Volleyball Preview: UTSA

[1972Shocker]

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/11/9/volleyball-preview-utsa.aspx

WICHITA STATE (17-7, 11-3 American)

Friday, Nov. 10 (7:00 p.m. CT) vs. UTSA (15-11, 8-7 American)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

Saturday, Nov. 11 (1:00 p.m. CT) vs. UTSA (15-11, 8-7 American)
Wichita, Kansas (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

SCOUTING THE ROADRUNNERS:

• UTSA enters the series with an overall record of 15-11, including an 8-7 mark in American Athletic Conference play. The Roadrunners have won seven consecutive matches for the first time since the 2016 season, knocking off North Texas, Tulane (2x), Memphis, Florida Atlantic and Tulsa (2x).
• The service line will be a crucial factor in this weekend's matches. The Roadrunners bring the conference's best serving unit to Wichita, averaging 1.83 aces per set to rank 32nd nationally. The Shockers average just 1.03 aces, 322nd in the country.
• 6'4 freshman Miranda Putnicki has piled up the blocks over the course of UTSA's winning streak. The talented middle blocker has 39 block assists and three solo blocks in the last seven matches, including 11 block assists in a four-set win over Memphis on October 27.
• As a team, UTSA's 2.51 blocks per set are the 36th-most in the country entering play on Friday.
• Offensively, Kent State transfer Mia Soerensen spearheads the Roadrunners attack. The sophomore opposite leads the club with 3.19 kills per set at a .261 hitting percentage.

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At this point the Shocks are pretty much playing for pride and perhaps a spot in the NIVC. How they will respond is anyone's guess. UTSA playing very well lately. Shocks not playing all that great. At this point I would probably take split.

Head coach Chris Lamb is one win shy of reaching 500 victories over the course of his 24-year career at Wichita State. Hope he gets that this weekend.

[flyingMoose]

77%, but yes, the teams are going In opposite directions a bit. A month ago, the Pablo difference was 1340, a 90% number on a neutral court. Now the difference is only 580, a 72% number.

[Critter's Pa]

The Roadrunners bring the conference's best serving unit to Wichita, averaging 1.83 aces per set to rank 32nd nationally. The Shockers average just 1.03 aces, 322nd in the country.

That's not good. Shockers have been giving up a lot of aces lately. We are up to giving up 1.3 aces per set. I checked previous years, and giving up 1.3 aces per set, is what happened in 2022 and 2021. In 2020, it was 1.2 per set.


Izzi is 60 assists from 1000 for the year. Good chance she'll get there this weekend.

Frosty has 90 total blocks (4 solo, 86 BA, .97 block/set). Swifty has 90 total blocks (8 solo, 82 BA, .99 block/set). Both have a chance to break 100 this weekend. Who will do it first? Third place is Sophia with 53 (7 solo, 46 BA).

[1972Shocker]

Shocks down 12-15 and sure how it's that close.

Not looking good so far. Hopefully that changes.

Back-to-back aces my our gunslinger, Swifty Morgan got the Shocks back even and thet ground out a 25-23 set 1 win with Frosty putting away a very nice slide piece behind the setter.

[1972Shocker]

Set 2 goes to UTSA 25-21. Shocks kind of shot themselves in the foot down the stretch.

To be honest UTSA looks like the better team so far.

But we'll see how it goes.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks go up 2-1 with a 25-18 win in set 3. Probably the Shocks best defensive work of the match. Played like they wanted it.

[BAShocker]

Probably unpopular opinion, but KG is our best DS/L, should be our L. Very athletic, gets to a lot of balls.

Don’t hate on me…just my opinion.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks got up 19-8 then lost their focus a liitle bit but settled down after a couple of Lambo timeouts when the UTSA rolled to within 7 at 15-22 and again at 18-22 before closing out the match with a 25-18 win in the 4th set.

Congratulations to Lambo for recording his 500th win as the Shocks head coach.

[1972Shocker]

Probably unpopular opinion, but KG is our best DS/L, should be our L. Very athletic, gets to a lot of balls.

Don’t hate on me…just my opinion.

Katie did have a terrific match. Perhaps the best of her career. I don't agree that she should be the libero over Gabi but at this point she should be the #1 DS next to Gabi.

No doubt Katie is the most athletic of our defensive players but the libero position involves much more than that IMO.

[1972Shocker]

UTSA has a pretty nice team with good athletes. Their right side opposite, Mia Sorensen, is an athletic 6-4 lefty who was the best player on the court for the first 2 sets. In fact, this match was somewhat of a shootout between Sorensen and the Shocks big lefty opposite, Sophia Rohling.

The Shocks will have their hands full again tomorrow.

To me the Shocks are a team that has two empty chambers in it's six gun. Just not getting a lot from our left side outside hitters.

Sophia, Frosty and Swifty combined to hit 40-9-89 = .348 with a kill rate of 44.9% and an error rate of 9%. That is outstanding.

Brylee, Emerson and Morgan combined to hit 13-10-53 = .057 with a kill rate 24.5% and an error rate of 18.9%. And it was only that good becuase Brylee was had a good start and a good finish to the match.

But it is what it is. Brylee has been injured a lot this season but with the exception of the occasional good match here or there from our left side hitters it has been somewhat of a struggle this year. With Sophia graduating this year that is going to be a challenge for Lambo to fix next year.

[flyingMoose]

Other Thursday/Friday Matches

Okay, Visitor at Home

East

East Carolina 1-3 USF (Thu)
22 22 (15) 20

East Carolina 2-3 USF
23 (12) (23) 29 12

UAB 2-3 Temple
(23) 20 15 (23) 13

Florida Atlantic 3-1 Charlotte
(21) 19 17 15


West

Rice 2-3 North Texas !!
22 (16) (16) 16 14

SMU 3-0 Tulane
19 13 13


Interdivisional

Memphis 1-3 Tulsa
21 13 (23) 20


West 18-9 East and 65-32 in sets

[Critter's Pa]

Izzi got 41 assists, 19 away from 1000.
Swifty got five blocks (2 solo, 3 block assists) to get her to 95 for the year. Frosty got 3 block assists to bring her total to 93.
Coach Lamb is 100 wins away from 600.

UTSA had 12 blocks, Shockers had 8. Both teams got 6 aces. UTSA had 13 service errors, Shockers had 9.

Four Shockers had double digit digs, Katie-18, Gabi-12, Annalie-11, Izzi-10. Webby just missed with 9 digs.

Had a slight scare with Brylee. Looked like she might have twisted an ankle, but she continued to play. Hope it's not an issue for her tomorrow. Allie was in a boot. Kylie has not suited up for the last couple of matches. I think it was #13, Putnicki, a middle for UTSA that left on crutches, looked like something happened to her knee. Hope it's not bad.

Sophia lead with 17 kills, hitting .417 (17 2 36). Frosty had 14 kills (14 4 29 .345). Brylee had 9 kills (9 6 32 .094) and 3 BA. Swifty also had 9 kills (9 3 24 .250) and back-to-back aces. Izzi finished with 3 kills (3 2 8 .125) and an ace. Emerson, who played only 2 sets, had 2 kills (2 2 11 .000). Webby, replaced Emerson for the final two sets, had 2 kills (2 2 10 .000). Annalie finished with 1 kill and an ace. Reagan and Gabi also had aces.

Shockers hit .238 (57 21 151) and kept UTSA hitting .176 (47 20 153).

[WuDrWu]

We were probably going to get beat until Putnicki went down with an injury. UTSA will be hard pressed to replace her as she largely fueled their recent good play and unless I miss my guess, that was a season ending knee injury.

[jimshocker]

Probably unpopular opinion, but KG is our best DS/L, should be our L. Very athletic, gets to a lot of balls.

Don’t hate on me…just my opinion.

No Hate!

No big deal either, as WSU has signed TWO more DS/L under 5’6” but probably super athletic specimens, can jump out the gym, and can be turned into pin hitters.

KG is looking like she might need to hit on one of the pins as the hitter room is about to be cleared out, with ONE signed recruit.

7 DS next year unless someone leaves. Totally backwards recruitment.

You recruit pins and turn them into DS as needed.

OR

You recruit DS and then spend the next season talking about needing some production on the pins.

Cue the circus music.

[1972Shocker]

We were probably going to get beat until Putnicki went down with an injury. UTSA will be hard pressed to replace her as she largely fueled their recent good play and unless I miss my guess, that was a season ending knee injury.

Sounds plausible, and while you may be correct there is no way of knowing that for sure. At the point when Putnicki went down with UTSA leading 22-19 late in the second set she was hitting 0-0-2 = .000 and had 1 block solo an 2 block assists (with blocking being her strength). UTSA had 6 team blocks before Putnicki went down and 6 team blocks after Putnicki went down. UTSA went on to win the set 25-21. The player that had been killing the shocks was the 6-4 lefty opposite Mia Sorenson. Sorenson had 8 kills with a high hitting % and was in on 5 blocks in the first 2 sets.

No doubt losing Putnicki had a significant impact on the block UTSA was able to show on half their rotations. However, I think the Shockers won this match more because of their improved play in sets 3 and 4 and their ability to slow Mia Sorensen down a little bit from the pace she had set in the first to sets.

Putnicki, a 6-4 freshman, was coming on for UTSA and had become a key piece to their lineup and they won't be able to replace her this year. Best I could see it looks like she may have come down on the side of her teammates foot when they were trying to execute a double block. Hope she can recover fully. She will be a very good player in the AAC for a few more years if she can.

We'll see what happens today but I don't think the Shocks can take this one for granted due to Putnicki's absence by any means.