Shocker Volleyball @ SMU (Sep 29 & Oct 1)

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (8-4, 2-0 American)

Friday, Sep. 29 (7:00 p.m. CT) at SMU (9-5, 3-0 American)
Dallas, Texas (Moody Coliseum)
Live Stats // Watch

Sunday, Oct. 1 (12:00 p.m. CT) at SMU (9-5, 3-0 American)
Dallas, Texas (Moody Coliseum)
Live Stats // Watch

While every other intra-division series will take place on Friday and Saturday, due to a conflict with SMU's home football game on Saturday the Shockers and Mustangs play Friday night and again on Sunday afternoon. Friday's match is on ESPN+ and Sunday's game is on ESPNU.

SCOUTING THE MUSTANGS:

• SMU enters the series 9-5 overall, including a 3-0 mark in American Athletic Conference play after two road wins at UTSA over the weekend.
• The Mustangs played a brutal non-conference schedule that included a run of six straight matches against teams either ranked or receiving votes in the AVCA Top 25 poll. SMU picked up marquee wins on the road at Florida State and at home against #14 Baylor in that stretch.
• Like Wichita State, SMU's offense runs through the middle. Emma Clothier, a Florida State transfer, leads the American Athletic Conference with a .428 hitting percentage and was named AVCA National Player of the Week on Tuesday after hitting .597 in three wins. Clothier is the second SMU player in program history to win the award, joining Avery Acker in 2015.
• On the outside, junior Jamison Wheeler was tabbed Preseason Co-Player of the Year alongside Wichita State's Brylee Kelly. After a slow start, Wheeler has recorded 13 or more kills in five of the last six matches.
• Libero Sina Uluave began her career as a hitter at Wichita State in 2019, playing two seasons in the Black and Yellow before transferring to Toledo.

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/9/2...eview-smu.aspx

[flyingMoose]

With the home-court advantage, SMU is a 67-68% favorite per Pablo. A pretty strong favorite since Pablo may underestimate as the % increases.

[flyingMoose]

Other Matches

Fri-Sat unless otherwise noted.


West

North Texas 1-3 Tulsa (Thu-Fri)
(22), 23, 19, 21

North Texas 2-3 Tulsa
(22), 16, (20), 7, 11


Rice 3-0 UTSA
12, 21, 18

Rice v UTSA


East

USF 3-0 UAB
20, 21, 19

USF v UAB



Charlotte 3-0 Memphis
21, 20, 22

Charlotte v Memphis


East Carolina 3-0 Florida Atlantic
25, 23, 23

East Carolina v Florida Atlantic


Interdivision

Temple 3-2 Tulane
(17), 17, 19, (19), 9

West 7-2 East and 25-6 in sets

[Critter's Pa]

Didn't look good on paper. The 1st and 3rd sets had the Shockers starting in a 0-4 hole. SMU lead the entire first set. Shockers (.250) outhit SMU (.226) in the first set. 3 SMU aces and 3 WSU service errors helped swing the first set to SMU 25-19.

The Shockers could only muster 9 kills in the second set. Only Katie had a service run of more than 2 serves (3). 4 of the 5 second serves were service errors. Wheeler (AAC Co-player of the year) and Clothier seemed to be defended well. I think Wheeler was hitting negative- 3 kill on 4 errors- and Clothier was even at 2 kills with 2 errors at the end of set 2. SMU got one ace in a 25-20 win.

The third set was, well... really not good. After the 0-4 start the Shocker were down 3 at 4-7 when SMU went on a 12 point run. The only bright point of this set, and possibly the entire match, was back-to-back-to-back aces for Reagan. Maybe another silver lining was many players got some playing time, mostly in an effort to break up the scoring run after using timeouts earlier in the set.

Brylee didn't start, but she ended with the most attempts at 26, committing 4 errors with 6 kills. MorganS (8 2 20 .300) lead in kills with Natalie (7 3 18 .222) and Ba (6 4 21 .095) right behind her. Sophia (2 2 17 .000) and Izzi (1 1 5 .000) both hit even.

SMU had 43 kills and 55 digs. WSU had 30 kills and 36 digs. Gabi had 10 digs, Ba had 9. Izzi had 21 of the 27 Shocker assists.

The Shockers did out block SMU 7-4.

[WuDrWu]

Yeah, it was an ugly evening. We were murdered in the back row and out of system all night. The block numbers don't really tell the whole story. It's tough to watch sets like the 3rd. We pretty much mailed it in.

We were certainly beat by a better team, and I would be surprised if Sunday was much different.

[shoxlax]

I watched Houston-Kansas last night and while admittingly not a volleyball expert, the athleticism seemed off the charts compared to ours. Amazing we played KU as tough as we did.

[WuDrWu]

I watched Houston-Kansas last night and while admittingly not a volleyball expert, the athleticism seemed off the charts compared to ours. Amazing we played KU as tough as we did.

I can't believe how much a good Houston team actually improved. I don't know if it's NIL or what, but teams are getting athletic, talented additions to move their squad forward, and it's not just the most elite.

[flyingMoose]

Other Matches

Fri-Sat unless otherwise noted.


West

North Texas 1-3 Tulsa (Thu-Fri)
(22), 23, 19, 21

North Texas 2-3 Tulsa
(22), 16, (20), 7, 11


Rice 3-0 UTSA
12, 21, 18

Rice 3-0 UTSA
12, 25, 23


East

USF 3-0 UAB
20, 21, 19

USF 3-0 UAB
23, 13, 13


Charlotte 3-0 Memphis
21, 20, 22

Charlotte 3-1 Memphis
22, (21), 22, 19


East Carolina 3-0 Florida Atlantic
25, 23, 23

East Carolina 1-3 Florida Atlantic
19, (17), 19, 24


Interdivision

Temple 3-2 Tulane
(17), 17, 19, (19), 9

West 7-2 East and 25-6 in sets

[1972Shocker]

I was not all that impressed with Charlotte. Memphis, who was picked to win the East loses 6 of 7 sets to Charlotte to fall to 1-4 in AAC play.

Tulane owns both of the West Division's losses to the East Division, both in 5 sets.

[flyingMoose]

... Memphis, who was picked to win the East ...

By 72-70 over East Carolina. Florida Atlantic and Temple were tied at a distant third with 48. But, yes, only taking one set from Charlotte, even if you are on the road ...

[BAShocker]

Nice W today.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks did manage to extend SMU to 4 sets today. The did that by winning Set 1..................and Set 2...................and Set 4.

Shocks 3 - SMU 1; 25-13, 25-22, 24-26 and 25-23.

Fantastic bounce back by the Ladies after Friday's beatdown at the hands of league favorite SMU. Speaking of bounce backs is Brylle back?

The bit question is can the Shocks keep this up.

Natalie and Morgan were okay today in the middle but the Shocks led by the outside pin hitting trio of Sophia, Barbara and Brylee who combined to put 42 attacks on the floor with 10 errors on 95 tries for a .337 hitting percentage, a 44.2% kill rate and only a 10.5% error rate. Sophia hit a sizzling 14-1-26 = .500.

The Shocks outhit SMU .308 to .188. The Shocks out-blocked SMU 11-8 with Swifty Morgan and Brylee leading the way and the Shocks were also a bit better from the service line with 3 acres vs 4 errors to SMU's 3 aces vs 8 errors.

Congrats Ladies on refusing to fold your tents and fighting back strong.

[WuDrWu]

Back row play was ELITE today.

[WuDrWu]

Fantastic win!

[1972Shocker]

Back row play was ELITE today.

Gabi with 18 digs, Ba with 17 digs and Morgan-W with 14 digs. Ba with 15 kills to register a double-double.