Shocker VB at Houston and Tulane

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (10-8, 5-2 American)

Friday, Oct. 21 (7:00 p.m. CT) at #24 Houston (17-2, 8-0 American)
Houston, Texas (Fertitta Center)
Live Stats // Watch

Sunday, Oct. 23 (1:00 p.m. CT) at Tulane (6-13, 1-7 American)
New Orleans, Louisiana (Avron B. Fogelman Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

SCOUTING THE COUGARS:

• The Cougars enter play on Friday with an overall record of 17-2, including an 8-0 mark in American Athletic Conference play following a pair of road sweeps over SMU and Memphis. On October 7, Houston handed previously unbeaten UCF their lone loss of the year to grab sole control of first place in The American.
• Houston entered the AVCA Top 25 for the first time since 1994 this week. The Cougars check in at #24, garnering 117 votes.
• Houston ranks third in the AAC in hitting percentage (.237), second in opponent hitting percentage (.176), and first in aces per set. (1.61). Abbie Jackson and Isabel Theut supply the firepower at 3.81 and 3.74 kills per set, respectively, while junior libero Kate Georgiades has been named AAC Defensive Player of the Week three times.
• 2019 AAC Coach of the Year David Rehr has the Cougars on track for their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2000 after narrowly missing out a season ago. Now in his fourth season at Houston, Rehr won a pair of NJCAA national championships at Blinn College.

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SCOUTING THE GREEN WAVE:

• The Green Wave check in with a 6-13 overall record, currently sitting in last place in The American with a 1-7 conference mark.
• Tulane began the season 5-4 in non-conference action, but have dropped nine of their last ten and three consecutive matches in straight sets.
• Four different Green Wave players have notched 160 or more kills this season (Mackenzie Martin, Kayla Kaiser, Melissa Kolurbasi and Amarachi Osuji) for a cumulative hitting percentage of .207 that ranks fifth in the league. Setter Kate Van Houten runs the show to the tune of 8.34 assists per set.
• All five of those statistical leaders are seniors, and four of the five are in their first year with the program as transfers (all except Martin).
• Defensively, Tulane allows opponents to hit .257, 17 points worse than the next-closest team, and averages just 1.32 blocks per set. Both figures rank 323rd nationally.
• Head coach Jordana Price is in her first season in New Orleans after spending five years as associate head coach at Florida State. She replaces Jim Barnes, who now leads the program at Iowa.

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At the very most the Shockers chances against Houston would seem to be slim. The Shocks do, however, need to take care of business against Tulane.

The Shocks non-conference opponents are 136-80 on the season for a 63% winning percentage. That is pretty solid if it holds but I am just not confident the Shocks can win enough AAC matches for that to make a difference when it comes to NCAA selection time.

[flyingMoose]

Wednesday Match

USF 0-3 UCF
14, 24, 10


#1 Texas 2-3 Iowa State
-18, 25-, -12, 25-, 10-

This has to help the Shocker RPI, but I doubt it is nearly enough.

[flyingMoose]

Set One

It appears LiveStats is dead. It died earlier in the SMU @ Temple match is not still not alive for this match.

According to Houston VB Twitter, 12-14 in the first set. That is, UH is leading.

Back to baseball.

EDIT: And as soon as I post that, LS comes alive.

18-21 and a Shocker TO.

(Was 13-18 and then 18-19 earlier.)

20-24 and another Shocker TO.

20-25 (from 20-21)

.222 v .393

Emerson with four kills and several with two.

[flyingMoose]

Set Two

The Shockers are not matching many of the Cougar's two- or three-point mini-runs.

9-15 at the Media TO.

12-18 moves to 16-18. TO Cougars.

22-21.

22-23 and a Shocker TO. Four of the last ten Shocker points have been attack errors by UH.

24-23 on a kill by Brylee and a block solo by MorganS.

27-25 on a kill by MorganW and a block by Kayce and Natalie.


.220 v .250 for the match

Five kills by Natalie, Emerson, and MorganW.

[flyingMoose]

Set Three

4-5 to 11-7 to 11-11.

15-14 at the Media TO.

Kill by Emerson and service ace by Annalie. 19-16 and a Cougar TO.

Series of sideouts. Kills by Kayce, Brylee(2), and Emerson. 24-20 becomes 24-22 and the Shockers take a TO.

25-22 on a kill by Natalie.


Now .240 v .245.

Kills: Natalie 10, Emerson 9, Brylee 8.

[flyingMoose]

Set Four

2-2 becomes 6-2 on three kills and an attack error. TO Cougs.

6-6 including three service aces. Ugh!

11-8 slides to 12-14 including two more service aces.

13-16 and TO for the Shockers.

14-20. This one is slipping away quickly. Another Shocker TO.

15-22, then 18-22. TO for Houston.

18-25. On to Set Five.


.264 v .262

Brylee 13, Natalie and Emerson 11 kills.

[flyingMoose]

Set Five

Sophia just had an attack error? Or was there an LS mistake?

4-8 and we switch ends.

6-10 and a Shocker TO.

Overrule in Shock's favor. 9-11.

11-12 and TO Cougs. This just might get interesting.

An overrule the Coog's way. 11-14.

11-15 and Shockers 2-3 Houston.


.226 v .258

Natalie 16-4-29 for .414
Brylee 14-5-40 for .225
Emerson 11-3-34 for .235

Blocks 6 v 11
Service Err/Ace 10/8 v 12/9


Although not a win, this is a performance to grow with. Hopefully there is no hangover in New Orleans. Tulane is a team the Shockers should handle.

[flyingMoose]

Friday Matches

UCF 3-0 Cincinnati
14, 18, 16

SMU 3-1 Temple
-22, -21, 23-, -14

Tulsa 3-0 Tulane
17, 23, 20

Memphis 3-2 ECU
-20, 20-, 23-, -18, -10

[Critter's Pa]

Set Five

Sophia just had an attack error? Or was there an LS mistake?


Although not a win, this is a performance to grow with. Hopefully there is no hangover in New Orleans. Tulane is a team the Shockers should handle.

I would guess it's an error, I kinda doubt that Lambo would have put Sophia in during the 5th set. Statbroadcast had Foster serving three times in a row in the third set and MorganW serving twice in one rotation.

Those six aces in set 4 really hurt.
Emerson started strong. Hope she gets it back against Tulane.
Foster had five kills in the 5th set, I thought she was going to carry the Shocks to victory.
I thought the 5 (or 6) service errors were going to doom us in the second set. MorganW had several serving runs through the match.
What happened to MorganS? She disappeared on the stat sheet after the second set.

They played a good match and probably should have won had they not let the 4th set slip away.

[WuDrWu]

Awful start to Sunday. 25-17 Tulane. Shocks up 1 in set 2 but playing poorly to say the least.

SophiA IS playing.

[Critter's Pa]

Played better in second set.
Hit .443, Tulane hit .200.

Lily isn't playing? Lara started at libero in the first set, was Katie libero in the second set?

Edited.. I see that MorganW is playing libero.

[WuDrWu]

Morgan at L is an odd look for sure. Hope Lily isn’t hurt. Cannot return a jump serve.

[WuDrWu]

Might be the worst set I’ve ever seen. Tulane is bad. We can’t pass block or hit. 18-8. Terrible volleyball.

[WuDrWu]

Huge challenge here. Shocks cut lead to 20-21 but may have a touch reversal.

Watching replay, no way it can be reversed. Nothing definitive.

First call our way. Lot of fight at least, even if they don’t get over the hill.

21-22.

22-22

23-22 Kayce dumps.

23-23

24-23

25-23

Do NOT ask me how.

[Critter's Pa]

Calling that 5th set ugly would be an insult to ugly.
Hit -.077 to .412 in the fifth. For the match, we hit .238 to .315.
We couldn't get anything going.
We only had 3 service errors and they had 11, but they also had 11 aces, we only had 4. Katie had 2, MorganW and Brylee both had 1.

With the exception of couple of runs by Katie, we did not have any long rallies on the service line. Dits was killing us when she was serving.