Shocker VB v Florida Atlantic

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers complete their weekend hosting a match against Florida Atlantic on Sunday at 1 pm. With their Friday loss at Tulsa, the Owls are 2-3 in the AAC. Other matches for FAU are wins versus Charlotte and Memphis and losses versus East Carolina and at Temple.

The prognostications are 69% and 3-1.

[1972Shocker]

Volleyball Preview: Florida Atlantic

WICHITA STATE (8-9, 3-2 American)

Sunday, Oct. 13 (1:00 p.m. CT) vs. Florida Atlantic (10-7, 2-3 American)
Wichita, Kan. (Charles Koch Arena)
Live Stats // Watch

SCOUTING THE OWLS:

• Florida Atlantic brings a record of 10-7 (2-3) to Wichita, with conference victories against Charlotte and Memphis and losses to East Carolina, Temple, and Tulsa.
• Florida Atlantic was picked to finish 5th in the AAC Coaches preseason poll.
• Florida Atlantic has performed significantly better at home in Boca Raton than on the road. The Owls are 8-2 in Eleanor R. Baldwin Arena, compared to 2-5 in road or neutral matches. However, their home schedule hasn't been a particularly tough one to this point.
• Setter Victoria Hensley leads the conference in both assists per set (10.69) and total assists (652), ranking eighth nationally in the latter category. She is a transfer from Wofford, where she was teammates with WSU middle blocker Sarah Barham.
• The Owls lean heavily on the production of outside hitters Katelynn Robine and Valeria Rosado, who average 3.03 and 2.72 kills per set, respectively.
• Head coach Fernanda Nelson is in her 13th season with Florida Atlantic, having produced a record of 182-158. Nelson was a setter on the Brazilian National Team and starred at National American University.

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I suppose it is too early in the conference schedule to call this a must win but it seems that way to me. The question is which Shocker team will show up, Team Jekyll or Team Hyde.

How much will FAU go to soft tips after seeing how effective USF was with those. The Shocks better show they can read and defend those shots or they will be seeing a lot of that the rest of the season.

So at this point Izzi is established at the setter position and Emerson and Alyssa seem to be locked on on the left. Emerson makes me a little nervous on the back row and has a 2 to 1 ratio of service errors to service aces. But not sure what options, if any, we have with that. Morgan is locked in at one of the middle positions.

We can't seem to figure out whether Maddie in the middle and Brooklyn on the right is better than Sarah in the middle and Maddie on the right. One reason for that is you just don't know what to expect from match-to-match or even set-to-set.

Now we seem to be unsure of who the libero should be with Reagan replacing Annalie after the first set in the loss to USF. Annalie has a 3 to 1 ratio of service errors to service aces which is by far the worst among the Shocks' regular servers.

I would say as of right now the Shockers do not have any All-Conference players on their roster. So it is going to take a full team effort to have success this year.

[flyingMoose]

I would say as of right now the Shockers do not have any All-Conference players on their roster.

To this point in the season, the Shocks have had only one Honorable Mention, Emerson on September 29.

[MADSHOCKERFAN89]

When is Saal bringing in a new staff?

[MADSHOCKERFAN89]

Does defense matter anymore?

[MADSHOCKERFAN89]

Food for thought from today

FAU wasn’t all that great

Either our hitters aren’t as good as we think or Izzi’s sets are as bad as they look

Barham would add the depth on defense we need

The most entertaining thing about these games is WU dancing

[wushark]

Id have to agree that the dancing is the only good part about these games

[flyingMoose]

Shockers 3-2 Florida Atlantic
(19), (20), 14, 23, 14

[WuDrWu]

Not sure how they won, but they did. Reverse sweep. Last 2 points were sic, especially match point.

We absolutely HAVE to be better in the back row. And not just the tough ones, but the easy ones we muff too often.

Alyssa Gonzales could be great someday. And I adore her attitude out there.

[flyingMoose]

This team can play poorly and then show some incredible grit. They trailed 15-20 in the fourth set and ran off five in a row. Then, they trailed 21-23 in the same set and ran off four in a row to take the set.

In the fifth set, they never trailed by more than two (the latest at 8-10) and always held on to the "mini-break" at the end.


Emerson was having a terrible time, so Nadia came in for some nice minutes. Then Emerson returned late in the fourth set to serve during the 5-0 run mentioned above and did well in the fifth set. She had five kills including the three for the Shocks immediately before Morgan ended the match with a kill.

There was a stretch when Izzi set Morgan every chance she had, and Morgan did not disappoint.


A question, for WuDrWu possibly. Can a player be in some minimal number of sets and still retain their redshirt?

[flyingMoose]

Other Sunday Matches

East Carolina 0-3 Rice

South Florida 3-2 Tulsa

UTSA 1-3 North Texas

Temple 0-3 Memphis

Charlotte 0-3 UAB


Rice and USF are 6-0 and play each other next Wednesday. The Shockers, Tulsa, and North Texas all have two conference losses.

[1972Shocker]

A question, for WuDrWu possibly. Can a player be in some minimal number of sets and still retain their redshirt?

There may be something like that in football but as far as I know once you enter a match, even for one point you have burned your redshirt. If this is correct, Nadia had already burned her redshirt on September 13th against Long Beach State.

Here is a VolleyTalk thread on redshirting: https://volleytalk.proboards.com/thr...irting-explain

[Critter's Pa]

First set seemed like a continuation of the USF match. After being tied at 1-1, FAU led the rest of the way. FAU hit .323 (14 4 31). WSU hit .033 (11 10 30). Attacking errors kept us from getting anything going. No aces, but no service errors. Brooklyn had 4 kills (2 errors), Izzi-3 (no errors), Maddie-2 (no errors), Emmerson-1 (4 errors), Swifty-1 (3 errors), Gonzo no kills (1 error). Blocks: WSU 3, FAU 4. WSU had 11 digs

Set 2 was slightly better, more competitive- 11 ties and 5 lead changes. After being tied 19-19, FAU scored 6 of the last 7 points. FAU hit .244 (14 4 41). WSU hit .214 (13 4 42). Service errors came back, getting 4 and only one ace. Brooklyn had 1 kill (1 error), Izzi-2 (no errors), Maddie- 2 (1 error), Emmerson-3 (no errors), Swifty-2 (1 error), Gonzo-3 (1 error). Blocks: WSU 4, FAU 0. WSU had 22 digs.

Set 3 was much better. No ties, no lead changes. Grace and Reagan started this set. Nadia and Gracie played instead of Brooklyn and Emerson. WSU Started on a 5-0 run, FAU scored 2 (5-2), then WSU went on 6 point run (11-2). FAU had only scored 8 points by the time WSU had 20, two of those points were WSU service errors. 2 aces, both from Katie, and 2 service errors. FAU hit .103 (8 5 29). WSU hit .484 (17 2 31). Izzi had 1 kill (no errors), Maddie-2 (1 error), Swifty-2 (1 error), Gonzo-7 (no errors), Nadia-4 (no errors), Gracie-1 (no errors). Blocks: WSU 2, FAU 1. WSU had 15 digs.

Set 4 started ugly, 10-4 FAU. WSU pulled in closer to 11-9. It was 20-16 when Emmerson reentered the game to serve. Her ace was the first tie of the game at 20 all. After being down 23-21, WSU scored the next 4 points to win the set. FAU hit .250 (14 5 36). WSU hit .229 (17 6 48). Gonzo and Swifty had big set with 6 kills each (Gonzo 1 error, swifty-0), Maddie-3 (1 error), Gracie-2 (1 error). Blocks: WSU 2, FAU 0. WSU had 14 digs.

Emmerson started set 5. There were 8 ties and 1 lead change. WSU's first lead of the game was on a Emmerson kill to give WSU set point at 13-14. FAU tied it up at 14 all. Emerson and Swifty scored that last two point to seal the win for the Shockers. FAU hit .303 (10 0 33). WSU hit .353 (14 2 34). WSU had 2 service errors and no aces. Emmerson had 5 kills (1 error) Morgan- 4 (no errors), Gonzo-3 (1 Error), Maddie-2 (no errors). Blocks: WSU 0, FAU 1. WSU had 19 digs.

For the game, Shockers hit .259 (72 24 185), FAU hit .247 (60 18 170).

Of the Shockers' 70 assists, Izzi had 55, Annalie-6, Reagan-3, Swifty-2 and Gonzo, Maddie, Katie and Grace all had 1.

Four Shockers had double digit digs, lead by Annalie with 20, Izzi-16, Katie and Emerson both had 12. The Shocker out dug FAU 81-68.

Maddie lead the way with 7 block assists, Morgan-4, Izzi and Brooklyn-3, Gonzo and Nadia-2 and Gracie-1.

Good win. Would like to see the Shockers play like they did in set 3 for the rest of the year.

Replacing Brooklyn and Emerson in set 3 changed things, offensively for the Shockers and probably defensively for FAU. I'm sure they did very little planning for Nadia and Gracie. Nadia looked good out there. Brooklyn only played the first two sets. I don't think it was due to injury, hope it's not an injury.

I hope Natalie Depaula, who was injured late in the 4th set (possibly a knee or ankle, coming down after a block attempt) will be okay. Hate to see an injury.

[1972Shocker]

I hope Natalie Depaula, who was injured late in the 4th set (possibly a knee or ankle, coming down after a block attempt) will be okay. Hate to see an injury.

Watching a replay of the game and of the play where Depaula was injured and it does not look good with that knee torquing inward.

[1972Shocker]

Kudos to both teams for one of the most competitive, never-give-up match points you will see .

This team may force Lambo to change his pseudonym to Robert Louis Stevenson.

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I do like that this team keeps grinding away even when things look pretty bleak. Some times a win like this is more valuable than an easy sweep. Although the split personality of the team is probably a feature we will have to live with.