce only had 5 digs, which means they were not targeting her so she could dish out those 55 assists.

Some of Kayce's assists seemed kinda forced to Frosty, but Natalie had a great game 21-5-38 hitting .421. Lauren had 6-2-16 hitting .375 and Morgan S had 2-1-7 hitting .143. It seemed like both Lauren and Morgan S both played the opposite position. There were several times when they were both on the front row at the same time. Brylee finished with 18-8-59 hitting .169. It seemed like she got many of the out of system balls.

Blocking- Natalie had the only solo block with four block assists. Lauren has four BAs, Kayce had three BAs, Morgan S had two, and Brylee, Morgan W and Emerson each had one. I thought our blocking did a pretty good job, they made some great digs off our blocks. What really killed us in the first couple of sets was not getting to balls tipped over our block. Their setter dumps were effective against us as well. Between their two setters, they were 7-0-19. Kayce had five kills on 12 attempts, and would have had six if not for a Tulsa challenge at match point.

Natalie played a pretty good game. Brylee needs to Play Angry, it seems like she is better that way. Lily took a kill off of her head at one point, and that may have p*ssed her off a bit and I think her 33 digs reflected that. Emerson had 23 swings with only four kills and two errors, some of those swings were on out of system balls. I hope she improves quickly, I think she'll be a good addition to the team.

[Critter's Pa]

I thought Annalie and Morgan W had a very nice and important back-to-back run of serves. I think Annalie served at least 6 or 7 in a row, then Morgan had 3 I believe.

Yep. I think Lilly's service run in the second set (five or six straight that started with an ace) that got us from 19-14 to tied at 19, gave the Shockers momentum going into the third set.

[1972Shocker]

Was it my imagination or was Morgan Stout playing some at outside hitter against Tulsa?

[Critter's Pa]

Was it my imagination or was Morgan Stout playing some at outside hitter against Tulsa?

It seemed like she was, both MorganS and Lauren. Although it's kinda hard to tell sometimes, because they run a play were Kayce sets the opposite in the middle of the court while the middle runs the slide. I have seen it happen several times with SophiA and Emerson.

[flyingMoose]

Sunday Matches

East Carolina 0-3 UCF
11, 17, 15

Houston 3-0 Memphis
24, 25, 23

Tulane 0-3 SMU
15, 16, 17

Tulsa 1-3 Cincinnati
21-, 18-, -16, 20-

[1972Shocker]

Memphis got swept dbut played Houston very tough.

Cincinnati probably a bit better than their record shows.