WSU vs Bradley

[Volleyballfan]

Another great game from Sam tonight. It's nice to see her finally playing like Lambo always knew she could. Chelsey has mastered that back set to the right and the two are almost unstoppable. This team is learning that they can dig in and pull it out. Its not over until the fat lady sings.

[SpanglerFan316]

Attendance was 2087.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks were definitely a little flat and listless after the tough loss to UNI last night. But credit to the Shocks for playing tough when they needed to coming from well behind late to win both Sets 1 and 2 and coming out after halftime and dominating Set 3.

Give Bradley some credit for playing very hard the 1st two sets.

Looking for the Shocks to step their game up a little beginning with the final regular season road trip next weekend against Indiana State and Illinois State.
Illinois State in particular will be a tough match.

[SpanglerFan316]

UNI lost to MSU 1-3.

[1972Shocker]

CU wins 3-1 over SIU in Omaha.

Drake wins 3-0 over Evansville in Des Moines.

Scores in the MSU win over UNI were 23-25, 25-23, 25-23 and 25-16.

The MSU win over UNI is a little bit of a surprise but MSU does have some talent. As Lambo said in the post-game show tonight it is sometimes tough to recover from a match that involves an emotional high whehter you win or lose. Looks like both the Shocks and UNI were afflicted with that tonight. The Shocks survived. UNI did not. One reason the back-to-back conference schedule can be a tough one to negotiate. Not to mention the traditional difficulty of the WSU-MSU road swing.

[JayJ79]

'tis a bit easier to recover from such a "hangover" when playing at home against Bradley than it is playing on the road at MSU.
UNI spent most of the last week preparing for WSU, whilst MSU spent most of the week preparing for UNI (as evidenced by their struggles against Bradley).

Gosh I wish UNI had a decent travel partner. (but yes, the Panthers definitely had an off night tonight)

[ShockerFever]

Looks like UNI blew their load last night.. (figuratively speaking, of course, with the ladies)

[SpanglerFan316]

WSU played poorly in both matches this weekend in my opinion. I think the crowd for the Bradley match would have been larger if WSU had put up a fight against UNI rather than being swept. A person who had never been to a WSU VB match came to the UNI match; I'm sorry she had to see the Shocks make so many (physical and mental) errors. The crowd never really got into the game (at least like they could have). I'm a bit bummed. :upset:

[Volleyballfan]

I had a bad feeling even as early as the warm up against UNI. The Panthers looked confident and organized while WSU seemed out of sorts. During the match there seemed to be much confusion. Coaches and girls were constantly talking about where to stand and what to cover. WSU was out of system more than not. You could see the frustrations on the girls' faces especially the two outside hitters. UNI seemed to know what we were going to do more than we did. I felt bad for the fans who gathered their friends and families to see some great volleyball but left wondering what the big deal was about. And the confusion and lack of confidence continued during the Bradley match. That is not to say that there weren't some good moments but we should have played much better. Are the girls tired? Do they believe in themselves? Are the coaches making changes faster than the girls can keep up with? They have a lot of work to do mentally before they will be ready for this next road trip. We know they have the skills.

[flyingMoose]

Creighton remains the only Valley school listed in the AVCA Poll - RV and 27. Rankings 26, 27 and 28 are each separated by one point, but they are a long way from 25.

In the NCAA RPI, Creighton is 32, Shocks are 39 and Northern Iowa is 45.