Volleyball Preview: Rice

[WuDrWu]

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.

Perfect analogy.

[flyingMoose]

RPI is now 50 per figstats. Rice is at 68.


From the VT Bracketology geek-

"Wichita State/Rice is possibly an elimination match - but Rice might already have taken too much damage."

Not sure what that says. The Shockers have a faint chance with another win, but Rice has little chance of making the Tournament even with a win on Saturday?

[JayPak]

RPI is now 50 per figstats. Rice is at 68.


From the VT Bracketology geek-

"Wichita State/Rice is possibly an elimination match - but Rice might already have taken too much damage."

Not sure what that says. The Shockers have a faint chance with another win, but Rice has little chance of making the Tournament even with a win on Saturday?

That's how I interpret it. Rice is done; Wichita has a chance with a sweep of Rice.

[flyingMoose]

Other Saturday/Sunday Matches


East

East Carolina 2-3 Charlotte another surprising result
22 (8) (14) 19 7

Memphis 3-2 Temple
(21) 21 16 (20) 14



West

SMU 3-0 North Texas
18 13 25

Tulsa v Tulane (Sun)

[Critter's Pa]

What happened in the 2nd set? Did Sophia get injured?

First set looked pretty good. 18 kills with 5 errors on 51 attempts for .255. Held Rice to .196 getting 15 kills. Frosty had 6 kills, Ba and Swifty had 4 each, and Emerson and Sophia both had 2. Had three blocks, but had 3 service errors.

Then the second set happened. 10 kills. 10 attacking errors. Rice had 10 kills but only 2 attacking errors. Frosty had 4 kills, Swifty-2 and Sophia, Emerson, Izzi and Brooklyn all had one kill.

Set 3 had 14 ties and 9 lead changes. How? Shockers had 9 kills and only 4 errors. Rice managed 18 kills with 7 errors. The last tie was at 19-19. Managed 13 points on 10 kills in set 2, scored 21 points on 9 kills. ...with only 1 block and 1 ace. It's a head scratcher. Frosty had 4 kills, Ba, Swifty, Emerson, Brooklyn and Webby all scored 1 kill.

Shockers had better stats in set 4, but mostly just hung around behind Rice, not getting any long service runs. Brylee came off the bench, and with Ba, got 4 kills, Swifty and Frosty each added 3, and Brooklyn got 1 kill. Shockers had 5 blocks to Rice's 3. Neither team had a service error, Rice got 3 aces.

Digs were another strange stat. 1st set WSU-20 Rice-26. 2nd set WSU-8 Rice-9. Seems like a dramatic drop off. 3rd set WSU-13 Rice-24. Guess we got out-dug badly this set. Wild, it's almost like a different person recorded digs in 2nd set than the other 3 sets. 4th set digs were WSU-22 Rice-26. Rice had 85 total digs to WSU's 48.

For the match, Shockers hit .163 (52 24 172). Rice hit .247 (61 22 158).

[1972Shocker]

Only able to check in on the score intermittently on Saturday. Watched set 1 and 2 this morning. Sophia did not look too bad to that point although she had not taken a lot really hard swings to that point. Seemed just a little off. When she finished her front row rotation with the score tied at 5-5 in set 2 you could see her reaching for her left side after finishing high fiving her teammates with the trainer coming over to check on her. She then laid down on her back behind the Shocker reserves for a handful of points, then got up and was being attended to by the trainer by the water cooler at the end of the bench. With the score at 8-12 she got up and then sat down on the Shocker bench. Has to take a mental toll on your teammates to see their star opposite laying on the floor being attended to by the trainer.

Sophia re-entered the game with the score at 9-13. Took a swing at 9-14 that was solidly blocked. With the score at 10-18 she took another awkward looking swing on a ball she really had to reach for, didn't get a lot on it, and it was blocked again. At that point Brooklyn Leggett subbed in for Sophia on the front row and Sophia's day was done.

Appears Sophia reaggravated the abdominal issue she has seemed to have had for a good part of her career. Not exactly sure when that happened. Could have even been on Saturday. In any case, I think it did impact the confidence of the team. With the left sides reverting to their bad mode and the Shocks having to go with the little used 6-0 D-II transfer Brooklyn Leggett in place of Sophia the Shocks' goose was pretty much cooked against a team the quality of Rice.

[flyingMoose]

Other Saturday/Sunday Matches


East

East Carolina 2-3 Charlotte - another surprising result
22 (8) (14) 19 7

Memphis 3-2 Temple
(21) 21 16 (20) 14



West

SMU 3-0 North Texas
18 13 25

Tulsa 3-0 Tulane
21 16 16

[Critter's Pa]

Looks like we have 2nd place in the AAC secured. 14-4 conf. 20-8 overall. Rice and USF battle it out for third place on Wednesday. They both are 12-6 in conference. Rice is 18-10, USF is 18-11 overall.

Shame we don't have a conference tournament. Maybe we will have one next year. Surely the AAC is already planning out how to deal with the schedule after exit of SMU, right? They did such a good job this year. I think 6 or 8 team tournament would be a solution to unbalanced divisions. Would like to have more than just the top two teams in each division in a tournament, but I would take a 4 team conference tournament over nothing. Maybe they will get rid of the divisions..? Who knows what the scheduling gurus over at AAC HQ will come up with.

[1972Shocker]

I have not be able to watch Set 3 and 4 of Saturday's loss to Rice and may or may not get around to that. However, considering where the Shocks may have been mentally after Sophia went out and that Ba and Emerson were doing an all too familiar 180 from their match on Friday the Shocks nevertheless were competitive against Rice in those final 2 sets.

In Set 3 the Shocks were within 2 points at 21-23 before a Webby service error and a Rice kill finished off that set in favor of Rice.

In Set 4 the Shocks were within 1 point at 22-23 before a Rice block on Brylee and a Rice kill ended that set.

Brooklyn Leggett is obviously no Sophia Rohling (at least when Sophia is healthy) but she wasn't the worst player on the floor and her 3-1-14 = .143 against perhaps the best defensive team in the AAC was probably about as much as one could expect from her.

Brylee, who entered the match for the first time in the 4th set hit a solid 4-1-11 = .273. Unfortunately, her one attack error was the one that was blocked by Rice at 22-23 in Set 4.

Not sure whether or not Sophia will be able to play on Wednesday vs UAB. May not need her to beat UAB but hopefully she can play at least a little since it is her Senior Night.

[1972Shocker]

Watched the final 2 sets of Saturday's loss to Rice. According to the Rice announcer's Lambo told them that Brylee was dealing both an abdominal strain and a hip flexor injury this year. Lately Brylee has had her left hip heavily wrapped.

Interestingly, the Rice announcers really never mentioned Sophia not play in sets 3 and 4. I an not even sure they noticed it. However, I got a shot of Sophia at the first time out midway through the 3rd set standing on the edge of the team huddle and she had something wrapped in a towel (ice pack is my guess) that she was holding on her lower back. That would explain why she laid down on her back her knees bent when she came out of the match in set 2. I kept on eye on Sophia stoppages in play and she did look like she was moving gingerly, I have dealt chronic lower back issues for 40 years and I know the feel and how you move when it flares up. She pretty much stood on the sidelines for the entirety of the final 2 sets but as I said she was moving pretty gingerly. Hard to say whether or not Sophia will be available on Wednesday vs UAB on her senior night.

[flyingMoose]

Monday Match

SMU 3-0 Pepperdine
21 23 16

This match was in SMU's original schedule rather than being a late addition.