Shocks Host Evansville & SIU

[1972Shocker]

Finally, as Turtle Man would say, some live action returning to Koch Arena.

Shocks host Evansville (5-9, 1-1) tonight and then take on SIU (11-1, 2-0) on Saturday evening in MVC play. Both matches start at 7:00 pm.

Evansville always seems to give the Shockers a tough time regardless of their record. They historically have been a very scrappy team.

This is the weekend we find out if SIU is ready to run with the big girls of MVC volleyball. They take on MSU in Springfield tonight before heading over to Wichita for the Saturday showdown with the Shocks.

SIU would appear to be an improved VB team, but to what degree they have improved is difficult to tell for sure since their schedule has not been an overly challenging one.

We will know a lot more about the Salukis after this weekend.

Lambo said in the Eagle article today that they were going to play a little simpler this weekend to try and reduce the errors his team has been committing. This may be particularly helpful for the freshman outsides who have been very inconsistent so far this season. Could be they are just thinking too much. And it is not just the freshman. Emily Adney's hitting % is well below her standards. Now in Emily's case part of that is opposing defenses are no doubt keying on stopping her.

The Shocks simply can not afford to stumble against either of these opponents on their home court if the want to be a contender in the MVC race.

See you at the Chuck this weekend. Go Shocks!

[JayJ79]

Finally, as Turtle Man would say, some live action returning to Koch Arena.

At least y'all have more than one measly (midweek) match at home in the first 5 weeks of the season.

[SpanglerFan316]

MSU leads SIU 2-1 (25-22, 24-26, 27-25). It looks like MSU and SIU are pretty close in performance.

MSU wins 3-1. In the fourth set, SIU led 16-11 and MSU tied it up. All four sets were close. SIU@WSU should be fun on Saturday.

[1972Shocker]

MSU leads SIU 2-1 (25-22, 24-26, 27-25). It looks like MSU and SIU are pretty close in performance.

That it does. SIU looks to be the real deal this year. Shocks will need to be prepared for sure.

Did anyone catch all of tonight's post-game show. I missed the first part of it, but what I did catch seemed to indicate Lambo was unhappy with some aspect that the Shocks had focused quite a bit of time on this week.

BTW, the Shocks cruised to a 16,16,17 sweep over the Aces tonight. Ashlyn Driskill with a very solid performance tonight. Solid attacking match and perhaps her best serving match as a Shocker. She's got a lot of depth to her serve when she get's it in. Kemnitz would like to some his pitchers throw a downer like Ashlyn can deliver.

Evansville did scrap but they were simply outgunned.

[1972Shocker]

MSU leads SIU 2-1 (25-22, 24-26, 27-25). It looks like MSU and SIU are pretty close in performance.

SIU had a 19-14 lead in Set 4, but the Lady Bears rallied to score 11 of the final 14 points to win the set 25-22 and the match 3-1, but the Salukis certainly gave MSU a tough battle.

Should be a good match tomorrow. Hopefully, Shocker fans will get out in force. This will probably be our toughest home match in the 1st half of MVC play.

[flyingMoose]

Did anyone catch all of tonight's post-game show. I missed the first part of it, but what I did catch seemed to indicate Lambo was unhappy with some aspect that the Shocks had focused quite a bit of time on this week.

I missed the first part also, but I did catch some comment about the lack of good swings (lot of fingertip contact) for Elizabeth. I missed any "reasons" part of the comment if it was offered.

[1972Shocker]

In looking at the Box Score Sam Sanders probably had the most efficient line of our attackers at 8-1-19 = 0.368. I think Lambo will take a 5.3% error rate from Sam any day of the week.

[SpanglerFan316]

BTW, the Shocks cruised to a 16,16,17 sweep over the Aces tonight. Ashlyn Driskill with a very solid performance tonight. Solid attacking match and perhaps her best serving match as a Shocker. She's got a lot of depth to her serve when she get's it in. Kemnitz would like to some his pitchers throw a downer like Ashlyn can deliver.

Ashlyn is a pleasure to watch but she needs to cut down on her errors. People around me were impressed by her play but the comment "She is just a freshman" was heard from time to time. She seems to have reduced her service and attack errors since her last home matches and her progress is great to see.

[WuDrWu]

Ashlyn was a LOT better tonight. She was playing instead of just swinging. I know it was Evansville, but still there was marked improvement out of the talented freshman tonight.

KR is solid but AD can score. If she can continue to improve, that spot is going to be hers for a long, long time. She was fun to watch tonight.

I wish I would have heard the postgame. I would have been interested to hear what Lambo was upset about....I thought the team was fairly consistent tonight in a bit of a cakewalk. Certainly not their "A" game, but I didn't see a lot of glaring errors either.

Some of the play had to be planned...for instance, CF hardly attacked. That will not be the case tomorrow.

[1972Shocker]

Lambo must have been in a hurry to get the post-game show over because we got to our car in pretty sure order and still missed the his initial commnets.

[pawball]

#11 for SIU, Whitehead, is a hell of a hitter. SIU's very tenacious. Expect an entertaining match. As a Bear's fan, I am quite envious of the volume of discussion you have here on Shockernet on VB, and most of it, considering that it's a "Discussion Board", is intelligent!

[1972Shocker]

Stop by anytime @pawball:. UNI fan @JayJ79: drops by fairly regularly to add to the intelligent discussion. Always good to get the perspective of other fans, although I usually stop by your board to see what you have to say about the Lady Bears volleyball and women's basketball teams.

Looking forward to the SIU match tonight. Sounds like the coaching change at SIU has energized that program. Hope the Shocks are up to the challenge. We have been very inconsistent this year. We are very good at times, and at other times not so good.

[SpanglerFan316]

It sounds like MSU and SIU are pretty close if a change in a few (4) points could have given SIU a 3-1 victory at MSU. The return match at SIU should be interesting. Now we need to see how the Shocks do against the ugly dawgs.

Somebody mentioned as we were leaving that one Shocker player should have been credited with 14 kills rather than 12 kills. I think he was talking about Ashlyn Driskill.

[SpanglerFan316]

The box score gives Ashlyn 15 kills. Not bad. Only 5 attack errors and 3 service errors. Interesting that Ashlyn got 10 more swings than Emily; I guess UE focused on defending Adney; the Wichita Eagle article (“The films we evaluated didn’t even have her playing in them,” Swan said. “We were surprised.”) makes me wonder if Lamb planned it that way. :barbershop_quartet_ As far as efficiency, we had Feekin (0.625), Sanders (0.368) and then Field and Driskill (0.286).

[1972Shocker]

Can't blame Coach Swan for being surprised by Ashlyn. He is in pretty much the same boat as most Shocker fans who have only seen that kind of performance from Ashlyn one other time this year vs Colorado State.

We know Ashlyn has the athletic ability to get it done. Hopefully, this will be the week she starts figuring out some of the finer points of playing at this level and she can stay in the linup and produce consistently. Lordy, lordy it sure wouldn't hurt my feelings if she can get that dive bombing fastball of a jump serve in play consistently.

Another big bonus of having Ashlyn perform like that is that Lambo can put Sam on the right where he prefers to have her.

Now let's see if Ashlyn can put back-to-back solid performances together against what should be tougher competition from SIU.