2023 Volleyball Season

[1972Shocker]

Tippin' the bottle a little too much.

Damn Diet Dr. Pepper.

[flyingMoose]

The point differential was +26 for the Shockers - a lot for a 3-2 match.

[Critter's Pa]

Went to the game. Wished more people would have shown, although it was good to see that more students (or that looked college student age) than a usual game.

I kinda wish I would have posted here my guess for the starting lineup. I was not too far off. The starters were Barbara, Brylee, Emerson, Natalie, MorganW, Izzi and Gabi. I don't know if this is the lineup coach is looking at to start the season, but they got out to a good fast start in set 1. There were some unusual substitutions, like Annalie and Natalie or Gabi subbing out Brylee. Lambo did several double substitutions. I wonder if that was an exhibition game thing or if that will be normal when the season starts.

Barbara may have been the only player (except Izzi of course) to play all six rotations, at times, during the match. Her stats were not all that great (1 5 9 -.400) but she did have that early block that got the momentum going in the first set. She had a nice finesse cut shot against their 3 person block. OU did the 3 person block often. I think both Emerson and Brylee both tried cut shots several times to go around the bocks, but they either got blocked or went wide. She gets her foot so close to the line on her topspin jump serve. I hope she doesn't get called for a foot fault.

Izzi is team captain. I don't know if that is just because she is the setter, or if her rapport with the team got her the nod. Hopefully it is that latter. Brylee, Sophia, Natalie, or MorganS could, I think, have been voted team captain. The connection between her and the hitters could be better, but her numbers to the Middles were good- MorganS (9 3 18 .333) and Natalie (8 1 17 .412). She had 4 aces and 3 service errors. She had 32 of the 41 assists in the match.

32 total service errors. Shockers had 14, OU had 18. 7 Aces is good, they had 6. Their libero's topspin jump serve gave the Shockers fits at times. But 14 service errors? Did they change the dimensions of the court?

Passing, which can always improve, needs to improve. I think it's great we can get some good passes off of tough digs, but it's the bad passes off lollipop free balls that just drives me nuts. A nice high, semi accurate pass will give the hitters a chance to set and give Izzi more choices.

Gabi looked good out there. She had 18 digs and an ace.

5'3". 5 foot, 3 inches. I just checked, and that -5 foot, 3 inches- is what it says by Reagan Anderson's name. Five. Three. No way. Get outa here with that. Annalie looks tall beside her. She is quick. She was flying around. She had some good passes, she had some not so good passes, just like everyone else that played. She was the only Freshman that played. I wonder if playing today would affect her eligibility to be red shirted. I think she has the potential to be really good.

I wish we could have seen more Brooklyn. She only played in 2 sets (0 1 4 -.250), but during warm ups she was crushing the ball from the left side.

WSU finished 41 16 110 .227. OU was 43 37 148 .041.

Blocking game looked pretty good. 1 solo block (MorganS) and 15 block assists (Natalie and Izzi with 4 each, MorganS had 3, Brylee and Barbara each had 2)

Is good to have volleyball back.

[WuDrWu]

Our ability to score from the pins......surprisingly disappointing.

I thought Izzy did a nice job setting.

I felt like our serve receive and passing, at times, was fantastic. Back row communication lacked at times.

Morgan Stout looks quicker. She's an athlete. Not having Sophia makes a big difference. I don't think Barbara will struggle like that very often. If at all.

No KG was surprising. No Maddie Wilson was disappointing. I thought she'd help us (certainly taking rotations away from Frosty or Stout is going to be tough) this season.

I think Izzy is an upgrade at setter. Maybe a pretty good upgrade. Gabi is an upgrade at libero. But we have to put it together.


The B12 is an outstanding volleyball conference. #12 Alexis Shelton is a stud. We held her to .042 (certainly part of the reason the transfer from Liberty hit over .400) which would have been one of her worst numbers last season (she hit .242 on the year making the B12 Rookie team). Hard to believe that much firepower is going to finish 10th, but again, great conference.

[flyingMoose]

Houston at Rice exhibition and TCU at SMU exhibition are both on Saturday.

[1972Shocker]

Shows you what a perfect pass, especially on service reception, can do for your offense.

[1972Shocker]

The point differential was +26 for the Shockers - a lot for a 3-2 match.

In terms of attacking points which I define as kills, service aces and blocks the teams were tied 56 to 56.

However, in error points that include attack errors (less opponent blocks), service errors, setting errors and ball handling errors the Shocks were +26 as OU had a total of 52 errors (37-8+18+5+0) to 26 (16-7+14+2+1) for the Shocks.

Bottom line was that the Shockers played much cleaner than did OU with neither team doing a lot of scoring on the attack, at the service line and in blocking. Counting a 5th set as 0.6 of a set both teams averaged 12.2 attacking points per set.

I guess you could call these earned points vs unearned points.

Last year the Shockers averaged 16.2 attacking points per set and OU averaged 16.9 points per set. Lambo has talked about this in the past and I think he said he would like the Shocks to be at around 17 points a set from attacks, aces and blocks.

These stats bear out the shoxlax observation that this was a bizarre match and the WuDrWu observation that our ability to score from the pins was surprisingly disappointing (but OU was no better).

[1972Shocker]

Individually I thought Izzi, Natalie, MorganS, Emerson, Gabi and Annalie stood out in a positive way for the Shocks.

Sophia was 3-0-3 = 1.000 in limited action but her leg was clearly hampering her. IIRC, all 3 of her shots where tips or soft shots. She really didn't unload on any of her attempts. Fortunately, Emerson did a good job filling in. The way Sophia's leg was wrapped I am guessing she has a groin injury or strain. Hopefully, it is not something that will nag her for an extended period of time. For sure it will hamper her practice time over the next week at a minimum.

MorganW, Barbara and Brooklyn were not very good combining to hit 1-7-17 = -.353.with 0 service aces and 3 sevice errors. At least one of these players is going to have to step up and give the Shocks some production. Most likely MorganW and/or Barbara.

Overall there were some good things and some not so good things in this match. But after only a week of practice perhaps that is to be expected.

Biggest issues are the lack of scoring on attacks and Sophia's health which has an impact on the scoring on the attack as well. Not a lot of time to get that fixed as the Shocks open against Notre Dame in Lubbock next Friday.

[ShockTalk]

Thanks for the analysis, 1972Shocker .

[1972Shocker]

I watched a replay of the match last night and while Kennedy did not mention Sophia's leg he did mention that she had a little bit of an issue with an abdominal strain. That is not good news because Sophia has missed significant time in at least a couple of seasons due to abdominal strains. At this point it appears that has become a chronic issue for Sophia. Hopefully, they can manage that this season, but it has to be a concern.

[1972Shocker]

Mike Kennedy picked Morgan Stout has his player of the match, and while Morgan was solid in this match my pick would have been Emerson Wilford. Emerson's attack line of 8-1-21 = .333 was pretty much identical to Morgan's 9-3-18 = .333. Morgan did have the edge in blocking but you generally expect that the middle would have the advantage there.

Coming into the season I thought that juniors Morgan Weber and Barbara Koehler would be the primary candidates for any 6 rotation role that Lambo might want to use. After watching the OU exhibition match sophomore Emerson Wilford may very well have supplanted those 2 as the favorite for this role. Something I would never have foreseen or considered.

After playing very little in set 3, Emerson played every point in sets 4 and 5 with 23 front row rotations and 37 back row rotations (if I counted correctly). I would like to say she was adequate but she was actually quite a bit better than adequate. She looked very comfortable on the back row. I don't think the Shocks had any back row attacks when Emerson was in the game and it would be interesting to see how she can handle that. But the Shockers out-scored OU 40-20 in those final 2 sets. Emerson had 2 service rotations with the Shocks scoring on 4 of her 5 serves in Set 3 and 1 of her 2 serves in Set 4. If nothing else, this performance by Emerson should give the sophomore a big boost in confidence I would think.

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In the past I always thought that the Shockers played a lot of balls that would have been out if they had let them go. I just figured this is how Lambo wanted them to play this. However, Gabi, Annalie and Emerson showed great judgment against OU in letting balls go. Emerson let one hard serve go that landed in but the odds of her keeping that particular serve in play were very low so letting it go was probably the right decision as it was just inside the back line.

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Granted it was an exhibition game but Li'l Red (Regan Anderson) entered the match in the 1st set with the score at 11-19. The Shocks scored on her first 5 serves. Then to top it off Li'l Red came in at match point to serve and the Shocks finished off the Sooners on that point. I guess it remains to be seen if Li'l Red will play during the regular season or whether she will redshirt. But she will be a crowd favorite if and when she does play. You can also tell that her teammates are quite fond of her as well.

[flyingMoose]

Houston at Rice exhibition and TCU at SMU exhibition are both on Saturday.

Houston 0-3 Rice
22, 18, 18

TCU 2-3 SMU
21, (23), 20, (17), 12

[SubGod22]

WSU picked 3rd by coaches in the West

UAB - AAC Announces 2023 Preseason Coaches' Poll Rankings

AAC PRESEASON COACHES POLL RANKINGS

American Championship
1. SMU (7)
2. Rice (6)
West Division
1. SMU (7) 78
2. Rice (6) 76
3. Wichita State 59
4. North Texas 52
5. Tulsa 30
6. Tulane 24
7. UTSA 21

East Division

1. Memphis (6) 72
2. East Carolina (5) 70
3. Florida Atlantic (1) 48
Temple 48
5. South Florida (1) 37
6. UAB 35
7. Charlotte 33

(#) denotes first place votes

Preseason Player of the Year
Jamison Wheeler, Jr., OH, SMU
Brylee Kelly, R-Sr., OH, Wichita State

Preseason All-Conference Team
Angeles Alderete, So., OH, East Carolina
Bailey Houlihan, Sr., L, Memphis
Sh'Diamond Holly, Sr., MB, North Texas
Aryn Johnson, Jr., OH, North Texas
Treyaunna Rush, Sr., OPP, North Texas
Nia McCardell, Sr., L/DS, Rice
Danyle Courtley, Sr., OH, Rice
Sahara Maruska, Sr., OH, Rice
Emilia Weske, Gr., RS, Rice
Emma Clothier, Gr., MB, SMU
Celia Cullen, Sr., S, SMU
Jamison Wheeler, Jr., OH, SMU*
Kayley, Cassaday, 5th, OH, Tulsa
Natalie Foster, Jr., MB/RS, Wichita State
Brylee Kelly, R-Sr., OH, Wichita State*

* denotes unanimous selection

[1972Shocker]

Shocks Picked 3rd in West Division; Kelly Named AAC Preseason Co-Player of the Year

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/8/20/volleyball-kelly-named-aac-preseason-co-player-of-the-year.aspx

The Shockers are picked third in the West Division behind SMU and Rice. North Texas, Tulsa, Tulane and UTSA round out the West. In the East, Memphis tops the poll ahead of East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Temple, South Florida, UAB and Charlotte.

Wichita State outside hitter Brylee Kelly was named the American Athletic Conference Preseason Co-Player of the Year on Monday, joining middle blocker Natalie Foster on the Preseason All-Conference Team. Kelly and Co-Player of the Year Jamison Wheeler of SMU were the only two unanimous selections among the 15-player team.

[1972Shocker]

flyingMoose are you planning on doing your usual tournament overview and scouting report for this weeks season opening tournament in Lubbock?