Shocker VB at Memphis

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers open their AAC schedule with a match at Memphis on Wednesday at 6 pm.

The Tigers are a preseason pick for ninth of the thirteen schools playing volleyball, trailing Temple by a point in the Coaches' Poll. Pablo has the Shocks as a 90% favorite to win, and Massey has this as a 3-0 match.


EDIT: I just discovered that Pablo was not updated this week. For this particular match, that probably is of no consequence.

[Critter's Pa]

Memphis might be a tough team for us on serve receive. They lead the American with 74 Aces (1.88/set). The Shockers are last with 52 (1.17/set). Their setter, Jordan Heatherly, has 21 aces so far this year, and has 2 matches with 5 aces. She is fourth in the conference with 9.1 assists/set. Izzi is fifth with 8.92 assists/set.

Hannah Jones leads the team in kills with 125 and kills/set with 3.13. Clara Bednarek is second with 69 kills for 2.23 kills/set, although Clara has played in 9 fewer sets than Hannah. Tabytha Toelke has an AAC offensive player of the week honorable mention this year.

Their Libero, Abigail Schlueter, leads the team with 4.07 digs per set and has 14 aces. She is third in the conference in digs/set. Memphis is fourth in the conference averaging 15.05 digs per set. The Shockers are eleventh with 12.81 digs/set.

They are ahead of us in most statistical categories, although the toughest opponent they have faced is Arizona State. Would love to get out of there with a 3-0 sweep, but if we have trouble with their serve, it might be a long day.

[WuDrWu]

I watched just one of Memphis' matches this season, and not all of it. But I watched enough to know this should be a business sweep, even if we're not on our A game (which we haven't been all season). But this team, as 1972Shocker has mentioned before, Jekyll and Hyde so far.....so who knows?

[flyingMoose]

Shockers 3-1 Memphis
20, (24), 13, 16

.333 v .156
Emerson is 16-3-44 for .295. Brooklyn is 10-3-23 for .304. Madison is 9-0-15 for .600. Morgan is 8-4-20 for .200. Alyssa is 7-2-24 for .208.

Seven blocks v three. Error/Ace is 8/10 v 5/7.


I was willing to be more impressed.

There are no other AAC matches tonight.

[Critter's Pa]

Shockers win in 4 - 20 (24) 13 16

Emerson lead the way 16 3 44 .295. Brooklyn hit .304 (10 3 23). Maddie put up Frosty like numbers going 9 0 15 .600. Swifty finished 8 4 20 .200. Izzi went errorless attacking 8 0 12 .667. Gonzo went 7 2 24 .208.

Memphis had 7 aces and 5 service errors. The Shockers finished with 10 aces and 8 service errors. Swifty had 4 aces, three in a row in set 3. Annalie had 3 aces, going back-to-back during a 6 point run in the first set. Reagan had two aces and was a serving machine. She served up 2 five point service runs, one early in the 3rd set and the other to start off the 4th set. Katie added another ace toward the end of the 4th set.

The Shockers had 7 blocks. The stat sheet doesn't show it, but the highlight on X shows that Emerson should have gotten credit for a solo block. Morgan lead with 4 block assists, Maddie and Brooklyn each had 3 BA, Gonzo and Emerson both had 2 BA.

Shockers had 59 digs. They must have really targeted Izzi, as she finished with 16 digs, Annalie- 11, Reagan-10, Katie- 7, Swifty- 3. Brooklyn- 2, Grace-1, and Emerson just missed a double double with 9 digs.

Izzi had 37 assists, Annalie had 7, Katie and Emerson had 2 each and Swifty and Reagan both had 1.

The Shockers hit .333 (58 12 138) for the match and held Memphis to .156 (46 25 135).

Good win. Almost took set 2. Statbroadcast stopped with the score 19-21. I think there was a challenge around this time, then it picked back up in the first part of set 3.

Everyone that played finished with points, except Grace who only played at the end of set 2.

[1972Shocker]

Just finished watching the match. Still some work needed but though the Shocks did make some nice progress. Now how much of that was due to growth by the Shockers and how much was due to the quality of play by Memphis is a little difficult to say although that had to have contributed to some degree.

One thing that struck me was every time either Morgan or Maddie made a play I had to do a double check to see who it was. They looked almost interchangeable tonight. Unless that was just my imagination that is a promising development.

Possibly Emerson's best all-around match as a Shocker. She was very solid in all phases of the game. Brooklyn also had one of her better matches on the right side. I thought Alyssa continued to look pretty good. Her hitting percentage was so-so but only 2 errors on 24 attacks is quite an improvement for Alyssa.

I thought the Shockers looked quite a bit more aggressive on the service line in the match and it appears they have been working on that. Hopefully, that continues.

The next 2 matches, Temple and UAB, probably won't provide many answers but we should have a good measure of how the team is progressing when we play Rice and South Florida in a couple of weeks.