Spring Volleyball

[WuDrWu]

There's a picture posted on X of the team practicing in Brazil. Pretty clearly there are 16 dressed players. I wonder who the 16th is? There are 13 on the roster and I'm assuming Sarah Barham and Abby Whatton are there too. That would be 15. Who is 16?

[WstateU]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7ZlnV7sX4I/?igsh=MWp0amlhZWUzNXE3NA==

[Critter's Pa]

Pure speculation, but if I had to wager, I'd say it's the official announcement that WSU will host the 2024 AAC Volleyball Tournament. Pure guess.

Could be that we are playing Nebraska at Nebraska in non-con. Nah, probably not a big enough announcement. Maybe it's that we are hosting a tourney just before the conference starts (9/19-9/21).


9/14 (Sat) Nebraska. We will probably be playing Arizona State this weekend. Nebraska plays Arizona State on Friday 9/13.

9/20 (Fri) Northern Colorado (UNC). Omaha and Cal Poly will also be here this week (Thur-Sat)


The AAC post season tournament will be 8 teams

[Critter's Pa]

UAB released their schedule.

Their non-con schedule didn't really impress me. Auburn, Cincy, and Samford look like the three toughest teams they face next season.

Their schedule didn't really clear up the byes. We do play them twice this year. Again all Friday/Sunday games except for a couple of Wednesday matches but there are still only two matches per week. The Wednesday matches just replaced a Friday or a Sunday match that week.

9/27 Home- Tulsa
9/29 Away- Memphis

10/2 Away- Tulane <--Wednesday match
10/4 Home- WSU 7PM (eastern?) (Friday)

10/11 Home- Temple
10/13 Home- Charlotte

10/18 Away- UTSA
10/20 Home- Tulane

10/25 Away- Tulsa
10/27 Away- WSU 6PM (eastern?)

11/1 Home- North Texas
11/3 Home- ECU

11/6 Home- Memphis <--Wednesday match
11/10 Away- Rice (Sunday)

11/15 Away- FAU
11/17 Away- South Florida


Last three games being away bites for them. The teams they play twice- Tulsa, Memphis, Tulane, and WSU- are the first four games on their conference schedule.

[WuDrWu]

Pure speculation, but if I had to wager, I'd say it's the official announcement that WSU will host the 2024 AAC Volleyball Tournament. Pure guess.

[WuDrWu]

I believe Sarah will be here for the trip. I hope the news is bigger than that.

[1972Shocker]

Totally cryptic and a bit unusual:

If I had to guess I'm thinking Katie may have been referring to the upcoming trip to Brazil from May 26 through June 5th. Lambo said the NCAA allows them 10 days of practice time leading into that trip although he said not all the newcomers will arrive in time for all 10 days of practice. Hopefully, most will be here in time and have the paperwork needed to make the trip. For sure this would be a very beneficial trip to work Sarah Barham into the mix.

I thing they will play 4 matches in Brazil. Hope they have great weather and a great time.

[Critter's Pa]

So the AAC decided to finally grow up and have a postseason tournament?

Yep, and I believe we are hosting the tournament.

[Shockm]

Nm

[ShockerFever]

So the AAC decided to finally grow up and have a postseason tournament?

[Critter's Pa]

Yesterday. 5/17, I checked all the other AAC schools and the AAC website for their new schedules. There were none. I got Tulsa's schedule from X (Twitter). I really wanted to see how the AAC was going to schedule an odd number of teams.

There will be teams that have two byes. The number of teams depends on how the AAC set up the schedule. Again, I concede my math may be off, and I would love to now where I am wrong, and I am using Tulsa's schedule as a templet.

The scenarios I have come up with:

1) 3 teams have 2 byes: 16 game days. 13 teams. Each game day, Fridays and Saturdays, a different team gets a bye for the first 13 gamedays. That leaves gamedays 14, 15, and 16. 3 teams would have to have a second bye these game days.

2) 8 teams have 2 byes: 8 Weekends (2 game days). 8 teams have their byes on the same weekend.

3) To not have a team with a bye, two teams would have to play 3 games in a week each week, but I don't see that reflected in Tulsa's schedule, as I think every team would have to play at least one 3 game week, and at least 3 teams would have to play two 3 game weeks for the same reason stated above.

4) The byes are not evenly distributed. E.g. 4 teams could have 4 gameday byes during the season, but that would leave those teams with a significantly lower number of conference games played.

2) Time travel. The AAC got its hands on the time machine that is just big enough to fit an entire volleyball team and staff. (I wondered where I left it.)

5) My math is wrong.


And I still don't understand where Tulsa's bye is at. This is why I think 8 teams will have weekends (back to back byes) off, and Tulsa is one of the 5 other teams that don't get a gameday bye during the season.

If I'm right, I hope the Shockers are one of the other four teams without a bye. Can always schedule a non-con game that week, but I'm guessing that the pickins get slim for teams to play in the middle of conference season. Rice and Texas have done this a number of years.

[shoxlax]

Interesting late sign.

[WuDrWu]

Has some projectables.

[1972Shocker]

Wichita State Volleyball
@GoShockersVB
·
May 16

Went down to The Lone Star State and got ourselves a good one. A First Team All-District choice in Class 6A,
@lafferty_sydney joins the Shocker fam!

image.png

Rockwall is the East side of the Dallas metroplex and sits on the East shore of Lake Ray Hubbard.

Hudl Profile and HIghlights: .https://www.hudl.com/profile/15410750/Sydney-Lafferty

Appears to be some potential. Most likely will redshirt in 2024.

[1972Shocker]

Thinking about the Tulsa schedule got me wondering, and maybe someone with better math skills can explain it to me. There are an odd number of teams in the AAC, 13. Tulsa does NOT have a bye. Assuming that teams only play Friday and Sunday, wouldn't there be a team with a bye every Friday and Sunday? I guess Tulsa's bye could be the first weekend if the AAC conference play started the weekend of Sept 20. Tulsa plays Kansas and Purdue that weekend. To not have a bye each week, one team would have to play 3 times each week. I don't see that from Tulsa's schedule either.

So, where is my math messed up? Any odd number divided by 2, will always have a remainder of one.

I don't think you math is off. A full 16 match schedule for 13 teams would require 104 matches. On the 16 Friday/Sunday play dates Tulsa is playing they can accommodate 96 matches (16 x 6). They could have 5 teams play all their matches on the same dates Tulsa plays and 8 teams needing to with each other to finish off the schedule. The question is how will the AAC choose to accommodate those 8 matches among those 8 teams. They could have 1 mid-week match each of the 8 weeks between 2 of those 8 teams. Or as you suggest maybe they will open the AAC season with 4 matches on Sept 20th and 4 matches on Sept 22nd with Tulsa and the other 4 teams taking a bye on that weekend.