Volleyball: Shocker Volleyball Classic (Sep 7-9)

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (3-2, 0-0 American)

Thursday, Sep. 7 (7:00 p.m. CT) vs. #22 Kansas (3-1, 0-0 Big 12)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

Friday, Sep. 8 (3:00 p.m. CT) #22 Kansas (3-1, 0-0 Big 12) vs. Colorado (5-1, 0-0 Pac-12)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats

Saturday, Sep. 9 (7:00 p.m. CT) vs. Colorado (5-1, 0-0 Pac-12)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

The tournament features some of the nation's most potent attacking units. Entering play on Thursday, Kansas ranks sixth nationally in kills per set (14.87) while Colorado checks in seventh in the country in hitting percentage (.340). Wichita State is 45th in opponent hitting percentage (.149).

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SCOUTING THE JAYHAWKS:

• Last season, Kansas swept Wichita State 25-18, 25-15, 25-20 at Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena in early September, recording 14.0 team blocks in three sets and getting 14 kills from Ayah Elnady.
• Kansas enters play on Thursday with a record of 3-1, boasting a two-match sweep at the Omaha Tournament before splitting a pair at home against top-25 opponents Purdue and Marquette. The Jayhawks lone loss of the season against Purdue was a five-set thriller that featured 11 ties and five lead changes in the final set alone.
• Junior setter Camryn Turner is one of the best players in the country at her position, ranking 11th nationally in assists per set at 11.20. Turner was named the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Week on Monday.
• A trio of transfers surround Turner to provide the Kansas offensive firepower. Reagan Cooper (Texas Tech), Mykayla Myers (TCU) and Toyosi Onabanjo (Iowa) combine to average more than 6.7 kills per set.

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SCOUTING THE BUFFALOES:

• Colorado brings a 5-1 record to Wichita, bouncing back from a season-opening defeat to UNLV with five consecutive sweeps (Campbell, North Texas, Northern Colorado, Xavier, Charlotte).
• The Buffaloes are hitting .340 as a team, led by towering 6'7 middle blocker Alexia Kuehl (.532) and North Carolina transfer Skyy Howard (.443).

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The Shocks will have the hands full this weekend. Let's hope they can at least be competitive. I suppose the biggest questions for the Shocks are the health of Brylee Kelly and Gabi Maas.

[Critter's Pa]

I wonder how KC opening the NFL season will affect attendance.

If the Shockers can turn digs into good passes, I think they have the firepower to beat KU and Colorado. That is, if everyone is healthy.

I did watch the Colorado v Charlotte game. Colorado didn't commit many attacking errors-4, compared to Charlotte's 22, but Charlotte had just one less kill than Colorado (37-38). If WSU can get past their block, they had 10 against Charlotte, the Shocks should win this game.

I am planning on going to the Colorado v Kansas game. It should be a pretty good game, and a preview of future (and past) Big 12 rivals.

[WuDrWu]

If anyone chooses W1 Thursday Chef game vs Detroit over our ladies hosting Ku, you're dead to me.

It's going to be tough this weekend against 2 high quality opponents when we're still short handed, but here's to hoping we play aggressive and leave it all out there.

Really looking forward to seeing Gabi Maas in person flying around the court for the first time.

You can't beat good teams unless you schedule good teams. #BeatKu

Any win would be outstanding, but a bench clearing sweep that included a Kylie Marneris & Megan Reilly sighting would be a bonus.

[SubGod22]

I'm dead to you.

[WuDrWu]

I'm dead to you.

Only if you would otherwise choose to attend the WSU match, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not usually you.

[SubGod22]

Only if you would otherwise choose to attend the WSU match, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but that's not usually you.

It has been a couple of years since I've attended a match. I did used to go to a lot/most of them.

[1972Shocker]

Looks like Brylee will on the sidelines agsinn for this match.

[1972Shocker]

Nice crowd.

Shocks starting off poorly.

[1972Shocker]

After digging themselves into a 6-13 hole the Shocks have battled back ti 21-22 with some strong blocking and a strong service run by Gabi.

But KU prevails 25-22 in Set 1.

Set 2 goes KU's way 25-19 to go up 2-0.

[Shocktoberfest]

Service errors suck. I can’t take it!

[WuDrWu]

Looks like Brylee will on the sidelines agsinn for this match.

Hopeful for next week, is about as good as it is going to get right now.

[1972Shocker]

I think the Shocks are going high-risk, high reward vs KU. Probably don't think they can beat KU if they don't serve as tough as possible. Did the same thing against a big Illinois team.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks take the 3rd set 25-22.

[1972Shocker]

Set 4 was an extremely close set all the way. The Shocks took a 2-0 lead but then after that neither team lead by more than one point with the scored tied at 18-all after 36 points. That is when i think the set turned in favor of KU due to a couple of Shocker mistakes. Reagan Anderson played a serve that was probably going out on a point KU won and then Izzi Strand made a very poor set to Barbara Koehler that Barbara was unable to keep in play. It was scored as an attack error by Barbara but IMO it was pretty clearly a setting error by Izzi. That put KU up 20-18 from where they closed out the set 25-23 and to close out the match 3-1.

The Shocks started off with perhaps a bit of a deer in the headlights look about them falling behind 6-13 but after that they played KU pretty much even the rest of the way.

Sophia and Morgan played pretty well on the pins for th Shocks although Sophia had a few too many self-inflicted attack errors. In any case, they were no match for KU's Reagan Cooper and Ayah Elnady who were outstanding for KU on the pins. KU also had the better setter. The Shocks probably had a better pair of middles and had the better libero tonight.

After the slow start, the Shocks pulled it together and really competed. I thought Morgan Weber may have played her best match as a Shocker. The save she made in the 4th set almost to keep a point alive was about as good as you will see in terms of effort and hustle. OTOH, Emerson Wilford seemed to be perhaps lack enough confidence to be effective in this one. Barbara Koehler took over for her in the 3rd set was more effective. Perhaps one match where Brylee's absence was really felt.

Good, supportive crowd although I didn't notice much in the way of students support. Attendance reported at 2,752, and while there were some KU fans it was a predominantly Shocker crowd.

The Shockers gave their fans a lot to cheer about and made it a very entertaining match, at least I certainly enjoyed it although a little disappointed the Shocks could not quite find a way to pull the upset.

[1972Shocker]

I like Izzi Strand and she is generally doing a good job, although I question her decision making at times. She had a great scoring match in the opener against Notre Dame hitting 8-1-15 = .467 against the Irish. I am wondering now of that was such a good thing. In the 5 matches following the Notre Dame match she has hit a combined 14-12-57 = .035. I think Lambo may have to think about reining her in a little bit.