Volleyball at Tulane (Oct 13 & 14)

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (11-5, 5-1 American)

Friday, Oct. 13 (6:00 p.m. CT) vs. Tulane (4-14, 0-6 American)
New Orleans, Louisiana (Avron B. Fogelman Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

Saturday, Oct. 14 (12:30 p.m. CT) vs. Tulane (4-14, 0-6 American)
New Orleans, Louisiana (Avron B. Fogelman Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

Wichita State's stout defensive unit ranks 8th nationally with an opponent hitting percentage of .149. The Shockers combine a strong blocking presence (2.51 blocks per set, 35th nationally) with a group of liberos and defensive specialists that Lamb has said ranks among the best he has coached at Wichita State.

SCOUTING THE GREEN WAVE:

• Tulane brings a record of 4-14 (0-6) into play on Friday after dropping road contests at Temple and Memphis this past week. The Green Wave have lost nine consecutive matches and just 1-7 at home this season.
• Three of Tulane's four victories this season have come against members of the SWAC (Jackson State, Alabama A&M, Prairie View A&M) with a win over UTRGV representing the other victory.
• Wichita State and Tulane had one common opponent in non-conference play; the Shockers bested Houston Christian in four sets while the Green Wave fell to the Huskies in four.
• The Green Wave possess one of the conference's top blocking units, leading the circuit in total blocks (160.0) and ranking third in blocks per set (2.46). 6'5 Ilayda Demirtas and 6'4 Orsula Staka cause problems with their size, and talented sophomore Sabrina Skyers ranks second in the conference at 1.25 blocks per set.
• True freshman Avery Burks is a top candidate for the league's freshman of the year honors. The 6'1 outside leads the Green Wave with 3.22 kills per set and had 15 terminations in both matches last week.

---

The Shockers have lost three consecutive matches on the road at Tulane, the only current AAC member to defeat the Shockers more than twice in road matches. The Green Wave lead the all-time series 6-5, with all but one of the meetings taking place in AAC play. However, despite having some great size and a top candidate for AAC Freshman of the Year Tulane just doesn't seem to be playing at a high level this year. I'll take 2 wins, but anything less than 2 sweeps would be a bit disappointing.

[flyingMoose]

Per Pablo, 95%.

[shoxlax]

We are close to an awful loss

[BAShocker]

Much closer of a match vs a 4-14 team should have been.

[shoxlax]

Reverse jinx worked. WTF is it about that place?

We get to play there tomorrow too.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks escape, barely. 25-20, 20-25, 21-25, 25-20 and 15-13.

[shoxlax]

Shocks escape, barely. 25-20, 20-25, 21-25, 25-20 and 15-13.

Pablo needs to lay off the f’ing tequila.

[flyingMoose]

One time in Twenty ...

[flyingMoose]

Other Friday Matches

West

Tulsa 0-3 SMU
23, 13, 18

North Texas 3-0 UTSA
29, 19, 22


East

USF 3-0 Charlotte
21, 10, 17

Temple 2-3 ECU
(21), (22), 22, 22, 8

Memphis 3-1 UAB
15, (21), 15, 22


Interdivisional

Rice 2-3 FAU
(19), (16), 18, 23, 12 !!!!!


West 15-9 East and 56-30 in sets

[Critter's Pa]

What is it about that place?

Just looking at the stats, the Shockers had a nice balanced attack. Brylee had a big game, leading the team with 20 kills. Sophia was right behind her with 19. Frosty got into the double digits with 14. MorganS had 9, Ba had 7, and Izzi had 5. Izzi finished with 60 assists.

Gabi had 19 digs and 2 aces, Izzi had 14 digs and 2 aces, Ba had 8 digs, Annalie and Katie both had 7 digs.

What was it with all the blocking errors, the stat? The Shockers had 12 blocking errors to Tulane's 6. I don't recall seeing a stat sheet with that many blocking errors. Were there a lot of in-the-net calls? Or was this something with the stat keeper?(Could go on a rant about this) Are MorganS's 4 and Sophia's 5 blocking errors individual career highs?

Shockers hit .271 (74 29 166) to Tulane's .263 (59 19 152).

The way Sophia(7) and Brylee(6) ended the first set racking up 13 combined kills. Add in the 4 kills from the Frosty(3) and MorganS(1), and I thought we would cruise to a 3 set victory. 9 of the 10 Shocker blocks came in the last 3 sets. The other block ended set 1, and we got 0 blocks in set 2.

That was a lot of swings for both teams, wonder if this will be a factor tomorrow.

[Critter's Pa]

Rice 2-3 FAU
(19), (16), 18, 23, 12 !!!!!


West 15-9 East and 56-30 in sets

Wow. This is good news. I think they play SMU at SMU next week. Them splitting with SMU would be great for WSU, especially after FAU's victory.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks' vaunted defense did not seem to bother Tulane much. I don't know if that was due to good game-planning on their part or them presenting matchup issues for the Shocks.

Good to see Brylee seemingly starting to play much better but the other left side hitting position is a problem. Ba at 7-7-28 was not good tonight. Perhaps time to re-insert Emerson in that spot and see what she can do.

One thing is certain. Tulane's confidence got a big boost tonight.

[1972Shocker]

What is it about that place?

What was it with all the blocking errors, the stat? The Shockers had 12 blocking errors to Tulane's 6. I don't recall seeing a stat sheet with that many blocking errors. Were there a lot of in-the-net calls? Or was this something with the stat keeper?(Could go on a rant about this) Are MorganS's 4 and Sophia's 5 blocking errors individual career highs?

Watched the repaly of the Friday match this morning. Yes, there were a LOT of in the net calls. I think 8 of them in the 1st 2 sets.

I think this Tulane team is a lot better than their record might indicate. They have some nice pieces and good size, a solid setter and a very good libero. They serve tough and pass the ball pretty well. Their blocking game is pretty good when they get in position. Burks is an outstanding freshman.

I don't think the closeness of this match was due to poor play by the Shocks, Both teams played pretty well.

Perhaps the light bulb is just coming on for this Tulane team. I see no reason not to expect another tough challenge today. As I said before yesterday had to be a confidence bulider for Tulane.

With all due respect to Pablo have today's match as a toss up based on what I saw from Friday's 5-setter.

I will feel very good if the Shocks can get out of New Orleans with 2 wins.

[WuDrWu]

I watched a bit of the first 2 sets of Rice v FAU. Rice is really good if not overpowering, but there was NOTHING that made me think set 3 would be competitive at all. They went to break and I disengaged. I'm stunned by that final.

Since RPI/KPI etc at large are pretty much done at this point (we'd have to run the table to get into the discussion and if we do that then at large likely doesn't matter) we need Rice and SMU to lose as often as possible.

I honestly don't know what I watched tonight. Yes our block was off and yes, we were in the net several times and that ups the BE count. But damn, that Tulane team is o'fer in conference? They have WAY too much fire power to be winless. She'll probably end up transferring but Avery Burks is going to be a monster. That freshman is getting better every day. I'm not saying they are SMU, far from it, but they have size and talent and if they get any kind of back row play they will be a handful for a lot of teams.

I felt like their setter got away with more than a couple double touches. And our strong back row play wasn't up to snuff tonight.

Going to be a quick turn around, obviously for both teams. I hope we were able to get some nutrition and sleep in a hurry and awoke refreshed this morning. Tough to do on the road though.

[WuDrWu]

Shocks get out to a 6-1 then 19-9 lead, totally collapse and somehow manage to get the 1st set 27-25.

Second set starts out closer but WSU breaks it open to lead 9-4 and Tulane call timeout.

Tulane hits a ball long, it's called long but Tulane challenges. They show the replay and while (as always) not the clearest picture, there is a thin green line between the ball and the back line. Both Tulane announcers quickly agree out is the right call.

So of course it's overturned. Unreal. Then WSU goes back to not being able to pass or return serve and it's tied before you know it.

Fortunately Frosty gets a kill and then a couple of aces and a Stout kill leads to Tulane taking it's final timeout trailing now 12-18.

Of course the timeout leads to an immediate service error (it's unreal how often that happens) then a stuff block against Sophia and it's down to 4.

Seems like a lot of the players today are wrapped up (on both teams) perhaps due to the quick turnaround after a 5 setter and the season getting long.

Brylee continues to show better play as she gets healthy. She pulverizes a couple in a row to get us to 22-16 then Ba comes sailing in from the back row on a great tip to make it 23-16.

Ref passes on yet another double contact on Tulane but they have subbed perhaps to save legs and have gotten sloppy. Brylee finishes the set 25-18 to the break up 2-0.

Really need to be sharp and send a message here in set 3.