Shocks @ Missouri State

[WuDrWu]

Little interest, busy schedules.

Kind of a must win 3 games (@ MSU then next week @ SIU & @ UE) if the Shocks want to entertain any chance of a Valley title.

Started off poorly in Game 1 losing 25-20, roared back to take Game 2 25-18 then have stumbled all around Game 3 and are about to go down 2-1 unless they can mount a big late comeback.

Creighton easily dispatched Illinois State on the road in 3 quick games. SIU survived a 5 set marathon @ Bradley, Drake won at Indiana State in the Cellar Bowl and UNI is struggling a bit at home with Evansville.

But none of that really matters if our ladies can't come back in Springfield.

[WuDrWu]

Huge comeback to take set 3 25-23!

UNI trailed UE 18-19 but went on a run to close out set 3 25-21 and lead 2-1 going to the 4th.

[WuDrWu]

UNI closes out the Aces in 4.

Shocks have 4 match points .......lost the 1st, but get it done on the 2nd and picks up a big road win 3-1!

First half 7-2 is probably +1 on expectations...anything better would have firmly put them in the driver's seat. As it is they're still in excellent shape to control their own destiny for the 1 seed.

Big weekend upcoming.

Way to go Shocks!

[1972Shocker]

Always nice to pick up a win at Missouri State, although I'm not sure we played anywhere close to our best match. Once we finally got the middles going we did OK. As Lambo said blocking wasn't that good for most of the match although the Shocks turned that around late also. Certainly a positive to get a win when Emily doesn't have a strong match.

I thought the key to winning was when the Shocks rallied from a 13-18 deficit to come back for a 25-23 win in Set 3.

Shocks still showing a tendency of starting slow and for giving up long scoring runs here and there. Bottom line though is a win on the road against a solid team is always something to cheer.

:poster_shocks:

[1972Shocker]

After a somewhat slow start Ashley (12-2-22) and Elizabeth (10-2-22) combined to hit .409 with a very good 9.1% error rate and 50% kill rate.

Sam also had a very solid match hitting .278 (15-5-36).

Nice job making adjustments by Chelsey to get the middles going, espeically with Emily having a subpar match for her.

As Doc said, next weekend is very important if the Shocks want to position themselves for a 2nd half run at the championship.

[1972Shocker]

Creighton easily dispatched Illinois State on the road in 3 quick games.

Pretty impressive win by the Bluejays. Illinois State looked very good in Wichita. I was hoping that might of been this weekend's upset special.

[SpanglerFan316]

WSU is now 14-5, 7-2 in the MVC. I noticed this in the local rag: http://www.kansas.com/2012/10/13/253...-straight.html

The Shockers dropped the first game 25-20 but won the next three 25-18, 25-23 and 25-21. WSU improved to 13-6, 7-2 in the Missouri Valley. Missouri State is 11-10, 5-4.

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=7500&ATCLID=205710852

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Wichita State battled back to defeat Missouri State 3-1 in Missouri Valley Conference action. The Shockers (14-5, 7-2) won by scores of 20-25, 25-18, 25-23 and 25-21.

[flyingMoose]

And this from the not-local rag.

[shock10]

Well at least the eagle got the conference record right. Pathetic

[WuDrWu]

It's not like more than 50 people are reading the article, based loosely on the support and enthusiasm here.....I, for one, appreciate any and all coverage volleyball gets, especially from The Eagle. They aren't exactly sending someone to cover them on the road.

Evansville appeared to have put everything into the tough UNI match last night as they were little more than a road apple for lowly Bradley tonight, losing in 3 quick sets 25-16, 25-16, 25-20. That's Bradley's first conference win.

Creighton easily defeated Indiana State in 3, 25-18, 25-20, 25-22. Illinois State dispatched the Geese in 3 and UNI made short work of the mighty SIU Salukis, 25-15, 25-20 and 25-21.

After half the season (a perfect round robin format) the standings are as follows:


Creighton 8-1 (4, 2-3)
UNI 8-1 (5, 2-3)
WSU 7-2 (5, 3-2)
SIU 6-3 (4, 3-2)
MSU 5-4 (4, 2-3)
ISU 5-4 (5, 3-2)
Evansville 2-7
Drake 1-8
Bradley 1-8
ISUB 1-8

The numbers next to the records reflect the number of remaining home games, and home and away against the (other) top 6 in the standings.

Looks like ole Doc is going to be eating some big time crow on his prediction of MSU finishing ahead of SIU....what was I thinking?????!!!!!!!!! This one is going to sting for awhile.

[shock10]

I guess paper news is like tv news they just make something up and go with it. ala Dan Rather

[1972Shocker]

Ok, someone made a mistake (something I do on occassion myself) in reporting the Shocks overall record which is of little to no consequence. Generally, the coverage the Lady Shocker VB team receives from the Eagle is quite favorable in quality and quantity compared to the great majority of VB programs.

The info reported by Doc show why this coming weekend is very important for the Lady Shocks. If they can successfully navigate the SIU, EU road swing they have 5 of their 7 games remaining at home including matches with CU, UNI and MSU and will have at least positioned themselves to make a run for the regular season championship.

Doc, I was expecting even more out MSU this year than you were. However, they have had to deal with a number of injuries of various duration this year, the most serious being the loss of Karen Rivatto for the year before the season started. That has definitely had a significant impact on the Bears this year. Hard to say where they would be had they been injury free. It's possible MSU could finish as low as 6th this year.

The team I have been most impressed with behind the traditional MVC top level teams has been Illinois State and I was little surprised with how easily CU handled them on the road this weekend.

I think CU and UNI have to be the co-favorites at this point with WSU perhaps having a reasonable shot considering the way the schedule may favor them down the stretch. Hopefully, Shocker fans will come out in force for the CU, UNI and MSU matches.

[JayJ79]

So it looks like it will be the 5 usual suspects in the MVC tourney (UNI, MSU, ILS, CU, and WSU) with this year's guest spot going to SIU.
Unless someone goes especially cold in the second half and one of the bottom 4 get especially hot.

I was bored so I compiled some data about the conference tourney. Since it went to the current 6-team format in 1995, here are the number of tourney appearances by each school (i.e. the number of years each team has made the tourney, not number of tourney matches). And to narrow it down even further, I'll include the number out of the last ten years in brackets

UNI - all 17 [10]
MSU - 16 of 17 [10]
ILS - 16 of 17 [9]
CU - 13 of 17 [9]
WSU - 12 of 17 [10]

INS - 7 of 17 [3]
SIU - 6 of 17 [3]
BU - 6 of 17 [2]
DU - 5 of 17 [2]
UE - 4 of 17 [2]

[SpanglerFan316]

Looks like ole Doc is going to be eating some big time crow on his prediction of MSU finishing ahead of SIU....what was I thinking?????!!!!!!!!! This one is going to sting for awhile.

You never know; MSU might go 9-0 the rest of the way and SIU might go 0-9. My only objection was to the complete and utter dismissal of the possibility of a historically weak team like SIU finishing ahead of a traditionally strong team like MSU. (I know that is "crazy talk" and anyone who could accept that could imagine Drake winning the season and Arch Madness within the last ten years.)

[flyingMoose]

Creighton again is the only Valley school listed in the AVCA Poll - RV and 32. They are 38 in the RK Poll with a Pablo of 28, while UNI is 36 and 40. The Shockers are no longer listed in the RK Poll.