Shocks vs Illinois State and Indiana State

[1972Shocker]

Shocks battled past a very good looking Illinois State Redbird team tonight in 4 sets (20-25, 26-24, 25-21,25-16) lead by Emily Adney's 22 kills. The Redbirds have some very nice looking volleyball players and they serve pretty tough. The Redbirds outblocked the Shocks 12-6 and they also played some good defense. The Shocks answered with some solid defensive play of their own and there were a good number of long, hard fought points. The Shocks certainly didn't have the balanced attack tonight like they did at OU, but thank goodness Emily was on her game big time tonight.

Perhpas the key stretch in the match came late in the 2nd set with the Shocks down 16-20 and staring a 0-2 deficit heading into the break. The somehow found enough to rally back to squeeze out the win and tie the match at 1-1. The Shocks played better, I thought in Sets 3 and 4 and perhpas finally broke the Redbird's spirit with a storng start to the 4th set.

The Shocks host Indiana State on Saturday at 7:00 pm. The Sycamores gave Missouri State a real scare tonight losing to the Lady Bears in 5 closes sets (25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 21-25, 15-13).

Creighton knocked of UNI in 4 sets tonight in Omaha. After losing the 1st set the Bluejays won the next 3 sets in solid fashion.

Let's Go Shocks! :poster_shocks:

[flyingMoose]

Post-game radio comments: They moved Emily to a different position in the rotation to get her going. Sam beginning to contribute later in the match was another factor. Lambo still thinks they need to get Elizabeth more involved. He got text messages (from peers, I think, including from the Nebraska coach?) saying that a letdown after the big win at Oklahoma was inevitable and there was not much he could do about it as a coach. It was just going to happen.

Personally, I thought our passing and consequently setting seemed to be less crisp than normal. But we gutted it out until things got in sync to get the win.

[1972Shocker]

Don't take too much away from Illinois State. They put some decent volleyball talent on the floor. However, I do agree our passing wasn't nearly as good as it was agains OU, but I also thought Illinois State served tougher than OU did.

[ShockerFever]

I was able to get out to my first match of the season last night. The Shocks struggled early but came out strong late. Illinois State looked like decent competition. They seemed like they had a strong block going for a while early on.

It was nice to get back into Koch Arena again.

[1972Shocker]

It wasn't perhaps the prettiest thing,but the Shocks took care of business sweeping past the Sycamores 17, 21 and 14 to finishi off their 3rd win in 4 days.

Shocks are now set up for a very important match with MSU in Springfield next Friday. The Bears are heading into a 5th set tonight at home against Illinois State after lising the 1st two sets.

Update: Missouri State jumped out to a 9-5 lead in the 5th set. Illinois Sate rallied to tie it at 12, then lost the next two points before rallying for 17-15 win over the Lady Bears. Not shocked with the Illinois State win. They looked pretty darn good against the Shocks on Friday.

[1972Shocker]

Creighton wins in 4 sets over Bradley in Omaha and UNI wins in 4 sets over Drake in Des Moines in matches that we probably more competitive than expected.

UNI won by scores of 28-26, 25-18, 23-25 and 25-19.

CU won by scores of 25-11, 19-25, 25-17 and 25-23.

[SpanglerFan316]

http://www.missouristatebears.com/sports/w-volley/recaps/100612aaa.html

Southern Illinois

5-2

15-3

Missouri State

5-3

10-9

I recall a claim that MSU was better than SIU and the Bears would finish higher in the conference standings than the Salukis. While the season isn't over, those claims do look a little shaky right now. I believe SIU swept the Redbirds at home while MSU just lost to them at home.

[WuDrWu]

Missouri State beat SIU, yes?

[ShockerFever]

http://www.missouristatebears.com/sp...100612aaa.html

Southern Illinois

5-2

15-3

Missouri State

5-3

10-9

I recall a claim that MSU was better than SIU and the Bears would finish higher in the conference standings than the Salukis. While the season isn't over, those claims do look a little shaky right now. I believe SIU swept the Redbirds at home while MSU just lost to them at home.

Is the season over yet? Who beat who head to head?

Are you gonna latch onto the 1 prediction out of 10 that you possibly might be right about?

What about your predictions of WSU winning the league?

[JayJ79]

I find it hilarious that someone gets excited about a team being half a game (match?) up when the conference season isn't even half done.

[1972Shocker]

From an eye test standpoint Illinois State looks like they have more talent than SIU, but that doesn't always equate to being the better volleyball team. SIU's home wins over Creighton and ILS are nice wins. ILS win over MSU in Springfiled is a nice win. Clearyly the coaching change at SIU has paid benefits. Jury is still out on MSU but they seemed to have been hurt quite a bit by the loss of Karen Rivatto.

However, I expect the WSU-MSU match this next Friday will be the usual battle royale that always seems to result when these teams match up. This becomes almost a must-win for the Lady Bears and it also would be very big win for the Lady Shocks.

In year's past there were always those teams in the MVC you could pretty much just mark a W next to whether at home or on the road. Not sure you can do that this year. Perhaps the best the MVC has been from top to bottom in the 8 years I have followed MVC VB.

CU at ILS and SIU at UNI will also be matches to keep an eye on next weekend.

[flyingMoose]

The NCAA RPI after this weekend's matches:

29 Creighton
39 Wichita State
52 Northern Iowa
74 Southern Illinois
101 Illinois State
108 Missouri State
213 Evansville
231 Drake
240 Bradley
280 Indiana State
213 Evansville

The win at Oklahoma gave the Shocks a big boost in the RPI.

There are still no Valley teams anywhere in the AVCA poll. Rich Kern has UNI at 37 with a Pablo of 45 and the Shocks at 40 with a Pablo of 43.

[JayJ79]

2 people listed Creighton at #25 on their ballots (though the only one I saw in the voter breakdown was Dave Shoji, the Hawaii coach)

[flyingMoose]

2 people listed Creighton at #25 on their ballots (though the only one I saw in the voter breakdown was Dave Shoji, the Hawaii coach)

My bad. Creighton is RV (T37) with two votes. I was laboring under the misimpression that RK listed all teams in any poll. Rather, he lists the teams in his poll and (apparently) their ranking in any other poll.

@JayJ79, is it possible Creighton are on of one of the four blank coaches' ballots?

[JayJ79]

I have no idea how that all works. I'm just going by the caption on the poll that only teams appearing on more than one ballot are listed in the ORV list, and Creighton was listed with 2 "points", which I interpretted as being ranked #25 on two ballots.