Shocker VB vs USF and UCF

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (10-10, 5-4 American)

Friday, Oct. 28 (7:00 p.m. CT) vs. South Florida (7-13, 1-7 American)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

Sunday, Oct. 30 (1:00 p.m. CT) vs. #25 UCF (17-1, 9-1 American)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

SCOUTING THE BULLS:

• South Florida enters play on Friday with an overall record of 7-13, including 1-7 in American Athletic Conference play. The Bulls lone conference win came in five sets over East Carolina on October 14.
• Since the start of conference play, the Bulls are hitting just .154 as a team, the joint-lowest mark in The American alongside Temple.
• South Florida ranks second in the AAC with 2.45 blocks per set in AAC matches, trailing only UCF.
• Six different Bulls average between 2.15 and 3.12 points per set, led by junior Marta Cvitkovic.
• The South Florida roster features a unique mix of youth and experience. There is just one junior on the roster (Cvitkovic).
• Former San Jose State and Cal State Bakersfield head coach Jolene Shepardson is in her third season with the Bulls, the same program that she led to a pair of NCAA tournament appearances as a player (2000 and 2002).

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SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS:

• UCF has won four consecutive AAC championships, with a staggering 67-4 mark in conference play from 2018 onward. The Knights lost twice to Cincinnati during the 2019 regular season, once at home to Houston in 2021, and earlier this season to the Cougars on the road. Only Houston, Cincinnati and Wichita State took more than one set from the Knights last season.
• UCF is off to a 17-1 start in 2022, including Power Five wins over Syracuse, Kansas State, Miami and Kansas. The Knights rolled through two home tournaments plus the Jayhawk Classic in Lawrence, and have swept every AAC opponent this season with the exception of the loss to Houston.
• The Knights possess one of the most potent offenses in the country, ranking third nationally with a .318 hitting percentage, sixth with 13.32 assists per set, and fifth with 14.37 kills per set.
• All-American McKenna Melville ranks third in the country in points per set (5.88), while middle Abby Hansen is third with a .447 hitting percentage. Setter Amber Olson checks in fourth in assists per set (11.52).
• Melville is on pace to be a five-time honoree to the All-AAC First Team, and has been named conference Player of the Year in consecutive seasons.
• Head Coach Todd Dagenais is now in his 15th season leading the Knights, and is the program's all-time wins leader. He has guided UCF to five NCAA tournament appearances.

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I would normally say the Shocks should handle USF this evening but after what happened at Tulane that would probably not be all that wise. Hopefully, the Shocks can pull out a win in this one.

I think it is a pretty safe bet that the Shockers will get swept on Sunday vs UCF or at least that is the most probable expectation to have for that match.

There is always a chance the Shocks will surprise on the upside but at this point there is nothing to indicated that is going to happen.

Hopefully, Natalie will be able to continue her solid play.

[Kung Wu]

[1972Shocker]

Shocks take care of business tonight as they should against USF with a 15, 19 ,7 sweep.

[Kung Wu]

That ain't the scary part. lol

[flyingMoose]

Wednesday Match

SMU 3-0 Memphis
20, 23, 22


Friday Matches

UCF 3-1 Tulsa
-19, -8, 21-, -20

Temple 0-3 Houston
18, 20, 13

Cincinnati 0-3 Memphis
22, 21, 13

East Carolina 2-3 Tulane
17-, 22-, -26, -22, 18-

[Critter's Pa]

Glad to see Sophia back in and playing well. Her top spin jump serve was on tonight. Only five service errors for the whole team, 3 aces.

Lily and Annalie were still out. Lily was sitting on the bench wearing a hat and sunglasses. Hope she gets better soon. Lara started, and finished, at libero.

Natalie played a good game- 11 0 18 for .611, 4 blocks, 1 ace and an assist. Brylee hit .450 (11 2 20) and Sophia hit .529 (10 1 17).
Shockers had only 10 attacking errors and hit .353 for the match, held USF to .032.

The blocking game showed up with 11 total blocks to USF's 3. The Shockers got many good touches with the block. Defense played well holding them to 25 kills on 93 attack attempts.

Passing was good. MorganW got smacked pretty good on one of her digs.

Shockers will need to play even better than this to beat UCF.

[flyingMoose]

I can see why USF is at/near the bottom of the AAC. They don't have any players.

[flyingMoose]

Sunday Matches

East Carolina 0-3 Houston
17, 20, 12

Cincinnati 0-3 SMU
15, 17, 19

USF 3-0 Tulsa
20, 16, 22
Wow! Some of them showed up today.

Temple 3-2 Tulane
-22, 21-, 22-, -19, -10

[1972Shocker]

Looks like the Shocks were much more competitive against UCF this go around taking the first set and staying within striking distance in sets 2 and 3

Looking forward to watching the replay tonight.

[WuDrWu]

Match turned on a reversal. UCF went down the line opposite the benches and missed and WSU had a 15-10 lead at the media timeout in the 2nd set.

During the TO UCF challenged and it was reversed. 14-11 WSU

Before you could blink it was 19-14 UCF and the 2nd set was over. UCF had an early 3rd set lead but the Shox fought back but leading I think 19-18 they missed 2 chances to put away over passes for a 2 point lead late. They also had 4 service errors from that point on, giving the set to UCF.

UCF started playing better and WSU ran out of steam in the 4th. Valiant start but just can’t give a team that good several chances to get back into it.

[Critter's Pa]

Melville was frustrated in the first set and part of the second set. She was hitting negative, hit several balls into the net, and she also had 2 or 3 straight service errors. Unfortunately for the Shockers, she turned it around and started to look unstoppable.

It seemed like the Shockers couldn't buy a lucky bounce, UCF made some saves that I thought were going to be Shocker points.

Lara made some good digs and the passing was okay. Several times we hit the ball straight into their block and couldn't cover.

Second straight game with an out of rotation on serve receive. It looked like the down ref gave Lamb a warning about it a few serves before it was called. I think it was because Katie was farther forward than MorganW.

Hope we can get a couple of good road wins next week.

[flyingMoose]

It seemed like the Shockers couldn't buy a lucky bounce, UCF made some saves that I thought were going to be Shocker points.

The Knights were digging some stuff and seemed always to make a very nice pass out of it.

Several times we hit the ball straight into their block and couldn't cover.

I thought Kayce had far more sets than usual that were too tight to the net and easily blocked.

It looked like the down ref gave Lamb a warning about it a few serves before it was called.

Hmm. At this level, I doubt that happens ... but perhaps.

Oh, and Yes on Melville. She was well off her game early on.

[1972Shocker]

I was impressed with how well Sophia played this weekend coming of her abdominal injury as she delivered a good number of scorching attacks and she was generally pretty effective hammering the jump serve she has addded to her tool box. Hopefully, she can stay healthy for the remainder of her career.

[1972Shocker]

Rohling Powers Up to Secure Weekly Honor Roll Nod

Rohling produced a pair of efficient performances at home against South Florida and UCF. In Friday's sweep against the Bulls, the lefty hit a season-best .529, putting down 10 balls on just 17 swings while committing a single attack error. She added four blocks and two digs to aid the Shocker defensive effort. Rohling followed up her stellar outing on Friday with another solid performance against one of the nation's best defensive units Sunday against UCF. The native of Neodesha, Kansas led Wichita State with 11 kills, hitting .286 on 28 attempts while adding two more blocks to her season total. Combined, Rohling averaged 3.0 kills per set over the course of seven sets, hitting a cumulative .378. She ranks second on the team with a .250 season hitting percentage, and is third with 184 kills despite missing five matches due to injury.

[1972Shocker]

On his radio show last night Lambo pretty much admitted this Shocker team has its limitations and challenges and that his goal for this year is to get this team to the NIVC Tournament.