Volleyball at Tulane (Oct 13 & 14)

[WuDrWu]

Won't be sad at all to see some quit in the Green Wave here in the 3rd. Shocks bolt out to a 6-1 lead and a Tulane timeout does not stop the bleeding. In fact, the Shocks have put the knife in, twisted it and the Green Wave appear to be bleeding out. 9-1 Shocks.

9-1 becomes 13-2. Shocks are in control and SHOULD cruise. We shall see. So far it's a lot more about Tulane being bad than it is the Shocks playing better.

Tulane switching to a 6-2 but it's probably too little, too late. 16-5. 17-5 and Tulane calls their last timeout.

Like '72 I would have liked to seen Emerson some today (Ba has been better to be fair) but Lambo has done a good job keeping his troops fresh I think, playing 11 so far (no doubt Burks and Demirtas are tired for Tulane). Certainly having Webby back today has helped with that.

22-8 Shocks and this should be over soon.

Sophia has been really good this weekend. Gabby was excellent today as well.

25-9 and a sweep for the Shocks. Tied for 1st.

[shoxlax]

Pablo sobered up.

[WuDrWu]

Pablo sobered up.

We outperform Pablo 100% to 95% but our RPI and KPI drop. Go figure.

[BAShocker]

Nice W

[flyingMoose]

We outperform Pablo 100% to 95% but our RPI and KPI drop. Go figure.

Because we are playing a much, much weaker team RPI-wise. We could have swept Tulane and the RPI would drop. Actually, as far as RPI is concerned, we did sweep them - RPI just cares about Wins and Losses.

KPI cares about Sets Won and Sets Lost, but that seems not to have made a difference here. The Shockers are still +14 comparing KPI to RPI.

[shoxlax]

Because we are playing a much, much weaker team RPI-wise. We could have swept Tulane and the RPI would drop. Actually, as far as RPI is concerned, we did sweep them - RPI just cares about Wins and Losses.

KPI cares about Sets Won and Sets Lost, but that seems not to have made a difference here. The Shockers are still +14 comparing KPI to RPI.

Think if had we lost…….

[Critter's Pa]

Gonna be a good ride home.

The middles lead in scoring in the first set with 9 kills, MorganS-3, Frosty-6. Brylee had 4 kills, Sophia-2 and Ba with zero kills on, I think, one swing. Ba did not serve in the first set. I wondered if she might be hurt. What happened to Ba? With the exception of the win, the set 1 team stats were opposite of yesterday's set 1 team stats. Yesterday WSU had more kills (19-12) and errors (7-3), today Tulane lead in kills (18-15) and errors (8-3)

In set 2, Brylee had 5 kills. Ba showed up with 4 kills. MorganS matched that number. Sophia had 3 kills. Both Izzi and Frosty got one kill. Frosty got back to back aces and, of course, the obligatory service error following a time out. Ba first served half way through the set. The Shockers hit .366 (18 3 41) to Tulane's .205 (11 3 39) this set.

Set 3 was Sophia's turn to get five kills. Ba kept it up with 4 more kills and finished with no errors (8 0 20 .400). She won the last point of the match on a solo block. Brylee only got 3 kills. MorganS and Frosty each contributed 1 kill. Shockers hit .519 (15 1 27) to Tulane's .029 (8 7 35).

Along with Ba, Frosty (8 0 13 .615) and Izzi (3 0 10 .300) finished with no attacking errors. MorganS hit .538 (8 1 13). Brylee lead all Shockers with 11 kills, hitting .286 (11 3 28).

Gabi lead with 15 digs. Izzi had 13 digs and Sophia had 8. MorganW had 5. Ba, Annalie and Reagan all had 4 digs. Finished with 58 digs in 3 sets, compared to 67 in 5 yesterday.

Izzi had 37 of 41 assists. Frosty had 5 block assists, Brylee got 3 and Sophia had 2. Six total blocks, with Ba's solo.

Each set had only one lead change, all at the start of the set when Tulane scored 1st, then the shockers went on service runs. MorganW had long service runs to start off the 1st and 3rd sets, 6 and 9(!!!) respectively. Annalie had the long run of 6 early in the second set.

[WstateU]

Pablo sobered up.

… and Jim hit the sauce again…

[flyingMoose]

Other Saturday/Sunday Matches

West

Tulsa 0-3 SMU
18, 18, 16

North Texas 2-3 UTSA (Sun)
22, 15, (17), (18), 10


East

USF 3-1 Charlotte (Sun)
22, (24), 15, 11

Temple 0-3 ECU
22, 10, 19

Memphis 3-0 UAB
9, 19, 23

[jimshocker]

… and Jim hit the sauce again…

Dude….Seriously? 48hrs ago the lead poster 1972 said anything but TWO sweep would be disappointing. Well…

Then that didn’t happen.

So, escaping with 2 WINS is celebrated as if it means anything.

Mediocre volleyball is the outcome this weekend.

Congratulations!

Nobody called me out after SMU, which would have been warranted. Good win there!

Underperforming but beating a JV squad, shhhh.

[1972Shocker]

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

That was more than a bit irritating. Who knows how this match would have gone had Tulane pulled that one out.

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.

The only one who thought that ball was in was the review official. I don't think Tulane really thought it was in but the coach used the challenge to try to break the Shockers momentum, which it did, with the reversal of the call just a bonus.

[Critter's Pa]

A few thoughts I forgot to include in my previous post...

The shockers, as of the last couple of games, seem like they can rely on just about every spot, and player, on the front line to carry the load....at certain times. The first set kills came mostly from the middle in the first set. The second set was mostly outside hitters, and the third set was the opposite getting 5, while the outside hitters combined for 6 kills. Is this change of where the kills are coming from because of how they were playing defense? How the Shocks are playing offence? Was Izzi being unpredictable? Was it the matchups in rotations? Was it because good passing? Was it on-the-fly coaching adjustments? Probably of combination of them all along with other things.


If someone is off, it seems like there is another player, or position, that can heat up. There is not one, single, go-to player on this team. That is a good thing as many players have been up and down match to match. Some of that inconsistency belongs to poor passing and poor decisions by Izzi. It looks like she is making better decisions with better passes.

I think we have some candidates for player of the week honors:

Brylee's .343 (31 7 70). 5 Block Assists. Pretty good percentage for an outside.
Frosty's .485 (22 4 37). 7 Block Assists. Her usual solid weekend.
MorganS's .406 (17 4 32). 7 Block assists. She had a couple of good matches.
Izzi had 97 assists for an average of 12.1 per set.

Shockers only had 2 blocking errors on Saturday compared to 12 on Friday night. I am 99.9% sure that there was a different official(s) working the position(s) that called all the blocking errors the day before.

[1972Shocker]

A few thoughts I forgot to include in my previous post...

The shockers, as of the last couple of games, seem like they can rely on just about every spot, and player, on the front line to carry the load....at certain times. The first set kills came mostly from the middle in the first set. The second set was mostly outside hitters, and the third set was the opposite getting 5, while the outside hitters combined for 6 kills. Is this change of where the kills are coming from because of how they were playing defense? How the Shocks are playing offence? Was Izzi being unpredictable? Was it the matchups in rotations? Was it because good passing? Was it on-the-fly coaching adjustments? Probably of combination of them all along with other things.


If someone is off, it seems like there is another player, or position, that can heat up. There is not one, single, go-to player on this team. That is a good thing as many players have been up and down match to match. Some of that inconsistency belongs to poor passing and poor decisions by Izzi. It looks like she is making better decisions with better passes.

I think we have some candidates for player of the week honors:

Brylee's .343 (31 7 70). 5 Block Assists. Pretty good percentage for an outside.
Frosty's .485 (22 4 37). 7 Block Assists. Her usual solid weekend.
MorganS's .406 (17 4 32). 7 Block assists. She had a couple of good matches.
Izzi had 97 assists for an average of 12.1 per set.

All worthy candidates. I think Brylee and Izzi have the best chance to at least make the honor roll.

Izzi's 60 assists in the Friday match was a season high in the AAC.

However, if I had to bet on a player of the week I might have to put my money on Avery Burks of Tulane. 38-8-85 = .353

Of course, that is without knowing what went on in any of the other conference matches.

I hope Brylee can keep it up. It was looking like her final Shocker season was on its way to being a bust but if she can continue the way she has played over her past 5 matches then she will be able to really enjoy her senior night send off.

[1972Shocker]

Tulane appears to have been experimenting with their approach over their first 9 matches of the season. Sometimes in a 5-1 and sometimes in a 6-2. And when in the 5-1 sometimes going with 5-11 freshman Zoe Rachow and sometimes with 5-8 junior Laura Fiabane. IIRC correctly Lambo did this a few seasons back and it didn't work out so well.

In Tulane's last 9 matches prior to the WSU matches Tulane ran a 6-2 offense with Rachow and Fiabane sharing the setting duties. However, they ran a 5-1 in both matches vs the Shockers with Fiabane handling the setting duties.

I am not sure how much impact that had on the Shockers scouting and preparation but most likely they were expecting to face a 6-2 offense. Perhaps that contributed to Tulane's success in the Friday match. That's not to take anything away from Tulane because they played very well on Friday, but the element of surprise may have helped that along.

[1972Shocker]

None of the Shockers made the AAC weekly honor roll nor did Tulane's Avery Burks. .

https://theamerican.org/news/2023/10...ly-honors.aspx

But as long as the Shocks continue to play well and rack up the wins I'm not too concerned about weekly shout outs from the AAC.