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**flyingMoose** · October 19, 2023, 02:04 PM

Pablo at 79%. But Tulsa is capable on a given night.

SMU is 76% per Pablo.

**Critter's Pa** · October 19, 2023, 04:33 PM

Originally posted by 1972Shocker View Post

[*]For a second straight season, Tulsa relies almost exclusively on the right arm of Kayley Cassaday, who ranks second in the nation with 1,044 total attacks and 5.18 kills per set. Her 99 attempts on September 15 against Ole Miss are the most in a single match by an individual player this season.

Cassaday had 35 kills (35 8 88 .330) in five sets against Sam Houston. She seems pretty consistent, hitting .271 for the year. She still got 19 kills (19 11 73 .110) in a 5 set lot to Rice, that .110 being her lowest of the year, so far. The week before against Temple she got 18 kills (18 0 37 .486) in 3 sets, .486 being her best percentage of the year. Her last game, verses SMU, is the only match she has not gotten double digit kills. She still scored 11 points (1 ace, 1 solo block, 2 block assists). She is averaging around 20 points a match.

I wonder how Lamb is going to play defense against her. If Sophia and Izzi (and the middles) have good blocking numbers, I would guess she is not having a great day. Are the Shockers going to play defense a little differently when Izzi is in the front row? Like maybe having whoever is playing middle block on the right pin instead of Izzi. This might encourage Cassaday to hit more crosscourt, funneling toward Gabi, or whoever is playing back left.

**1972Shocker** · October 20, 2023, 10:33 AM

RH: Experience, Additions Put Wichita State In Shape To Close

It is late October and Wichita State is in the race for the American Athletic Conference volleyball title. Outside hitter Brylee Kelly, who came to Wichita State in 2018, has seen bad starts and good starts to the AAC schedule.

"After six years being here, this is the first time it feels like it's very reachable," Kelly said. "A lot of pieces have come together."

The Shockers own a split at SMU and wins over fourth-place teams ECU and USF, the top teams in the East Division. SMU, Rice and WSU are in the West, home to the conference's top RPI teams in SMU (No. 30), Rice (No. 54), Wichita State (No. 60) and Tulsa (No. 86).

Wichita State's experience – both as Shockers and from transfers – shows up in two key areas. Seven Shockers have been on the roster for four or more years. Setter Izzi Strand and libero Gabi Maas both transferred to WSU with NCAA Division I experience.

Wichita State is holding opponents to a .157 attack percentage, third in the AAC and No. 18 nationally. It is also third in the AAC with 2.45 blocks per set, No .54 nationally.

"The passers and littles and setters all get overlooked," Natalie Foster said. "We have such a great back row."

That experience pays off on offense with a balanced attack. Six Shockers average more than two kills a set and all six lead the team in kills in at least wo matches. Kelly, who had 20 kills in a 3-2 win at Tulane, is the lone Shocker with more than 15 in a match. Opposite Sophia Rohlding leads WSU with an average of 2.83 kills a set. Foster is next at 2.66 and her attack percentage of .407 is second in the American.

Wichita State is in the race. The next month will tell if all those pieces form a conference title team.

**BAShocker** · October 20, 2023, 08:30 PM

Barbara must either be sick, hurt or in a coma. Wish she was playing, fun to watch.

**BAShocker** · October 20, 2023, 08:53 PM

Nice W.

**ShockTalk** · October 20, 2023, 09:01 PM

Tulsa 13 25 14 22

Shocks 25 17 25 25

**flyingMoose** · October 20, 2023, 09:37 PM

Other Thursday/Friday Matches

West Division

UTSA 3-0 Tulane
17, 20, 20

SMU 3-1 Rice
23, (23), 22, 18

East Division

ECU 3-0 Memphis (Thu)
18, 23, 20

ECU 3-1 Memphis
(14), 18, 20, 21

Charlotte 1-3 Temple
23, (16), 20, 21

UAB 3-1 FAU a surprise!
(24), 21, 22, 21

Interdivision

USF 1-3 North Texas
(25), 17, 31, 23

West 16-9 East and 59-31 in sets

**Critter's Pa** · October 20, 2023, 11:05 PM

Well, that was fun.

First set was pretty much all Shockers. Shockers hit .400 to Tulsa's .108. Shockers had no service errors, Tulsa had 3. Shockers had an ace and 3 blocks, Tulsa had no aces or blocks. Izzi lead with 4 kills, with 1 error on 5 attempts. Sophia had 3 kills on 5 attempts with no errors. Brylee, Frosty, Swifty, and Emerson all had 2 kills. Other than Emerson's .000 (2 2 10), all other attackers hit over .500.

The second set saw the return of the Shocker team that couldn't catch a break. Tulsa got 17 kills to the Shocker's 10. Sophia got 3 kills and 2 errors on 10 swings. Brylee, Frosty, and Emerson each got 2 kills (on only 4 attempts for Emerson). Swifty had 1 kill. Webby got the first service error in this set. Tulsa ended with an ace. Tulsa never trailed.

Tulsa started the 3rd set with an ace which was not the ominous sign that it appeared to be. One tie and one lead change and the Shockers cruised to a win. WSU hit .351 (17 4 37) to Tulsa's .045 (8 6 44). Sophia continued to put on a show, 7 kills, 1 error, on 10 attempts. Emerson had 4 kills, Brylee-3, Frosty-2, and Swifty-1. Gabi had 5 assists in this set. There was one point that it seemed like it was Gabi vs Tulsa. She had a couple of great digs that turned into overpasses, but the Shockers finally won that point. (I think it was in this set, it might have been the 4th set.)

The 4th set was the closest set of the evening. 11 ties and 4 lead changes. Shockers hit .265 (18 5 49) to Tulsa's .196 (16 6 51). Brylee and Sophia had 5 kills each. Frosty-3, Swifty and Izzi-2 and Emerson-1.

WSU finished 60 17 149 for .289. Tulsa was 51 23 168 for .167. Cassaday was held to .193 (18 7 57). Both teams had 10 blocks. Shockers had 81 digs to Tulsa's 59. Shockers had 3 aces and 2 service errors. Tulsa had 4 aces and 6 service errors.

Sophia finished with 18 kills and 4 block assists. Brylee was in double digits with 12 kills and 3 BA. Emerson had 9 kills, a solo block, a block assist, 2 aces and 14 digs. Frosty also had 9 kills with 4 BA. Swifty had 6 kills and 5 BA. Izzi also had 6 kills, 46 assists, 1 BA, and 11 digs. Annalie had an ace, 6 digs, and one long service run. Webby had 14 digs. Gabi had 21 digs. Both Gabi and Webby had some highlight reel digs.

Attendance was 1376.

Hopefully we can skip the set 2 performance tomorrow night.

**1972Shocker** · October 21, 2023, 12:11 AM

Originally posted by Critter's Pa View Post

Well, that was fun.

Sounds like it. I will have to settle for watching the replay. Right now it's Friday night lights for this old guy with 2 of my grandsons playing high school football. Unfortunately, not many of those Friday nights have been all that enjoyable as both of my grandsons play on pretty weak teams.

Tonight I was in Pretty Prairie to watch my grandson play his final regular season game of his senior year in 8-man football against Solomon. Coming into this game Pretty Prairie was 0-7 having been outscored collectively by 352-62. My grandson is actually a very good football player but this is very much a down year for Pretty Prairie overall. Solomon is not all that strong coming into this game at 2-5 but in the past 3 weeks they beat Goessel 36-24 and lost to Herrington 26-28. Pretty Prairie lost to Goeessel by 34 and lost to Herrington by 30. So hopes for avoiding a winless season were pretty low.

To top that off my grandsons paternal grandfather passed away on Thursday.

But as Kevin Costner said in Field of Dreams, "There comes a time when all the cosmic tumblers have clicked into place and the Universe opens itself up for a few seconds to show you what is possible."

That must be what happened tonight on a perfect evening for football. After Solomon scored quickly after getting the ball on the 15 after a touchback (the 8-man field is 80 yards), my grandson led his Pretty Prairie team to a 76-30 win by scoring 8 rushing touchdowns and reportedly running for over 400 yards (although I haven't seen the official stats yet). If those numbers prove to be accurate I think he will have set new school single game records for touchdowns and rushing yards.

He also made a terrific interception on defense to stop a Solomon drive in the 3rd quarter. I am obviously biased but it was a spectacular performance from a kid who gives it absolutely everything he has. But it really was kind of surreal. I will check on this tomorrow morning to make sure this wasn't a dream.

So the Shocker win is some nice icing on top of a very delicious cake I was served up tonight. Look forward to seeing the Shocks in person tomorrow evening.

**1972Shocker** · October 21, 2023, 08:33 AM

The Pretty Prairie stats have been posted. I miscounted his touchdowns. He scored 7 touchdowns not 8 as I thought. He did have 2 long TD runs called back due to penalties so it was kind of hard to keep track. He did have 405 yards rushing on 27 carries. He also scored on 4 two-point conversions putting his scoring total at 50 points for the game. So I can happily report it was not a dream. The 405 yards rushing was a new single game school record, the 7 TD's was one short of the school record.

**1972Shocker** · October 21, 2023, 09:28 AM

Watching the replay of Friday's win over Tulsa this morning Mike Kennedy continuiing to say that Izzi Strand is a 1-year player at WSU.

As far as the match goes it was a little bit odd, especially the first 3 sets which were not real close. The 4th set was much more competitive with the Shocks late spurt just a little better than Tulsa's late spurt.

Tulsa showed me enough to think that they are good enough to beat the Shocks if the Shocks aren't focused and playing well.

**WuDrWu** · October 21, 2023, 11:01 AM

No offense to MK who has forgotten more about WSU athletics than most of us, together, can recall, but Izzy has another year of eligibility remaining after this season. She graduated HS in '20 and that fall season was a do over. She played '21 and '22 at UC Davis and '23 here. She may decide to move on with her life but the intent has always been that she will play 2 seasons. As always, time will tell. Losing Brylee hurts, but I believe Ba will replace her ok if not wholly. Not going to replace Sophia....she's too good and too powerful. BUT Morgan Stout is getting better and better every day and can be a serious problem with her skill set. Plus Maddie Wilson is very athletic and I still believe she'll be a problem for most of our conference going forward. She'd be playing if not for Foster and Stout being really good. Maybe one of those can move to Sophia's spot next year.

**1972Shocker** · October 21, 2023, 12:42 PM

Originally posted by WuDrWu View Post

No offense to MK who has forgotten more about WSU athletics than most of us, together, can recall, but Izzy has another year of eligibility remaining after this season. She graduated HS in '20 and that fall season was a do over. She played '21 and '22 at UC Davis and '23 here. She may decide to move on with her life but the intent has always been that she will play 2 seasons. As always, time will tell.

It is clear and has been since the start that Izzi had 2 years of eligibility remaining when she signed with the Shocks. It's just hard to believe Mike Kennedy does not know this or has not taken the time to understand this. He has stated numerous times that Izzi will be a 1-year player at WSU. However, I have never heard him mention that she has another year of elebibility remaining, or that she has decided to forego using the final year. So he either does not know Izzi has another year of eligibility which seem like a stretch for a seasoned pro like Mike Kennedy or he has been told she is done at WSU after the season for whatever reason that he has failed to mention. But as you say time will tell.

Originally posted by WuDrWu View Post

Losing Brylee hurts, but I believe Ba will replace her ok if not wholly. Not going to replace Sophia....she's too good and too powerful. BUT Morgan Stout is getting better and better every day and can be a serious problem with her skill set. Plus Maddie Wilson is very athletic and I still believe she'll be a problem for most of our conference going forward. She'd be playing if not for Foster and Stout being really good. Maybe one of those can move to Sophia's spot next year.

I agree the losing Brylee hurts, especially the way she has been playing lately. Hopefully Ba and Emerson will continue to improve and provide the firepower needed. I agree that very unlikely that we are going to replace Sophia expecially the way she is finishing out her final year. Too bad she had so many problems with strained abs in her career. Do have any thoughts or have you heard anything agout the 2 freshmen that are redshirting. 6-3 Haley Wolfe and 6-2 Allie Paulsen. Both listed as middles.

**1972Shocker** · October 21, 2023, 02:18 PM

Announcement

Volleyball Hosts Tulsa (Oct 20 and Oct 21)

Volleyball Hosts Tulsa (Oct 20 and Oct 21)

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