Shocker VB @ SMU and Memphis

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (16-12, 11-6 American)

Wednesday, Nov. 23 (12:00 p.m. CT) at SMU (21-9, 14-4 American)
Dallas, Texas (Moody Coliseum)
Live Stats // Watch

Friday, Nov. 25 (1:00 p.m. CT) at Memphis (18-13, 8-10 American)
Memphis, Tennessee (Larry O. Finch Center)shot
Live Stats // Watch

SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS:

• SMU enters the week 21-9 overall, with a 14-4 mark in AAC play after a four-set defeat at #23 Houston on Sunday.
• All four conference losses have come against the top two teams in the conference (UCF and Houston).
• Setter Celia Cullen directs a potent array of hitters, with three different Mustangs in the conference's top ten in hitting percentage (London Austin-Roark, .326, 6th, Alex Glover, .322, 7th, Marieke van der Mark, .298, t-10th).
• The SMU roster is littered with D1 transfers, including additions from Texas A&M, Michigan State, Baylor, Virginia, Arkansas State and Arkansas.
• Head coach Sam Erger is in her first season in Dallas after eight seasons on the coaching staff at Baylor. Erger replaced long-time head coach Lisa Seifert, who stepped down following 27 seasons on the sideline for the Mustangs.

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SCOUTING THE TIGERS:

• Memphis enters the week with an overall record of 18-13, including 8-10 in American Athletic Conference action. The Tigers snapped a five-match losing skid with a sweep of Tulane on Sunday.
• The Tigers hosted three tournaments in the non-conference portion of the schedule, winning nine of ten combined matches at the Larry O. Finch Center.
• Memphis was picked eighth in The American preseason poll and have already exceeded their overall and conference win total from a season ago (13 to 18 and 6 to 8).
• Offensively, the Tigers are second-to-last in the conference with a .173 hitting percentage of their own. No Tigers rank in the top ten in The American in kills per set.
• Head coach Sean Burdette spent three seasons in the Missouri Valley Conference at Bradley (2008-10), and is now in his fifth season with the Tigers.

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The Shock are locked into a 4th place finish in the AAC. They won't be in the NCAA Tournament but do have a good for a bid to the NIVC Tournament. I don't know how much an 0-2 finish would hurt their chances for an NIVC bid but it would be nice not to test that. Beating SMU is a tall order and probably not very likely but Memphis is certainly a match that Shocks can win.

In any case, the Shocks don't want to finish the regular season feeling like a turkey sandwich if they lose matches on the day before and the day after Thanksgiving.

[1972Shocker]

SMU dominating statistically but the Shocks have managed to split the first 2 sets 20-25 and 26-24.

SMU 27 kills to 21 kills for the Shocks. SMU hitting .183 to .107 for the Shocks.

Services Aces/Errors are 6/5 for SMU and 6/3 for the Shocks.

SMU has 5 blocks to 4 for the Shocks. SMU with 40 digs to 33 for the Shocks.

SMU jumped out to an 11-2 lead in Set 3 and cruised to a 25-17 win to go up 2-1.

In Set 4 the Shocks hung in there through the first 26 points at 13-13. Two SMU kills led to the media time out with SMU up 15-13. The Shocks went on a 7-2 run after the media timeout to take a 20-17 lead and force a SMU timeout. None other than Annalie Heliste registered the set winning kill as the Shocks take Set 3 by a 25-19 to to send the match to a deciding 5th set.

The Shocks blocking has picked up as they have now double up SMU 14-7.

The Shocks have found a way to give themselves a chance at the upset.

Shocks lead 8-5 at the 5th set changeover. Can they hang on?

Tightening up but still lead 10-8. Make that 11-10. Shocker time-out. Come on Shocks tough it out.

SMU ties it at 12, A Sophia kill puts the Shocks back in the lead at 13-12. A block by the 2 Morgans give the Shocks 2 match points at 14-12.

A Morgan Weber kill gives the Shocks a very good and a very hard won road victory over a good SMU team.

Looking forward to wathing a replay tonight. That turkey and stuffing is going to tasted might good tomorrow. Speaking of stuffing the Shocks ended up outblocking SMU 16-9 including a 11-4 advantage over the final 3 sets. Most of the other stats were slightly in favor of SMU.

[WuDrWu]

Huge challenge here.

[WuDrWu]

Another huge challenge both go our way!

[ShockTalk]

Great win!!

While Houston and UCF have basically abused the rest of the league, SMU and WSU have separated themselves from the balance of the league, at this point.

Way to go gals!

[flyingMoose]

Wednesday Matches

Tulane at UCF


Houston 3-1 USF
17-, -17, -18, -16

Tulsa 3-1 Memphis
16-, -11, -22, -23

Temple 0-3 East Carolina
17, 27, 24

[flyingMoose]

Deleted by OP

[Critter's Pa]

Great win.

What happened to Natalie? Is she okay? I didn't get to see the game, but she didn't play in the fifth set.

Lily got 22 digs for 1000 for her career. Well done.

We got more aces(7) than service errors(6), too bad they got so many aces on us. Jadyn Bauss got 4 on one service run in set 3.

MorganS had great game at the net getting one solo block and 9 block assists. Brylee, Sophia, Natalie, Kayce, and MorganS all had solo blocks.

[1972Shocker]

None of the Shocker attackers were particularly outstanding today but they all made some positive contributions.

Morgan Stout had a nice match with 8 kills, 1 solo block and 9 block assists to lead the Shocks with 13.5 points. Brylee was close behind with 12.5 points with 9 kills, 2 service aces, a block solo and a block assists. However, Brylee also had 10 attack errors and ended up hitting -.024. Natalie had 11.5 points with 8 kills while hitting .217 with 1 service ace, 1 block solo and 3 block assists. Sophia also had 11.5 points with 9 kills while hitting .208 and also had 1 block solo and 3 block assists. Morgan Weber chipped in 7 kills and 1 block assist for 7.5 points.

However, Kayce Litzau helped fill in on the scoring with her first double figure point total of the season. Prior to this match Kayce averaged about 4.2 points per match. She tallied 10 points today with a 6-1-14 = .357 attack line plus a service ace, a block solo and 4 block assists. Kayce also had 9 digs.

Lily lead the Shockers in digs with 22, followed by MorganW with 10, Kayce and Lara both had 9 and Annalie and Katie both had 6.

[1972Shocker]

What happened to Natalie? Is she okay? I didn't get to see the game, but she didn't play in the fifth set.

I did not get to see the game either and but Natalie's absence in the 5th is worrisome and makes the Shocks winning the 5th set even more impressive. Hopefully, nothing too serious. Can't afford to lose her.

[WuDrWu]

Nasty turned ankle. She wasn’t putting a lot of weight on it and her facial responses seemed to indicate that she was in some distress.

[flyingMoose]

Wednesday Matches

Tulane 0-3 UCF
23, 17, 20

Houston 3-1 USF
17-, -17, -18, -16

Tulsa 3-1 Memphis
16-, -11, -22, -23

Temple 0-3 East Carolina
17, 27, 24

Tulane-UCF result added

[1972Shocker]

Nasty turned ankle. She wasn’t putting a lot of weight on it and her facial responses seemed to indicate that she was in some distress.

Thanks for the report. Probably out for the Memphis game. Beyond that we will see. She was having such a great end to her season.

From the goshockers.com game report:

The Shockers trailed 2-1 in sets and 15-13 in the fourth when Foster turned an ankle attempting to block a ball tight to the net.

[Critter's Pa]

I hope Natalie's injury isn't too bad. She was having a really good season.

Since Lily got her 1000 digs for her career, I wondered if there were any other players that were coming up on significant numbers.

Natalie needed only 4 more blocks to get 100 total blocks for the season. As of tonight, she is hitting .381 this year, which puts her at #10 best for a season, just below #9 Abbie Lehman .382 in 2014 and knocking Elisabeth Meyers, .375 in 2003, off the top 10 list. So far, her career hitting percentage of .357 puts her between #3 Ashley Andrade's .382 and #4 Elizabeth Meyers's .350 career numbers. That's pretty good company.

Kayce needs 44 assists to get 3000 assists for her career. Right now, she is between #7 Andee Hartig (3114) and #8 Kari James (2855) in career assists. Shocker HoF Chelsey Feekin had 2755 career assists. Kayce's 8.26 assists per set so far for her career puts her between #6 Chelsey Feekin's 8.66 and #7 Kari James's 7.93. That's pretty good considering she played in a 6-2 for her first two years and one of those years, 2020, the team only played 17 games in the spring.

Sophia needs 5 block assists for 200 for her career and 9.5 points for 900 for her career. With 16 attack attempts, she will have 2000 for her career.

MorganS needs one more kill to hit 100 for this year. 14 blocks will get her to 100 total blocks for this year. 10 kills will give her 250 for her career.

Lily only needs 1203 more digs against Memphis* to over take Kelly Brousard for #1 all time.

*I heard Coach Lamb mention the NIVC on the radio, so there might be more than one more game left in the season.

Hope the Shockers sweep Memphis and bookend Thanksgiving with a couple of wins.

Happy Thanksgiving all.

[Critter's Pa]

Looks like Natalie is starting the Memphis match. Good news.