BlueGrass Battle - Fri, Aug 29 and Sat, Aug 30

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks open the season this next Friday and Saturday as they travel to Lexington, Kentucky for the Bluegrass Battle.

The Shocks open with host Kentucky on Friday at 5:30pm CDT then play Virginia Tech at 11:00am CDT and Butler at 5:00pm CDT on Saturday.

Kentucky was 22-9 (13-5) last year and looks like they hosted an NCAA sub-regional sweeping Duquesne and losing 3-1 to Michigan State. Kentucky graduated their top attacker, 6-2 OH Whitney Billings, who averaged 3.66 K/Set and 6-1 MB Alexandra Morgan who was one of 3 attackers grouped around 2.2 K/Set plus she led Kentucky in hitting % at 0.398 and led them with 1.22 Blk/Set. Billings and Morgan were 2 of the top 4 most effective servers as well.

However, Kentucky returns pretty much everyone else of note and has some good size and experience.

This will definitely be a challenging opening match for the young Shockers. The Shockers have only 1 Senior on the roster, Kristin Byers, and she has very little match experience. The Shocks primary experience comes with Juniors Katie Reilly and Ashlyn Driskill and Katie is switching positions his year.

I believe live video of the Kentucky match will be available on the SEC Network which I presume can be linked to from here. Audio will be internet only for all 3 of these matches.

:poster_shocks:

[1972Shocker]

Virginia Tech was 22-12 last year and went 10-10 to finish 9th in the 15 team ACC. They don't have the size of Kentucky but they do have 4 experienced seniors.

The did lose two of their top 3 scorers and attackers from last year's team who were also 2 of their top 3 blockers. But like Kentucky everyone else of significance is back.

I would expect this to be a very competitive match.

[1972Shocker]

Butler was 24-8 last year and finished 4th in the Big East at 11-5. They split with a good Creighton team last year both winning 3-1 on their home courts.

Butler graduated their setter and a solid MB from last year's squad. They have average size and 4 experienced seniors.

Butler does return their leading scorer and attacker in 6-2 Sr OH Belle Obert. They return their top two MB's 6-0 Sr Stephanie Kranda and 6-3 Sr Erica Stahl who both put up good numbers last year. It is possible Kranda could move to the setter position this year, unless one of their 2 true freshmen setters is ready to take the reigns. Butler returns their starting Libero, 5-5 Sr. Brooke Ruffolo. Also, 5-11 Jr OH Mary Striedl brings solid experience to the match for Butler.

Again this would look to be a very competitive match for the young Shocks.

[1972Shocker]

Looks to me like this 1st weekend has the potential to be a real good resume enhancer for the Shocks and/or a real learning experience for the young Shockers. Hopefully both. Should be fun to follow.

:poster_shocks:

[flyingMoose]

Kentucky was 22-9 (13-5) last year ... However, Kentucky returns pretty much everyone else of note and has some good size and experience.

The Wildcats are a preseason pick for second in the SEC behind perennial power Florida, and their setter, Morgan Bergren, is on the Preseason All-SEC team.

[1972Shocker]

The Wildcats are a preseason pick for second in the SEC behind perennial power Florida, and their setter, Morgan Bergren, is on the Preseason All-SEC team.

Thanks @flyingMoose. Makes the task of winning that opening match even more daunting.

Virginia Tech picked to finish 7th in the 15 team ACC.

Butler picked to finish 4th in the 10 team Big East.

Future opponent Creighton expected to win the Big East.

The opportunities for an at-large resume build are there. Can this young Shocker team capitalize.

[WuDrWu]

It would be nice to find some discussion on a Kentucky board about the match....but alas, no such luck.

[JayJ79]

It would be nice to find some discussion on a Kentucky board about the match....but alas, no such luck.

volleyball chatter unfortunately seems quite rare on most fan forums, outside of vb-specific sites. Some places are a pleasant exception (such as here), but more often there is next to nothing being said about VB.

Here's hoping Ky goes 0-2 against the MVC (UNI plays there on 9/5)

[flyingMoose]

Here's hoping Ky goes 0-2 against the MVC (UNI plays there on 9/5)

Creighton is there the same weekend. I thought I posted about UNI and Creighton being in the second Kentucky-hosted tournament, but obviously not. :(

[JayJ79]

Creighton is there the same weekend. I thought I posted about UNI and Creighton being in the second Kentucky-hosted tournament, but obviously not. :(

yes, UNI plays #19 Kentucky and #23 Creighton on that Friday, then on Saturday they play #5 Southern Cal, all in Lexington. Then on the following Tuesday, they have their home opener against NIU. That's going to be a challenging 5 days.

[1972Shocker]

yes, UNI plays #19 Kentucky and #23 Creighton on that Friday, then on Saturday they play #5 Southern Cal, all in Lexington. Then on the following Tuesday, they have their home opener against NIU. That's going to be a challenging 5 days.

Yikes. Hopefully, the Panthers can win a couple of those. 3 out of 4 would be outstanding and would probably establish UNI as the team to beat in the Valley.

I'm hoping for the best for our young Lady Shocks and I understand we have very good incoming freshman class. But Lambo has always preached how valuable experience is in Volleyball and we simply don't have a lot this year.

Ashlyn Driskill, Katie Reilly, Dani Mostrom and Gaby Urban are pretty much it when it comes to players that have any significant playing time in D-1 matches.

That's keeping me somewhat apprehensive about this weekend and perhaps this whole season. OTOH I am looking forward to seeing how this young Shocker team will develop. Gotta believe that nerves could come into play this weekend.

[flyingMoose]

This week's volleyball article in the Eagle.

[flyingMoose]

There is no Tournament Central yet, but here is GT link for the Friday night matchup with Kentucky. Who me? Anxious for the season to get started?

I assume that you have to subscribe to the SEC Network to watch the match live.

[xazshox]

Player practice stats

One of the interesting things I noticed while watching the VB team scrimmage 8 days ago on Tues was that the tall assistant coach sat at a table with a laptop keeping track of every single touch each player made. From what I could tell, each players name was along the left side of the screen with all of the various kinds of touches shown along the top of the screen from left to right. So, in the Eagle article today that referred to 3-day & 8-day averages, those are the stats I just cited. The 3-day average probably gives Lambo a clue on who is improving the most. The assistant coach told me that Lambo makes his decisions on who gets to play based on each individual player's practice stats, so there isn't much that is subjective about it. the girls know they have to produce in practice in order to get PT.

I was amazed that the assistant coach could keep track of all of the various different kinds of touches each player made. His fingers on the keyboard were practically a blur! I can visualize that there are 3 or 4 different kinds of digs on the back line: (1) One could be a complete miss that should have been dug, (2) A dig that that might have been a pass to the setter but didn't have that much quality to it, (3) A good dig that turned into a quality pass to the setter, etc.

[WuDrWu]

There is no Tournament Central yet, but here is GT link for the Friday night matchup with Kentucky. Who me? Anxious for the season to get started?

I assume that you have to subscribe to the SEC Network to watch the match live.

ESPN says it's available on-line if you get the WatchESPN on your cable network (whatever that means).

I'm hopeful it will show up on my DirecTv channel 611 or thereabouts.