Shocker VB v Rice

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers continue their AAC weekend with a match at Koch Arena against Rice, the presumptive power of the conference. The match is Sunday at 1 pm.

The conference record of the previous conference opponents of the Shockers is 1-8. This match against the 3-0 Owls will give a better idea of where the Shocks stand in the conference.

[1972Shocker]

Volleyball Preview: Rice

WICHITA STATE (8-7, 3-0 American)

Sunday, Oct. 6 (1:00 p.m. CT) vs. Rice (8-4, 3-0 American)
Wichita, Kan. (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

SCOUTING THE OWLS:

• Rice brings a 8-4 (3-0) record into the week after wins at Tulane (3-2), vs UTSA (3-0) and at Tulsa (3-1) to kick off the conference campaign.
• The Owls are in their second season in The American after a strong tradition of success in Conference USA. Rice reached the NCAA tournament five consecutive seasons prior to 2023, which finished 18-11 (12-7). The 18 wins were the fewest in a season for Rice since the 2013 club went 11-19.
• Like the Shockers, Rice played a challenging non-conference schedule that included losses to three ranked teams (Baylor, Creighton, TCU) plus a loss to UNI.
• Junior middle blocker Lademi Ogunlana is hitting .383 (third-best in the AAC) and poured in 18 kills in the Owls five-set win over Tulane last week.
• The Owls have a top 30 national ranking nationally with 17.02 digs per set. In the limited AAC matches so far the Owls have an advantage in digs and service aces allowed vs the Shockers with the Shocks having a slight advantage in service aces which he Owls may negate with their superior serve receive. Otherwise, the early AAC stats are pretty comparable.
• Head coach Genny Volpe is responsible for turning Rice into a perennial power. The 21st-year head coach has led the Owls to eight NCAA tournament appearances; Rice had never reached the tournament prior to Volpe's arrival. Her 401-213 career record is good for a .653 winning percentage.

[flyingMoose]

Rice 3-2 Shockers
23, (18), (22), 15, 10

[WuDrWu]

Just brutal. Heartbreaking loss that shouldn't have been.

[1972Shocker]

Just brutal. Heartbreaking loss that shouldn't have been.

I have not watched the match yet but clearly something changed in the 4th and 5th sets to the advantage of Rice.

And looking at the box score what was with Izzi's attack line of 1-2-15 = .067? Ouch.

[Critter's Pa]

We should have won that match in three sets. Set 1 was close, 7 ties and 2 lead changes. Ties at 20 all, 21 all, 22 all and 23 all. Rice just got the last two points. 25-23 Rice. We hit .070.

Set 2 had 5 ties and 3 lead changes. after being tied 5-5, the Shockers never looked back winning 25-18. We hit .308.

Set 3 had 3 ties and no lead changes. Shockers jumped out in front but let a five point lead (5-10) slip away slowly and Rice tied it up at 21 all and 22 all, then the Shockers scored the last three points, 25-22. We hit .186.

Then set 4 happened. The Shockers could do nothing right. It was ugly and smelled bad. The only tie was 1-1. Rice had a 21-9 lead. Grace and Morgan appeared to give some momentum, Grace with an ace, and Morgan with a service run, but both were stopped by service errors. 25-15 Rice. We hit .206.

Set 5 had a tie at 1-1, then it was all Rice. There was some hope right after the turn with Rice leading 8-7, but the Shockers never got closer than that losing 15-10. We hit.190.

For the match we hit .189. Rice hit .246, helped by set 4 and 5 where they hit .417 and .550. We held them to .184, .077, and .167 in the first three sets.

Rice had one more service error (13) than the Shockers (12). And the Shockers had 2 more aces than Rice (5-3).
The Shockers had 11 blocks, Rice had 10. Our play at the net cost us many points. Maddie had 7 block assists. Swifty, Gonzo, Emerson, Brooklyn, and Izzi all had 3 each.
Rice had 24 attacking errors, the Shockers had 21, but they got 12 more kills (67-55) and had 18 more digs 86-68. Their libero got 31 digs. Izzi lead the Shockers with 14 digs. Katie and Annalie both had 11 digs. Morgan and Emerson had 8 and 9 digs respectively. I think Morgan had so many digs because we had a couple of runs when she was serving.

I think these two teams will meet in the conference tourney finals.


Maybe it's just me, but has anyone else had the thought that maybe we should try serving underhand?

[Critter's Pa]

I have not watched the match yet but clearly something changed in the 4th and 5th sets to the advantage of Rice.

If you have Smell-O-Vision on your TV, you really want to turn it down after set 3 or your whole neighborhood will be mad.

[Critter's Pa]

Rice and South Florida are the only two undefeated teams left. We play South Florida (4-0) next Friday and Florida Atlantic (2-2) on Sunday. Both games in CKA.

[1972Shocker]

I have described this Shocker team as having Jekyll and Hyde characteristics and on the surface it seems like this match may well have been in that mold. I'll try to watch it this evening and see if that shoe fits.

[shoxlax]

We should have won that match in three sets. Set 1 was close, 7 ties and 2 lead changes. Ties at 20 all, 21 all, 22 all and 23 all. Rice just got the last two points. 25-23 Rice. We hit .070.

Set 2 had 5 ties and 3 lead changes. after being tied 5-5, the Shockers never looked back winning 25-18. We hit .308.

Set 3 had 3 ties and no lead changes. Shockers jumped out in front but let a five point lead (5-10) slip away slowly and Rice tied it up at 21 all and 22 all, then the Shockers scored the last three points, 25-22. We hit .186.

Then set 4 happened. The Shockers could do nothing right. It was ugly and smelled bad. The only tie was 1-1. Rice had a 21-9 lead. Grace and Morgan appeared to give some momentum, Grace with an ace, and Morgan with a service run, but both were stopped by service errors. 25-15 Rice. We hit .206.

Set 5 had a tie at 1-1, then it was all Rice. There was some hope right after the turn with Rice leading 8-7, but the Shockers never got closer than that losing 15-10. We hit.190.

For the match we hit .189. Rice hit .246, helped by set 4 and 5 where they hit .417 and .550. We held them to .184, .077, and .167 in the first three sets.

Rice had one more service error (13) than the Shockers (12). And the Shockers had 2 more aces than Rice (5-3).
The Shockers had 11 blocks, Rice had 10. Our play at the net cost us many points. Maddie had 7 block assists. Swifty, Gonzo, Emerson, Brooklyn, and Izzi all had 3 each.
Rice had 24 attacking errors, the Shockers had 21, but they got 12 more kills (67-55) and had 18 more digs 86-68. Their libero got 31 digs. Izzi lead the Shockers with 14 digs. Katie and Annalie both had 11 digs. Morgan and Emerson had 8 and 9 digs respectively. I think Morgan had so many digs because we had a couple of runs when she was serving.

I think these two teams will meet in the conference tourney finals.


Maybe it's just me, but has anyone else had the thought that maybe we should try serving underhand?

Worked wonders for me in 7th grade gym class.

[flyingMoose]

Other Sunday Matches

Tulsa 3-0 Tulane
24, 20, 19

North Texas 2-3 East Carolina
(24), 22, (16), 23. 12

Memphis 1-3 South Florida
18, (19), 15, 17

Florida Atlantic 0-3 Temple
25, 21, 18

UTSA 2-3 Charlotte
(20), 23, 20, (11), 13

[Critter's Pa]

Was perusing through the AAC conference stats and had a few things caught my eye.

Swifty is leading the conference with 9 Aces. USF has one player with 8 aces and three (3) players with 7 aces. There are three teams (WSU, Tulsa and Tulane) that are tied for 2nd with 24 aces, USF has 42 aces (3.23/set). FAU has one player with 6 aces and has 19 as a team (1.46/set). Our serve receive might have a long day against USF.

USF leads in Opponent Assists allowing 8.31 per set and leads in Assists getting 13.77 per set. WSU allows opponents 12.19 per set (9th) and gets 11.81 assists per set (8th). FAU is 4th in opponents assists with 11.00 and 2nd in assists with 13.46. FAU's setter is 1st with 11.62 assists/set. USF's setter is 2nd with 11.54. Izzi is 3rd with 9.69.

Interestingly USF is last in the conference in opponent blocks with 2.69/set. FAU is 10th with 2.31. WSU is 3rd with 1.50. USF is 9th only getting 1.85 blocks per set. FAU 12th with 1.46 per set. WSU is 3rd with 2.19 blocks per set. It might be a block party weekend for WSU. Maddie leads the AAC in total blocks with 19- 2 solo, 17 block assists- and is second with 1.19 blocks/set. Swifty is 8th with 15 total- 1 solo, 14 block assists.

In digs, USF is #1 in Opponent digs with 10.38/set, FAU is 3rd at 14.08, WSU is 5th with 14.25. Rice is 9th with 16.00 opponent digs/set. Maybe USF and FAU get blocked so much opponents don't get to dig as many balls.

USF's Maria Clara Andrade leads the AAC with 5.08 kills per set. Gotta figure out a way to slow her down.

We are 9-0 vs USF. 8 of those wins since WSU joined the AAC. Gonna have to keep that streak going. We are 0-1 vs FAU. Time to start a nice long winning streak.

[flyingMoose]

Ack! I forgot to include this earlier. The horse is well out of the barn, but _ Pablo 51% Rice and Massey 3-2 Rice.

[Critter's Pa]

With hurricane Milton targeting Tampa, I wonder if we will play USF this Friday. USF has closed it's campuses through Thursday, and will not require students to attend classes on Friday. I wonder if the team will travel to Wichita a few days early ahead of the storm. If Tampa takes a direct hit, they may not be able to leave Thursday or Friday, depending on the condition of the airports in Tampa. FAU might have the same problem if Milton tracks farther south. FAU plays Tulsa on Friday.

I wonder if coach will have any info on this weekend's games on the radio show.

[SubGod22]

Landfall is supposed to be Wednesday evening.

There are more important things than volleyball, but they're also better off not being in Tampa and it's probably best to leave earlier on Wednesday if not sometime Tuesday.