Spring Volleyball

[WuDrWu]

Full schedule out:

https://goshockers.com/sports/womens-volleyball/schedule

I am just realizing we play a 16 game conference schedule, 4 teams (Tulsa, Rice, UAB, Memphis) twice and the other 8 once. Interesting.

[1972Shocker]

Nice Exhibition Match vs K-State. Might draw the biggest home crowd of the regular season.

[Critter's Pa]

I like opening with K-State. Too bad it's only an exhibition match, but it's a great warm-up for the season.

Seems that WSU has never played Kennesaw State. From what I can tell, KSU's volleyball program has only been around since 2006. We play them twice, once Friday and again after playing Indiana on Saturday. It's early in the season, so it shouldn't be too taxing to play twice on one day. This might point to the endurance level of the team- finishing strong vs being gassed at the end of the second match. I think WSU should win all these games.

Would really like to beat Kansas. Not sure how good they will be this year. They still have Bien and Elnady. If we can keep one or both from getting hot, we have a good chance of winning, depending on our offence, of course.

I hope we are better than Arkansas. We should beat Little Rock.

I think we can beat Arizona State and Long Beach State. It would be great to head into the conference schedule riding a 4+ game winning streak. Should we be able to beat Nebraska? Probably not. Can we beat them? Yeah, If our offence is clicking and they are making mistakes. I think the chances of winning depend on how we are playing coming into this game.

I wonder what the starting line-up is going to be and how much it will change through the non-con.

[WuDrWu]

I hope we're better than Arkansas too, but I will be pleasantly surprised if we are. They were in the Elite 8 last season (losing to eventual runner up Nebraska) and return their setter, libero and 2 middles. Yes, they lost 1500 points in Head, Gillen and Cartwright but they'll likely be all we can handle.

[1972Shocker]

Here are the 2023 RPI rankings (not including any NCAA or NIVC Tournament games) and records of our 2024 Non-Conference opponents FWIW:

08/24/24: #59 Kansas State (16-11) - Big 12

08/30/24: #110 Kennesaw State (18-11) - ASUN
08/31/24: #73 Indiana (21-12) - Big 10
08/31/24: #110 Kennesaw State (18-11) - ASUN

09/04/24: #14 Kansas (23-5) - Big 12

09/09/24: #10 Arkansas (25-5) - SEC
09/07/24: Super Regional Poll Little Rock (11-19) - OVC

09/12/24: #23 Arizona State (26-6) - PAC 12
09/13/24: #63 Long Beach St (21-10) - Big West
09/14/24: #1 Nebraska (28-1) - Big 10

09/19/24: Jonathan Hall - Signed with St. Bonaventure Cal Poly (21-11) - Big West
09/20/24: #115 Northern Colorado (17-11) - Big Sky
09/21/24: Shannon Shorter - To aTm - CC Omaha (15-13) - Summit

Excluding Kansas State the average 2023 RPI's are 82.4. Throw out Little Rock and they are 66.1.

The Shocks' 2023 RPI heading into the NIVC last year was #62 with a record of 21-8. Hopefully, the Shockers will have an additional 3 matches in the AAC Conference Tournament on top of their 16 game AAC regular season schedule to help build their RPI. The top 8 teams advance to the AAC Tournament held at Koch Arena this year.

The Shocks are in good shape at setter and with our defensive specialists. Sara Barham is probably about as good as we could do to replace Frosty but it remains to be seen how well she does that. Morgan Stout, if she can stay healthy, should be a force in the middle as well. This group is also well seasoned. No reason to think Lambo won't continue to go to his middles as often as he can.

The big question marks for the Shocks are where will the scoring on the pins and perhaps on back row attacks come from. We need enough to keep opponents form sitting on our middles. There certainly is not much in the way of experience to turn to. I guess the most experienced is Emerson Wilford and sounds like Lambo is going to give her the chance to move into a key component and perhaps a 6-rotation player. Emerson was probably the most improved player on the team from her freshman year in 2022 to her sophomore year in 2023. Hopefully. we will see continued growth and development from Emerson. Redshirt sophomore Maddie Wilson seems to have caught Lambo's eye as a versatile player that can be effective at any of the attacking positions. It will be interesting to see how he will try to user her. While Barham may well prove to be an adequate replacement for Frosty replacing the 6-3 lefthanded Sophia Rohling on the right side opposite position may be tough. Perhaps Maddie can fill in there. Beyond that we are looking at a very inexperienced group of options on the pins but I guess you just never know when a player will seize an opportunity and make it happen. To me this makes any projection of how this team might do very tentative.

I think a 9-3 record in the non-con would be the absolute best we can hope for. We could do significantly worse that that though. 6-6 is not out of the realm of possible outcomes. I would be very satisfied if the Shocks can go 8-4 heading in to AAC play.

[Critter's Pa]

Excluding Kansas State the average 2023 RPI's are 82.4. Throw out Little Rock and they are 66.1.

There are potentially some really nice wins in there. There are also some potential bad losses RPI-wise. Who knows how any of these teams, with the exception of Nebraska, will do this year. Omaha's non-con schedule isn't as brutal as last year, so they are probably not going to have as high of an RPI like last year. I like the non-con schedule. Hopefully the rest of the AAC will schedule tougher. ECU is playing Pitt and Marquette. USF and North Texas both play the Florida Gators. Rice and Tulsa both play Baylor. Memphis also plays Arizona State. Playing Kennesaw State twice probably won't help the RPI, but some early wins should boost team confidence. I wonder if a school dropped out of their tournament.

The big question marks for the Shocks are where will the scoring on the pins and perhaps on back row attacks come from.

Hopefully Izzi is back at 100% and clicking with all the hitters. Since the rule change on doubles, she just needs to make accurate sets, they don't have to be pretty. I wonder if this rule change will see an increase of setting on first contact, like easily handled freeballs. I'm sure there will be an increase of non-setters adding a few more sets to their stat sheet than in prior years. I hope Gabi is healed from her injury.