Shocker VB at Tulsa

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers begin a challenging part of their conference schedule this weekend with home-and-home matches against Tulsa. The Friday match begins at 6 pm in Tulsa. Both teams are 7-3 in AAC play. Matches on the following weekends are at Rice (8-2), at Tulane (5-5), and at North Texas (5-5).

Prognostications are 38% and 2-3. The Shockers now have the fifth-highest Pablo in the AAC, a drop from earlier weeks.


As noted in another thread, Florida Atlantic at South Florida may be an interesting match tonight.

[flyingMoose]

Wednesday Match

Florida Atlantic 1-3 South Florida
(26), 18, 19, 18

[BAShocker]

Nice W, Shockers!

[WuDrWu]

I thought we looked like a different team with Katie at libero. Really good win!

[ShockTalk]

Shocks 25-13, 22-25, 25-19, 25-23. Not bad at all given the 38% chance and 2-3 prediction.

[flyingMoose]

Shocks 25-13, 22-25, 25-19, 25-23. Not bad at all given the 38% chance and 2-3 prediction.

.190 v .140

Morgan 20-6-45 for .311. Brooklyn 11-6-31 for .161. Emerson 8-3-26 for .192. Sarah 6-2-16 for .250. Alyssa played the first two sets, and Maddie played the last two. Neither did much.

Blocks 15 v 13. Service errors/aces 4/4 v 9/1.

Previous Tulsa losses in conferernce were to Rice, South Florida, and North Texas.

[Critter's Pa]

Swifty puts together another great match. 20 kills 6 errors on 45 attempts for .311. Add in an ace, a solo block, 6 block assists and 7 digs. More Morgan is always better. She got 8 of the 15 kills in set 4.

Brooklyn finished with 11 kills after getting no kills in the 1st set. She also had a solo block and 4 block assists. Maddie came in for Gonzo in set 3, she only had 3 kills but had 5 block assists. Emerson had 8 kills and 14 digs. Sara and Izzi added 6 kills each. Izzi had 45 assists and 8 digs and had back-to-back aces. Katie played libero and finished with 21 digs, had 5 assists and an ace.

Shockers had 15 blocks to Tulsa's 12. Shockers lead in digs 76-58, in aces 4-1, and in kills 57-46. Tulsa lead in service errors 9-4. WSU hit .190 and held Tulsa to .140.

Good win. Get to do it again Sunday, which is the second to last home game before the conference tournament.

[flyingMoose]

Other Friday Matches

Charlotte 0-3 Rice

Temple 0-3 South Florida

East Carolina 3-1 Memphis

UTSA 0-3 Tulane

North Texas 0-3 UAB
The surprise of the night. No, of course not, we were not surprised the Shocks won on the road. That was not a surprise at all. :)

[BAShocker]

I thought we looked like a different team with Katie at libero. Really good win!

This. With all respect to Tiger and Little Red…KG was a really good L tonight.

[Critter's Pa]

North Texas 0-3 UAB

The surprise of the night. No, of course not, we were not surprised the Shocks won on the road. That was not a surprise at all. :)

Felt pretty good after the first set.

ECU, who is tied with WSU at 8-3, plays at UAB on Sunday, maybe UAB can get another upset. Next week ECU plays Tulsa and USF at home. There is the potential for ECU to add to their loss column heading into the last weekend of conference play.

We have the potential to tie Rice for second place, if we can beat them in Houston. I don't know who wins the tie breaker if we split with them. I don't think either Rice or us will be able to overtake USF unless they lose to a couple of teams they probably shouldn't lose to. USF has the tie breaker with both Rice and WSU if we all end with the same record.

[1972Shocker]

I thought we looked like a different team with Katie at libero. Really good win!

After watching the match this morning I have to totally agree. I actually was somewhat expecting Katie would be our libero this year with Gabi not playing. It did not work out that way but Katie was excellent against Tulsa. It wasn't only Katie that played well but I thought our the team had one of their best, if not the best, passing performances of the season. If the Shocks can sustain that it can go a long way to finishing off the season on a strong note. BTW, Katie's 21 digs was a career high.

That first set was kind of strange and unexpected. It didn't feel like the Shocks were just dominating but all of a sudden you look up and the Shocks lead 21-8. I didn't really think that would last especially with Tulsa seeming to right the ship over the final 9 points of the set and it didn't as the last 3 sets were very competitive. In fact, in set 2 the Shocks were down by 6 at 11-17, pulled to within 2 at 16-18, fell behind by 5 at 17-22, pulled to within 1 at 21-22 before falling short at 22-25. In set 3 the teams went back and forth with neither team leading by more then 2 until a Tulsa attack error gave the Shocks a 20-17 lead and it was 21-19 when the Shocks closed it out with a 4-0 run. Set 4 was very similar to set 3 before a 3 point run by the Shocks put them up 23-19. Tulsa then responded with a 4-1 run to cut the Shocker lead to 1 at 24-23 before Swifty slammed home match point after a picture perfect serve receive and pass by Lil' Red made it easy for Izzi to get swiftly get to Swifty.

Gonzo continues to struggle after her excellent 6-match run but I thought Emerson had one of her better matches in a while. 8-3-26 = .192 is not great but probably adequate if Swifty can continue to carry this team. I look for Maddie to replace Gonzo in the lineup on Sunday, at least to start with.

I expect more of what we saw over the final 3 sets on Sunday and it will not be an easy chore for the Shocks to knock of Tulsa a 2nd match in a row on Sunday. Seemingly a 50-50 proposition at best.

The Shockers now own an 11-match winning streak over Tulsa. 12 sounds much better but also much harder.

[Critter's Pa]

Blocking update:

Morgan is 1 block away from 400 total blocks for her career. Sarah McGee, 6th all time, has 402 total blocks. #5 is Dawn Horn with 429 total blocks.

Morgan is 6th all time with 352 block assists. Dawn Horn is 5th with 356 block assists.

[1972Shocker]

And 12 in a row over Tulsa it is. Really solid work by the Lady Shocks. Way to get 'er dun.

Apparently, that was the Shocks 21st consecutive win over Tulsa in Koch Arena.

[flyingMoose]

Tulsa 1-3 Shockers
19, 23, (23), 21

.184 v .144
Blocks 12 v 12
Errors/Aces 7/5 v 9/4

Brooklyn 22-8-41 for .341, Morgan 16-4-32 for .375, Rest of team 23-18-96 for .042 including an .065 from Emerson on 46 swings.

[Critter's Pa]

Lots of career highs in the past couple weeks. Verses Memphis Izzi set a career high in kills and digs. Swifty set a career high in kills. Two days later against UAB she bested that. Two days ago against Tulsa Katie donned the libero jersey and set career highs in digs and assists. Today she bested that dig number, and Brooklyn set a career high in kills.

Edited to add Reagan's career high 4 aces. She (24/21) now joins Katie (15/13) with more aces than errors.

Looks like we are headed in the right direction.