Shocker VB at Nebraska Classic

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers head to Lincoln to play in a strong, strong tournament on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

The Shocks play #14 Arizona State on Thursday at 6 pm, Long Beach State at 3 pm on Friday, and #5 Nebraska on Saturday at 2 pm. The Shockers may be in the same neighborhood as Long Beach. The other two teams live uptown.

[1972Shocker]

Volleyball Preview: Nebraska Classic

WICHITA STATE (3-3, 0-0 American)

Thursday, Sept. 12 (6:00 p.m. CT) vs. #14 Arizona State (6-0, 0-0 Big 12)
Lincoln, Neb. (Bob Devaney Sports Center)
Live Stats

Friday, Sept. 13 (3:00 p.m. CT) vs. Long Beach State (2-2, 0-0 Big West)
Lincoln, Neb. (Bob Devaney Sports Center)
Live Stats

Saturday, Sept. 14 (6:00 p.m. CT) vs. #5 Nebraska (5-1, 0-0 Big Ten)
Lincoln, Neb. (Bob Devaney Sports Center)
Live Stats // Watch

SCOUTING THE SUN DEVILS:

• Arizona State brings a flawless 6-0 record to Lincoln after rolling through the LUV Invitational at Lipscomb and the Jack Talmadge Volleyball Classic at San Diego. The Sun Devils have lost just three sets over the course of their six victories.
• ASU climbed two spots in the latest AVCA Top 25 poll on Monday, inching up to #14 in the rankings.
• The Sun Devils advanced to the Sweet 16 last season, reaching the milestone for the first time since 1995 and the third time in program history. Arizona State toppled Georgia and BYU in Provo before suffering a sweep at the hands of Stanford to end their season at 28-7.
• In their first season in the Big 12, ASU was picked third in the Big 12 Volleyball Preseason Poll. Middle blocker Claire Jeter and setter Argentina Ung were selected to the preseason all-conference team.
• JJ Van Niel is in his second season as Arizona State head coach. He was named the AVCA Pacific South Region Coach of the Year and Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2023, his first as a head coach after five seasons on the coaching staff at USC.

SCOUTING THE BEACH:

• Long Beach State currently owns a 2-2 record with losses against top-10 foes Pittsburgh and Oregon and a pair of wins over Northwestern. The Beach play host to Omaha on Wednesday night.
• LBSU is coming off a 2023 season in which the Beach finished the year with a 21-10 overall record and a 13-5 Big West mark. The highlight of the campaign came in the season opener when Long Beach State toppled defending national champion and #1-ranked Texas.
• Long Beach State was picked third in The Big West Preseason Poll behind second place Hawaii and future Shocker opponent Cal Poly.
• Setter Zayna Meyer and outside hitter Natalie Glenn earned spots on the preseason all-conference team.
• Natalie Reagan is in her second season with The Beach and first at the helm after she was named Interim Head Coach in February. Reagan has ties to Nebraska, where she helped the Huskers to the 2015 National Championship as the team's technical coordinator.

SCOUTING THE CORNHUSKERS:

• The Huskers are 5-1 in 2024 heading into a Tuesday night showdown against in-state foe Creighton. Nebraska opened the season with a win over #9 Kentucky and have swept a pair of two-match invitationals in Lincoln sandwiched around a road loss at SMU.
• Nebraska ended the 2023 season with an overall record of 33-2 and reached the NCAA Championship match, falling 3-0 to Texas. The Huskers went 19-1 in Big Ten play to claim their first Big Ten championship since 2017.
• The Huskers return every starter from the 2023 club, highlighted by AVCA All-Americans Merritt Beason, Lexi Rodriguez, Bergen Reilly and Harper Murray.
• In addition to the returners, 2022 Big Ten Player of the Year Taylor Landfair transferred to the Huskers from Minnesota.
• Head coach John Cook is in his 25th season leading the Huskers. Cook boasts a career record of 855-174 (.831) including seven seasons at Wisconsin, and has guided the Huskers to four national championships, 11 final fours and 13 conference championships.

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I hope the Shocks are in the same neighborhood as Long Beach State. I would be perfectly happy to come away with 1 win this weekend. Lambo indicated on his Monday radio show that he may be doing a lot of experimenting this weekend. At least against Nebraska and Arizona State.

Only the Nebraska game is viewable and that is behind a paywall on the Big 10 Network.

[flyingMoose]

Creighton 2-3 #5 Nebraska on Tuesday
19, 16, (31), (16), 10

Nebraska does not play Long Beach State this weekend. The Shockers and Arizona State play everyone.

[flyingMoose]

Match One v #14 Arizona State

Set One

I will probably miss this set and some of the next set.

[1972Shocker]

Match One v #14 Arizona State

Set One

I will probably miss this set and some of the next set.

Shocks hanging in through the media break tied at 15-all. High error rate for both teams. Both teams with low hitting % and high error rates so far.

The Shocks were down 16-17 when ASU went on a 7-1 run to lead 24-17. Final score in Set 1 was 25-19.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks are getting blitzed in set 2 trailing 17-5 with ASU hitting .400 after hitting .167 in set 1.

For the match the Shocks are now hitting 12-10-51 = .039. Ugh! ASU has 7 aces vs 1 for the Shocks 1 and 6 blocks vs 1 for the Shocks.

ASU 25 - Shocks 12 in set 2.

Maddie Wilson is playing. She is 1-2-5 = -.200

[1972Shocker]

More of the same in set 3. ASU jumps out to a 9-2 lead before the Shocks call a timeout. The Shocks 2 points are on ASU service errors.

ASU finishes of the sweep 19, 12 and 13

The Shocks trailed 16-17 in set 1. From there on ASU dominated them 58-28.

The stats reflect the ASU dominance.

[BAShocker]

Welp.

[Critter's Pa]

That was a stinker. Should we be glad that wasn't on TV?

I thought we would have been much more competitive in this match. Glad that Maddie is healthy enough to be out on the court, hopefully she will get back into the swing of things quickly.

No one got over 2 kills in one set. When was the last time Morgan had a negative hitting percentage (4 5 20 -.050)? They must have been all over her.

First set was only close until the errors started adding up, and Arizona State went on a couple of scoring runs.

Barely got through one service rotation in set 2. Got stuck in a rotation that the Shockers could not break out.

Shockers only managed 5 kills in the third set. Arizona State committed 6 service errors in third.

We couldn't side out and couldn't put rallies together. I bet we were rarely in system.

[flyingMoose]

Result of Note

#22 Arkansas 2-3 Tulsa on Thursday
21, 18, (17), (22), 8

[WstateU]

Result of Note

#22 Arkansas 2-3 Tulsa on Thursday
21, 18, (17), (22), 8

Wow, that’s a shocker!

[flyingMoose]

From the VT thread on this Classic-

ASU gets the sweep. Either ASU was serving amazing or Wichita State really needs to work on their serve receive, or both.

[flyingMoose]

Long Beach State 3-1 Shockers
19, (18), 20, 15

Shockers hit .190 v .206. 3 blocks v 10. 13/4 errors/aces v 6/6.

The four Shockers with the most swings: Emerson 13-4-40 for .225; Morgan 10-2-21 for .381; Gracie 8-3-23 for .217; Brooklyn 7-6-26 for .038.

Izzi 5-2-19 for .158. That is a lot of dump attempts. Part of the plan? A lot of bad passing?

Sarah was DNP.

[flyingMoose]

Upcoming Opponents

North Texas 2-3 Cal Poly in Las Vegas
22 (NT was ahead 21-18), 18, (25), (20), 8

[Critter's Pa]

Sarah was DNP.

Grace was also MIA. Hopefully there are no injuries.

Looks like the Shockers played better this match. Set 2 was the best offensive set so far this year 18 1 24 .708. Not going to say the 7 service errors cost us set 3, it was going 8 9 46 -.022, but they didn't help. The wheels fell off in set 4, this team hasn't shown that it can't come from behind.

Glad that Nadia and Haley got some court time. Haley did get her first collegiate ace. Gracie seems to be getting better. I think she is averaging 2 kills/set, not bad for a freshman.

Even if we beat Nebraska tomorrow, which it think unlikely but would love to be proven wrong, I think we are going to have to win the AAC tournament to reach the NCAA tournament. To get an at large bid, we needed to beat at least 2 of the ranked (or RV) teams.