Shocker VB at Wooo Pig Invitational (Arkansas)

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers head to Fayetteville this weekend. Although there are four other schools there, the Shocks only play two of the four: #21 Arkansas on Friday at 7 pm and Little Rock on Saturday at 4 pm.

And now for 1972Shocker ...

[1972Shocker]

Volleyball Preview: Wooo Pig Invitational.

WICHITA STATE (2-2, 0-0 American)

Friday, Sep. 6 (7:00 p.m. CT) vs. #21 Arkansas (3-0, 0-0 SEC)
Fayetteville, Ark. (Barnhill Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

Saturday, Sep. 7 (4:00 p.m. CT) vs. Little Rock (3-0, 0-0 OVC)
Fayetteville, Ark. (Barnhill Arena)
Live Stats

SCOUTING THE RAZORBACKS:

• Arkansas completed an undefeated run through the Mustang Invitational in San Luis Obispo, California on opening weekend, downing St. Mary's, Sacramento State and future Wichita State opponent Cal Poly.
• The Razorbacks will play four matches at the Woo Pig Invitational, taking on Rutgers and Louisiana Tech in addition to Wichita State and Little Rock.
• Arkansas reached Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history in 2023. The Razorbacks finished with a 28-6 record, their most wins since 1999, and checked in at #8 in the final top 25 poll.
• The Hogs are picked to finish eighth in the SEC preseason poll.
• Senior setter Hannah Hogue was tapped for the SEC preseason all-conference team. Hogue was named All-SEC, AVCA All-South Region and Honorable Mention All-American in 2023, ranking sixth nationally with 11.13 assists per set.

SCOUTING THE TROJANS (Not Much Scouting Here - Just a recap of the Shocks history playing Little Rock)

• The Shockers and Trojans have split four all-time matches. Little Rock downed WSU in 2000 and 1997, while Wichita State picked up wins in 1999 and 1978.
• The most recent meeting came at the season-opening Oral Roberts Tournament in 2000, Chris Lamb's first season at the helm of the Shockers. Wichita State took the first set of that match, the first set win for Lamb as head coach.
• Three of the four all-time meetings have taken place at a neutral site.

So I will add to it and perhaps flyingMoose can add some insights as well: So I will add to it and perhaps flyingMoose can add some insights as well:

• Little Rock is 3-0 with wins over Texas A&M-Commerce (3-1), Tarleton State (3-2) and Central Arkansas (3-0) in Commerce, Texas.
• Little Rock's pin attack has been led this year by 5-9 Sr. OH Jeila Fullerton (3.83 kills per set), 5-11 Jr. OH Kaila Harris (2.83 kills per set) and 6-0 OH/RS So. Bella Cherry (2.00 kills per set).
• Little Rock's middles are 6-1 Jr. A'lanae Margaritha (1.58 k/s with a .564 hitting % and 1.25 b/s) and 6-0 Jr. Jayce Kennedy (1.25 k/s with a .364 hitting % and .75 b/s).
• Little Rock is picked to finish 10th in the 11 team OVC this year.

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I think the Shocks have a punchers chance against the Razorbacks if they play well. There 3 wins at Cal Poly's tournament were 3-2 over St. Mary's [25, (19), (23), 16, 13]. 3-0 over Sacramento [22, 24, 22], and 3-1 over Cal Poly [(21), 22, 16, 21]. So not overly dominating.

Not sure what to make of Little Rock. Not great size but the Shocks aren't all that tall either. The 3 teams Little Rocks beat last weekend were a combined 33-58 in lower level conferences. Considering they are picked 10th in the OVC anything less than a sweep by the Shocks would be a little disappointing.

[flyingMoose]

Schedule-wise, this is a goofy little tournament.

Rutgers and Louisiana Tech are also there along with the Shockers, Arkansas, and Little Rock. Arkansas and Little Rock have four matches, playing everyone else. Rutgers and Lousiana Tech play three matches, and the Shockers only play two. Who knows?


Also,

Indiana 0-3 #1 Texas
8, 21, 22

[WuDrWu]

Indiana blew big leads in set 2 and 3. The second set especially was hard for them to lose.

[flyingMoose]

Schedule-wise ... the Shockers only play two. Who knows?

Perhaps Lambo knew he had the mid-week KU match and was willing to take only two matches at Arkansas.

[Critter's Pa]

Rutgers and Louisiana Tech are also there along with the Shockers, Arkansas, and Little Rock. Arkansas and Little Rock have four matches, playing everyone else. Rutgers and Lousiana Tech play three matches, and the Shockers only play two. Who knows?

Louisiana Tech and Little Rock played earlier this year. Not sure why we are not playing Rutgers, they are a Big 10 team and their conference usually has a handful, if not two handfuls, of ranked teams each year. Not sure where Louisiana Tech is projected to finish in CUSA, but they were 8-21 last year.

I wonder if only playing two match in Arkansas had to do with scheduling with Kansas. Maybe there was a possibility of playing two teams in Lawrence, like UMKC or Omaha, so coach dropped out of committing to playing Rutgers and Louisiana Tech, thinking the team would play two matches earlier in the week in Lawrence and he didn't want to play five (or six) games in one week. (is there an NCAA limit to how many matches a team can play in a week?) Since a third team couldn't make it to KU, the Shockers will only play three games this week.
Or maybe coach didn't want to schedule teams that might drag down WSU's RPI.

I dunno, just a couple of guesses why the Shockers are only playing two in Arkansas.

Little Rock and Rutgers started the fourth set at 6:00. Their match might affect the start time of the WSU game. Rutgers is up 2-1 in sets. 25-21. 22-25, 25-19. Little Rock is up in set 4.

ETA Going to five at 6:30, Little Rock took set four 25-18.

Little Rock took set 5 17-15. just before 7:00.

[flyingMoose]

Thursday Match

Rutgers 0-3 Arkansas
17, 19, 20

[flyingMoose]

Other Friday Matches

Louisiana Tech 0-3 Little Rock
22, 20, 11

Little Rock 3-2 Rutgers
(21), 22, (19), 18, 15

[flyingMoose]

Match One

Shockers at Arkansas

Set One

Starters: Brooklyn, Reagan, Annalie, Emweson, Morgan, Izzi, Allie

This match is on SEC+ via ESPN3. For me on Cox, that is free.

1-6 start before the ship begins to steady. Lots of hitting errors.

Katie and Alyssa are part of the rotation.

6-12 and a Shocker TO.

10-17 to 13-17 to 16-20 to 16-22. TO Shocks.

19-22 becomes 19-25.

.000 v .179. Morgan is 4-0-9 for .444. Nobody else contributed.

Gracie Morrow subbed in towards the end of the set.

[flyingMoose]

Set Two

3-6 is the first three-point lead. 7-7 and then 7-10.

9-11, 9-14 and a Shocker TO.

Five in a row and it is 14-14. TO for the Hogs. Three kills, a block, and a service ace.

17-16, 17-19, TO for the Shocks.

18-25 and 0-2.

For the match, .061 v .270. Morgan is 9-0-15 for .600 and is still the only offense.

[flyingMoose]

Set Three

Sarah starts in this set.

2-7. Shocker TO.

5-12. Shocker TO.

10-13 and then Arkansas returns the favor. 10-17.

Battle back to 13-18.

18-25 and 0-3.


.114 v .279. Morgan is 12-1-27 for .407. The rest of the team is 21-19-87 for .023.


Little Rock will be a challenge.

[1972Shocker]

Most everyone we face may be a challenge this year.

[Critter's Pa]

Is the match worth watching? I only followed along with the stats.

Everyone not named Morgan or Gracie, had a pretty forgettable game. Congratulations to Gracie for getting her first collegiate kills and blocks.

The rotation where Katie was serving was the only rotation that scored consistently. Four out of the five times the team was in this rotation, they scored at least one point, including the team's only 4 and 5 point runs.

Gave up 8 aces. Only managed 4 aces, but held service errors 3 and had none in the third set, unfortunately Arkansas didn't have any either.

[WuDrWu]

I didn't feel like the aces/receive errors numbers told the story at all. The Razorbacks served harder and better than us, by a ton. I can't begin to tell you how many times they had a nice easy first pass that set up their offense, while we lunged at a serve, getting an average pass at best and often times putting our offense completely out of system. I actually thought we competed fairly well up front. Arkansas is better, no question about it. But if we can't make some adjustments in serve receive, it's going to be a very long year.

And I get that Arkansas is a very good serving team. But we simply can't be dominated like that. It's just serving.

[1972Shocker]

I didn't feel like the aces/receive errors numbers told the story at all. The Razorbacks served harder and better than us, by a ton. I can't begin to tell you how many times they had a nice easy first pass that set up their offense, while we lunged at a serve, getting an average pass at best and often times putting our offense completely out of system. I actually thought we competed fairly well up front. Arkansas is better, no question about it. But if we can't make some adjustments in serve receive, it's going to be a very long year.

And I get that Arkansas is a very good serving team. But we simply can't be dominated like that. It's just serving.

Thanks for that observation and assessment. I don't have access to the SEC Network so was unable to watch the match live or on replay. That might be a blessing.