Shocker VB at Shocker Volleyball Classic

[1972Shocker]

Brooklyn caught her stride in set 3 but not much else worked for the Shocks.

Shocks down 20-24 to take a 25-24 lead and ble 2 great chances on set point.

Shocks misplay a serve to give Omaha a set point at 27-28.

Omaha saves the Shocks with an attack error.

Motgan with a service ace wins the set 31-29.

Shocks lead 2-1.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers even it up with a 25-21 win in Set 2. Emerson continued to struggle but did get a big solo block and squeezed an attack in between the blockers and the net late in the set. Maddie continued to play well and Alyssa picked it up a bit.

Omaha finished themselves off with 2 attacks ii to yhe middle of the net and a service error.

Anybody's guess as to what we'll see in set 3.

[1972Shocker]

Our left side attack is killing us. Emerson has especially been bad both on the front and back row.

No way the Shocks can be competitive, let alone win, with that quality of play.

Set 1 goes to Omaha 25-19 and if the Shocks don't wake uop this will be a quick sweep for Omaha.

Maddie Wilson looked good for the one bright spot for the Shocks.

[flyingMoose]

Other Saturday Match

Cal Poly 3-2 Northern Colorado
(19), (27) (four set points for CP), 22, 22, 10

A reverse sweep I think it is called.

[flyingMoose]

Passing wasn't horrible, but we just couldn't terminate.

We got nothing from the pins. It seemed a lot of the sets were too tight to do anything but get blocked.

Side note: I think they should have a ball kid training class. What is the point if the kids aren't going to go after the ball after the play is over? It's like they are afraid of leaving their seats to go get the ball. I'm not talking about the number of times the officials, arena staff, and players had to ask for a ball, that's an attention issue and these kids are young and easily distracted. They might pay more attention if they were more focused on the ball. I don't think the bat kids in baseball would last very long if they never went to go grab the bats or waited for the ump, or a player to toss the bat to them. Last year there was one boy that would weave around the players on the court to get the ball, he could teach the class. At some schools, there are kids that run out and wipe up the floor anytime a player hits the ground and that takes a lot more focus than tending the balls. That's more than we do here and I'm sure they don't have issues with the kids tracking down the ball after the point is over in those places. Okay, old man rant over, time for bed.

This has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Last night was especially bad. I assume the kids are part of the Wee Shocks Club (or whatever it is called - perhaps Shockwave kids?) and being a ball kid is one of the benefits. But there are always too many - you only need two kids, three at the most - not five like last night. And they need to be old enough to pay attention to the game and know what is going on. For example, who just won the point and is serving next. Use maxims like Never carry a ball while chasing a ball - Roll the ball to the other end first. Most of them are not old enough. Yes, "Scooter" was terrific. He could make a training video. End of Old Man Rant II.

[Critter's Pa]

Were is the set 3 Shockers hiding? We almost pulled out a set 2 win.

Bright side is we only had 4 service errors, which is an improvement.

Passing wasn't horrible, but we just couldn't terminate.

At one point in the 4th set, UNC had three blocks in a row, then an Izzi kill, followed by back to back UNC blocks, then a Gonzo error, then another UNC block. That was a 7-1 run with 6 points coming off blocks. It was bad.

Tomorrow is the Galligan sister showdown. Katie's sister is a freshman DS at Omaha. She didn't play against Cal Poly today, but she did play against UNC on Thursday and recorded a kill. Wonder if she will see court time against the Shockers.


Side note: I think they should have a ball kid training class. What is the point if the kids aren't going to go after the ball after the play is over? It's like they are afraid of leaving their seats to go get the ball. I'm not talking about the number of times the officials, arena staff, and players had to ask for a ball, that's an attention issue and these kids are young and easily distracted. They might pay more attention if they were more focused on the ball. I don't think the bat kids in baseball would last very long if they never went to go grab the bats or waited for the ump, or a player to toss the bat to them. Last year there was one boy that would weave around the players on the court to get the ball, he could teach the class. At some schools, there are kids that run out and wipe up the floor anytime a player hits the ground and that takes a lot more focus than tending the balls. That's more than we do here and I'm sure they don't have issues with the kids tracking down the ball after the point is over in those places. Okay, old man rant over, time for bed.

[BAShocker]

Lost in 4. 3rd set WSU looked really good. Same issues, lack of offense, at times poor passing. But UNC just better. Better blocking, passing…just a better team, imo.

However, one would think this should have been a match we should have, and could have, won at home.

[1972Shocker]

Other Friday Match

Omaha 1-3 Cal Poly
21, 18, (22), 19


I suspected that someone from Cal Poly started the tournament thread on Volleytalk. Here are some comments by a couple of them from last night's match with the Shockers.

Did you guys watch the Wichita State match? We are too predictable, we don't cover our hitters that keep getting blocked, and I felt like they outblocked us like 3-1 ratio. I didn't really feel that Wichita State was even that good. This was winnable. I have really kind of given up on this team.

Pretty disappointing!
Only watched the start of the match,...1st two sets.
Shocked,...we couldn't pull that out at the end.


Too bad, so sad.

Well it is a good thing that Volleyball is a non-contact sport or the Shocks would have had no chance against Cal Poly. But I will admit I agree that the Shocks kind of pulled a rabbit out of their hat to win that one against a team that had a clear size and power advantage. However, once the Shocks got it going late they dominated CP outscoring them 19-10 over the final 29 points of the match. Lambo mentioned a change they made to their defense that he thought was a key factor in the victory. Although I could not tell you what that was.

The key run in the deciding 5th set was with the score tied at 3 the Shocks went on a 9-1 run behind an energized and fired up Morgan Stout and a revived Emerson Wilford. Morgan contributed a block solo and 2 block assists and 2 kills and Emerson picked up 3 of her 10 kills with Brooklyn Leggett chipping in a kill. Morgan was pumped up and no doubt had her team pumped up.

[flyingMoose]

Other Friday Match

Omaha 1-3 Cal Poly
21, 18, (22), 19


I suspected that someone from Cal Poly started the tournament thread on Volleytalk. Here are some comments by a couple of them from last night's match with the Shockers.

Did you guys watch the Wichita State match? We are too predictable, we don't cover our hitters that keep getting blocked, and I felt like they outblocked us like 3-1 ratio. I didn't really feel that Wichita State was even that good. This was winnable. I have really kind of given up on this team.

Pretty disappointing!
Only watched the start of the match,...1st two sets.
Shocked,...we couldn't pull that out at the end.


Too bad, so sad.

[1972Shocker]

Looked like their was some decent support at the Cal Poly match from some of the other Shocker programs:

There was also a big group of guys in black polo shirts sitting just north of midcourt behind press row. Maybe the baseball team. A good chunk of them left fairly early in the match.

Perhaps this was tied into this: 9/19 – 16:1 Match + SASO Ice Cream Social + Faculty Appreciation Night: All Wichita State faculty and staff receive free admission when they show their Shocker ID to the ticket office!

Here is the Promotion for tonight's match vs Northern Colorado: 9/20 – Jam the Gym + Yellow Out: It's our first Friday night match of the year! Jam the Gym & Yellow Out The Roundhouse!
-First 500 fans receive a yellow Shocker Volleyball T-Shirt!
-$5 GA Tickets

[1972Shocker]

An hour before the game, my apple wallet had not updated, so I signed into goshockers account, went to my tickets and chose the game. I then hit the download to apple wallet and it updated my tickets. Don't know if I'll have to do it today and Saturday, we'll see. The "All-in-one" ticket thing might not be set up for multiple games on the same day.

Thanks. That worked. The interesting thing is that the person at the gate was handing out traditional paper tickets to those that did not have tickets on their phone. I suppose that was easier than explaining that you had to login to your account, select the tickets and download them to your wallet.

Now does anyone want my 2 tickets to tonight's match with Northern Colorado?

[Critter's Pa]

When I showed up to the VB game tonight I could not pull up my Cal Poly tickets on the mobile app and I wasn't the only one. I wonder if the issues with this mobile digital ticketing application might have something to do with WSU parting ways with Russell Wilkins.

An hour before the game, my apple wallet had not updated, so I signed into goshockers account, went to my tickets and chose the game. I then hit the download to apple wallet and it updated my tickets. Don't know if I'll have to do it today and Saturday, we'll see. The "All-in-one" ticket thing might not be set up for multiple games on the same day.

[1972Shocker]

[1972Shocker]

The box score has now been changed and it now agrees with the numbers reported in the articles. So the Shockers did not set a single match record for blocks (in the rally scoring era). Alyssa still gets my POG and let's certainly hope she has found something that she can carry forward.

[1972Shocker]

Both articles on goshockers.com about the Cal Poly match don't jive with the numbers in the box score, I know the live stats weren't working last night so maybe that is the issue.

The goshockers.com match writeup, Shockers Rally Past Cal Poly, reports that the Shocks had 18 blocks overall and reported that Alyssa Gonzales finished with a team-high 12 kills on a .357 hitting percentage, while Emerson Wilford logged a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs. Izzi Strand recorded 36 assists, 10 digs and five kills of her own. Wichita State hit .172 to Cal Poly's .176, but committed 12 fewer attack errors.

Paul Suellentrop in his RH: "I Was Going To Put It Away" report also reported 18 blocks, 12 kills for Alyssa and 10 kills for Emerson.

According to the Box Score the Shocks had 23 blocks overall, Alyssa hit 16-2-33 = .424, Emerson had 14 kills and 13 digs, and Izzi recorded 50 assists, 12 digs and 6 kills and Wichita State hit .209 to Cal Poly's .176.

For now I am sticking with the Box Score as the accurate stats (36 assists from Izzi in a five set win doesn't make sense) although the box score also shows the set scores as: 25-22, 20-25, 19-25, 34-25 and 30-18. So maybe those stats are in question as well.

And then there is this that jives with the articles but not the box score:

Finally, I looked at the stats page on goshockers.com and it seems to agree with the articles and not the box score.

Update: The box score was apparently wrong and has been corrected.