Shocker VB v UAB

[Critter's Pa]

re edited post.

Looked around weekend box scores to see how Swifty's weekend stacked up against other players.

USF's Maria Clara Andrade had 40 kills, but she had 28 errors on 123 swings for .098. The next closest player I could find had 30 kills. Swifty did much better.

UTSA had a whopping 23 blocks against USF. Alicia Coppedge had 13 blocks, but had no blocks, only playing 1 set, against Temple.
North Texas's Ryann Vik had 13 blocks against USF, but only had 2 blocks against Tulane.

The defensive player of the week will probably go to a libero, but Swifty had the best blocking numbers for the weekend.

[flyingMoose]

Other Sunday matches

South Florida 2-3 UTSA
23, (10), 19, (21), 7

Rice 3-0 Temple

Florida Atlantic 3-1 Charlotte

Memphis 0-3 Tulsa

North Texas 1-3 Tulane


Rice and South Florida have two losses. Shockers, Tulsa, and East Carolina have three losses. Florida Atlantic, North Texas, and Tulane have five losses.

[Critter's Pa]

Rice and South Florida have two losses. Shockers, Tulsa, and East Carolina have three losses. Florida Atlantic, North Texas, and Tulane have five losses.

We play Tulsa twice next weekend. Hopefully we will send them to the five loss group.

FAU and USF rematch will take place Wednesday at USF. Hopefully FAU can repeat their earlier win over USF. Doubt Temple will beat USF in Florida.

Rice plays bottom dwellers Charlotte and UTSA. UTSA will be at home, so maybe they can do Rice like they did USF.

Did anyone say why the two Rice players were going to be out a couple of games? I couldn't find any other info on why.

[1972Shocker]

Service errors/aces WSU 9/5 v UAB 17/3.

The net 10 point advantage in serving for the Shocks would prove to be quite helpful especially at the end of the 1st set. UAB was serving for the set 4 times. The Shockers "fought" off all 4 of those set points. I put fought in quote because the Shocks were perhaps more lucky than good in surviving those 4 set points.

At 24-23: Emerson with a nice serve reception and pass led to a Brooklyn lazer for the kill.
At 26-25: UAB's Abby Jones' serve went long.
At 27-26: At 27-26 Emerson's service reception popped up sideways causing Izzi to make a diving save that Emerson was forced to free ball over. But UAB was unable to take advantage of the free ball only managing a soft, high arching back row attack that the Shocks turned into a Alyssa Gonzalez pinballing kill.
At 28-27: UAB's Kelsey Smith served the ball into the middle of the net.

So the last 3 of those saved set points were due mostly to UAB charity.

At 28-28 UAB's Jada Crooks left side attack was hit into the middle of the net with the Shockers taking the lead and at 29-28. A mis-timed set to the UAB middle led to a soft tap that the Shocks turned into an Emerson left side attack that clipped the top of the net and dropped just in bounds crosscourt at the 10-foot line and the Shocks had escaped with a win in the first set.

Sometime it is better to be lucky than good. No telling how this match turns out if UAB had not pretty much given this set away.

The Shocks' struggles to find consistent scoring on the left side continues for the 2nd consecutive year. Alyssa Gonzalez, after a slow start to the season seemed to have things figure out after a string of 6 straight solid matches but has only hit 20-15-85 = .058 over the past 3 matches over 14 sets. Emerson's less than stellar play continues as well as she is 35-22-140 = .093 over her last 5 matches over 20 sets. Against UAB this afternoon Emerson and Alyssa were a combined 10-10-45 = .000. Lambo inserted Gracie Morrow mid-way through the 2nd set in place of Alyssa but that didn't help as Gracie was 1-1-6 to finish out that 2nd set after which Lambo went back to Emerson.

Thank goodness Izzi is cooking up some good stuff with her middles Morgan and Sarah. In her last 5 matches Morgan is 76-17-162 = .364 with 80 of those 162 attacks coming in the last 2 matches. Izzi and Sarah who struggled most of the season to get in sync seem to finally have found a connection. Although not nearly busy as Morgan over the last 5 matches is 34-5-58 = .500 for her best stretch of the season. Against UAB Morgan and Sarah combined to hit 34-7-60 = .450. That is a lot of reliance on the middles.

Brooklyn seems to be back on her game hitting 43-9-95 = .358 on the right side over her last 4 matches.

So if we could just get a modest amount of production consistently on the left side would be of great value. Would be nice to see that starting this coming week in the 2 Tulsa matches.

With Halloween upon us next year is starting to look a little scary with a new setter taking over and Morgan and Sarah completing their eligibility this year as well. But for now the Shocks want to avoid the embarrassment of not making the AAC tournament they will be hosting. The two wins this week were mandatory and the Shocks got it done although in not without some major suspense. It is anyone's guess what will get from this team over the remaining 6 matches including home and home with Tulsa this week followed by road matches at Rice, at Tulane and at North Texas before finishing at home against UTSA who was good enough to beat USF in San Antonio today out-blocking the Bulls 23-6 in their 5-set win.

The 2nd set was the first set won by UAB in 5 AAC road matches this year.

[1972Shocker]

BTW, I understand the Dig Pink/Breast Cancer Awareness stuff and that's fine but I am not a fan of using the pink tape to stripe the court. Admittedly my aging eyesight is not the best but the pink boundary lines sure didn't help that.

[1972Shocker]

RH: A Connection Grows - Shocker Middles Take Over UAB Match

Wichita State middles dominated Sunday's win over UAB, and scoring from that position was long the plan for this season.

It took longer than expected. On Sunday, middles Morgan Stout and Sarah Barham provided the punch coach Chris Lamb planned for months ago.

"There's a learning curve to it," Lamb said. "Now I think we've found something. 28 of our 72 points come from a middle (Morgan Stout had 28 plus Sarah Barham contributed 13 for a total of 41 of the 72 points vs UAB). Most in front of the setter. We're getting there."

The Shockers defeated the Blazers 3-1 (30-28, 26-24, 19-25, 25-20) by getting there in a big way in the fourth set.

Stout hammered in five kills and Barham three. Stout combined on three blocks early in the set. Barham added one. WSU (12-10, 7-3 American Athletic Conference) hit a match-best .360 in the fourth set to sweep the season series from the Blazers (8-13, 3-7).

Stout finished with a career-high 22 kills and hit .450. Barham added 12 kills, one off her season high, and also hit .450. She set her season-high a week ago at ECU with a .667 attack percentage.

The connection between Barham, a transfer from Wofford, and setter Izzi Strand is sharpening. In 13 previous matches, Barham had not passed seven kills. On Sunday, the quick sets to the middle that are a Shocker trademark looked on point.

"It's definitely taken longer than I think both of us would like," Barham said. "This past week, Izzi told me she found a better way to set me. I don't speak setter that well, so I don't really know exactly what she found. Hopefully, it keeps working the way that it did today."

Last season, Strand and middle Natalie Foster thrived on higher, slower sets. Strand had to adjust to Barham's faster pace.

"I have been searching high and low with this group," Lamb said. "That was great. It's hard to have middles carry your team offensively in front of the center. A lot of good needs to happen to do it that way."

Barham needed no time to contribute as a blocker. Scoring took more time, but Lamb was confident the Shockers could activate that part of her game.

"I didn't expect a mystery," he said. "Go pull out some Sarah Barham video from last year. We can do that. We couldn't at first, and it nothing to do with Sarah. We're finally getting there."

Stout, who is a bouncier, rangier middle than Barham, welcomes another threat. When the Blazers focused on stopping the Shocker lefts, the middles took advantage.

"It's really good to see," Stout said. "We've got to have Sarah in. She wasn't connecting with Izzi in the beginning, and it was frustrating."

Those frustrations eased over the past week with Barham recording her two biggest games as a Shocker.

[flyingMoose]

Did anyone say why the two Rice players were going to be out a couple of games? I couldn't find any other info on why.

Yeah, you will not find that info on the Rice site. :) There is nothing in the Rice Thresher, the student newspaper, either.


Again, from Volleytalk-

"Nia has been the starting libero over the years. However, over the past few weeks Gaby Mansfield took over the role and Nia had moved to DS. But now Gaby is out. But not sure of the reason or for how long.

Cindy Tchouangwa apparently has a hernia. Not sure of the severity or what the recovery plan is."

[WuDrWu]

USF has 1 thread (not a forum, one single thread) on their fan board dedicated to volleyball and it amounts to little more than posting a link to the latest match recap.

A person did ask if they in fact lost to the last place team in the league.

Box score confirms that Naiya Sawtelle, their Robin to Andrade's Batman, missed the game. That would explain their struggle. No mention of Naiya in the UTSA recap or on the board or during any quick Google search so maybe it's a one off or more, who knows, but USF is in deep water if she's out for any length of time.





They play FAU on Wednesday, so maybe we can get an update on ESPN+ then.

Certainly our own play has been disappointing this season (to say the least) but any finish is still possible.

Factoring in remaining schedules and injuries, I'd probably say ECU is my favorite to win the regular season at this point. Maybe Rice too....depends on injuries. ECU has 6 remaining matches at Memphis, UAB and Temple, and are home for Charlotte, USF and Tulsa. Seems like 11-5 at worst and frankly, if USF misses Naiya for that match, ECU probably runs the table at 13-3.

USF clearly has no freebies with Naiya out but their schedule is also light the rest of the way. FAU Wednesday and at ECU are the only really tough matches left.

Tulsa has us twice and at ECU then 3 softies.

Rice has things fairly simple with only tough matches hosting us then a tricky final game at North Texas.

We've got the toughest by far. Tulsa twice, at Rice, at Tulane and at North Texas then home for UTSA. 6-0 to 1-5 and everything in between.

It's not like any team has just handled us though. If we run the board, the worst thing that happens is we tie for second with Rice or finish in a 4 way tie for 1st with Rice, USF & ECU in which case we'd probably be the 4 seed.

[flyingMoose]

Morgan is the Offensive Player of the Week.

[flyingMoose]

RPI

34 Rice (39)
69 South Florida (60)
75 Shockers (78)
78 Tulsa (81)
etc

RPI Futures from Volleytalk

36 Rice (38)
72 South Florida (59)
78 Shockers (81)
83 Tulsa (92)
etc

[1972Shocker]

Morgan is the Offensive Player of the Week.

That would have been tough to deny her that recognition.