Volleyball Preview: Rice

[1972Shocker]

WICHITA STATE (19-7, 13-3 American)

Friday, Nov. 17 (6:00 p.m. CT) at Rice (17-9, 11-5 American)
Houston, Texas (Tudor Fieldhouse)
Live Stats // Watch

Saturday, Nov. 18 (2:00 p.m. CT) at Rice (17-9, 11-5 American)
Houston, Texas (Tudor Fieldhouse)
Live Stats // Watch

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SCOUTING THE OWLS:

• Rice heads into play on Friday with an overall record of 17-9, including an 11-5 mark in American Athletic Conference play. The Owls dropped both matches last week at North Texas, each in five sets.
• The Owls are in their first season in The American after a strong tradition of success in Conference USA. Rice has reached the NCAA tournament five consecutive seasons and is the reigning CUSA tournament champion.
• Senior libero Nia McCardell is one of the nation's best players at her position. The 2022 Conference USA Libero of the Year and an Honorable Mention All-American, McCardell leads the conference with 4.83 digs per set. As a team, the Owls lead the nation with 18.45 digs per set.
• The talented group of littles and a blocking unit that averages 2.42 rejections per set combine to form the stingiest defense in the American Athletic Conference. Rice holds opponents to a .156 hitting percentage, 13th best in the country.
• On the outside, Rice is led by a pair of veteran attackers. Senior Danyle Courtley leads the club with 3.64 kills per set, while USC grad transfer Emilia Weske had a season-best 28 terminations in the Friday defeat at North Texas.

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Rice is probably in a bad mood coming of back-to-back losses at North Texas. On his radio show Lambo emphasized that Rice was a very strong defensive team and he hopes the Shocks can find the scoring they need. Lambo is concerned about the lack of scoring on the left. Brylee is still kind of iffy physically. She did not practice on Monday.

Both teams probably need to sweep to keep their very slim NCAA hopes alive.

North Texas plays at SMU on Friday and Saturday. North Texas is playing well lately so that is not a slam dunk for SMU.

[flyingMoose]

Shockers at Rice
5920 at 5924

Looks 50-50 to me.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers at Rice
5920 at 5924

Looks 50-50 to me.

I will go with 40-60 since the Shocks are are on the road.

[flyingMoose]

I will go with 40-60 since the Shocks are on the road.

I should have mentioned it. The Rice number includes the "home court advantage" addition. Otherwise, it is 5920 at 5760.

[Critter's Pa]

The Rice number includes the "home court advantage" addition.

Indeed. From the Rice website:

Since 2018, the Owls have protected their home court, holding a 67-9 (.882) mark. In fact, since 2014, they are 111-21 (.835). Rice has been even better on their home court against conference opponents, having won 28 of its last 29 home conference matches dating back to the 2020-21 spring season. Since the 2015 season, Rice is 58-3 (.951) in conference home matches.

Let's hope WSU can help Rice win an impressive 28 of its last 31 home conference matches.

There is plenty of tape out there on how to beat Rice. Hope Coach can come up with a formula that works. It looks like Rice has played two setters at different times during the season. Lately it has been the Sophomore Darby Harris. Earlier in the season it was Senior Izzy Rawlings. For a couple of matches, it looks like they may have ran a 6-2 (last time 2 weeks ago vs Tulane) or possibly switched setters part way through. Wonder If they will try a 6-2 against the Shockers.

[flyingMoose]

Other Thursday/Friday Matches


East

Florida Atlantic 3-1 USF (Thu)
18 (20) 20 27

Florida Atlantic 0-3 USF
19 16 22

East Carolina 3-0 Charlotte
21 19 19

Memphis 3-0 Temple
21 13 19


West

SMU 3-0 North Texas
18 22 17

Tulsa 3-1 Tulane
10 23 (2) 18


Interdivisional

UAB 3-1 UTSA surprising result
18 (12) 22 17


West 18-10 East and 66-35 in sets

[WuDrWu]

Incredible comeback!!!!

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks knock off Rice in the most unlikely of ways with a reverse sweep (23), (21), 22, 18, and 8 on a night when Natalie, Sophia and Morgan were sub-par and Brylee was not effective. Ba and Emerson, however stepped up big time to fill the gap with Ba hitting 16-2-44 = .318 and Emerson chipped in 9-2-33 - .304 as no one else on the Shocks hit above .260. I sure didn't have that on my bingo card.

The Shocks jumped out to a 7-2 lead in set 1 and to a 10-5 lead in set 2 before Rice came back to wixn both of those sets. Rice the jumped out to a 10-5 lead in the 3rd set. After that the Shocks jusy got stronger and stroner outscoring Rice 60-38 to pull out a huge victory.

Nice job ladies. Would have been easy to fold your tents down 0-2 and 5-10 in the 3rd set.

I believe the Shocks have clinched 2nd place with that win but they need to beat Rice again tomorrow and UAB on Wednesday to keep their very slim NCAA hopes alive.

Looking forward to watching the replay on ths one follwing the men's basketball game.

[flyingMoose]

There's the Barbara Koehler (16-2-44 for .318) he recruited. Emerson showed up big also (9-2-23 for .304).

EDIT: Oops! We crossed on the stats.

[WuDrWu]

That was fun. Ba was fantastic.

[Critter's Pa]

Can you dig it?

117 digs for WSU, 101 for Rice

6 players with double digit digs- Gabi-25, Webby-23, Katie-16, Izzi-13, Annalie-10, and Sophia-10. Sophia had a double-double with 14 kills. Swifty missed a double double with 13 kills and 9 digs.

Frosty, Swifty and Sophia had 17 of the 25 Shocker attacking errors. Rice must have really focused on the middle and right side.

[flyingMoose]

Frosty, Swifty and Sophia had 17 of the 25 Shocker attacking errors. Rice must have really focused on the middle and right side.

Yes, at one point Sophia was hitting 0.00 - six kills and six errors. Barbara was the only one holding down the fort - everyone else was hitting below .200. Her only two errors in the match were back-to-back in the fourth set.

Emerson came in for an ineffective Brylee and the offense performed much better. As you pointed out with the dig numbers, it sounds like the littles had a terrific night.

15-8 in the fifth is impressive.

[Critter's Pa]

15-8 in the fifth is impressive.

I believe the Shockers sided out Rice at 100% in the 5th set. The run from 6-4 to 11-4 put it out of reach.

For this whole match there were only 3 lead changes, one in each of the first three sets. The 2nd set had 9 ties.

[1972Shocker]

I believe the Shockers sided out Rice at 100% in the 5th set. The run from 6-4 to 11-4 put it out of reach.

For this whole match there were only 3 lead changes, one in each of the first three sets. The 2nd set had 9 ties.

Your are correct. The Shocks had a 100% side out rate in the 5th set.

From GoShockers.com write-up:

In the 5th set the Shockers grabbed a 11-4 edge following a service ace from Houston native Annalie Heliste. The two teams traded points the rest of the way, as the Shockers had a perfect 100% sideout percentage (9-9) in the set. Izzi Strand contributed her only two kills of the match to make it 13-7 Wichita State, and Koehler terminated two more chances to nail down the victory.

The Shockers (20-7, 14-3) flipped the script after a slow start, surging behind a spectacular defensive effort and late offense from Barbara Koehler and Emerson Wilford. Wichita State finished with 117 digs, their most in a match since the 2007 season (137 vs. Illinois State, Nov. 23). After Rice hit .348 in the opening set, the Owls hit .156, .191, .135 and .130 the rest of the way to finish at .197 to Wichita State's .210.

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/11/17/volleyball-shockers-reverse-sweep-rice-in-houston.aspx

[1972Shocker]

That was a real grind it out affair where both teams' defenses really made you work for your points. Neither team really lost their fight with the possible exception of the Rice following the Shocks 7-1 run in the 5th set that put the Shocks in control of that deciding set stretching a 4-3 lead to 11-4. That sequence included an Emerson kill, followed by an Emerson block, a Rice kill, an Emerson kill, an Emerson kill, a Swifty kill, an Izzy slam of an overpass for a kill and an Annalie service ace.

Emerson had a pretty solid night all-around including being in on 5 blocks. Betwenn Ba and Emerson the Shocker left side box of chocalates turned out pretty sweet tonight.

I think the Shocks defense out-defensed a very good defensive team in Rice. Special kudos to Gabi, Morgan and Katie for their bringing their hard hats and shovels. I thought Gabi and Katie were especially good with some outstanding digs and solid passing.

Winning again on Saturday will not be easy. Reminded me of some of the old WSU-UNI battles where both teams fought like hell to keep the ball in play which can be quite frustating for the attackers.